Lions Club president Gary Beaudry holds a fish he caught at the Northern Lights Lodge. (Submitted Photo/Gary Beaudry)

By Derek Craddock

LIONS CLUB

Lions club president shares story of volunteering at wilderness experience camp

Aug 16, 2022 | 5:00 PM

For one Prince Albert man, it was an experience he’s had many times before, but each one is uniquely special.

Gary Beaudry is president of the Prince Albert Lions Club and recently returned after volunteering at the Northern Lights Lodge at Deschambeault Lake.

The two-week camp gives youth with disabilities an opportunity to learn fishing skills on the lake.

For Beaudry, who’s been volunteering at the camp since 2017, it was great to be back and teach the participants a great skill.

“It’s quite gratifying when you watch someone who has never fished and when they catch their very first fish, just the excitement they have. You can see it on their face, their action. You try and get a picture of it with them, so they have a keepsake of it.”

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Over the last two weeks, seven different groups of people came to Northern Lights Lodge with a total of 21 cabins filled in that time.

Those participating are given the chance to learn to fish and take part in a fish fry.

“We had clients from southern Manitoba, northern Manitoba, all over Saskatchewan and different clubs sponsor them,” said Beaudry. “Even though some are afraid of the fish, they definitely are interested in watching them get fileted and they’re really interested in watching the fish fry.”

The camp was started in the late 1980s by a man named Ted Olson with the Flin Flon Lions Club. After a hunting accident left him blind, he set out to start the experience camp, which aside from two years postponed to COVID-19, has been running every summer.

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derek.craddock@pattisonmedia.com

Twitter: @PA_Craddock