Hello Everybody! Meet the latest Edmontonian that is deciding where Streets Initiative donations raised for March and April 2024 are going to go! Say hello to Blackmud creek resident Chelsea Desjarlais who is a married mother of 3 boys and is a long time resident of our fine city. She has just recently completed maternity leave and has returned to her job as Operations Manager for John Deere. Anybody need a new tractor?
As the second red head in a row to appear as my Featured Edmontonian, Chelsea originally hails from Viking, Alberta, a rural town Southeast of Edmonton that you may have driven past on your way to the bustling metropolises of Wainright or Hardisty. She left for the University of Lethbridge to get her degree and has since evolved into a person who is well travelled, seeing and experiencing many interesting things in many countries around the world. I was speaking with Chelsea recently about her adventures and was impressed with the unique experiences she has had, in particular her trip to Africa a number of years ago with her husband, Tim. Ever heard of the Devil’s Pool? This is crazy. It’s a little pool of water you can relax in right in the middle of the Zambezi River in Zimbabwe. Not that big of a deal until you consider that the Devil’s Pool is right at the top of Victoria Falls, mere feet from where the water drops over the edge over 300 feet to the bottom! In fact, just getting from the river bank to where you need to access this pool is not for the faint of heart. You need to follow a semi complex route to different outcroppings on the river until you arrive at the one that you need to jump from in order to enter the pool. What I really want to know is who was the first person to do this? Crazy. On the same trip, Chelsea also had a run-in with a Rhino when on a safari in the Serengeti, their jeep got rammed and nearly over turned. If not for the tree they got rammed into, the jeep surely would’ve flipped over, which would’ve been bad considering that a pride of lions was nearby. Not a dull moment I’d say but the best stories are the ones where you almost die, right?
This adventurous persona goes back even further. Chelsea was telling me about how she went to the Sochi Olympics back in 2014 where she was lucky enough to stay in the Olympic Village (a story in itself to be honest). She decided after the Olympics were over that she would go to Moscow by herself to explore and sightsee. Her carefree outlook on life up to this point was temporarily disrupted when her cab driver, who was shocked that she was traveling by herself went on to explain how dangerous it was in certain places and what spots to avoid and then dropped her off late on that cold February night in a dark alley near where she was planning to stay. I respect this and partially understand from a certain perspective her feeling in this situation since when I was 20 I got dropped off by a cabbie in a sketchy area of Lima, Peru and also had to search for my hostel. Where my perspective falls short though, is that I am male and at the time was also travelling with a good buddy of mine. Chelsea was all by herself which takes a certain amount of courage on its own especially in a country where you can’t speak the language. Way to go, Chelsea!
Chelsea has chosen The Zebra Centre for all donations to go for March and April. You can read more about what they are all about if you visit http://www.zebracentre.ca but in a nutshell, they do great work in supporting kids that have been the victims of abuse. It’s a great cause that I’m excited to raise donations for. Now Chelsea doesn’t consider herself a runner but told me that she is going to log running kilometers of her own over the next two months in order to feel more committed to the cause. In addition to my usual pledge to donate $1.00 per km that I run on Edmonton city streets, I’ll also match a dollar for every km that Chelsea is able to run as well!
Let’s support Chelsea and the Zebra Centre and have a super successful period! Thanks Edmonton!
