Plaque to be unveiled for the adventure of a lifetime
A ceremony is planned for August 17 to unveil a plaque honoring the Starkells for their incredible “paddle to the Amazon.” The ceremony is scheduled for 2 p.m. at the East Kildoman Lions Club Senior Citizen’s Park, located on Kildonan Drive at Bronx Place – the park from which Don, Dana, and Jeff Starkell launched their six meter canoe The Orellana, June 1, 1980 and journeyed almost 20,000 kilometers to the mouth of the Amazon in Brazil.
The two-year odyssey (Jeff returned to Canada after the pounding seas of the Gulf of Mexico nearly killed them all) was fraught with surprises, many of hem life-threatening. Their adventures, chronicled in the book Paddle to the Amazon, earned them a place in the 1986 Guinness Book of World Records for the longest journey by canoe.
The plaque is being installed in the park by the East Kildonan-Transcona committee, with funding coming from a per ca-pita grant.
