Green Expo Featured Speaker - Lonnie Dupre
Speaker Schedule:
9:30-10:00 Houle Insulation: A local business for over 35 years, this husband and wife team will present on the following: Energy savings, energy Audits, and rebate programs.
10:30-12:00 Lonnie Dupre: A polar explorer with an arctic career spanning 25 years and has traveled over 15,000 miles throughout the high arctic and Polar Regions by dog sled team, ski and kayak. In January 2012 he made his 2nd attempt to climb Denali, aka Mount McKinley, in Alaska, North America’s highest mountain at over 20,320 feet.
12:15-12:45 Bicycle Maintenance: Mr. Michael will talk about helmet fit, bike safety, rules of the road, changing a tire and a maintenance check list.
1:00-1:45 Gardener, Marcia Baudino: Spending less money on food while feeding your family healthfully can be challenging for most families. Learn how to grow food at home and access more local food, turning your yard into a food producing paradise.
2:00 Rain Barrel & Compost Bin drawing: 2– Rain barrels and 2-compost bins, a bat house and other prizes will be raffled away. Sign up at the main entrance.
Lonnie Dupre will be signing copies of his new book after his presentation at the Green Expo.
During an arctic career spanning 25 years, Lonnie Dupre has traveled over 15,000 miles throughout the high arctic and polar regions by dog team, ski and kayak. His path has often followed in the footsteps of the Arctic explorers of the last century – Robert E. Peary, Roald Amundsen and Knud Rasmussen. Like them, Lonnie has lived and traveled with the Polar Inuit, learning from these hardy people and developing a deep appreciation for their culture and way of life.So is his belief in ones ability to overcome the seemingly insurmountable obstacles that may stand between an individual and their dream. The success of his arctic expeditions, with the extreme physical, mental and logistical hurdles they have represented, stand as testament to this.
In 1991/92, Lonnie and Malcohm Vance completed the first west to east, 3000 mile winter crossing of Canada’s famed Northwest Passage by dog team. Between 1997 and 2001, Lonnie along with John Hoelscher achieved the first circumnavigation of Greenland, a 6500 mile, all non-motorized journey by kayak and dog team. Lonnie has pulled sleds on skis from Canada to the North Pole twice. The first time was in 2006 under the One World Expedition achieving 68 million impressions worldwide on issues surrounding climate change. The second time was in 2009 where the team endured -56F temperatures on the 650-mile journey.
Lonnie was born in 1961 and raised on a Minnesota country farm. He is descended on his mother’s side from Jacques Cartier, the French explorer and founder of Quebec. Lonnie currently lives in Grand Marais, Minnesota enjoying woodworking and back country skiing in the Quetico/Boundary Waters Wilderness of the Minnesota/Canadian border area.
Lonnie has authored two books, helped create two documentaries for National Geographic and was also featured in two appearances on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno as well as a vast array of prominent media outlets, including:
CNN, Wall Street Journal, Discovery channel, Boston Globe, Wired Magazine, New York Times, USA Today, CBS, and NPR, Sports Illustrated, Reader’s Digest, Outside Magazine and Scientific American.
Awards:
Scott Pearlman Award, 2005
Rolex Award for Enterprise, 2004
Polartec Challenge Award, 2001 and 2000
Elected Fellow, National Explorers Club, 1996
Winter Olympics, Oslo, Norway, 1994
Soviet “Sportsman’s Medal” from Mikhail Gorbachev, 1989
NG Adventure – Best of Adventure, 2005