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 This month…
The strength within
Advantage:
Job-seekers
JA Business
Hall of fame
The strength within
Women—young of age and heart—train for life’s rewards
by P. Drake McHugh; Photos by Terry Borque
One common destination… many ways of getting there. Life is
not a race. It can be a companionable wander that values the journey over the
irrevocable and relentless destination. Here, for your reflection are four very
different Edmonton women for whom the journey of life is an important one to be
treasured, savoured and challenged head on. The test of life, it is said, is in
the living and you can be an observer or a participant. Our heroines are
dedicated to the proposal that a life worth living is worth challenging head on.
From Edmonton, they have set out on an odyssey to conquer their worlds and to go
where that journey leads. It is the business of life.
And in this corner…
It is a sport that resonates with the foul perfume of the
schoolyard bully and devastating head injuries that can addle intelligence and
shorten lives. But, for an increasingly large group of Edmontonians, the manly
art of pugilism is neither of these things: only a sport that requires hours of
training, miles of driving and flying to the next match and the appeal of
one-on-one competition where there are no ties and the end result is mostly
pretty clear… if sometimes bloody.
Meet Edmonton’s latest contribution to the manly world of
pugilistic endeavour: Jelina Mrdjenovich, 23 years old, five-foot, seven inches
tall, 130 pounds and boxing’s female featherweight champion of the world. This
is a time when well-spoken, attractive young ladies should still be in school or
setting out on a traditional career path—teaching is nice, nursing is noble.
What in heaven’s name makes her tick and how, dear reader, can you stop your
daughters from following in her footsteps?
It’s not as though she grew up hungry for recognition in
what the Americans call a ghetto and Canadians refer to their kinder, gentler
model as “a multi-cultural neighbourhood”. She was raised on an Alberta ranch in
Gainford and has a reputation for being able to handle herself in mixed company.
Her Serbian father originally immigrated to the Northwest Territories. The
family owns the string of Chateau Nova Hotels—familiar to most travellers in the
Territories and Alberta—and a successful development company. Might be a sign
that hard work and dedication to a dream are ingrained in the family. Two
sisters are sports-minded and a brother plays rugby at a more advanced level
“just for fun”.
Mom’s in her corner and dad too is supportive when she’s
doing well. It’s just that, um, er… do you really want your daughter boxing?
Mrdjenovich came to the sport honestly when an injury prevented her from
continuing in basketball (she had been one of the stars at the UofA). She
decided to try sparring while she healed and has never looked back. Family
friend Milan Ludovac, himself a deft hand at Tai Kwando and karate, stepped
forward to coach her but she insists the idea was all hers.
“I’ve always been a hard worker. You might say driven,” she
admits. “I think it must run in the family. I love boxing mentally, physically
and emotionally. The end result is hugely rewarding. Females have always been
treated differently in this sport,” she says, “but women’s boxing is beginning
to take the world by storm.”
Just back from a victory in Yellowknife where she retained
her title, Mrdjenovich will fight former Playboy cover girl Mia St. John at the
Shaw Conference Centre on June 23rd for the lightweight crown. Getting the title
at another weight would be a great birthday present for Mrdjenovich who turns 24
the next day.
“I’m an athlete, and I enjoy doing what I do. I owe much of
what I have been able to do because of the support system you find in Edmonton.
A lot of the boxers I meet are jealous of the Edmonton fan support because they
know you can go a lot further with that support and it isn’t every city you find
it in. I’m very lucky because I have a wonderful following… knowledgeable and
interested. I want to stay in Edmonton as long as I can.”
Her most fervent wish is that women’s boxing will be picked
up by the Olympics but there is only feint hope for the next several years.
Meantime, she takes occasional time off to cheer the Oilers, jogs in the morning
and works out in the afternoons at the Cougar Gym. When she’s not preparing for
a fight, Mrdjenovich is involved with the Chateau Nova Hotels.
Family? “Maybe,” she says noncommittally, “but for now I’m
just thinking about the next fight. This is a commitment and I must stay
focused. I’m pretty young… I have time to make those decisions later.”
Mrdjenovich, who packs a powerful knockout punch, says she
doesn’t fear damage to herself and is most interested in the sport—not the money
that someday might come from it. An increasing number of fans are beginning to
recognize her name and, importantly, mothers are beginning to introduce their
daughters to her. For a number of reasons and for various people, she has become
a role model and, you can tell by her demeanour, she takes some quiet pride in
that.
She recognizes she has not chosen a traditional path to
what glory professional sport can provide but, for Edmonton’s Jelena Mrdjenovich,
it is the right sport for her and she wouldn’t have it any other way.
 Run
for your life
She is an ultimate and extreme athlete, a hybrid; one
engine or the other always running. She is Edmonton’s Desert Queen and the sands
of time have taken this 43-year-old all over the world a number of times.
Sandy McCallum, Edmontonians’ cover this month, will run
six desert marathons this year. They will give her pain and discomfort—perhaps
injury—in a sleepless pursuit of her dream to live up to her own expectations.
For relaxation, McCallum is planning a
world-record-breaking, two-year camel trek she calls her Sahara Odyssey. She
will embark next March to cross the Sahara from the west coast of Africa to the
Nile and back again—about 9,000 miles. But this year, her sights are set on
breaking world records by competing in the Desert Grand Slam—six gruelling
ultra-marathons that will test her mental and physical well-being.
She is already the first woman in the Western Hemisphere to
race the 1,000 miles through the hostile Sahara. In April, she finished at the
base of the ancient pyramids after another 150-mile ultra marathon that saw her
place first in her age group, the sixth woman across the line and 30th overall.
 It
may say something about the trauma faced in such exploits that Advil (for
today’s tough pain) is a primary sponsor. Edmonton River Valley Health, devoted
to the prevention of sports injuries helps out too, as does Gord’s Running
Store… but, in the end, she races alone against the desert.
Four of the races fall under the Racing the Planet banner:
Competitors cross the Gobi in China, head for the Atacama in Chile, then on to
the Sahara in Egypt and wrap up in The Last Desert in Antarctica. Racers carry
their own gear and food supplies. Each competition leg lasts seven days and
covers 240 kilometres/150 miles. Dehydration and sprains are common, so too are
mental and physical exhaustion.
The Gobi is known as ‘the race of no return’. Salt lakes,
mountain tops, narrow canyons, temperatures over 50º Celsius and altitudes
rising to 10,000 feet are some of the challenges competitors face. Within days
of this interview, McCallum left for China to face her third hardest challenge
in life. She had previously conquered a drinking problem and had quit smoking.
She began her new life at 36 and has been running for her life ever since.
“People expect a superhero,” says the 117-pound,
five-foot-six runner, “but I’m just an ordinary person who decided I did have
the discipline to turn my life around. I also have the advantage of being able
to work through pain and I excel in heat. It is pain, peace, wonder and joy. It
is much like having a baby.”
She considers running to be “like going off to do a job.”
She enjoys meeting villagers in far away, exotic locations and coming to
understand and appreciate a simple way of life whose time has mostly passed in
Canada.
A motivational speaker, the former news anchor talks to
children and adults about plans to direct their lives… a pro-active approach to
life rather than letting happenstance or circumstance control lives.
“You want to be the healthiest person you can be,” McCallum
explains, “and to do that, I’ve learned to be positive. Running empowers me in
all facets of my life and it demands I set goals and exceed them.”
She trains locally with Brian and Donna Logue and, on her
own, she cross trains in cycling, swimming, stair master and snowshoe climbing.
Locally tested, McCallum was found to have a fitness score the same as most
Edmonton Oilers. She may need it. In the series of races she is entering, she
will be running 950 lonely desert miles this year. It should almost double the
world record.
But McCallum’s greatest accomplishment is about getting her
life together to live it well… to take joy in meeting goals each day.
 Anchoring
her life
Television lies. Well, it is not so much that it lies as
that it doesn’t quite tell the truth. The people we welcome into our living
rooms and feel we know are much like us and yet very different. J’Lyn Nye, the
popular Global News late night anchor is such a person.
“How many size 16 news anchors do you know? Just because
you’re not size 2 or 4 doesn’t mean you can’t be a good role model.”
Why do we feel we’ve known her forever and why do we trust
her opinion anyway? At a time when personality worship is rampant, it is
comforting to see someone who is not just a pretty face, but has charm, class
and the ability to collect, edit and present news...who never aspired to have a
stylish ‘Twiggy’ figure—the bane of health professionals everywhere. Nye is not
your average news anchor. She is smart, personable and her own woman. It was not
easy getting to this point in her life.
“I’m the girl the boys never danced with,” Nye offers
candidly. “I was five-foot-ten inches tall and a big girl… and in a world of
thin and petite, that brings baggage with it.”
She had figured her life was to unfold as it should until
she visited Beny-Sur-Mere, a Canadian cemetery in France, home to fallen
Canadians who stormed Juno Beach on D-Day. “I had a moment when I looked at
those gravestones for so many teenagers and young men. It was an epiphany. I
thought: All these young people went to war so that I would be able to do
whatever I wanted—speak out or body build or do the things they did not have the
opportunity to do. I was not being all that I could be. I decided to change my
life.” And change she did.
“I decided to take control of my body,” Nye remembers. “I
got a tattoo”—she doesn’t say where… a lady would not tell and a gentleman would
not ask—“and I began body building.” Nye is quick to point out that while
everybody thinks they understand body building, very few people do. The ‘sport’
suffers from an image problem. Perhaps, the Arnold Schwarzenegger factor? “I’ve
had people say, ‘Oh I couldn’t do that, I wouldn’t like to look like a man’… But
I don’t look like a man and that’s not what it’s all about. Sure you see
competitors with massive definition of muscle but most body builders are in it
to keep their shape and conditioning, and to enjoy the discipline and the health
rewards. Competing is important, sometimes for self-esteem, but it is the
journey not the destination that keeps most people actively involved. It is
challenging you to have the discipline and the drive to reward yourself.
 “I
do quite a bit of motivational speaking and basically what I tell people is
you’ll never be happy living someone else’s dream—not your boss’s, your kid’s or
your husband’s. Set goals to make yourself happy. Never say ‘can’t’. Try it. And
if you fail, fail forward. That is, take the lesson life has given you and go
with it. Too many people talk themselves out of doing things. Don’t beat
yourself up. There are enough people around who will do that for you.
“I get angry with people who say ‘Oh, I could never do
that’ because I was one of those people, and I determined to be happier with
myself. I lost 60 pounds body building over six months and, when I’m not
competing, my weight fluctuates but I’ve got the height to carry more weight.
I’ve learned to be comfortable in my own skin.
“When I look back now, I’m brutally honest with myself. I
was more insecure than shy... I was Pigpen in Charlie Brown, always a black
cloud over me. I’m back to about 180 pounds but now I’m muscle, and much lighter
when I compete. I train at Hardcore Health and Fitness and I like Kinsmen (Field
House) because the support system is so good. I will never be the ultimate body
builder. I’m just the wrong shape, but that doesn’t mean I can’t strive to be
the best I can be. Some of my friends just don’t get it. I tell them, they don’t
have to: This is about me and who I am. The first time I was on stage, there was
such a rush. I didn’t have the muscle but I set a goal for me and I reached it.”
Strange things began to happen. “I’m nowhere near as bitchy
as I used to be,” Nye laughs. “I don’t sweat the small things and I have more
energy for my husband and friends. I’m honorary chair of the Edmonton Humane
Society, and I have a full and rich life personally and in the community. I
consider myself a work in progress.”
Some work… some progress.
Alive, alert and strong
 They
say that growing old is not for cowards and that it helps to have a sense of
humour. The body loses its tone, the mind can go walkabout, making mental
callisthenics more difficult. But medical research shows that if you can stay
active, you will live longer and be healthier.
Case in point: Meet Del Dilke, body builder extraordinaire
and 75 years young.
“Some people thought 74 was a bit old to take body
building,” she says without a trace of humour, “but I was having some weight
problems, and it was suggested I call the Alberta Body Building Association.
Brian and Donna Logue helped me tremendously. I trained with the treadmill and
weight lifting. I started in January and, by June, I was performing in Red Deer.
David Stride is my trainer and my hero. The sport is so full of people who
support you… who want you to do well.
“I train three days a week, about an hour. I like the
treadmill, and I’m not a swimmer but I do a lot of aqua exercise.
“It’s not the destination; it is definitely the journey.
It’s about how wonderful you can feel. I’m healthy, strong and mobile and I no
longer fear getting sick or falling. I don’t have pain and I am focused. This
really is preventative medicine.”
Dilke, the owner of Del’s Fashions on 9th for the past 26
years, often works out at Elite Muscle and Fitness which happens to be across
the road from a cemetery. “It makes me work harder,” she laughs.
“I enjoy competing… I think a lot of people believe it is
good for the sport. I will never have huge muscles but I do look toned. And, you
know, I believe my memory has improved.
“People sometimes ask me why I need body building… and why
am I wasting my money, but I feel we only have one body and, if it breaks down,
it is not healthy. I’ve seen it in people much younger than me. I’m alive, alert
and I don’t get tired. I get up in the morning and look forward to walking—just
walking—for half an hour. My memory is better now than it was years ago. My body
is hugely strong. I am 150 pounds and five-foot, three inches tall. Do I want to
look like a man? That isn’t what this is about. It is about physical and mental
health… I can’t tell you what a change it has made in my life.
“I believe in treating myself well. I have regular massages
and have my nails done. My late husband taught me a lot. He was a body builder.
He died at 72 with a body that would put most 40-year olds to shame. I just hope
I can continue to body build until God takes me.”
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 Advantage:
Job-seekers
By Talea Medynski
Incentives. Rewards. Perks. Call them what you will.
Publicly frowned upon for government elected officials and upper echelon
bureaucrats… yet revered in the private sector and bargained for by unions.
In the past, employees courted employers for jobs. But now,
job-seekers are the ones being wooed. Alberta is back in economic boom mode with
more than $130 billion of development underway and announced. Well and good, but
finding enough skilled—and even unskilled—labour and professionals to fill the
huge demand is a challenge… and the ripple affect is wide-ranging.
Essentially, 96 percent of Albertans are
employed—considered by many to be near total employment. This employee shortage
is causing employers to compete in order to hire and retain employees. The
driving force, naturally, is the energy sector. Top dollars are being paid to
get massive oilsands projects into production: Starting salaries of $70 to
$80,000 for many jobs in the Fort McMurray region are not unusual.
 It’s
difficult for other sectors to attract workers, especially so in the non-energy
related manufacturing, retail and service sectors. More often than not,
companies are forced to stretch their limits with wages well beyond the
regulated minimum, with benefits packages and bonuses. A quick perusal of the
want ads in the dailies attests to the struggle to attract workers with phrases
like “competitive salary… health benefits package that includes pension plan…
on-the-job training… opportunities for personal and professional development…
$3000 signing bonus… be part of a great company.”
While an employer may succeed in hiring employees, it can
be difficult to keep them.
“There’s an awful lot of employee poaching,” says Dave
Roberts, dean of the School of Mechanical and Manufacturing Technologies at NAIT.
“A number of employers still participate in offering higher wages to scoop
journeymen from other employers. This causes a big wage escalation.”
To prevent employees from leaving their jobs for a higher
wage, companies in Alberta are offering a wide variety of incentives to
employees.
Ross Bunnah, the branch manager of Adecco Staffing in
Edmonton, says employers will ask him what they can do to attract employees. He
suggests good incentives that benefit staff in their personal lives, not just in
the workplace—as simple as monthly massages or gift certificates to restaurants.
Employers can also make jobs easier by providing good computers, spacious
cubicles/offices, up-to-date phone systems.
Pleasant working conditions and perks that include
everything from on-site fitness facilities and day cares to club memberships and
profit-sharing go a long way in retaining employees.
“Last year, a lot of employees were leaving companies for
more money. Now, employees are being choosier, pickier toward jobs they’re going
into,” says Bunnah.
 Some
retail and fast food companies that traditionally pay minimum or near minimum
wages are getting creative to attract and retain employees.
At The Shoe Company, employees have the opportunity to earn
medals based on performance, such as high sales and good customer service. The
medals can be used to purchase products in the store—recent ads for local job
fairs promoted “free shoes”. It also offers staff discounts and weekend trips
for management. “We try to make our environment fun,” says Jeff McFater,
district manager of The Shoe Company.
Starbucks is another company that offers incentives to its
staff. “If we work part-time, we get full-time benefits and full health care
coverage. You can also buy stocks in Starbucks. They’re called ‘bean’ stocks,”
says Kristina Buttrey, a barista at Starbucks.
McDonald’s offers many incentives to employees but the
newest, started in January, is a scholarship program for high and junior high
school students who work at its fast-food outlets.
According to recruitment manager Susan Centis, “It’s brand
new to the Alberta market.” She explained that because of the booming provincial
economy, McDonald’s needed to offer staff something more. For every hour worked,
the company puts 25 cents into an account for the employee, up to a total of
$500 a year. Up-dates are provided every four months so employees can see how
much they have accumulated. The money is specifically intended to be used for
post-secondary education, including trades training, or as bonus money if the
employee chooses McDonald’s management as a career.
But Centis emphasized that the most important part of
retaining employees is keeping your promises to them and treating them with
respect.
SIGNS OF THE TIMES
“It’s kind of crazy out there right now. Companies are
desperate for good people.”
So says Tanya Shewchuk, a recruiter at Coape Staffing
Network in Edmonton, who knows first-hand that competition among employers is
happening with all industry sectors.
One approach is to go directly to potential employees.
Finning Canada is traveling to prospective employees with its Wanted Tour, a
country-wide recruiting campaign, because it needs 5,000 skilled employees by
2010.
 Greg
McNeill, director of human resources, described the campaign as based on a
military theme: The recruiters wear camouflage clothing, boots, and drive a
Hummer. The tour is advertised in local papers and on radio stations a couple of
weeks before the team arrives in the targeted community. Sometimes, on-location
radio broadcasts are used to hype the one-day blitz, inviting people to
interviews at the local Finning office or a hotel.
“The strategy was to do something different. We wanted to
create this image of a fun company. We wanted to get into people’s backyards
instead of them coming to us,” says McNeill.
The employee shortage has also been a real boost to
companies that rent and sell portable signs. Streets throughout the Capital
Region are peppered with help wanted messages: “now hiring… training provided…
benefits… opportunities for advancement… local routes… $13/hr to start…” A
truck/RV wash has even mounted one of the portable signs in the back of a
half-ton to advertise its jobs openings around town.
During the Stanley Cup playoff series a company bought TV
space to announce openings for power engineers. A delivery company seeks
drivers—and offers a hiring bonus—with a radio ad. On-line sites like
monster.com and working.com post hundreds of jobs and resumés. Governments,
institutions and most companies—large and small—point potential hires to the
‘job opportunities’ section on their websites.
Clearly, there is no shortage of inventiveness when it
comes to getting the word out that people are needed at all levels of the job
market.
These days, more companies are going to post-secondary
institutions to talk to students before they graduate. In the last four months,
there’s been an increase in companies asking to speak directly to students at
NAIT. According to Pat Quilley, career advisor, “It’s good because the employers
get to talk to the students they want. They really need staff, and they know
these students have the training they need.” Quilley adds that NAIT will
be more prepared to bring in company representatives to talk to the students.
“It has changed our focus a bit. We were trying to attract employers, and now we
are trying to accommodate them. Next year, we’ll be putting on more career
events, where employers have more of a chance to get on campus.”
It’s a scenario that is played out at virtually every
post-secondary institution in the province, as employers scramble to fill their
needs before students shop themselves around.
The prosperity Albertans are enjoying is evident: At stop
lights, you’re surrounded by an Escalade, Explorer, Beamer and Benz… you notice
a Lexus and a Land Rover in the on-coming lanes. More signs of the times.
Housing prices are at an all time high and few stay on the market for longer
than a couple of days... some are gone in hours. Builders can’t keep up with
demand. Interest rates are exceptionally low, and credit is readily available.
The Oilers made a remarkable run for Lord Stanley’s Cup, and bars were running
out of beer.
Does it get any better? |
JA Business Hall of fame
In mid-May, as Oiler fever gripped the city, 600 members the community donned
their finery to honour three of its leading citizens. Lyle Best, Don
Oborowski and John Stanton were inducted in the Junior Achievement
Business Hall of Fame at its 26th Annual Gala Dinner and Induction ceremonies.
The event was held in the recently opened River View Room at the Shaw Conference
Centre.
Best, president and CEO of Quikcard Solutions Inc., is a
leader in the “emerging field of social entrepreneurship.” Considered the
go-to-guy when you need to organize a spectacular event, raise funds or serve on
an advisory board, Best is no stranger to recognition for his commitment to
Edmonton. He serves on numerous corporate and not-for-profit boards and
committees. Quikcard offers full health care and dental plans to more than 3500
under-25-person companies in Canada.
Don Oborowski, president and CEO of Waiward Steel
Fabricators Ltd., is a strong supporter of education, with a focus on
apprenticeship training. His long-time service includes membership on the
Alberta Apprenticeship Board, NAIT board of governors, CAREERS-The Next
Generation, and chair of the executive cabinet committee for the Health Research
Innovation Facilities under construction at the UofA Hospital. Oborowski is a
generous donor to various charities.
Stanton, president of The Running Room, turned his personal
passion into North America’s largest chain of specialty stores—now totaling
75—for runners and walkers. In so doing, he has contributed to the improved
health of thousands—more than half-a-million people have taken part in training
clinics alone. Stanton’s company sponsors more than 400 runs/walks for charity
annually. The proceeds from his Pink Ribbon Clothing Line go toward breast
cancer research.
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