The paddle collection.

Lez's father, Milow Worel, canoe'd virtually every river and lake in Northern Saskatchewan over his lifetime. We believe the number of trips is somewhere around 65.

Milow would carve a mini paddle during each canoe trip and mark the place name and dates on them. At one time, all of the paddles were hung in a mobile but after Milow passed, the paddles were lost to Lee and Lez.

They are now with us and we plan to hang them in his honour.

As we were sorting through Ralph Worel's belongings after he passed, we were looking for the paddles but we could not find them. Then we were made aware that Ralph had rented a storage place for many years in White Rock, BC.

With a little bit of internet searching we found a number of storage places and contacted them. We found the one where Ralph had rented a unit and, after providing proof of death, they agreed to open it up and give us an idea of what was in there. They were very helpful and sent us pictures.

In the end, we chose what we wanted to keep and the storage place boxed them up and sent them to us. Among Ralph's belongings were his father's paddles and a wall hanging depicting the names of the lakes and rivers that Milow had traversed.

They are now safe in Edmonton.