The Reminder is making its archives back to 2003 available on our website. Please note that, due to technical limitations, archive articles are presented without the usual formatting.
From time to time we like to bring you classic articles from our sister magazine, Cottage North. This feature, written by Jillian Betke Bessette, tells the inspirational story of Ted Ohlsen, a blind Flin Flon resident and entrepreneur. It appeared in the 2007 September-October issue. *** When you first meet Ted Ohlsen, there are likely to be two things you notice about him. One, he's blind and two, he's probably busy doing something. On the day I interviewed him, he was whittling a wood chain. Yes, whittling! Most sighted people can't (or don't) whittle, yet here was an unseeing man carving away while we took a trip down his memory lane, and I plied his brain for a glimpse of the secret to his success. Success, of course, is relative, but in many, many people's eyes, Ted Ohlsen is regarded as a very successful man. Extraordinary entrepreneur, champion conservationist, accomplished public speaker, unbeatable problem solver _ and each of these triumphs have been completed without his being able to see. An inspiration for the blind and the sighted alike, Ohlsen humbly describes how his life has brought him to this point. Hailing from Germany, Ohlsen immigrated to Canada in 1956 to follow his dream in the Canadian wilderness. Working in mining camps throughout Manitoba and Saskatchewan eventually landed him in the Esterhazy, Sask., region where, out hunting in 1960, he was accidentally shot and lost his eyesight. 'I didn't know whether I would go back home to Germany, or what I was gonna do,' he recalls. 'Well, I did go home and I spent a few months there, but then I realized I wanted to come back to Canada. I had made many friends here and I still wanted to pursue my dream of making a living in the Canadian outdoors.' Returning to Regina and working with the Canadian National Institute for the Blind (CNIB), Ohlsen began to take his first steps toward living without sight. 'It was there that we learned how to do things _ or most things _ without sight,' he says. Encouraged by CNIB to improve his English by retaking his Grade 12, Ohlsen also then began his lifelong custom of breaking the rules by becoming the first blind person to go to regular high school in Regina. 'It was a very tough time for me, but I started to realize that I could do a lot more things without sight than you really realize,' he says. 'And because of that, I maintained my dream of still wanting to become an outfitter in the North someplace. And I remember one day telling the CNIB people there that I wanted to become an outfitter, and their answer, of course, was that I was crazy, that nobody, no blind person, had ever built and run a fishing and hunting camp in Canada. But the more people said no to me about things that I wanted to do, the more determined I became to do it.' Staying with the CNIB, Ohlsen went to Toronto for a rehabilitation course, where he met his soon-to-be wife, Diane. After marrying in 1965, the couple moved up north to Deschambault Lake, and began to build their dream, the Northern Lights Lodge, on the Hanson Lake Road. 'We built it absolutely from scratch _ there was nothing there other than rocks and trees and... nothing,' he says. But even with the numerous challenges involved in the completion of a lodge in the middle of nowhere, Ohlsen was to learn yet another valuable lesson in his life. 'When the lodge was done, I realized _ like we all do _ that no matter what you do in life, there's always some other hurdles you have to overcome,' he says. 'The challenge for me then...became the outboard motors.' Realizing that the unpaved, mud-holed trail of the Hanson Lake Road was an impractical trek for Diane to make each time some little thing broke, Ohlsen began to take the motors apart in order to diagnose and fix them. 'So I got some knowledge eventually...and it's really not a big deal, once you feel your way through,' he says. Ohlsen took another incredible step when he asked Mercury Marine, which makes outboard motors, if he could join their mechanic program. They accepted him. Chalk up another first for Ted Ohlsen _ Canada's first blind certified Mercury outboard mechanic. Not that he was finished there. No, in 1985 Ted and Diane Ohlsen decided to rebuild Northern Lights Lodge into the first fully modern, fully wheelchair accessible camp in Canada, at the request of (and with help from) the Saskatchewan Abilities Council. 'We're so glad we did that, we learned so much,' he says. 'We learned all the practical things _ ramps, wide doors, hoist at the dock, those kinds of things. But we also learned what other people need to survive and contribute to society.' With that behind them, the Ohlsens decided they would also like to give disabled children the opportunity to enjoy the North. The result is the still-popular Lions' Wilderness Experience, where Lions clubs support disabled kids for time spent at Northern Lights Lodge. 'There were many times where the camp was filled with people in wheelchairs, mentally challenged people, blind people, those with a terminal illness,' he says. 'But the attitude they had and the hope... it was a wonderful time to watch all that. That was a great thing for us.' Being a northern outfitter and lodge owner inspired one other great love and passion in Ted Ohlsen's heart _ conservation. 'The resources in our northern country here is unbelievable,' he says. 'It isn't just mining or logging. The wildlife we have is worth billions and billions of dollars, because it's nowhere else. The lakes and rivers _ the numbers of fish _ that's priceless. Canadians take that for granted because it's never been any other way. 'I've always been active with conservation because I came from a country where there were no animals and no wilderness.' As a long-time lodge owner, Ohlsen has had the opportunity to convey his passion and beliefs to his many local and foreign visitors. See 'Keep' on pg. Continued from pg. 'We've encouraged, and we've been successful in, not taking fish out of the lake and taking them home,' he says. 'We are very proud that maybe 60 per cent of our guests do not take fish out of there (but it is up to the people). We think, you go to a place for a reason... and we need to keep our reason. 'When I am out at my lodge, I start to realize, who paid for the sun to shine this morning, who paid for that loon to call _ nobody because you cannot buy that kind of stuff. For those reasons, I am a conservationist. I have learned many things after 40 years outdoors and so I see the value in things.' Of course there are many, many things Ted Ohlsen has learned over the years, and most of them he has been asked to share. Magazine and newspaper articles, television features, public speaking engagements, documentaries _ everyone wants to hear what Ted Ohlsen has to say. And you know what? He has learned something from that, too. 'People are interested in the things that I've been doing, but they wouldn't want to stand there forever, listen to me say, 'Oh, I can't do anything, I'm blind,'' he says. 'Nobody really wants to be together with negative people. Everything I did, I just did it. Because I wanted to do it. And that's what I say time and time again. Life is what you make it. Life is not made for you. That's it.'
