A mine rescue team with Flin Flon ties is hoping to make history.
The Diamonds in the Rough mine rescue team is aiming to become the world’s first all-female mine rescue team to take part in international competition. The team is one of only three Canadian teams scheduled to take part in the International Mine Rescue Challenge in Russia this September.
Kari Lentowicz, a long time mine rescue competitor and crisis management expert, is the driving force behind the team. Lentowicz is the team’s co-founder and will serve as one of their coaches.
Originally from Denare Beach and working from Flin Flon, Lentowicz started the team to increase diversity in non-traditional work spaces.
“I was a member of the mine rescue team in my former job and we didn’t see a lot of women in that field,” she said.
When Lentowicz first raised the idea of an all-female mine rescue team, she received some support – but there was a catch.
“Right when I started, it was something myself and my coach had talked about, but it seemed like a pipe dream because there wasn’t enough [women working],” she said.
In order to spread the word, Lentowicz began discussing the idea with female competitors at mine rescue events.
“We reached out to one of the competitions we were at. We were at the western regionals in Fernie, BC last September and met another woman there. I told her I needed to talk with her later. We met up and I said, ‘This is what we want to do. Are you interested and do you know of any other women who would want to be a part of this as well?’”
The second competitor, impressed, joined up.
“She pulled one of her senior managers over and he was very excited as well,” said Lentowicz.
Over time, the team has grown to 11 members in total, including Lentowicz and fellow coach Bruce Coley. The competitors come from across Canada, working in Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Quebec and the Northwest Territories. One of the team members, Jodi Brasch, is originally from Flin Flon and currently works in Snow Lake.
Lentowicz said 10 other members are interested in joining in the future.
The number of women becoming involved in mine rescue has increased. Hudbay had its first female mine rescue team member join up four years ago.
However, women are still scarce in international competition. In one competition where Lentowicz worked as a judge, she counted a scant number of female competitors.
“Out of around 180 competitors, I think five of them were women,” she said.
One of the five was a team captain, but that was still far below expectations.
“That’s less than three per cent and that shouldn’t be representative of women in those roles,” said Lentowicz.
“Even at an international level, there really weren’t many women in the competition. It is getting better, but it simply is not there yet.”
Lentowicz said the response from people with knowledge of the project has been overwhelmingly positive.
“Absolutely. There’s definitely a lot of verbal support,” she added.
Despite the support, the group is having issues covering the high overhead for operating a mine rescue group for international competition.
Lentowicz estimates the team is about $32,000 short of their fundraising needs for travel, equipment and training. Some companies, including Hudbay, have offered support and the group has opened a crowdfunding account, but the group is still coming up short.
In order to keep the team going, Lentowicz has stepped up and paid personally for some of the team’s expenses and training.
“We’re still reaching out. We’re hoping that other companies will come through for us and supply additional funds,” she said.
“One of our issues is that, since mine rescue is not recognized as a sport and is instead an adult event, you can’t do raffles. We have been denied on a number of occasions when we have applied,” she said
Simply having a mine rescue team is not the only goal for the project. The team has applied for non-profit status and hopes to provide training and youth engagement for advanced jobs, including mine rescue.
“One of our goals isn’t just to compete. It’s to increase diversity and awareness of diversity, to give women the confidence to work in non-traditional roles, like emergency response,” said Lentowicz.
