Lumberjack contest offers cutting-edge opening - Jul. 29, 2010
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Chelsie Doherty gets a few axe-flinging tips from lumberjack veteran Rod Cumberland.
By KATHY BOCKUS
kathy@stcroixcourier.ca
ST. STEPHEN – Most Miss Canada contestants will sing, dance, play an instrument or perform gymnastics.
But Miss Petite New Brunswick 2010-11 Chelsie Doherty of Chipman plans to shake things up a bit at this year’s competition.
She’s going to throw a double-bladed axe at a target.
That’s why organizers of this year’s International Lumberjack Championship deemed the 5’4” brunette as the logical choice to participate in the opening ceremonies of the event which is being filmed to air on TSN in the fall.
Producer Bill Deba said the tentative dates for airing of the three part program are Sept. 25, Oct. 3 and Oct. 10 at 12 noon AST, plus one repeat of each show during the week. The series is scheduled to be repeated in the spring.
“She’s shown an aptitude for this,” said Rod Cumberland of Doherty’s axe-throwing skills. Cumberland is more than qualified as her instructor. He is a past winner of the International Homecoming Festival’s lumberjack event and six-time provincial lumberjack champion.
“I’ve been interested in woodsman’s competitions for a while,” said Doherty. “I’m from Chipman. I grew up in a lumberjack town and I’m used to seeing competitions at festivals. It looks like a lot of fun.”
Doherty says she likes to be outdoors. While she says she’s not really a tomboy, she admits she does enjoy hunting and fishing as well as dressing up in pretty clothes for her pageant competitions.
Doherty just completed her biology degree at the University of New Brunswick and plans to begin a qualifying semester for her Master’s degree in forestry this fall.
She approached Cumberland, a deer biologist with the Department of Natural Resources in Fredericton where she is working for the summer, with the idea she wanted to chop wood for her talent at the Miss Canada pageant. He told her that would require a lot of effort and she’d be out of breath when she finished.
Cumberland suggested she try axe throwing. And she’s been practising ever since.
What did the pageant organizers have to say about her chosen talent?
“They weren’t sure,” said Doherty with a laugh. “I told them it wasn’t dangerous and the lady said, ’well, you’re throwing an axe dear.’
“I told her I wouldn’t be throwing it if I couldn’t hit the target. They said, ‘we’ll see’.”
The petite 23-year-old brunette who states “I’m tall for a short person” will be using a properly weighted competition axe made in New Zealand for her throw in St. Stephen.
The axe weighs two pounds and is 26 inches long, almost half her height. Doherty has to grip it with both hands, raise it over her head and let fly at a target, 20 feet away.
“You need to hit the bullseye. It’s kind of like darts,” she stated. “I started the first of the summer and I’ve picked it up pretty quick.”
Her parents, Wanda and Stephen, have set up a practice target for her at their Chipman home.
Her mother’s response to learning Doherty’s choice for her national pageant performance was, Doherty admitted, predictable.
“Mom said ‘no, no you’re not’,” said Doherty with a laugh. She said she told her mother everyone will remember her for it and that the talent was perfectly acceptable. “It’s a Canadian thing, especially in New Brunswick,” she laughed.
Doherty began competing in pageants when she was 13 years old and won the title of Junior Miss Chipman.
”I didn’t really want to do it, but my grandmother, Carol Doherty talked me into it. Now I just love it; I really enjoy it.
“It’s a lot of fun. I like to get up in front of a crowd, I get to wear pretty dresses,” said Doherty.
She said she knows the subject of beauty pageants can be quite controversial.
“I’ve never found it degrading, it’s actually liberating, and very challenging. There’s a lot to think about when you’re out there.”
Doherty’s usual talent during a pageant is public speaking and she originally planned to deliver at the Miss Canada Pageant a talk about a shark research study in which she participated in the Bahamas in April.
She swam with sharks every day for a week – bull sharks, tiger sharks, hammerheads, lemon sharks, and nurse sharks - all in open water without the aid of protective cages.
“I still have all my fingers and toes,” she commented with a laugh. “Nothing happened. Sharks are quite gentle, they’re just misunderstood.” Doherty said the movie “Jaws” gave the sea hunters a bad rap.
Doherty is looking forward to her participation in the lumberjack event in St. Stephen.
Cumberland is too. He is not competing this year, but will act as co-host and analyst for the competition which is being filmed to air on TSN in the fall.
He praised the efforts of the local BIA which sponsors the event annually and others involved in the event’s organization, citing in particular Kevin Stuart, Ian Stewart, Alison Estey, Geoff Knight, Heather Cunningham, Trudy Higgins and George MacLeod.
The contest, with categories for men, women and novices, begins at 11 a.m. on the waterfront opposite the horse pull area off Budd Avenue in downtown St. Stephen.
Prior to the event, a breakfast is being offered by Home Support Services at its headquarters at 41 Budd Ave. Pancakes, bacon, homemade hash browns, baked beans and scrambled eggs, juice tea or coffee will be sold from 8 a.m. to 11 a.m. The cost is $6 per person or $20 for a family of four. Breakfast for children under eight is $3.
The BIA has teamed with the Oak Bay Fire Department to present a barbecue for spectators attending the lumberjack championship. Hot dogs, hamburgers and sausages, salmon burgers, along with pop and water, will go on sale around 11 a.m.
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