First Woman in the North Pole

So I had the pleasure of hearing and meeting Ann Bancroft, the first woman who went to the North Pole and who has explored Antarctica several times. She is a actually from Minnesota and she has a foundation where she gives grants to girls in Minnesota who are looking to discover a passion but cannot afford it. For example, the grants will cover lessons to learn to play an instrument, or they will pay for a summer camp focusing on outdoors...etc. So there is a group of I want to say 8 women, who are on this Ann Bancroft Foundation committee. My beautiful mother just happens to be one of these generous women :) So needless to say I have an 'in' with this woman.




So yesterday my mom and I went to the Best Buy headquarters to listen to her speak. What an inspirational woman! She told her stories and showed pictures of her times exploring. Her photos were fantastic but mostly I loved hearing about how she kept going in a field of work - 'exploration' where no other women were exploring. She talked about how there were times when she thought she couldn't go on, and how she gained the courage to continue. All in all, it was a perfect sending off for me, giving me so much inspiration for my trip.

When life is tough, just remember it is an adventure and go exploring.

Sending encouragement,

Vanessa.