Jasper fire chief burns up ice highway for charity
Cycling fanatic hoping to raise money to assist veterans and first responders
Jasper fire Chief Greg Van Tighem, who has raised more than $400,000 for charities on gruelling bike rides in the past 10 years, left Sunday on another epic mission.
“I plan to cycle 500 kilometres from Fort Smith, in the Northwest Territories down Alberta’s Winter Road to Fort McMurray,” he said.
“The ice road is only open from mid-December and crosses some of the most breathtaking landscapes in Alberta, wending its way over frozen rivers and marshes. It disappears by the end of March when the ice melts.”
The route will take Van Tighem through Fort Fitzgerald (Pop. 9) and Wood Buffalo National Park to cross the mighty Peace River into Fort Chipewyan, the former trading post established in 1788.
“I am riding in support of the Sheepdog Lodge Foundation, which has a rustic log cabin retreat for veterans and first responders,” he said.
“At the cabin they can recuperate and reconnect with their families and/or themselves.
“I have family and friends who have benefited from visits to the Sheepdog Lodge and know the value of the foundation in helping with operational stress injuries.”
The fire chief travels solo, but never lacks support.
In 2013, he cycled some 3,000 km up Highway 93 from Wickenburg, Arizona, to Jasper and had hoped to raise $93,000 for the MS Society.
But when fellow Jasperites heard he had fallen $30,000 short, local businessman Peter Hayashi led the town in organizing a hockey night and a golf tournament to help Van Tighem reach his goal. More than $96,000 was finally raised and the fire chief was named Canada’s top MS fundraiser.
The following year, in March 2014, Van Tighem again supported the MS Society and rode 3,500 km from Highway 16’s Mile Zero at Masset, Haida Gwaii, and pedalled to reach Winnipeg about one month later. He raised only $50,000 that year and was disappointed.
In March 2015 and supporting MS, he cycled some 1,000 km from the Yukon’s Dawson City, crossing the Arctic Circle on the Dempster Highway to reach Inuvik and then Tuktoyaktuk on the Beaufort Sea.
Van Tighem was off on his fat bike once more on Sunday and says its wider, low-pressure tires makes riding over snow and ice more manageable.
In case of an emergency on his bike adventures, he carries a satellite phone and a GPS tracker that show his position at all times.
“I chose to ride in the winter to make it tougher,” he said. “It’s nothing to the miserable life of pain, suffering and uncertainty many people have living with a disease, such as MS, or physical or mental injury. The rides can also be a relief from what at times can be a stressful job.”
WHAT ABOUT FUTURE PLANS?
“In 2020, I’d like to compete in the Great Divide Mountain Bike Route, an off-road race of about 4,500 km from Banff to Antelope Wells, New Mexico,” he said.
The route crosses the Great Divide 30 times, has more than 60,960 meters of elevation gain and loss and about 90 per cent is on unpaved roads and trails.
FOR THE LOVE OF PIZZA
When Carmelo Rago met his future wife, he was a student teacher at St. Joseph High School and she was a Grade 10 student.
Move the clock forward seven years and they were married.
Move the clock forward a few decades and the Ragos now have six Sorrentino Restaurants, the Bistecca Italian Steakhouse and Wine Bar, three Caffe Sorrentino and three Buco Pizzeria and Wine Bars and offer catering and cooking classes.
The third Buco opened last week — the others are in
St. Albert and Windermere — and there was much celebration and cork popping when the
I am riding in support of the Sheepdog Lodge Foundation, which has a rustic log cabin retreat for veterans and first responders.
225-seat, ultra-modern restaurant opened in the art-bedecked Epcor Tower.
“It was Carmelo who recognized it was time for Sorrentino’s to evolve in order to remain relevant within the hospitality industry,” said Stella Rago. “This is an industry where you are just as good as your last meal.
“It is not enough to continue to do a ‘good job’ or to ‘keep up’ but rather to stay ahead of the game. People are well travelled and want new and better, whether it’s within existing restaurants or new concepts.”
It was her brother Frank who came up with the name Buco for the first restaurant in St. Albert. It was built on the former Lois Hole greenhouse property. The word “buco” means “hole” in Italian.
The show stopper at the Epcor Tower restaurant is a $65,000 gigantic piece of art above the bar in the shape of lighted bocce balls.
In the open-style restaurant there is a wood-burning pizza oven, a 16-seat private dining room and temperature-controlled wine rooms, one of which boasts an 18-litre bottle of Zenato Ripassa.
“We will open the bottle if the Oilers win the Stanley Cup, unless we sell it first,” said Carmelo Rago.
The Ragos hired 100 new staff to operate the three Buco restaurants. But managing them all are the couple’s four sons — Maurizio, 36, Carmelo, 32, Pasquale, 29, and Antonio, 27.
Carmelo Rago shakes his head when he thinks of the first restaurant he owned in Castle Downs and the time he slipped and fell in a snowbank one night when delivering a pizza after his delivery driver hadn’t shown up.
“I had my teaching job and nearly quit,” he said. “But I loved Italian food too much.”