VOLUNTEERS
Greenland, Greece, Cyprus, and Morocco. Not surprisingly, she and her partner, Ian Crawford, took every available opportunity to travel Europe, checking destinations off their bucket list along the way. It was an amazing experience, but after five years it was time to come home. “By that time Ian and I just missed Canada. We wanted to get back to the great outdoors,” she says. Another big reason for returning was the local geoscience community. “I truly believe that Calgary has the best geoscience community in the world,” she explains. “I’ve lived in London, Houston, Melbourne, New Zealand — nothing is like the concentration of geoscientists in the Calgary downtown core. It is absolutely incredible how geoscientists come together in Calgary, how they share information. People from different companies will sit down on a technical level and discuss how we can improve technology, the way we look at the Earth and study it. You don’t get that openness in other places.” So after a four-month backpacking sojourn to Asia, Australia ,and New Zea- land, she returned home two years ago and started up a geophysical consulting firm, Racian Ventures Ltd. “I wanted to be able to control my own time,” she says. She also returned to her volunteer work in the geoscience community, including her long-time involvement with the Canadian Society of Exploration Geophysicists (CSEG). She’s currently the society’s President, which is how she came to be a volunteer with APEGA’s champions collaborative, a group of Professional Geoscientists and Engineers who are consulting APEGA Members about proposed changes to the Engineering and Geoscience Professions Act. Champions like Dr. Newrick are sharing information about the legislative review and collecting feedback from Members. “It’s been about 35 years since we’ve had a look at the Act. Really, a lot has a happened in that time and a lot needs to be updated,” she notes. “From a geoscience perspective, it’s important to make sure everyone’s voices are heard, including the geologists and geophysicists who make up the smaller part of APEGA’s membership.” Consultations began this spring and
While travelling in Burma, monks asked Dr. Newrick to be part of their group photo in front of Alo-daw Pyi Pagoda, an ancient temple. She was happy to oblige.
will continue over the next few years. For more details, see page 47.
rides across Vancouver Island, England, Scotland and Europe. “I only sold her in 2013 when we moved back to Canada — and that’s when I purchased my new Brutale,” she says. Having recently relocated from Calgary to Bellevue in the Crowsnest Pass, she’s looking forward to another two-wheeler hobby: dirt biking. “I have a lot of fun when I’m in the air,” she laughs. “And there are hundreds of kilometres of off-road trails in the Crowsnest.” She and Mr. Crawford bought a holi- day home there about 10 years ago so they could ski at nearby Castle Mountain on the weekends. “We love it down here. We bought two more houses and started run- ning a vacation rental business,” she says. “At night, we get to sit by the fire pit with friends and enjoy watching the Northern Lights come over every once in a while.” One of those homes is a tiny old miner’s house built on railroad ties. It’s where they’re staying until their permanent home is renovated. “If I look out my kitchen window, I’m staring straight at Turtle Mountain and the Frank Slide,” says Dr. Newrick. She draws on the natural beauty of the Crowsnest Pass for inspiration when exploring her creative side as a mixed
ON KAWASAKIS AND CREATIVITY
If you happen to spot Dr. Newrick at a legisla- tive review consultation and are looking for a conversation starter, ask her about her sporty new MV Agusta Brutale 1090, or perhaps her Honda XR400 dirt bike or Harley Davidson SX125 scrambler. Another one of her pas- sions is motorcycles. On Twitter, people know her as motorcyclerachel. She started riding in her mid-20s, putting on 36,000 kilometres in her first year. “As soon as I got on a bike, I felt like I was in the right place,” she says. “For me, the best part about riding is the feeling that you get in the corners.” She was a motorcycle instructor for several years (that’s how she met Mr. Crawford, who was an instructor with the Calgary Safety Council) and she also founded the Wild West Vixens female motorcycle club. Her favourite bike (so far) was her 2003 Kawasaki Z1000, which she rode more than 93,000 kilometres. That includes a road trip from Calgary to Mexico — one-way in four four days — plus other
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