MINNESOTA WOMEN’S PRESS Sports & Adventure 51 Days in the Wild Surfing Lake Superior Outdoor Afro Vixen Football Specialty Guide: Kids is is th sue in so l A Sports & Adventure Issue | womenspress.com | May 2019 | Issue 35-5 MINNESOTA “All these millions of girls WOMEN’S PRESSPOWERFUL. EVERYDAY. WOMEN. that play sports across the country — we are teaching them great things about life skills, but wouldn’t it be great if we could teach them to PHOTO SARAH WHITING SARAH PHOTO watch how women lead?” — Notre Dame women's basketball coach Muffet McGraw What’s inside? Editor Letter 3 Pivot Points Tapestry 4 Voices on Sports & Adventure GoSeeDo 6 Taste of Iceland, Q Stage, Pangea, Cloudscapes Minnesota Vixen, Page 18 Think 8 KweStrong, Back to Black, Lynx Spotlight, NASA Contact Us MWP team 651-646-3968 Owner/Editor: Mikki Morrissette Sports & Adventure 14-19 Send a letter to the editor/suggest story idea: Managing Editor: Sarah Whiting • 51 Days of Open Water [email protected] Interim Business Development Director: Ashlee Moser • Wave Rider Subscribe: [email protected] Contributors: Lynnea Atlas-Ingebretson, Emeri • A Wild and Alien World Advertise: [email protected] Burks, Kelly Gryting, Alora Jones, Siena Iwasaki • Setting New Goals Events listings: [email protected] Milbauer, Ebba Safverblad-Nelson, Jana Studelska, Kassidy Tarala, Katie Thune • Being Outdoorsy Our mission: Amplify and inspire, with personal Community Engagement: Siena Iwasaki Milbauer, stories and action steps, the leadership of powerful, Aarohi Narain, Alyssa Story, Kassidy Tarala everyday women. Digital/Events Development: Mikki Morrissette Politics & Policy 20 Lynnea Atlas-Ingebretson: What Our Parks Need Our vision: We are all parts of a greater whole. Design/Photography/Cover: Sarah Whiting Our stronger future will be built from the collective energy of women who shift narratives to effect change. Events Coordinator: Karen Olson Johnson BookShelf 21 Siena Milbauer: Inspiring the Adventurer Copy Editor: Kelly Gryting The Minnesota Women’s Press is distributed free at 500 locations. To find a copy near you, visit womenspress. Factchecker: Selena Moon com and click on “get a copy” or call 651-646-3968. Help fund our storytellers with a subscription: Proofreader: Quinn Dreasler Specialty guide [email protected] Advertising Sales: Ashlee Moser, Elly Oesterreich Kids 10 Minnesota Women’s Press LLC Accounting: Fariba Sanikhatam Katie Thune: Healthy Sexuality PO Box 8022 St. Paul, MN 55108 Operations: Kari Larson Classified Ads 38 Past Publishers: ©2018 by Minnesota Women’s Press LLC Mollie Hoben & Glenda Martin (1985-2002) What women Want 22-37 All rights reserved. ISSN #1085-2603 Kathy Magnuson & Norma Smith Olson (2003-2017) Pivot Points by Mikki Morrissette ivot points are what I call those Brandt and soccer star Abby Wambach are meaningful moments that end up working to change that, as advocates for leading to an unexpected trajectory pay equity. Pin a person’s life. One of my personal pivot Wambach has scored more career goals points happened when I was 16. My plea than any player in history, male or female. to the Prior Lake community newspaper Yet when she left the sport in 2015, she was answered by editor Bev Simonsen, knew she had to keep earning money, in who gave me an after-school job as an contrast to other top male athletes. unneeded receptionist. After the adult The U.S. women's national soccer team male sports reporter left, she gave me that recently filed a lawsuit to get compensation job, even though I had no proven reporting equal to men. "We win World Cups. We Sports Leadership experience or knowledge of sports. win Olympics," Wambach says. "Our men "We’ve had a record number That opportunity led to my jobs as have never placed in the top three." of women running for office, sports editor of the Minnesota Daily When Title IX made it a law in 1972 to and winning, and still, we have college newspaper, for the North Stars enact gender equity policies in student 23 percent of the House and hockey team, and on the sports copy desk athletics, within two years more than 90 25 percent of the Senate. I’m of the Star Tribune newspaper. percent of women’s teams in college sports getting tired of the novelty of After moving to New York, my boss were coached by females. Yet in 2018, the first female governor of this at Sports Illustrated for Kids brought according to the University of Minnesota’s state, the first female African- me into upper management at Time Inc. Tucker Center for Research on Girls American mayor of this city. Custom Publishing. Between that, and & Women in Sport, the percentage of When is it going to become the project management work at The New women coaching college women at top- norm, instead of the exception? York Times, I learned many of the skills I level NCAA Division 1 schools was 59.3. bring to Minnesota Women’s Press today. As coach Muffet McGraw puts it (see We don’t have enough female role models. Men run the world. Lately, my sports and adventure right), women learn by seeing women Men make the decisions. Who involvement is minimal. I am booster lead. Yet men get hired more. “People hire are [young women] looking up mom at my kids’ Ultimate Frisbee games people who look like them.” to tell them that that’s not the and play family pick-up games. I watch I wouldn’t be who I am if a woman way it has to be? televised sporting events with my parents hadn’t given me the opportunity I needed. and kids as bonding time, especially now What I love about my early years in Where better to do that than in that my dad's capabilities are limited. sportswriting was that it prepared me to sports? We are teaching them stand out. There were not many women great things about life skills, but The Stalled Potential in Sports involved in sports reporting when I started. wouldn’t it be great if [they] could As with many industries, men tend to be In hindsight, the confidence it gave me led watch how women lead? better paid than women athletes. Women to comfort with travel adventures in my Why shouldn’t 100 or 99 percent 30s, from Moscow to Krakow to Crete. like Minnesota hockey player Hannah of the jobs in women’s basketball For me, being the lone woman in locker go to women? Maybe it’s because 2019 Themes rooms with professional athletes was not we only have 10 percent women about breaking barriers. It was about getting athletic directors in Division 1. Submit story ideas for upcoming to the human stories. It is a pleasure in this People hire people who look like themes. Find details at “Writer’s issue to showcase the power of women them, and that is the problem." Guidelines” at womenpress.com engaged in sports and adventure. June: War & Peace — Muffet McGraw, women's July: Transformation Correction: In the April editor letter, we incorrectly basketball coach for Notre Dame August: Greater Minnesota identified retiring advertiser Bargain Upholstery. (905-273 record) Visit womenspress.com to subscribe to the magazine and e-news. Minnesota Women’s Press | womenspress.com | May 2019 | 3 Tapestry VOICES ON SPORTS & ADVENTURE commentary of everyday women engaged with our topic of the month Rachel Avenido Growing up, I never played contact sports. I first attended a Minnesota RollerGirls game in 2009. Even though I didn't know how to roller skate, I immediately thought, "I have to do that." I saw many different body types and ages of women skating. I PHOTO RON WILBUR RON PHOTO knew I wanted to be part of the power and energy of the sport. Through a recreation league, I learned how to skate from veterans, and made it onto the Rockits team. It can be challenging to make new friends as an adult. Through roller derby, I've made connections and joined a community of badass women and non-binary people who work together to support one another and sustain our revolutionary sport. I love the opportunity to be unapologetically strong with my body and innovative with strategies. Because we are a self-run business, we keep ourselves accountable in fitness and organizational goals. Through derby I've been empowered by teammates. I travel all over the country with the Minnesota RollerGirls All-Stars. Last year, I was part of the first Team Philippines in the Roller Derby World Cup. As a first-generation Filipina-American, it was inspiring to be able to connect with other powerful Filipina women through roller derby. Cindy Johnson Suplick survive in a storm. I preferred to solo went on a five-day trek in Bhutan. I met I was a tomboy growing up. In the late backpack, because in nature I found a woman yak-herder my age. I booked 1960s at my high school, a girl could solace, serenity, and spiritual renewal. a trek to Slovenia, and then discovered participate in synchronized swimming I bought a one-way ticket to Europe I had breast cancer. Undeterred, I went or cheerleading. In 1972, Title IX was and roamed over 40 countries by anyway, in between lumpectomies. passed, which prohibited discrimination backpacking, motorcycling, rail travel, The challenge and incredible scenery on the basis of sex in federally funded hitch-hiking, and bicycling the back buoyed my spirits. I recently joined educational programs, including sports. ways. Vivid memories: standing room my daughter in a 10-day trek to Machu Transformational, but too late for us. seating for the Vienna symphony, Picchu and the Peruvian jungle.