Yesterday was the first (hopefully annual) Fast and Female event in Fairbanks Alaska. Fast and Female, a Canadian non-profit organization, puts on camps for girls ages 9-19 throughout North America. Participants get a T-shirt, assorted goodies, and an awesome afternoon with ‘athlete-ambassadors’. F&F’s mission is ‘empowerment through sport’ and they achieve that mainly by exposing girls to inspiring and motivating female elite athletes. These ‘ambassadors’ lead the girls in fun activities on skis like relays, downhill practice, and games, which are usually followed by yoga and an inspirational presentation.

Our event consisted of 14 ambassadors, 54 girls, 12 volunteers, 4 ski stations, 1 awesome yoga instructor, 2 Olympians, 6 dozen Lulu’s bagels, 30 pounds of Spinach Creek Farm carrots, 10 invaluable sponsors, and countless grins!

Kicking off with a bit of a welcome speech, I tried to get things started on the right foot. I had helped with a few of these before, but I had never tried to be the lead ambassador and had never been part of the organization process. I was nervous that I would forget what I wanted to say, and I was nervous that the girls would be able to tell how nervous I was! Luckily my teammate Kikkan Randall is a pro at these kinds of things, and she helped to make sure things went well. We didn’t forget anything too important, and the welcome speech went off without a hitch! After showing a video of Cross Country skiing Olympic Gold Medalist Chandra Crawford introducing the organization, we headed outside for some ski stations...