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A warm meal after a long day
Saskatchewan woman comes North to cook for firefighters at Reid Lake Territorial Park

John McFadden
Northern News Services
Published Friday, July 25, 2014

SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
When Sheryl Sackney was asked by her friend a few weeks back if she wanted to come to the NWT to cook for forest firefighters, she initially said no.

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Sheryl Sackney took two weeks vacation from her job with Statistics Canada to come to the NWT.

However, after a half-hour of thinking about it, she changed her mind.

She is now making two meals a day for up to 50 firefighters at their base camp at Reid Lake Territorial Park, about 60 kilometres east of Yellowknife on the Ingraham Trail.

Every morning for the past few weeks, she has crawled out of her tent at about 4:15 a.m. to start making breakfast.

"We have to make sure each firefighter takes in at least 3,400 calories a day," she said. "They need that to have the energy to fight the fire."

Sackney said it's a lot of work but the response from the firefighters, who she said thank her profusely every night, makes it all worthwhile.

"We have to keep these guys' spirits up. They work very hard and if I can do my part to make sure they're well-fed when they head out in the morning and (eat) a good meal to finish their day, well them I'm happy," she said.

Sackney took two weeks vacation from her job with Statistics Canada to come to the NWT.

"I still have more vacation time so I expect to stay here until this camp is no longer needed," she said.

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