After six days of racing and 27 teams scratched, the 1st place team crossed the finish line in Labrador City yesterday for the 2020 Cain’s Quest Endurance Race.

First place went to rookies Team 21 Mighty Haulers, Darryl Burdett and Roddrick Pye, Cartwright team.

Second place went to Team 50 Labrador South Racing Murray O’Brien and Blair Roberts, L’anse Au Loup team.

Third place went to Team 02 Rough & Wild Boyd Lavers and Tyson Ryan, Newfoundland Team.

The prize purse for Cain’s Quest 2020 totals $100,000, with the first place team receiving $50,000, the second $30,000, and the third $20,000.

Cain’s quest had the live feed available until the fourth place team passed the finish line; fourth place went to Team 26, Team Hopedale.

They continued to go live on their face book page with the remaining teams crossing the finish line.

Click here to hear the audio from yesterday’s coverage of the Finish Line in Labrador City for the first three racers.

Audio courtesy of Cain’s Quest.

The Whitehorse 2020 Arctic Winter Games have been cancelled due to concerns about the novel corona virus.

The high-profile circumpolar sporting competition was supposed to run March 15th-21st, 2020 in Yukon’s capital.

About 2,000 athletes from around the world — including Russia, Greenland, Finland and Norway, as well as Yukon, Nunavut, Nunavik, Northwest Territories, northern Alberta and Alaska — were supposed to attend.

On Saturday, the 2020 International Ice Hockey Federation women’s world hockey championship in Nova Scotia was also cancelled, amid concerns about the ongoing spread of COVID-19.

Several school districts in Canada have cancelled international or overseas school trips.

Yukon Premier Sandy Silver said cancelling the competition was a “responsible” move.

Silver says the government put aside about $2 million for the games. They’re looking into what can be recovered, how much was spent, and so on.

Story Courtesy of the CBC Newfoundland and Labrador.

All travel to European countries approved by the Newfoundland and Labrador English School District has been cancelled.

The district says the cancellations apply to trips booked to the end of April, and are due to safety concerns associated with the COVID-19 outbreak.

A total of 17 trips and about 475 students and chaperones are affected, as per the latest announcement. Other trip destinations are being monitored, and may be cancelled, said the NLESD in a media release Tuesday.

“This decision is not taken lightly,” said district CEO Tony Stack in the release.

“This precautionary measure is designed to reduce the risk of having students exposed to the virus, or being quarantined in a foreign country, or upon their return to Canada. It’s just not a risk we are willing to take.”

The district says it can cancel a trip up to 24 hours before departure if it’s to a country that has been deemed a risk related to the novel corona virus.

However, when it comes to a trip to a country that does not have a formal risk declaration, as per the federal government’s travel advisory list, relating to the virus, “there is no guarantee travel insurance purchased by parents will be honoured — regardless of whether the district cancels the trip,” reads the statement.

But by cancelling the trips because of a specific risk, in this case the spread of COVID-19, that will allow people to be compensated in some way, said the NLESD.

That includes full or partial reimbursement, rerouting to other destinations, scheduling the trip for a later date, or issuing vouchers for future travel.

Story Courtesy of the CBC Newfoundland and Labrador.

The Government of Canada invests in $27 Million dollars in the Corona virus research.

On March 6th, 2020, a press release from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research was released.

Since the outbreak of COVID-19, the Government of Canada has been working with provinces, territories, and international partners to protect the health and well-being of Canadians.

As more countries begin to deal with COVID-19 outbreaks, the Government of Canada is investing in Canadian researchers to learn more about this novel corona virus and to develop tools and resources to combat it.

To further contribute to global efforts to address the COVID-19 outbreak, today, the Honorable Patty Hajdu, Canada’s Minister of Health, and the Honorable Navdeep Bains, Canada’s Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry, announced an investment of nearly $27 million to fund corona virus research.

Due to the overwhelming response to the call for research applications, the Government of Canada increased its original investment from $7 million to $27 million.

This investment will support 47 research teams from across Canada that will focus on accelerating the development, testing, and implementation of measures to deal with the COVID-19 outbreak.

The research will help inform clinical and public health responses, develop and evaluate diagnostic tools and vaccines, as well as create strategies to tackle misinformation, stigma, and fear.

A presentation on Wind Energy will be held this evening in Nain at the Nunatsiavut Government boardroom at 6:30 pm.

Neil Hawkes is the Sustainable Energy Facilitator for the Nunatsiavut Government.

He says “This presentation will be hands on, and will focus on specific community energy plans, so community members can have the opportunity to voice out their opinion and thoughts on what kind of energy needs we have and how they can pursue it in our home community.”

Joshua Jararuse of Nain was hired as one of the Green Energy Interns with NG and will do the presentation.

Hawkes says this a great way to talk about different renewable options and a part of developing community specific energy plans.

He says participants will also have a chance to put together a mini wind turbine.

Hawks adds there will be wind turbines placed in Nain, the location will be near the new water tower, the turbines will be big as the radio tower on Nain Hill.

He says there will be chances to win some awesome draw prizes that include: Solar lanterns, a solar light set up with 4 or 5 lights that can hook up to a solar panel or a battery, and LED lights.

So come out to this presentation this evening to find out more about how to sustain energy for our community.

The 2020 Cain’s Quest Snowmobile Endurance Race is now on its 5th day and is still going strong.

It was an exciting time for the residents of Nain as the first skidoo racers was coming closer to our town, Checkpoint #13 yesterday afternoon.

There were a lot of people on the ice to cheer on the first team.

Our radio producer intern went up to the Jeremias Sillitt Community Centre and interviewed some of the Cain’s Quest Racers.

The OK radio’s intern spoke with 5 teams after their arrival.

Our intern had a chance to speak with Team 00 Innu Hawks, Team 19 Farrell’s Excavating LTD, Team 22 Villian, Team 29 Kyson and team 45 Salt.

They talked about the challenges they had, and their race from the start line to when they arrived Nain.

Click here to hear what the racers said.

And here’s a quick update with Bryan Rich from Team 01 Bernice; Rich is now conscious and talking. He is still waiting to be sent out to Happy Valley-Goose Bay for a better check-up with his team member Gregory Rich by his side.

The Recreation Department will hold Spa Night starting on Wednesday, March 11th.

Lisa Ivany is the Recreation Director with the Nain Inuit Community Government.

She says this will be held for girl’s ages 8-12 years and will accept 5 lucky girls for each night on a first call basis.

Ivany adds that they have 5 spots left.

They will be offering ear piercing with ear piercing cleaner at $7 a bottle, make up, nails and a free peekaboo, or in other words, one strand of hair dye in pink, blue, purple, or violet.

She also says the first peekaboo for the kids will be covered by the Recreation Department, but if you would like more than one, you’d have to pay with a cost of $30 each.

Reminder that parents must call for their children as it requires parent’s permission.

If you would like to put your child’s name down, you can call 922-2691.

The Torngat Wildlife, Plants and Fisheries Secretariat will be holding Bear Guard Training and Workshops this month.

Derrick Pottle will be the instructor for the Bear Guard Training.

He says they will be traveling to Nain, Goose-Bay and Postville.

They will hold the training in Nain from March 13th to the 16th, 2020.

Click here to hear Pottle on the upcoming Bear Guard training workshops.

The Nain Recreation Department would like to announce that it’s official that the singer song writer, Peter Jacobs will be coming to Nain.

Lisa Ivany is the Nain Recreation Director with the Nain Inuit Community Government.

As everyone knows, he is well known from the album titled, “Take Me Back” in 2007.

She says that he will be performing on Thursday, April 16th free of charge to the community at the Jeremias Sillitt Community Center.

Ivany adds that if you are interested in performing during the Entertainment night, you can contact Lisa Ivany at the JS Center at 922-2690 or 922-2691.

We also spoke with Stephanie Macintosh who is the Manager at the Atsanik Inn.

She says Jacobs will be doing a live performance at the Atsanik Inn on Saturday, April 18th; there will be an entry fee at the door.

The price of the entry fee for tickets is yet to be determined.

Tickets will be available for purchase on April 1st, 2020.

Today, March 10th, marks day four of the 2020 Cain’s Quest Snowmobile Endurance Race.

This is from an update this morning Tuesday, March 10th.

There are 33 teams that are trying to get to the finish line back in Labrador City.

The first team #33 Newfoundland and Labrador followed by team #50 Labrador South Racing, and team #21 the Mighty Haulers were in Hopedale earlier.

The leading teams should be arriving to checkpoint 13 in Nain for the 12 hour layover sometime this afternoon.

Since yesterday, 16 teams are scratched and two dropped out.

The OK Radio will have more coverage on this exciting race once the teams have arrived.