{"id":9632,"date":"2016-01-21T04:12:55","date_gmt":"2016-01-21T09:12:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/huntsville.dopperonline.ca\/?p=9632"},"modified":"2018-10-01T13:22:03","modified_gmt":"2018-10-01T17:22:03","slug":"going-where-not-many-girls-have-gone-before","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/doppleronline.ca\/huntsville\/going-where-not-many-girls-have-gone-before\/","title":{"rendered":"Going where not many girls have gone before"},"content":{"rendered":"

Every week, I will be profiling an extraordinary human being who lives in our community. If you know someone who is doing something interesting with their life, I want to hear about it. Send me an email at <\/strong><\/em>laura.maclean@doppleronline.ca<\/strong><\/a>.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Annie Logan isn\u2019t a typical girl. She looks the part and loves to tan and hula-hoop and do lots of other girly things but she\u2019s not one to back down from the dirty work either.<\/p>\n

\u201cI come home with more dirt on me than my boyfriend,\u201d says the 25-year-old.<\/p>\n

<\/broadstreet-zone><\/strong><\/div>\n

A self-proclaimed free spirit with a go-with-the-flow type attitude, Annie has spent most of her young life working. In fact, she chose working full time over school. But like smart girls who don\u2019t finish high school should do, she took it upon herself to earn her Grade 12 diploma from the Adult Learning Centre back in 2011.<\/p>\n

What makes Annie stand out from the rest is that she doesn\u2019t just have a pretty face. She\u2019s got a good head on her shoulders, too. For five years she worked in the kitchen at Hidden Valley Highlands Ski Area, and that led to her getting a job as a snowmaker, which she\u2019s been doing for the last year. This year, a new door opened when she was offered a job to be trained as a lift mechanic. And she\u2019s totally excited about it. She sees it as a life-changing opportunity. For the next five years, she will shadow Hidden Valley\u2019s current lift mechanic and learn the ropes of the trade before receiving certification.<\/p>\n

\"She's

She’s only 25 but Annie has been working full time since she was 14.<\/p><\/div>\n

Right now, as far as she knows, there\u2019s only one other female lift mechanic in the province. And to Annie, that’s something to be proud of.<\/p>\n

While being introduced to some equipment at a demo, a few members of the company that came to Hidden Valley were \u201cover the moon\u201d that Annie was a female snowmaker. It\u2019s a profession that not a lot of women take to and it\u2019s a wonder why considering how highly Annie speaks of her job.<\/p>\n

I never really looked at things as a girl position or if a job was for a guy. I have the determination to find out what wrong and then fixing what\u2019s wrong. And with the chairlifts at the ski hill, it makes a world of a difference. I grew up sledding and motorbiking and I have a passion for snowboarding. With this job, I found a link between everything.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

She loves her job for a lot of reasons. She enjoys being challenged and having to figure things out for herself. She doesn\u2019t mind the cold (as long as she\u2019s got her snow gear on) and happens to enjoy the process of mixing air with water to ensure the smooth operation of a snow gun. The prospect of being a future lift mechanic is an exciting one. Certainly, it entails a higher level of responsibility but it\u2019s something she isn\u2019t shying away from. She doesn\u2019t even seem to mind the fact that she starts work while most people are going to bed. She\u2019s into the rhythm of sleeping through the daylight hours and coming alive at night.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou get used to it,\u201d she says. \u201cI\u2019ve become nocturnal. I frown upon the day walkers and I\u2019m jealous of their sunshine-filled lives. But it\u2019s nice we get to catch the sun rising. That\u2019s the biggest highlight of working nights.\u201d<\/p>\n

She looks at the possibility of becoming a lift mechanic at Hidden Valley Highlands Ski Area as life-changing.<\/p><\/div>\n

Maintaining a job that is primarily dominated by men says something about Annie as a person. She admits she doesn\u2019t \u201cget along with most women,\u201d and that makes the job much more appealing. It takes a bit for people to realize she\u2019s not your average girl. However, she\u2019s definitely capable of handling the dirty work that sometimes comes with the job. There isn\u2019t much she won\u2019t do.<\/p>\n

She\u2019s had all kinds of jobs but much of her career has been spent in kitchens at various local restaurants. She\u2019s employed at Hidden Valley year-round but on weekends during the summer months she\u2019s an aerial and zip line rescue guide for Treetop Trekking.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m outside more than inside,\u201d she says. \u201cI\u2019m not really home all that often. I\u2019m always doing something.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Working

Working nights means seeing some amazing sunrises. Annie’s camera has snapped many. Photography is one of her favourite hobbies.<\/p><\/div>\n

Annie didn\u2019t grow up in usual girl fashion. She recalls her childhood in Oxtongue Lake being spent outside usually with \u201cthe boys\u201d and that definitely played a key role in shaping who she is today. She\u2019s always loved snowmobiling and motorbikes. And living only a short distance away from Algonquin Park was a huge advantage. She spent a lot of her time canoeing, kayaking and swimming.<\/p>\n

In her spare time, she hikes and goes to concerts and dabbles in photography. She told me how much she loves to hula-hoop so I asked her to bring it when we met up for our photo shoot at the ski hill.<\/p>\n\n\t\t