Spirit Way and the City of Wolverhampton, United Kingdom joined each other on Skype at the Thompson Airport March 12 for the unveiling of a wolf statue, which celebrates the relationship between the U.K. city and Thompson’s evolving ecotourism initiatives.
The meeting was also an opportunity to thank corporate sponsors and other contributors to the Wolf Centre of Excellence, a new science and tourism destination planned for Thompson, which will be built through Corbett Architecture as an addition to the Boreal Discovery Centre.
The Wolf Centre of Excellence aims to promote wolves through education, science and research, with the hope of making Thompson a destination for ecotourism in a similar manner as Churchill, which is known for polar bears and beluga whales.
“People go there because they are wildlife lovers,” explained Volker Beckmann of Spirit Way Inc., noting that Thompson can do things to attract that audience, “but we couldn’t have them come to an old wolf cage. Over the last five to six years the Boreal Discovery Centre and Spirit Way have raised $250,000 to build an outside 1.25 acre space – a wolf habitat – but there would be no wolves there until construction is finished. Very soon there’ll be a fundraiser campaign to raise the $2 million necessary to put this facility into place.”
Beckmann spearheaded the airport event, which was attended by city officials, sponsors and media.
“This started this because of the wolf mural, which began a whole series of initiatives in Thompson,” he said. “When we became aware that the City of Wolverhampton was doing wolf statues in 2014, we contacted them and connected to say that we’ve already done this in Thompson, can we offer you some help and advice? They were very receptive and invited us to bring artist Jasyn Lucas in 2017 to paint two of their statues.”
Beckmann said Wolverhampton’s wolf statues became popular with tourists, “They had over 100,000 visitors over four months.”
“We also offered, when we were there, a 12-day, all-expenses paid trip to Northern Manitoba to the polar bear capital,” he said. “And a couple came here in 2018.”
The City of Wolverhampton so appreciated the visit from Thompson delegates that they donated the wolf statue to the airport.
“It’ll be at the airport for a period of time and it’s intended to be at the new airport when that happens in a couple of years, as an international gift from their community to ours,” Beckmann said.
