Coach of all-female mine rescue team wants to empower women
October 26, 2022, 4:47 pm
Sierra D'Souza Butts, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
Co-founder and managing director of Diamonds in the Rough, Kari Lentowicz, said the reason behind creating the all-female mine rescue team was to encourage and showcase the talent women in the field have.
“I’m hoping young women can see that they can do jobs like these too,” Lentowicz said.
“In order to visualize yourself in a position, you need mentorship and you need to see people who look like you in that role.
“We just want to go and show people on a world stage that we were competent at doing it. That it wasn’t just a job for big burly men because the mining industry is no longer an industry of 350 pound men slamming a pickaxe, there’s a lot of smaller stature men now who can do it too, so why can’t we?”
Lentowicz has been working in the mining industry for about 20 years. She said it was not until 2016 that she saw a female captain attend one of the International Mines Rescue competitions.
“When I started up at one of the mine sites in a permanent position, I joined mine rescue right away which was in 2006,” said Lentowicz.
“I love helping people and one of the benefits to me was knowing that if something happened, I could help and be trained to do so. Also knowing that the people I was training with were competent and would have my back was another reason.
“In 2007, my coach, myself, and my provincial mine rescue co-ordinator spoke about how wonderful it would be to have an all-female team.
“We had enough people at the site that I worked at, but it just never worked out. It was something we talked about over the years. Then in 2016, we saw the first female captain at the International Mines Rescue Competition in Sudbury, Ontario.
“Now that they’re willing to put women in that leadership role, (we thought) maybe there is something that we can do.
“Over the course of the next couple years, we figured if we could get some interest, then we could form a team and we did. We found a whole bunch of women who were willing to take a chance and join the team we formed, Diamonds in the Rough.”
The first competition Diamonds in the Rough attended was in Russia.
“We got together in August and trained for four days, then headed off to Russia a month later and kicked some butt,” Lentowicz said.
“It’s been very rewarding. I just love it so much. You learn something every time you help out, you love to learn more because it makes you a better responder. It became a life passion of mine, so much so that I decided to pursue a masters degree in Disaster and Emergency Management which I finished in 2017 and absolutely loved.”
She was asked where she sees the team going in the future.
“We’re going to be number one eventually,” she smiled.
“Winning hardware is nice when you go to these competitions, but it’s not the goal. If we finish middle in the pack then I’m perfectly happy because that shows we’re competitive.
“We can’t do this without the men either, we need allies, we need that support. It’s still very much a man’s world.
“As long as we have that camaraderie, that trust, that respect, and bring the knowledge that shows we can do it. We’re not trying to say we’re better than anyone, we just want to show that we are equally as important and contributing members to the team.”
More women in the field of mining
Although she has noticed an increase of women who have joined the mining industry, Lentowicz said there is still a long way to go.
“I have seen more women, even at the competition level more women have joined,” Lentowicz said.
“In Russia in 2018, there was only us (Diamonds in the Rough) and two other women at the whole competition. This year, there was probably 15 teams that had women on them. It was really good to see. This year was probably double the amount of women, still only 10 or 12 women, but better than it was before.”
Lentowicz was asked what it is like working in a field with predominantly men for more than 20 years.
“It can be intimidating for a lot of people, it wasn’t for me because I had a really good coach,” she said.
“He didn’t care if you had an inny or an outty, as long as you had the passion to do it and you were willing to develop your skills so you could become competent at it, he welcomed you with open arms.
“He has been fantastic, that’s Bruce Coley he’s the co-founder of the organization. There’s myself, him and Randy De Cecco.”
What is in the future for Diamonds in the Rough?
Lentowicz said the board chooses different members for the Diamonds in the Rough team every year to encourage as many women as possible to be part of the experience.
“We don’t want to take the same women every year. We set the guidelines that we’ll have women come on for two years maximum because we want to build more women up,” she said.
“We want to be able to engage more women. This year, we’re starting an ambassador program. That way we can keep some of the best competitors and trainees from previous years involved.
“In such a short time, it becomes a very tight-knit group. You make friends for life, even if it’s in such a short time. These ladies from this year they met on Sept. 5, trained together for four days and seven days later, they ran through three-days of competition and they’re joined at hip now. They never met each other before, they’re from all different mine sites across Canada and different mining companies.”
Lentowicz said having a diverse group helps strengthen the team.
“It’s proven that diverse workplaces, diverse environments increase safety, and that’s very important to the team because you have different thought processes.”
Lentowicz was asked how the board determines which women are qualified for the team.
“We picked women that applied and were engaged, ones that really showed they had a passion for it,” she said.
“Women who really wanted to do something a little different and who were passionate about increasing diversity, and inclusion in the workplace.
“We found a lot of really engaged, strong women who didn’t have to be that experienced. We accepted anyone who was passionate about it.
“This year, for example, out of the eight women, four of them had less than three years of experience in mine rescue. Two had four years of experience and our captain, Heather Willis, had 16 years, but she was actually the first female captain that we had ever seen in Internationals in 2016.
“She did kick it off for me when seeing her at that competition. We never officially met until 2019 and I think she knows how much she’s influenced me, but she’s a strong, tenacious woman. She’s just amazing and I was so happy she was able to lead our team to a sixth place finish, she did such a good job.”
Two of the women chosen for this year’s team came from southeast Saskatchewan. Justine Fuchs, from Mosaic Esterhazy Mine Rescue, and Kirstin Hanson of the Nutrien Rocanville Mine Rescue.
The team attended the International Mine Rescue Competition this year in September, where they placed second in Rope Rescue, third place in Theory and Tech, fourth in Firefighting, and sixth overall out of 22 teams from around the world.
Lentowicz was asked how proud she was for the team placing sixth overall.
“I cried,” she laughed. “I cried every day of the competition just because of proud they were.
“It feels awesome, it’s so nice to be able to help support these women and to help them achieve some of their goals as well. With the organization it’s been really good with building their confidence, their leadership ability, their skill level, and all of that transfers to every part of their life and in their career.”
One of the main reasons Lentowicz advocated for an all-female mine rescue team was to encourage women’s confidence in themselves.
“It’s great to help build women and support them because we come from a society where we’re taught to be competitors,” she said.
“In the business world, often women see only a few places at the top that they can fill because it’s mostly men. But, we want them to realize that every one of those seats, at the top of every company, can be filled by women.
“Unfortunately that’s not the way society has influenced us to think that way, but we’re going to change that.
“One of the main things I want people to understand is I wouldn’t be doing what I’m doing if it wasn’t for Bruce Coley and Randy De Cecco.
“They’re men, they’re a bit older than me, but they have been fantastic supports and fantastic allies. They’ve been nothing, but champions for what we’re doing. We need more men like that who are mentors.”
Lentowicz said the goal for Diamonds in the Rough by 2026 is to have an all-Indigenous team from Canada.
“Female Indigenous women in Canada are the most underrepresented in the mining industry. It would be great to show young Indigenous women from across Canada that they can do this as well,” she said.
“Right now I’m the first Indigenous competitor on this team and we had one lady who’s Metis on the team this year. We’re hoping to find a couple more. I say women, but we really want to get those diverse groups, we’re trying to encourage people who are non-binary as well, because they’re underrepresented too.” Tweet
