On August 8, around 50 people gathered at Timberland Tours dog-sledding facility in Bristol to commemorate a local resident for his significant volunteering contributions over the course of the last decade.
A few months ago, owner and operator of Timberland Tours, Denis Rozon, received the highly coveted Dollard-Morin Sports and Recreation Volunteer Award in the category of Impact Creator at a special ceremony at the National Assembly in Quebec City.
On Thursday evening, Rozon celebrated his accomplishment at his facility with family, friends and representatives of various community organizations for winning the prestigious piece of silverware.
Issued by the Quebec government, the award is given to one deserving volunteer per region every year since 1992 and stands as the highest distinction for volunteers in sports and recreation at the regional level.
Rozon won the award because of his service as a volunteer, bringing hundreds of people from all over the world to Bristol every year for the world-famous Bristol Dryland Canadian Championship Dog Race, according to Loisir Sport Outaouais’ President Jean-Yves Lord.
Lord explained that Rozon’s contributions, notably with the annual Bristol Dryland race, have had a positive impact on economic and tourism development in the Pontiac.
He brought up Rozon’s unrelenting love for the sport of dogsledding as the main driver for the growth of the event year after year.
“He went forward with purpose from year to year and kept growing his vision,” he said. “He kept evolving. The races got bigger and bigger.”
Organized by Loisir Sport Outaouais, the ceremony served as an opportunity for Rozon to share his accomplishment with the very people who helped him win the award, Lord said.
A number of Pontiac community leaders attended, including MRC Pontiac Warden Jane Toller, Bristol Mayor Brent Orr and Shawville Mayor Sandra Murray.
During the ceremony, several people issued speeches congratulating Rozon for his momentous achievement.
Lord praised Rozon’s determined efforts to organize events whenever the opportunity presents itself.
MRC Pontiac Warden Jane Toller thanked Rozon for putting the region on the map and Bristol Dryland’s longstanding race marshal Jim Cunningham emphasized the significance of Rozon’s impact to the sport by hosting hundreds of racers every year to one of the most highly regarded facilities on earth.
“I don’t know anyone who’s done more for dog racing than Denis,” Cunningham said. “He’s a true champion and a true friend. Thank you.”
Rozon capped off the ceremony with a humourous acceptance speech, where he explained his decision to settle in Bristol and what inspired him to create the Bristol Dryland. He also thanked some of his volunteers, his former racing coach André Parent and the Loisir Sport Outaouais representatives for making the celebration possible.
Ending his speech in exuberant fashion, Rozon announced that four teams from Alaska will be competing in this year’s Bristol Dryland race.
“When we were kids racing dogs, we wanted to go to Alaska,” he said. “That’s where we wanted to be. Now Alaska wants to come to us.”
After the ceremony, folks divided into groups and hopped onto side by sides to hit the trail for a tour of the grounds. The tour was stalled briefly as a line-up of people were waiting to take photos with the man of the hour.
Although he won the award, Rozon knows that he couldn’t have done it by himself.
From the generous government grants and local businesses sponsoring the Bristol Dryland to the countless volunteers lending a hand to make it happen every year, the relentless support from the community motivates him to keep going.
“When you have so many people behind you, you’re not going to stop,” he said. “You just want to move forward and you feel happy about it.”
Rozon met Cunningham at a snowy sled-dog race in Haliburton Ont. back in the 1990s.
The two competed across from one another for 18 years, until Cunningham called it a career and became a race marshal.
Over the years, they continued to cross paths at races around Canada. They remained in touch, which ultimately paid off when Rozon needed a marshal for the Bristol Dryland race back in 2010.
A very stern, by-the-book type of race marshal with loads of experience in the sport as both a racer and an official, Cunningham was the perfect fit to run the Bristol Dryland race, Rozon said.
Having served as race marshal for both the Bristol Dryland and the Pontiac International Sled Dog and Skijoring Race for the last 10 years, Cunningham has enjoyed every moment of it so far.
He believes that what makes Bristol Dryland such a highly acclaimed event is Rozon’s way of fostering an enjoyable work atmosphere for volunteers.
“Denis is great at getting people to do their job,” he said. “Obviously everybody likes their job at Denis’ place because everybody comes back every year. I come back every year to help out with the dryland and also the snow races in January. He treats us so well and respects us and lets us do our jobs.”
From his passion on the race track to his dedication organizing such large events year after year, Rozon’s love for the sport hasn’t waned one bit in the nearly 30 years they’ve known each other, Cunningham said.
“He really was very spirited about dog-sledding,” he said. “Honestly, he still is. Thirty years later, he’s still dedicating his life to the sport of dog-sledding by creating the facility that he has in Bristol.”
Timberland Tours is one of the most unique trails in the world, Cunningham explained. Open year-round for people to train their dogs, with all the necessary accommodations to host anything from training sessions to big races with hundreds of participants, it offers everything racers could ask for.
“He has everything on site so that people can come and train and on the race weekends everything that a race marshal would need, Denis has on site,” Cunningham said.
While the sport isn’t completely foreign to the region, no one has made an impact that measures up with Rozon’s imprint on the sport.
“In the Pontiac region, Denis is the sport of dog-sledding,” he said. “There are other people in the region that have sled-dogs, run sled-dogs, they compete in sled-dog races that I know. But Denis’ location and what he has established there and his recognition around the world has brought a lot of recognition to the Pontiac area.”
“Bristol is recognized in Quebec,” he added. “Bristol is known in Canada. And Bristol is known around the world as one of the top dryland racing facilities available to mushers.”
Organizing and operating a year-round dog sledding facility and organizing an event as big as the Bristol Dryland certainly requires a significant amount of hard work and dedication.
But thanks to all the help he’s received from countless people over the years and a strong love for the sport, it’s never really felt like labour to him.
“For me it’s not hard because it’s a passion for my sport,” Rozon said. “When you have so many people that are supporting you like volunteers and sponsors and family it helps a lot. You don’t feel tired about it. You just feel proud.”
In 2000, Rozon settled in Bristol with his 26 dogs, a decision that he looks back on as the best of his life. After a long tenure in the military and travelling to different locations on a continuous basis, he’s happy to have found a place that he can call home.
“Because of the land that I have here, for me it’s the best place I’ve ever lived. I like my place of course but I also like the people around here. I feel like I’m part of the family.”
In 2010 while racing at Timberland Tours, Rozon noticed that his newly revamped trail was in particularly splendid shape for dryland racing. A unique trail with sandy terrain surrounded by a dense red pine forest, Rozon felt like his facility was the perfect setting for a big-time event. That’s what prompted him to create the first ever Bristol Dryland.
While he doesn’t directly profit from the two races he hosts each year, they do provide a significant amount of exposure for his business, Rozon said.
“By doing the two races, it gives me big visibility,” he said. “I don’t make money from the race, but it brings visibility. That’s marketing and it makes me more popular and more people come to do the sled-dog tours.”
The inaugural event in 2010 drew almost 60 teams from different parts of the continent and its popularity has exploded ever since, Rozon said.
“The first year we had 55 teams,” he said. “45 Americans, about 10 Canadians that came to the race. Although, all racers that I knew. I called them and they said, ‘yeah, we’ll be there’ and they came and then the year after a little more and a little more and now we expect around 400 teams this year.”
In 2015, Rozon reached the pinnacle of the sport as his facility played host to the International Federation of Sled-Dog Sports’ Dryland Sled-Dog Racing World Championship.
The event drew almost 480 teams from 23 countries and still stands as one of the most notable world championships in recent memory, Cunningham said.
“That was one of the biggest dryland championships the International Federation [of Sled-Dog Sports] has ever had,” he said. “Just being there and watching the competition and meeting everybody is what brings you back to Bristol every year.”
This October, the 10th annual Bristol Dryland expects to host around 400 teams from across the globe, including four from the mecca of mushing: Alaska.
Although, he still hasn’t set foot in his dream destination, knowing that Alaskan racers will be making the trip to the Pontiac makes Rozon even more proud of everything he’s accomplished with the sport he loves.
“I’ve never been to Alaska, but it was a dream for me to go there,” he said. “Some of my friends went. Every Canadian, the dream was to go. Now, when you think about that, Alaska is coming here.”
by JD Potié
