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Heart of Gold The
Calgary Herald Naomi Lakritz Oil company exec Mary Tidlund traded her derricks for doctor's supplies, headed off for the Third World and discovered she's never been happier. Once upon a time, nothing thrilled Tidlund more than standing on the floor of a service rig belonging to her own oil company, watching it drill into the Saskatchewan earth and come up with tests showing 80 per cent cuts of oil. Nothing, that is, until she discovered the greater thrill of helping people in some of the world's poorest countries get the medical care they need. The 44-year-old Tidlund, who was honoured for her humanitarian efforts Saturday at the Black Achievement Awards gala in Edmonton, figures she may have been headed that way all along. "In high school, under my photo, it said that I wanted to be a brain surgeon. The medical field has always interested me," she says. Tidlund grew up in an extraordinary Calgary family that was like a mini-United Nations. "I come from a family that had unconditional love. My parents looked after 40 or 50 foster kids over the years," she says. Tidlund, who was adopted, says that besides all the foster children who came from a variety of backgrounds, her siblings include a brother who is one-quarter black, another who's Greek and a sister who's German. "My (adoptive) dad is Swedish and my mom is Scottish and English. We're a United Nations family. In our family, you didn't see any differences between the races." Being brought up with foster children instilled in Tidlund a desire to help others. But her childhood experiences also taught her something else. "I learned that we're all the same. We all need the same basic things-to sleep, to eat, to be loved. The culture is just put on top of that," she says. Tidlund graduated from Viscount Bennett, then earned a bachelor of science degree in geography from the University of Calgary in 1980. "When I got into university, I took a real interest in hydrology and microclimatology," she says. Her first job was as a landman with Pan-Canadian Petroleum, helping to negotiate drilling leases for the Calgary company. Five years later, she opened a consulting practice and it wasn't long before Tidlund was the president and chief operating office of her own successful oil company, Trophy Resources, which was eventually renamed Williston Wildcatters Oil Corp. The company did horizontal drilling in southeast Saskatchewan and traded on the Toronto Stock Exchange, with Tidlund and her three partners holding 30 per cent of the 19.3 million outstanding shares. Headquarters was in Arcola, Sask., 100 kilometres southeast of Regina, so that the company could be near its rigs. "We could save a lot of operating costs by being hearer where we were conducting 90 percent of our activity," she said at the time. The company bought its own rigs and truck fleet, to save even more money. Meanwhile, Tidlund and her partners didn't neglect the finer side of life. They bought Arcola's courthouse, bank and opera house. Tidlund took over the courthouse-except for the basement jail cells-while her geologists moved into the bank. The opera house was converted into a restaurant and bar which Tidlund jokingly described as a "southeast Saskatchewan Petroleum Club". The Arcola enterprise started from scratch and took a decade to grow. But by late 1993, the company was producing 1,150 barrels of oil a day and Tidlund was predicting earnings of three cents per share for the next year. "We started the business with nothing. You start small and you take on small working interests in wells. The process took 10 years to grow. I had 250 employees. I loved drilling a well." She says. At the same time, she sharpened her business acumen by running other businesses in Arcola, including an art gallery and a western clothing store. Unfortunately, the oil industry's infamous instability caught up with her and in 1995, Tidlund's company got into financial trouble. "Part of it was timing. Part of it was the oil prices. We were an oil and gas exploration company and had a lot of equipment sitting idle. We wound the company down," she says. It was very hard to see her "baby" go under, so Tidlund took a rest. She left Saskatchewan and traveled. "I trekked through Norway, Bhutan, the Andes, the Himalayas. My healing process involved traveling," she said. On her travels, she noticed that all the countries she visited except Norway had heavy-duty humanitarian needs. "Norway has a very high standard of living. They look after themselves quite well. You don't see a lot of street people in the capital or in other cities." For a long time, she'd wanted to find some way to help others, following her parents' example. When she returned to Calgary, she set about making her idea a reality. In October, 1998, the idea blossomed into the Mary A. Tidlund Foundation. "Stopping the oil business let me focus on how I can give back. (Drilling for oil) doesn't have the excitement when you've put a medical project together and people are being treated and they are thankful for it," she says. That didn't surprise Arlene Blair, Tidlund's friend from university days and a contributor to the foundation. "Mary's a high energy girl. She wasn't going to let (her company's failure) keep her down. She's always full of life." The foundation's mission is simple and its work is carried out via a combination of the barest of bare-bones budget and the generosity of donors and volunteers. In rural and northern India, the foundation runs Operation Eyesight, a program that funds cataract operations and uses Indian ophthalmologists to do the surgery. Next month, Tidlund leaves for Peru and Ecuador where she and Kitchener emergency room doctor Violet Shadd will set up medical and dental clinics. "The foundation's
goal is to provide medical and educational programs everywhere,"
says Tidlund, who plans to approach government, service clubs and private
foundations for help financing her projects. "Some people there have never seen a dentist or a doctor. Some people die of gum disease." Her interest in alternative medicine helps her respect and appreciate the local medical lore in the places she visits, but she believes there's room for western medicine. "I'd love to do projects in Africa. And there might be something in Cuba. We want to establish something in these countries that lasts and is not just a Band-Aid. We want to train people there." When she and her team go abroad they live as simply as they can. "We sleep in huts with no floors. We eat local food. It's very rewarding," she says. Tidlund's thinking is international but she hasn't forgotten the maxim that charity begins at home. Four times a year, she and a group of volunteers collect food, cook dinner and dish it up at the Mustard Seed. It doesn't sound as if this busy woman could have a moment of leisure, but she finds time to ski, hike and heli-ski. "I'm also a pilot. And I paint, write, read, cook and dance jazz for exercise." Mary Tidlund has achieved
enough for two lifetimes, but people marvel how she goes about it all
in a low-keyed way. |