A collection of Arctic Winter Games pins spanning more than 50 years will go on display in Yellowknife after returning from a surprise detour to Memphis.
Yellowknife resident Janet Pacey lost the pins – eight boxes and cases of them, weighing 200 lb – after Anchorage airport’s ground crew failed to unload them from a Canadian North charter flight to last month’s 2024 edition of the Arctic Winter Games, hosted by Alaska.
Though they never saw the light of day in Anchorage, the pins did at least spend some time in the United States.
Pacey ultimately discovered they had ended up at a FedEx facility in Memphis, Tennessee.
After northern news outlets reported on the pins’ unexpected journey to a storage depot 5,000 km away, Pacey says the wheels began to turn – and the pins’ return, which had seemed to be taking an age, was expedited.
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She credits Canadian North with helping to get the pins back, saying the airline had nothing to do with the original error but went above and beyond once it found out about the mishap.
“The team at Canadian North worked their butts off and got the pins out of jail,” said Pacey this week.
Pacey has now spent decades collecting pins from the Arctic Winter Games, a circumpolar youth sports event that happens every two years.
She already had plans to create a book about them and turn them into an exhibition at future editions of the games, but now she’s taking advantage of their recent high profile to host a display at Yellowknife’s newest museum.
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The Yellowknife Historical Museum only opened last month, in the former Giant Mine rec hall. On April 20, from 11am till 3pm, it’ll offer visitors the chance to see Pacey’s collection.
She says this will make up for her never having had the chance to show off the pins in Alaska last month.
“I’ve had so many people ask, so let’s put it out there,” she said. “I did so much work for it before I left, so why not?”
