Debora Heron is winning the Arctic Winter Games’ unofficial sport

Debora Heron is by no means the only Arctic Winter Games attendee fixated on pins. But she may be among the quickest to act.

When Cabin Radio bumped into her on Monday, the Dene Games coach from Fort Smith had already acquired full sets of virtually every team’s pins.

That’s eight teams, some of whom produce half a dozen different pin designs or more, plus a variety of one-off pins ranging from individual sports to third parties like Cabin Radio (which has a hand games pin at this year’s Games).

In less than 48 hours, Heron had tracked down almost all of them. She just had a Sapmi pin and a couple of Yukon pins outstanding, she said.

“I’m a hustler,” she joked, laughing as she unfurled a piece of fabric that is home to her collection.

We asked her how she built this year’s collection so quickly – and donated a “W” and a “G” to help her complete a set that spells out the Arctic Winter Games’ initials.

This interview was recorded on March 9, 2026. The transcript has been lightly edited for clarity.

Ollie Williams: How did you do this so quickly?

Debora Heron: I’m a hustler. No, I’m joking. I have sets from last year and sets from this year that I was able to trade, and I try to get it all done within the first couple of days before our games actually start, so that I’m more focused with coaching my team. And then when we’re on breaks, I’m just looking for pins.

One immediately catches my eye. It has Fort Chipewyan written at the bottom and it’s a 3D pin. It’s also huge, about three inches tall.

This is Team Alberta North Dene Games.

They make their own sets, which makes it kind-of exclusive in my eyes. I think it’s the second-best pin to get. The first would be Nunavut, because they have really cool pins.

Nunavut always does clever sets of multiple pins.

This year’s set is representing the pole push, one of the Dene Games.

It’s a really nice set – and it’s hard to get sets for sets because after Monday, they start to realize, “Hey, maybe I should just trade one pin at a time.” So that’s another way I try to get my pins.

Debora, are you trying to suggest you prey on the naive and the novices before they get their wits about them a couple days in?

Ah. Yes and no. Because with new athletes, I don’t want to do that, because they’re new to it. Yes, they would easily trade. I do trade sets for sets, though.

So you’ve collected at previous games. How long have you done this?

A couple of years now. I have pins from the last games and I had extras that I was able to use for trading. Some of the good pins, the rare pins, I had extras of. Like Nunavut, I had two sets and I was able to trade for the Greenland pin set.

So you strategize what pin sets everybody wants, and you try to get a couple of those so you can trade off.

Sapmi is also really hard to get, and I am missing one.

You’re missing one of the Sapmi pins. I know you’re missing a couple of Yukon ones. Is that it?

I think there’s a couple of individual sports possibly. I have the badminton, but I know there’s a few hockey ones I don’t have as well.

The advantage is you’ve still got three quarters of the Arctic Winter Games left to complete the tiny little gaps here. Thank you for chatting to me about this. Good luck completing your set.

No problem. Thank you for helping me out with one of my sets.