SEDNA FOUNDATION

In 2002, when I bought the Le Massif ski resort and, more than that, when I started thinking about developing the resort and setting up a huge recreational tourist destination of international calibre in Charlevoix, I had to do some thinking about the foundation on which the project would be built.

The basic values of respect for both people and the environment were immediately present in every aspect of my thinking. How to create a project that would make its mark as a tourist destination by offering something new, while at the same time stimulating visitors' social and environmental conscience? When I met with Jean Lemire, I had the beginnings of an answer to this question, and I began to get a glimpse of how we might together contribute to making the world a better place. Our common project to establish a foundation came to life just a few weeks after this first meeting.

Thus, the project was born out of a common desire to sensitize people to the precariousness of our planet's situation and the role that they can play in its conservation. Combining leisure and education, the foundation aims to raise awareness of the natural phenomena all around us and, above all, an understanding of the impact that we humans have on these phenomena. It is a matter of survival.

Daniel Gauthier, Chairman
Le Massif

Great causes are often born in dreams. Ours may seem idealistic, and some may find it hard to believe in. But we're used to this…

When I imagined the grand adventure of Sedna IV, when I was able to convince my partners to join forces in support of something that many thought to be an impossible dream, nay-sayers were legion. And yet, our previous mission to the Arctic exceeded its objectives, and the public's response was quite simply extraordinary. More than 100 million people from around the world followed along with our adventures and joined us in pondering the effects of climate change now taking place on our planet.

Now, some five years after we acquired our sailing vessel, we are sailing to the Last Continent—Antarctica—engaged in an expedition of the extreme, as motivated as ever to carry out this mission to educate and raise awareness of the beauty and  fragility of our planet's ecosystems.

When a group of street performers from the Baie-Saint-Paul region of Quebec got it into their heads to create the Cirque du Soleil and to venture out in conquest of the world, scepticism was also rampant. And yet, this troupe of Quebeckers soon dominated the world artistic stage. Among these other dreamers, there is Daniel Gauthier, a man whom I have come to know and appreciate. A committed humanist of rare and precious values, this is one man who is not afraid to dream. In him, I found the motivation and the additional boost of energy that I needed to go even further. Together, we decided to take you along as we embarked on a new dream.

Our dream to establish a foundation grew out of a common desire to sensitize people to the precariousness of our planet and the role they can play in its conservation. Under the auspices of pleasure, adventure, creativity and scientific research, we invite you to come along on a grand voyage to the four corners of the planet. During the adventure, we hope to teach people to dream, to stir people's souls and inspire them to undertake the sort of reflection that inevitably leads to action. Through our action, it is our firm intent to reach young people, for it is in them that we place our most fervent hopes for the future. It will be up to us to transmit this will to dream, so that they may roll up their sleeves, take control of the future and change the world by renewing the values of respect and sustainable development on which our survival depends.

Aspiring to a better world will always remain an ambitious dream. But we stand ready to take up this challenge, with your participation, so that the simple beauty of the world may triumph and that it may inspire those who are not afraid to dream.

Jean Lemire, Chairman
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