The Volunteer Educators at the Windmill Cultural Center in Fulton invite the public to attend the first program of Wild Winter Wednesday’s 2025-2026 season.

Dana Starkell will play his guitar and regale the audience with stories on Wednesday, Dec. 3, about his epic canoe journey from Winnipeg to Brazil. He grew up in Winnipeg, Canada, a city known for warm summers and long cold winters. From an early age, his life was filled with adventures. Summer holidays included canoe trips, hiking, sand dune treks, rock climbing and lake swimming.

A year after completing high school, Starkell undertook the 2-year canoe trip his father had been planning since Dana was 9 years old. Altogether, they paddled through 13 countries from Winnipeg to Belem, Brazil. The true story about their adventures became an international best-selling book, “Paddle to the Amazon”, and won them a Guiness World Record for longest canoe paddle.

Dana now lives in the Quad-Cities with his wife, Stacey, and son, David.

Doors open at 8:30 a.m. for coffee, hot cider and Mill treats. The program begins about 9:20. The building is disability accessible and the program is free and open to the public.

The Windmill Cultural Center is located at 111 10th Ave., Fulton.