"Explorers Are We Inc.", the company,
was launched in March of 2003, but actually began the winter of 1996.
That's when two explorers, who found each other while working at Walt Disney
World in Orlando, Florida, decided to follow a dream. They left the
mountains of Lake Louise, Alberta and embarked on a trek throughout
Australia.
With next to no money the pair worked
and traveled across Australia, from the Outback to the Islands and back with
stops in Malaysia and Japan. On the way they learned about love, about
life and oddly, about their own country.
After their long absence, upon
returning, the founders of "Explorers Are We Inc." set out to see what Canada
had to offer. As they drove from Hanna, Alberta to Burlington,
Ontario they discovered something that few had before; there's no place like
home.
It was then that "Jasper" was born and his story began to
unfold.
"Jasper's Great Canadian Adventure"
was created to introduce kids to the beauty of Canada and to remind grown-ups
who may have forgotten. It's a series of travel books for anybody
who's ever wondered what lies beyond their own backyard. It's this dream
that we hope to share with our readers and we think we've accomplished just
that.
Doug Chapman
was born in
Burlington,
Ontario
in 1969.
The youngest of four children, Doug was a camping trip accident.
He survived being picked on by his three older sisters, grew up a little bit
(.but not too much) and graduated from the Advertising program at
SheridanCollege
in
Oakville.
A die-hard Oakland Raiders fan
and non-conformist at heart, Doug struggled to find his way.
When asked by his father, "What
do you want to do with your life?" Doug replied, "I want to rock!"
While working at the Canadian
Pavilion at EPCOT, Walt Disney World in
Orlando,
Florida,
Doug met Shannon Scott and began to put it all together.
The pair then set out to explore
Canada, the
U.S., and the world before returning to Disney World to get
married.
Along with their babies Marley
and Rory, they currently call
Calgary
home.
In
addition to bleeding Silver and Black, Doug loves tunes and cartoons and wishes
he could play guitar.
He's done cool stuff such as sky diving, scuba diving, and swimming with
dolphins.
Doug
has most recently worked for the
Calgary
Stampeders and the
Calgary
Flames. Now 'retired', Doug works in the "best office in the world".
He lives by the Neil Young lyric, "It's better to burn out than to fade away."
Shannon Chapman (Scott) was born in Hanna, Alberta in 1972, an only child with a big imagination.She grew up on their farm and cattle ranch where she explored the hills and abandoned old buildings of the pioneer days.Shannon was introduced to storytelling by her grandmother in a take-turn fashion they would invent characters and their adventures.Daughter of the school librarian, it was no wonder Shannon always had her nose in a book.When she grew up Shannon wanted to travel and see the places she had read about and a career in tourism seemed to be just the ticket.She headed to Calgary and graduated from the Bachelor of Commerce program in Tourism and Marketing.Shannon's studies led her to Japan, the eastern Caribbean and finally to Orlando, Florida working for Walt Disney World in the Canadian Pavilion at EPCOT. There she fell for a "bad boy" (who wasn't all that bad) and found they shared the same sense of fun and adventure. Shannon's two passions are traveling and shopping for clothing, which are not too compatible and have earned her a reputation as the world's worst at packing.Shannon is the reason Doug did any cool stuff like jump from a plane or dive in the ocean.She loves the beach, she loves her babies, she loves clothes, she loves to buy her babies clothes and she hopes to be a cool mom.Shannon worked for The Westin Calgary and is now back at Shell Canada after the arrival of baby Rory.
