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By Lyndenn BehmThe Brandon SunAfter a harrowing brush with death, a new concept in survival was bornreached the highway, but it was a long time before any of the passing motorists gave him a ride.“People normally don’t stop in the night for somebody standing on the side of a highway carrying a rifle,” Amstrong explains.“1 was soaked and I was frozen. I could not feel my legs from the knees down.” Armstrong says he wouldn’t have panicked if the Iceworm existed back then. He simply could have wrapped himself in and spent the night in the bush, and walked out safely the next day.“That experience convinced me there had to be a good, all-purpose hunting garment that could save a person.”Phyllis and Dick Armstrong also have a friend in the Armed Forces and they discussed the crash of a military plane in the Northwest Territories several years ago. Everyone who survived had fingers or limbs amputated because of severe frost damage. This showed there would be other uses for a survival garment.Dick’s background in hunting and outdoors activities was valuable and his wife had done some sewing. They developed the design for the Iceworm about three years ago and have been refining it since.They admit that they borrowed the name Iceworm from Robert Service because they thought it was name that would stick in people’s minds.The Iceworm can be worn as a parka,or theVIRDEN — For many people around the world, the iceworm is the main ingredient of a strange concoction featured in The Ballad of The Iceworm Cocktail, by Canada’s “Poet of the Yukon” Robert Service.But for Dick and Phyllis Armstrong, the Iceworm could be a life saver.The Iceworm is a parka with an attachment to cover the feet of people who are hunting, stranded in the wilderness, or spending a cold winter evening in a stalled motor vehicle.The United States army is now testing the garment and the largest outdoor and hunting gear catalogue in the world has recently agreed to carry the Iceworm in two of its editions this summer.The idea for the Iceworm can be traced back to Dick Armstrong’s brush with death during a blizzard a half-dozen years ago. Armstrong had walked about a mile into the bush one morning when hunting moose near Swan River.“A snowstorm blew in and I was hunting alone. I got turned around I ended up 11 miles away from my truck and in the wrong direction.”Armstrong panicked because he knew he couldn’t survive the night outdoors. Rushing to find a way out of the bush, he fell through ice and wound up soaked. He was freezing when he finallyLYNDENN BEHM Sun StallALL BUNDLED UP — Phyllis Armstrong looks comfortable in her Iceworm winter survival gear. Several hundred garments have been sold, but demand is expected to surge.attachment can be zipped on to cover a person’s feet when sitting stationary. The hood zips closed, except for a snorkel-like opening that extends far away from the face. The attachments can also be stored on the jacket.The Armstrongs established Fairbairn Industries Iceworms were made in sewers’ homes until this spring when the business moved into a facility downtown. Ten people are currently being trained to sewSo far several hundred Iceworms have been sold, but demand is expected to surge after the parka is sold in Cabela's, which will send out 38 million copies of its two catalogues this summer. Prices vary, depending on design, but generally the Iceworm sells for $350 Cdn., said Dick, who is also the mayor of this town of 2,900.The U.S. army is testing four types of Iceworms for potential use And the search and rescue division of the Canadian Armed Forces isalso testing the garments, Phyllis said.In addition to the Iceworm, Fairbairn Industries has also obtained the contract for the Janzen easy-access hospital gown, a garment developed by a Virden woman, Bertha Penner. It had been manufactured in Ontario the last six years. Demand for the Iceworm is seasonal and the hospital garment will provide more consistent year-round work for the company, he said.
Newspaper Details
Brandon Brandon Sun
Brandon, Manitoba, CA
Wed, Jun 12, 1996
Page 2
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CA 29 Nov 2022
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