LIFE CHALLENGE  

Published: Thursday, August 6, 2009 7:11 PM EDT

Former News Advocate reporter ready to embark to Antarctica

By KEN GRABOWSKI
Associate Editor

MANISTEE — Some people go through life fearing to do anything out of the ordinary, while others push the “excitement” envelope to the maximum, as they are always looking for a new challenge to test their abilities to the fullest capacity.

Former Manistee News Advocate reporter Allison Batdorff is someone who falls into the latter category, as she is always looking for new and exciting challenges in her life. The 33-year-old journalist has taken on a wide variety of jobs, and experiences in her young life that have virtually taken her around the world.

However, after virtually circling the world from a lateral direction, she now appears to be taking on the challenge of tackling it from a perpendicular perspective. The reason for that is later this month, Batdorff is about to embark to McMurdo Station in Antarctica where she will remain for the next 6 to 12 months working as part of the support staff at that scientific center.

Batdorff won numerous writing awards during the time she was a reporter for the Manistee News Advocate from 2000 to 2004. During her time at the News Advocate, she took on many unique challenges that resulted in award winning stories. Some of the things she tackled were paddling the length of the Big Manistee River in a canoe, walking and camping in a small tent along the North Country Trail in the middle of winter, and going for a ride with Coast Guard Station Manistee in their 47-foot boat during extremely hazardous weather conditions.

After leaving the News Advocate, Batdorff worked for two and a half years in Cody Wyoming in a bureau position for the Billings Gazette. From there, she spent three years in Japan working for the Stars and Stripes newspaper, and then moved on to Sicily for four months. She has been back in the United States for the past four months working in the Detroit area before this opportunity came up.

Batdorff isn’t going into the position at McMurdo Station as a journalist, but the opportunity was just too much for her to pass up. In fact, she laughs at what she will be doing in Antarctica, but said it is an opportunity she would have done anything to experience in the land down under.

Even though Batdorff will be going for the start of the summer season life, will be quite harsher than what she has ever experienced in the past. Summer in Antarctica is unlike anywhere else in world.

“It’s not like I am going on vacation,” Batdorff laughed. “Even though it is going to be their summer when I am there, they say the temperature can run anywhere from 50 degrees below zero, to 46 degrees above.