Paddlin' for Paws

The Paddlers

Trish McGraw has a master’s degree in counseling psychology and has worked as a registered nurse for over 30 years. She loves her job as a psychiatric nurse at Behavioral Health Carson Tahoe. For the past two years she has completed the Aids/LifeCycle, a 565-mile bicycle trip from San Francisco to Los Angeles. Trish has a dream of riding her bike next summer across the United States. She is in love with the outdoors and enjoys alpine skiing, cross-country skiing, cycling (road and mountain), kayaking, hiking, snorkeling, and bodysurfing. To balance this out she has also developed her skills as a couch potato and is an avid channel surfer, reader, and taker of long baths. She loves traveling to exotic places and has visited Nepal, Bali, Jamica, Kenya, and Tanzania. Photography is also among Trish’s many hobbies. Trish has dabbled in Zen meditation and is committed to a clean and sober life. She's currently single but has a large extended family of friends. Trish grew up in Huntington Beach, CA, where her parents still reside. Her siblings escaped to Hawaii, Berkeley, and Santa Clarita, all places she likes to visit.

Mary Barr Goral began her career in education over 30 years ago. After teaching in the public schools in Bloomington, IN, for 11 years, she received both her master’s and doctoral degrees in curriculum studies and math education from Indiana University. Mary has taught in higher education for 11 years. She is currently an Associate Professor at the Bellarmine University School of Education in Louisville, KY, where she teaches math and science methods courses to elementary education majors and directs the master’s program with an emphasis in Waldorf Education. Mary likes to swim, travel, and spend time with her husband, children, grandchild, and pet cat and dog.

April Barr has worked for Thomas M. Barr & Associates as a paralegal/office administrator for the past 22 years. Prior to that, April worked as a Licensed Practical Nurse for ten years, working at Bloomington Hospital, Porter Memorial Hospital and Broadway Methodist Hospital, and many years as a private duty nurse. She keeps her license current, and someday hopes to return to the nursing field. April was born 54 years ago in Lake County, IN. She and her husband Tom have two children, Andrea and Matt. Daughter Andrea is a Speech Pathologist living in Tampa, Fl. She and her husband Greg have two children. Son Matt is starting Law School at Indiana University this fall. April enjoys outdoor activities: swimming, kayaking, cross-county skiing, gardening, bird watching. She loves to travel, read, cook, do photography, and spend time with her two grandchildren and three dogs. April and her husband live in a log cabin in wonderful Brown County, IN, on five acres that include a lake.

Jennie Todd works as a Research Associate at Center on Aging and Community at Indiana University’s Institute on Disability and Community. There she has the good fortune to have very interesting work, projects, and people with whom she shares her day. After graduating from Indiana University (IU), Jennie spent time traveling in the Western U.S. While in Santa Cruz, CA, she was reintroduced to her husband Chris; they had met six months prior in Bloomington and he still swears she followed him to CA. A year later they moved to Brown County, Indiana, got married, bought some land, began homesteading, and building a home. Over the years Jennie and Chris had two beautiful daughters, Britt and Hannah, as well as horses, ponies, rabbits, dogs, cats, and numerous other pets. Britt is recently married and living in Indianapolis, a graduate of Earlham College, and Hannah is a student at IU, so Jennie gets to see them often. Jennie and Chris currently have one pet: Murphy, a large golden retriever, but he is enough. Travels slowed considerably during the family years as time seemed to be consumed in gyms, fields, and horse parks. Jennie and Chris missed traveling but loved spending time with their daughters. Now an empty nester, Jennie is pursuing some old and new interests. She enjoys time with family and friends, kayaking, gardening, traveling, photography, reading, and playing with Chris and Murphy.