4 Wing Military Fitness Coordinator and Yoga teacher Tovah Fenske (left) and her husband, MCpl Chris Fenske – Supplied Photo
A familiar face with 4 Wing Personnel Support Programs (PSP) is transitioning from work to retirement uniquely.
Tovah Fenske is the Military Fitness Coordinator and Yoga teacher at 4 Wing. On October 28th, Fenske and her husband, MCpl Chris Fenske, will start saying goodbye to life at 4 Wing and eventually move to San Juan Del Sur, Nicaragua. Fenske has been at 4 Wing since 2003 and is originally from Stirling, Ontario. She says her first job supporting the military was immediately after she finished college.
Fenske strikes a Yoga pose – Supplied Photo
“It’s ironic, I lived about 15 minutes from CFB Trenton. I knew nothing about it and didn’t know anyone who lived or worked there. In college, a few people I knew were doing a work placement at the base and one of my teachers came to visit me and said ‘I know some people working [at CFB Trenton] and I think it’s a job you’d really like. They’ll be hiring after we graduate.’ It was history after that.”
It was at CFB Borden that Fenske met who she calls “the love of my life”, her husband Chris.
“We met through some friends. He was in CFB Borden on training and, originally, he was there as an Army Reservist. We met and it was love at first sight.”
“He had to go back to Saskatoon, and we said it was crazy but decided to do a long-distance relationship,” explains Fenske. “We did that for a year or two. Eventually, he wanted to go into Regular Force and join the Royal Canadian Air Force and become an Aviation Systems Technician (AVN Tech). He put in an application and was sent to CFB Cold Lake for training with 10 Field Technical Training Squadron (10 FTTS).”
Many at 4 Wing have met Fenske as an instructor during her Yoga classes. She says practicing the art of Yoga came about just by trying it.
“I had done Yoga a few times and originally didn’t really like it, to be honest, but it was a good social opportunity to meet with people and I did learn the benefits of it. Eventually, the Yoga teacher here in Cold Lake was leaving, and everyone was pushing for me to teach it. I took the training to teach and it sparked my interest.”
“After a while, I started thinking about how the military would really benefit from Yoga. At the time, there was no other Yoga in Cold Lake and the military wasn’t doing it anywhere across the country. A lot of people thought I was crazy. Ottawa even thought it wasn’t a good idea, but we tried it and it turned into our biggest program.”
Fenske and her husband have been planning this 6,800-kilometre move for some time. She says there are a few reasons they decided to make Nicaragua their new home.
The Fenske’s home in San Juan Del Sur, Nicaragua – Supplied Photo
“We looked at factors like cost-of-living, and access to healthcare. [San Juan Del Sur] is an oceanside small town that’s touristy but in a good way without being too commercialized. It has a large ex-pat community and it’s a Yoga Mecca for that area. We were looking and said ‘This sounds like the kind of place we want to move to.’ ”
Chris and Tovah started documenting their time planning the move and other events in their life via “Chris and Tovah’s Amazing Adventures“, a YouTube channel that now boasts over 1000 subscribers.
“It was Chris’s idea. We had watched YouTubers who travel and he suggested we do our own channel. It’s a great way to document what we’re doing for our families and friends and now we’re close to being monetized and it’s picking up steam.”
Fenske says they’ll start their journey to their new home in November after visiting with family in both western and eastern Canada. She figures they’ll officially hit the road southbound on January 2nd. As for what she’ll miss the most about CFB Cold Lake, Fenske says it was the people who made it a great place to work and live.
“Everyone here was so nice and I loved teaching, I loved the staff and I love the military. I loved the job.”
“We worked hard, set financial goals, and met them. We’ll have lots to do in Nicaragua, and it’s time to move on, but I loved it here, for sure.”
A celebration of both Tovah and Chris’s time at 4 Wing is being hosted at the Cold Lake Golf and Winter Club on October 28th, starting at 2:30 PM. Guests are invited to stop by and wish the couple well at the drop-in event, being dubbed a “Fenske Farewell.”