Dr. Roberta Bondar (left) and her number one fan Magdalena Kehler at a Red Deer Regional Health Foundation event on Monday. (rdnewsNOW/Josh Hall)

By Josh Hall (Twitter: @Vancan19)

anything is possible

11-year-old has a blast meeting Dr. Roberta Bondar

Sep 23, 2019 | 4:41 PM

Canada’s first female astronaut made the day – and likely the year — of a Red Deer girl on Monday.

Dr. Roberta Bondar, who was speaking at a luncheon hosted by the Red Deer Regional Health Foundation, received a letter several weeks ago from 11-year-old Magdalena Kehler.

The message outlined Kehler’s desire to be an astronaut, but also pondered what she may have to accomplish in order to do so, such as joining the military.

Bondar told rdnewsNOW on Monday that she was pleasantly surprised to read her number one fan’s letter.

“My message to any young person is to follow their passion and their dreams,” she said. “It’s easy to genderize things and say girls should do this, or boys should do that … sometime it’s important to tell young boys that young girls can do things, and to tell young girls that they can do what young boys do so that they don’t feel that their gender is going to stop them from pursuing their passion.”

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Bondar, who is a neurologist and nature photographer, among other things, believes society needs to be stronger in its call for gender equality.

“One of the things we struggle with in society is we don’t have enough funds to be able to support the social things and social justice we believe in so we can be more of a Star Trek kind of planet,” she quipped. “That means we want to have literacy, we want to not have poverty, we want education all around, but all of that stuff costs money.”

And on the gravity of having gone into space, Bondar said she remembers most fondly looking down at Earth.

“You know, cerebrally, that you’re on a planet, but you never get off of it to see it,” she said. “It’s like a lot of things in life: you have to step away to get a different insight or perspective on something. There is nothing outside this planet that is going to help us, so it’s up to us.”

Kehler was overjoyed with the visit, and mentioned that Bondar did answer all of her questions in addition to offering to keep in touch with her family. The visit was made possible by the health foundation which gave Kehler and her mom tickets to the event last week.

Bondar is currently working on her foundation and a photography project documenting the loss of migratory birds and their habitats, including the whooping crane.