Member Dies during Pioneer Trek

Contributed By Sarah Jane Weaver, Church News associate editor

  • TULSA, OKLAHOMA

A youth group participates in a pioneer trek, a reenactment of the early Latter-day Saints’ trek west.

A 29-year-old mother of two died Monday, June 20, during a Church trek reenacting the Mormon pioneer exodus west.

Meaghan Lee Querry Blair of Rogers, Arkansas, began to experience problems near the end of a seven-mile hike through 95-degree heat on the first day of the trek. She received immediate care and was transported by helicopter to a hospital in Tulsa, Oklahoma, where she died.

The cause of death has not been determined.

Meaghan Blair, 29, of Arkansas poses with her husband, Michael, and their two children. Blair died after experiencing health problems during a Mormon youth trek activity in Oklahoma on Monday, June 20, 2016. Photo courtesy of the Blair family.

“We express our love and deepest sympathies to the family of Meaghan Blair,” said Deborah Neria, spokeswoman for the Rogers Arkansas Stake of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. “This is a heartbreaking loss for the family and all who knew her.”

Sister Blair and her husband, Michael, were serving as a “ma” and “pa” for a “family” of teens on the trek.

Stake leaders, including Blair's father, took precautions against the heat at Church-owned property near Pawhuska, Oklahoma, a local spokeswoman said.

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