NNSL (May 12/99) - It was a case of a difficult ending to an otherwise wonderful experience last month for eight Arviat teenagers and three chaperones from the QHS Girls Club who made the trip to attend the Focus 99 Believe in the Healing conference in Victoria, B.C.

Teacher Belina Carter said the trip was a wonderful opportunity for the Arviat girls to experience a positive conference showing how people from two cultures can work together to empower children and youth to help rebuild their communities and schools in the future.

Carter said the total cost of the trip was $13,000, with the hamlet matching the group's fund-raising efforts dollar for dollar up to $,5000, Qitiqliq high principal Rod Forsey, with the permission of the DEA, chipping in $1,500 out of the budget allotted for student travel and the Northern store giving $200 to help cover their expenses.

"Some of the girls had never been out of the North before," said Carter. "To put that in perspective, while we were flying one of the girls said, Belina, is that the Rocky Mountains? Belina, is that a valley?' They had studied mountains and valleys in geography, but she had never actually seen them. This girl was in complete awe as we flew over and she saw these things.

"At the conference itself, they met other First Nations people and there were teenagers, people from DEAs, social workers, teachers, parents, community members -- so they learned many different perspectives from many different people."

Carter said the conference focused on the demons which remote areas must deal with, including sessions on abuse, youth suicide, being a safe teenager and the RCMP's Rock Solid program on alternatives to violence.

"It was all about how to live healthy. The girls had a wonderful time and, upon their return, they wrote about the experience and what going on the trip met to them."

The trip did not end on a happy note, however. Carter said she inquired twice in Winnipeg about Arviat weather conditions on the flight home and was assured there would be no problems.

However, their pilot refused to land in Arviat for fear of icing up while waiting for the passengers to disembark and the plane flew over to Rankin. Once there, Carter was told neither Canadian nor Calm Air could offer assistance and, she claims, was subjected to a less-than-professional encounter with Calm Air's Kivalliq district manager.

"The people of Rankin rallied to help the group, taking in all eight girls, but the group was still stuck with the extra expenses of a hotel room and taxi fares.

"We hope Calm Air is going to do the honourable thing and refund those extra costs. The Rankin community really rallied behind us to help, but Calm Air's representative there, Sally Kusagak, was downright rude to me, raising her voice and blaming the whole ordeal on us.

"Why couldn't they have at least offered to put us in the back of Calm Air trucks and drive the kids to the homes of the families who were putting them up? There were some very simple things they could have done to help us out, but wouldn't and the Kivalliq manager coming down telling us it was all our fault and we were on our own was pretty cold."

Ed. Note -- The Kivalliq News gave representatives from both Canadian Airways and Calm Air opportunity to respond to Carter's claims. However, despite numerous assurances to the contrary, neither had responded by press time.