Darrell Greer
Northern News Services

RANKIN INLET (July 28/99) - Working with children and helping to look after the safety of others are two things which have always come naturally to Rankin Inlet's Gwendolyn Thirlwall.

By day, the amicable 25-year-old can be found in the first month of her new job as part of a team providing a nurturing environment for special needs kids at the Rankin Inlet Children's Group Home and, during most evenings, can usually be spotted at the hamlet's seasonal swimming pool.

A current member of the local ambulance service and a former co-ordinator of the hamlet's Community Wellness Centre, Thirlwall says she's always felt comfortable working with society's younger members.

Her eyes light up when she begins to speak on the subject and her speech quickens to the point where one is left to wonder how her thoughts aren't totally swept away by her own passion and enthusiasm.

"I enjoy working with kids. They are excellent people and a lot of fun to be around," she says in earnest.

"I find they're more honest than adults and they're more creative too. Kids are also very spontaneous and I love spontaneity.

"I seem to have a lot of fun with the kids in Rankin Inlet and interact with them on a daily basis. That probably results from being the pool supervisor for the past three years. Every where I go it's ŒHi Gwen. How are you?' Sometimes they're hollering it to me from so far away, I can't even tell who they are," she says with a laugh.

Growing up in Toronto, Thirlwall says she knew what she wanted to do with her life in her early teens and it wasn't something most teenagers list when they talk about what they want to be when they grow up.

"I always wanted to be a lifeguard and camp counsellor when I was a teenager and I did both those things. I worked at a girls' camp for four years, and I was a lifeguard all through high school and while I was at the University of Guelph. Working with other people just kind of kept growing on me as I went along."

Thirlwell is an examiner for the National Lifeguard Service and says the job is an exciting combination of dealing with people and having lots of kids around. And, when prodded to come up with a funny pool-side anecdote, her tale originates from an unlikely location, proving her enthusiasm isn't curbed by something as insignificant as the constraints of reality.

"I'm the oldest of three kids and I guess that's where my hyper sense of responsibility comes from, even in my dreams.

"I dreamt one night somebody was in trouble and I was rescuing them. I woke up when I hit the floor and realized nobody was drowning in my bedroom."