Cindy MacDougall
Northern News Services

NNSL (Sep 29/99) - Prem Manickum refers to her FunArctic friends as "the ladies."

"All the ladies are in the kitchen now," she says. "Come take a picture, quick!"

FunArctic is a group of 14 women who get together to, well, have fun doing community service work. Many members of the group came from all across the world to make Yellowknife their home. And Saturday night, they put on a international supper at Northern United Place to raise money for the Stanton Regional Hospital Foundation's capital campaign.

The estimated $4,000 they raised with their samosas, spring rolls, curried rice and English trifle will help pay for the renovations needed at the hospital when the $1.2-million CT-scan and six other new pieces of equipment arrive later this year.

The foundation also held silent and live auctions during the evening. All the evening's events pulled in about $7,500.

"It's our first big function," Manickum says, as she checked on the coffee and desserts.

"We decided to do a multicultural dinner because we're a diverse group of people, so we thought it would be fitting."

The ladies decided to help the hospital because it is "an important part of the community," she says.

Both Manickum, originally from South Africa, and Kate Wilson, a member of FunArctic from Ghana, said Yellowknife is an easy place to stir up fun.

"Here, it's easy to make friends. People are very friendly and interesting," Wilson says.

Cappy Elkin, chair of the hospital foundation's capital campaign, says people like the FunArctic ladies have given Northerners with serious illnesses a chance to be treated close to home.

"This is an incredible town. Come Dec. 1, all those machines will be installed and ready to go," Elkin says.

She adds the expensive machines will save the health care system money in the long run.

"When you think about the cost of flying all those people to Edmonton for a CT-Scan, over $600,000 a year, it only makes sense to get one ourselves."

Dr. John Morse, who practices internal medicine at the hospital, says he will enjoy the equipment even more than the meal.

"Instead of sending people away, I can now use the skills I was trained to use," he says.

The ladies, busy with dishes, shrugged off the praise.

"It was fun," Manickum says.