Norwegian passes on volunteer spirit to sons
Derek Neary
Northern News Services
Fort Providence (Feb 09/01) - Being a mother of three boys can keep a person busy enough, but Nellie Norwegian still finds time to volunteer.
Between activities at Deh Gah school and her devotion to the parish council, she sometimes burns the candle at both ends, but she's learning to delegate responsibility whenever possible.
For a recent ski clinic at the school, Norwegian prepared 66 sandwiches, paid for out of her own pocket. The meal helped raise money for a school trip to California. Her nieces are hoping to be on a plane to San Diego in May.
"It's a worthy job," she said of her voluntarism. "It's the end result -- the child could go somewhere ... for the kids it would be such a big thing. I wish I had this opportunity when I was young."
Two years ago, she had helped her son A.J., now 14, raise enough cash to fly to Toronto and Ottawa with his schoolmates.
"But he did a lot himself. To begin with, I made him sit down and said, 'Is this what you really want? Are you going to stick it out to the end?" she said. "He did all his own baking. He even made meringue cookies, believe it or not."
Imparting those values to her sons -- she and husband, Albert, also have Sechiah, 7, and Jamie, 6 -- is very important to her, she noted.
It was her guidance counsellor at Sir John high school in Yellowknife, David Matthews, a tireless volunteer himself, who helped ingrain in her the worthiness of volunteering, she recalled.
She has helped out with numerous events, has sold scores of raffle tickets and has prepared a whole lot of food over the years.
"When people thank you, it's well worth it," she said. "When you give you get back different kinds of rewards. I like doing it, I enjoy it."
