Hay River Reserve. (Feb 10/03) - At one time, nuns were in classrooms everywhere in the NWT.

Times have changed, but sisters/teachers -- although fewer in number -- can still be found in the North.

Sister Margaret Ann Beaudette is a teacher at the Chief Sunrise Education Centre on the Hay River Reserve. - Paul Bickford/NNSL photo

Sister Margaret Ann Beaudette is one of them -- the only nun still teaching in the Hay River area.

Beaudette -- or Sister Maggie as she is known -- teaches special needs students and science to Grades 1-6 at Chief Sunrise Education Centre on the Hay River reserve.

"One of my greatest passions is teaching people to read, the whole area of literacy," she says, adding she especially likes helping struggling students.

When Beaudette was deciding where she would like to serve with her order, she chose the NWT over Peru.

"I didn't think there were as many bugs," she says of her decision to come north 15 years ago from her home province of Ontario.

At the time, she was looking for an adventure. "I wanted to have a different experience and I wanted to work with aboriginal people, as well."

During her years in the NWT, she says she has come to love the land and the people.

Beaudette spent six years teaching in Yellowknife, five years in Lutsel K'e and the last four years on the Hay River Reserve.

She says she really likes working on the reserve.

"I don't see myself moving to another community at this stage of the game, but who knows what God has in store for me," she adds.

Beaudette is originally from Maidstone, Ont., a small community near Windsor.

She has been a member of the Sisters of St. Joseph of London, Ont., for 38 years, and a teacher for 33 years. Five other sisters from her order currently serve in the NWT -- two in Yellowknife, one in Fort Rae and another in Inuvik.

Along with teaching, Beaudette is the community librarian, running the Hay River Dene Library housed in the Chief Sunrise school. "I love that, too. It ties right in with the literacy work I'm doing."

On the other side of the Hay River, she is choir director at Assumption Parish.

In her spare time, she enjoys bowling as part of a team called the 'Sunrise Shooters' in the Monday night Hay River league.