Rae (Apr 07/03) - Thirty-four Grade 5 and 6 students and three teachers from Elizabeth MacKenzie elementary school braved the cold this winter to camp on Marion Lake.

Feb. 27 and 28, the group snared rabbits and went snowshoeing, sledding and snowmobiling as part of the school's active cultural programming. The school hosts between two and three Caribou Camps every year to teach traditional skills, said school vice principal Kathryn Walker.

"A lot (of the students) don't get to experience that anymore because the culture is fading out," said Grade 6 teacher Lee-ann Leiliunas.

Leiliunas said she enjoyed getting to know her students on a less formal level.

"It's fun and the kids get to interact with each other too."

She said the students had to learn to co-operate, eat cultural food, gather snow for water and chop wood for the tent wood stoves as part of the survival training.

The camp is located about a 30-minute snowmobile ride from Rae on the East shore of Marion Lake.