Dez Loreen
Northern News Services

Tuktoyaktuk (Oct 03/05) - Mangilaluk school students in Tuktoyaktuk have been raising money for two years to attend a conference in Edmonton.

The annual Dreamcatchers conference at Grant MacEwan college in Edmonton is held on October 14-16th, and is open to any aboriginal student age 13-17.

The annual conference is held to educate young people, and to inspire them to reach their goals and to attend university.

The students in Tuktoyaktuk started planning for the trip in 2002, but stalled when teacher Ann Stefure took a year off. "When I had left, nobody took my role as organizer, so the trip was postponed," explained Stefure.

Money raised for the event was banked, until Stefure came back to teaching last year. Stefure is again leading the students in their mission to go to Edmonton.

Annie Loreen, Peter Voudrach, Roberta Adam, Joshua Teddy, Charles Lucas and Craig Gruben are about to reach their goal and the excitement level is pretty high.

"We've been working on this for a long time, and it's almost done," said Craig Gruben.

Taking a year off from fundraising took its toll on the students' morale, but now they're focused on getting to the Dreamcatchers conference.

Project co-ordinator Loretta Elias said fund raisers "contacted some of the oil and gas companies and it's been pretty good, but there's still a long way to go." Other fund raising has been done within the school, like holding raffles and sales.

Donations have been made by different organizations in order to assist the school's goal.

"NorthwesTel donated phone cards, and we have a donation of a skateboard to raffle," said Stefure.

Events aimed at the youth have been planned as well. Movie nights, associated with pizza sales have also boosted their banked cash.

"We sold homemade pizzas. They've been the best method so far," said Gruben.

Gruben plans on a bright future in engineering, so attending the conference would be ideal for him.

"I want to meet new people and get a taste of college life, to see what is ahead for me," said Gruben.

"Our class has been planning this for so long, it would be a great way to end our senior year."