Jillian Dickens
Northern News Services

Pangnirtung (Nov 07/05) - Nunavut's newest newspaper hit the stands last week in Pangnirtung.

Staff and kids of Attagoyuk school distributed the Attagoyuk Express, a bilingual 16-page monthly newspaper, last Tuesday.

Downplaying the triumph, principal Dave Goulding said, "It's just something we promised the kids we'd try out."

But it is more than that.

"It's a small town, but there's lots going on that people should know about," said Goulding.

More than 100 copies were distributed around the community. The hamlet and the Northern store received copies, along with all the other hot spots.

The first paper was photocopied, but Goulding hopes the next one will have some colour.

"We bought a colour laser jet printer just for the purpose of the newspaper," said Goulding. "We hope it will be set up and running for next time."

Capitalizing on Halloween, this month's edition features one Grade 6 student's spooky tale of a ghost haunting people of Pangnirtung, pumpkin carving pictures and trick or treat safety rules.

The paper also has a list of school events, Literacy Night and Terry Fox Run pictures, a crossword puzzle, a principal's message on school changes, and an article about the school's training for the Arctic Winter Games.

Grade 6, 7 and 8 students and a few staff members met twice a week since about the beginning of this school year to hash out ideas and work on the paper. However, said Goulding, a lot of the work is being loaded on teachers.

"We want to get away from that. It is all wide-open, we are just experimenting."

One idea is to have each class in the Grade 6-12 school contribute to the paper per month.

"We are going to hold a contest to come up with something more original. Attagoyuk Express is snappy, but it's not Northern," Goulding said. "This paper is a great way for the students to show pride in the school and their community, and to help the kids taking an interest to come up with different ideas and become more independent in time."