Baker Lake (Mar 08/06) - The Baker Lake Drop-in Centre has come a long way since its humble beginnings four years ago.

What was once a boring little room in the hamlet office with very little to offer local youth, has become a bustling centre of activity located in a piece of prime Baker real estate.

Solomon Tulurialik and Niqviq Niuqtuq team up for a game of Rod Hockey at the Baker Lake Drop-in Centre. - photo courtesy of Leo Lareau

The new drop-in centre is located in the upstairs of the Baker arena, complete with a comfy viewing room for watching what's happening on the ice surface below.

But that's just a small part of the new drop-in centre.

The centre has four new computers hooked-up to the Internet and due to their tremendous popularity, four more are on the way.

If surfing the Web is not your style, not to worry, the centre also offers Foosball, table tennis and a Rod Hockey game.

Cherie Qiyuk was hired to keep things running smoothly at the centre.

She says it's open from Monday to Friday, with kids aged eight to 12 having priority from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m.

The 13-to-15 crowd takes over until 9:30 p.m., and then it's time for the kids aged 16 and up to rule the roost.

"The kids enjoy all the new equipment, but the Internet is, by far, the most popular," says Qiyuk.

"It wasn't that long ago hardly any youth came to the drop-in centre, but now we average about 40 kids a day and that's great to see."

Qiyuk says Baker recreation director Leo Lareau deserves a lot of the credit for the rebirth of the drop-in centre.

She says Lareau saw the need for more activities for local youth and wouldn't give up trying to get funding until the new equipment was secured.

"We still need more for the youth of our community to do after school, but this new equipment is a great start.

"We all know what can happen when teenagers are bored and have too much time on their hands."

Qiyuk limits the kids to about 30 minutes on the computer because there's almost always somebody waiting to take a turn.

She says everyone's been understanding of the need for the rule, so there's been no arguing over time on the Internet.

"Everyone has been co-operating, so things have gone OK.

"I don't see the kids doing school work too often.

"It's been all fun, fun, fun."