Derek Neary
Northern News Services
Monday, May 14, 2007

GRISE FIORD - Eight teenagers from a Toronto school with about four times as many students as Grise Fiord has people recently spent a week in Canada's northernmost community.

Students and staff from Umimmak school in Grise Fiord, population 140, took the pupils from Scarlett Heights Entrepreneurial Academy in Toronto on several trips by snowmobile and qamutiiks.

They visited the old village site, went in search of muskoxen and seal (but didn't see any) and travelled up to the glacier.

The landscape's stark features, such as its snow-covered mountains, were remarkable sights for their southern eyes, visiting teacher Doug Ritchie said.

"Obviously it's dramatically different than being in Toronto," he said. "It's almost like being in a desert and seeing the beauty of the desert."

Adrian Kakkee, a Grade 12 student at Umimmak school, said he could tell the Ontario students were amazed by the view of Grise Fiord from atop the nearby glacier.

"They were having fun," he said.

It wasn't just the Toronto students who were impressed. Grise Fiord teacher Steve Cyr said in his seven years in the North he hadn't learned so much about being on the land as he did from guide Manasie Noah.

"He did a tremendous job, telling stories," Cyr said. "He was just perfect. We couldn't ask for better."

Ritchie had his students all bundle up in their warmest gear, fully prepared for bitterly cold conditions. Instead they were greeted by relatively mild temperatures in the -10 C range, which Ritchie described as "absolutely gorgeous."

But it wasn't just the geography and weather that made an indelible mark. The friendliness and openness of residents in this tiny community contrasted with the impersonal nature of a major city where people often don't know their neighbours, Ritchie said.

Students from Umimmak school will travel to Toronto in late May for the second half of the exchange trip. Among the items on the week-long itinerary are stops at the CN Tower, the Ontario Science Centre, Canada's Wonderland, Chinatown and the Kensington Market, a winery, Niagara Falls, a professional lacrosse game, a medieval feast and a tour of a Toyota auto plant.

Kakkee said he's looking forward to seeing Niagara Falls, but a chance to play paintball also ranks high on his to-do list.

"I can't wait for that," he said. "I've never tried it before."