SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE - Eight youths unveiled months' worth of photos from around Yellowknife at the Capital Theatre on Friday evening.

Youth photographer Hannah Gouinlock hands out "Deliberate Acts of Kindness" bracelets to members of the crowd during the Photovoice presentation at Capital Theatre on August 7. All who attended were given these – they are to be passed on to recognize an act of kindness, and registered online with each act so they can be tracked throughout the world. - Tim Edwards/NNSL photo

The photos are part of the Photovoice project; an exercise in creativity that challenged the kids to take photos, then choose 25 that share a similar theme to present as their final projects.

"Each day the youth would take sometimes hundreds of photos out in the community," said Marty Mako, who led the project along with David Buchanan of the NWT Literacy Council.

"Because their final Photovoice project only incorporated their top 25, that's when the decision making and critical thinking came in. They would have to decide which theme or topic they really wanted to focus on," Mako continued.

The project ran from July 7 until August 7, when the slideshows were presented.

The presentation opened with a video put together by Mako and Buchanan which showed candid moments of the photographers on their mission to photograph various subjects around the city.

The video showed images of them not only having a good time and doing things they'd never done before - jumping off the cliffs at Long Lake, visiting the Great Slave Animal Hospital and a few airplane hangers, among other things - but it showed them bonding as a group as well.

One part of the video involved them carrying a balloon around Yellowknife that had several questions written on it such as "if you were a flavour of ice cream, what would it be and why?" and "If you had a time machine, where would you go and why?"

The youths would approach random members of the community and ask them to spin the balloon and answer the question that their thumb landed on - the answer would often reveal something personal about the person who was asked it, even though the questions were somewhat silly.

"Everywhere we went around the city, and I think what impressed me going in as a non-local was - the community support for the project just blew me away," said Mako.

Mako said that wherever they went for help making the project, they heard a resounding yes.

Some places the group went were Ndilo, the Prince of Wales Northern Heritage Centre, the legislative assembly, Air Tindi, and Buffalo Airways, as well as various areas around town and Long Lake.

"We had a blast doing it, for sure," said Buchanan.

The kids involved in project Photovoice included Alwyn Landry, Jacquelyne Hunt-Cornock, Hannah Gouinlock, Gabe Iverson, Michaela Chamberlin, Robin Abel, William Lines, and Peter Neglak-Bernier.

All are in the age range of 13-14.

Capital Theatre donated use of one of it's theatres to the project, and gave all who attended a free ticket to another movie that night.

Around 80 people were in attendance for the final slideshow.