INUVIK - More than 100 people from Inuvik headed west last weekend to participate in or cheer on the Beaufort Delta Education Council's (BDEC) third annual Sports Festival in Aklavik, March 12 and 13 - a growing event that bloomed out of Inuvik.

Sir Alexander Mackenzie School student Devon Raymond passes the ball over the heads of his opponents during a game of Borden Ball in Aklavik on Saturday, March 12. - Kira Curtis/NNSL photo

Samuel Hearne Secondary vice-principal Lorne Guy was there three years ago when this tournament, to encourage attendance and good behaviour in students, was created.

The idea stemmed from a district education council meeting where the topic of the lack of tournaments in the Delta was discussed. Sports tournaments throughout the year were once popular in the region and students felt that was missing from the regions' schools.

"The cost of travel in the past couple years has just skyrocketed," Guy said, explaining it has become harder and harder for schools to individually raise enough money to take groups of students out of town. Guy said not every community has access to funds or are able to raise enough.

"When you look at some of those outlying communities like Ulukhaktok and Sachs Harbour," Guy said, "I mean those kids never get a chance to leave."

For those reasons the BDEC decided to allocate money to fund the athletic and student-involved weekend to promote achievement.

"They said lets alleviate that," Guy said referring to the lack of money schools had to travel with, "and they made a very sizable donation to that endeavour each year and made a commitment to it. There's already talk about the fourth annual."

The squeak of sneakers filled the gym as the older kids darted around for the soccer ball, while the younger kids took part in a borden ball tournament, a European hand ball.

The weekend was full of not only sports but kids sharing, meeting new friends and taking part in the activities Aklavik supplied including cultural games, drum dancing and even skiing. All over town students wee and large ran around the hamlet, giggling, playing eating and giggling some more.

"Lots of good, positive "rah, rah, rah"," said Samuel Hearne Secondary School teacher Brad Mainse, "good atmosphere all around."

Because the students are chosen based of their excellent behaviour, both Guy and Mainse said they would like to see this continue and grow as the years go on.

"It's to promote the good things that are happening in our school," Guy said stating that it's not a competition driven tournament, "and behaviour and attendance obviously are ones that we promote quite heavily and was the original intent of this."

"I mean the spirit of the weekend isn't necessarily about sports but it's about getting physically active and promoting the good things that are happening at our school and getting to meet students from other schools," he said.

Both Mainse and Guy tipped their caps to the effort Aklavik put in to host them this year.

"Aklavik nailed it," Guy said, and having hosted before he knows the amount of work that goes into the festival, "you could tell their community was very involved. They did a lots to promote the spirit of the weekend."

Guy didn't know what the final scores were individually but that wasn't the point of the weekend.

"Keeping in mind that the spirit of the weekend isn't about who wins or who loses," Guys said, though he did add Inuvik did very, very well.

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