LIIDLII KUE/FORT SIMPSON - Parks Canada has honoured a Fort Simpson teacher for her efforts in engaging students with the Nahanni National Park Reserve.

Steve Catto, left, the resource conservation manager at Nahanni National Park Reserve, presents Teresa Bezanson-Byatt with Parks Canada's Ambassador for Education Award during a ceremony at Thomas Simpson School on June 13. - Roxanna Thompson/NNSL photo

On June 13, Steve Catto, the resource conservation manager at the park, presented Teresa Bezanson-Byatt with Parks Canada's Ambassador For Education Award during a ceremony held at Thomas Simpson School. The award was created in 2007 to recognize the role teachers play in helping Canadian youth connect to the country's natural and cultural heritage by supporting education programs at national parks, historic sites and marine conservation areas.

Bezanson-Byatt was instrumental in organizing and supporting trips during the last 15 years that took students from Fort Simpson into the park, said Catto.

"Thanks to Teresa's efforts a generation of local children were able to experience the beauty of Nahanni and to develop a greater appreciation for the cultural significance of that storied landscape," he said.

"Travelling the Nahanni is just about the most wonderful thing you can do," said Bezanson-Byatt as she accepted a framed certificate and photo and a book.

The idea of taking students for trips into the park was developed by Henri Prosper, a teacher at the school whose husband was the chief warden at the Nahanni National Park Reserve. Prosper approached Thomas Simpson's principal at the time, Robert Byatt, who's Bezanson-Byatt's husband. He thought it was a good idea and supported it, Bezanson-Byatt said.

The first group of students travelled through the park in 1994 and a different teacher led the second trip in 1995.

Bezanson-Byatt supported the first two trips through fundraising but didn't go on them. It was a well-known fact that she didn't camp.

In the fall of 1995, the students who were planning for the 1996 trip asked Bezanson-Byatt if she would go with them.

"I said no, I don't camp," said Bezanson-Byatt.

The students, however, were persistent and Bezanson-Byatt went on what would be the first of eight trips. At the end of the trip, Prosper told Bezanson-Byatt that she learned more than anyone else during the time on the river.

"I learned enough to love it," she said.

Bezanson-Byatt organized and led trips in 1999, 2001, 2003, 2005, 2007 and finally in 2010, shortly before her retirement.

The trips were moved to an every-other-year schedule because of their high cost and to maintain them as something special.

The trips, which were open to students in Grades 7 to 9, cost an average of $50,000.

Over the years organizers relied less on parents and more on the student participants to fundraise, she said.

One of Bezanson-Byatt's favourite parts of the trips was seeing the team-building that took place from the start of the fundraising until the end of the trip.

"They built a team," she said.

By the time the groups got onto the South Nahanni River they were able to work together to accomplish tasks including raft maintenance, cooking and getting water for the camp. Bezanson-Byatt said she also enjoyed seeing the students grow in many ways during the trip.

Some had never camped before and they had to adapt to being away from home, electronics and junk food. Their confidence grew while they were on the river and they interacted with other students they didn't normally hang out with, she said.

"It allowed kids to be kids," said Bezanson-Byatt.

The trips also inspired some participants to seek careers with Parks Canada.

"They got out there and said this is what I want to do when I grow up," Bezanson-Byatt said.

Vanessa Gerlock, Jonathan Tsetso, Jarret Hardisty and Justin Byatt, four of the trip participants and current employees at the Nahanni National Park Reserve, were present at the award ceremony. After the ceremony, they reminisced with Bezanson-Byatt about the best and most memorable parts of their trips.

For Gerlock, the highlights were the water fights that took place between the rafts, and the evenings after the rafting was done for the day. Other stories that elicited laughter included heavy rain that soaked everyone's clothes and sleeping bags and the work it took to dry them, as well as incorrectly-dug latrines the size of trenches.

Bezanson-Byatt said she was honoured to receive the award.

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