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INUVIK
The History Wall at Sir Alexander Mackenzie School is a walk down memory lane. It puts faces, events and emotions to the school, which will be closing its doors for the last time in June.

Ruby St. Amand is selling hoodies in commemoration of Sir Alexander Mackenzie School's 53-year history. She stands by the History Wall, which St. Amand created with pictures from old yearbooks. - Katherine Hudson/NNSL photo

The black-and-white photos draw the viewer in: an image of new students getting off a plane in Inuvik, ready for their first days of school in a new community, the "first major musical" production put on by the school titled H. M. S. Pinafore in 1968, starring Noel Gordon as Dick Deadeye and Margo Bowden as Little Buttercup. There are pictures of students playing in the snow in 1976, of the production of Grease during the 1978-79 school year, 1965's Sadie Hawkins Day, a writeup of when school house games started in 1965 – including the Spartans, the Romans, the Trojans and the Vikings – a shot of the SAMS Lions basketball team in the victorious 1966-67 season and more recent pictures from the Take a Kid Trapping Program.

Ruby St. Amand went to Sir Alexander Mackenzie School from 1962 to 1969 and has been working there since 1998. She is heading a committee to give the school a proper farewell – with all the fixings.

June 15 and 16 are the dates set for the final goodbye, and reunion at both SAMS and Samuel Hearne Secondary School. There is a feast planned at Jim Koe Park on Friday followed by an Ole Time Dance at one of the schools. The big and final dance for SAMS is scheduled for the Saturday, with music from the 1950s and 60s and decorations of tin foil stars and balloons and confetti.

St. Amand is also selling hoodies, in either black or grey, with SAMS colourfully stitched on the back along with its lifespan: 1959-2012. Those interested can contact St. Amand at home and put in an order. She is hoping to get all the orders in by the middle of April so everyone who attends the school's farewell will be able to wear their hoodies. The money left over from sales will go to the weekend's celebrations in June and will be donated to the snack program.

Little bits are added to the History Wall all the time. It's a project in progress but it does its job, getting people to slow down and take a look at the people who used to walk the halls of SAMS, many of whom are still in the community today.

In the town's early days, all day and residential students attended Sir Alexander Mackenzie Day School. There were separate wings for Anglican and Catholic students in the elementary and a secular third wing for high school students, according to the Anglican Church of Canada website. To meet enrolment demand, Samuel Hearne Secondary School opened as an additional secular facility in 1969.

"I remember being in Stringer Hall and all the girls would come to our dorm and jump on the bed and we'd ask where they're from – Gjoa Haven, Spence Bay," said St. Amand.

She said the dorms of at least 30 or 40 beds would be filled with students from the communities. While St. Amand's parents, who were from Inuvik, would be out on the trap line, many of the students flew into Inuvik in late August and stayed away from their homes until June.

She visualizes the school as if the 1960s were just yesterday: Grade 5 was upstairs, Grade 2 was in the same place down the wing by the office and Grade 6 was out in the annex in the back.

"I wanted something to remember SAM school by. After it's gone, it'll be demolished, no more chance to walk into the building again," said St. Amand.

She has received comments from passersby, and from parents or grandparents who are picking up their little ones who now walk the halls of the school.

"For them to remember way back, it makes that connection to them when they used to be here."

When the final school year comes to a close, St. Amand said the pictures – scanned from past yearbooks – will be placed in a binder and will most likely make its home in the new elementary school's office.

"It's going to be a sad day but we're looking forward to the new school, too. New beginnings and a fresh start for everybody," she said.

Paula Guy, program support teacher at SHSS, is working on the committee with St. Amand. She has been in the community for 10 years and said, although she doesn't feel the history of the school deeply like St. Amand, she knows it's important to celebrate the schools as strong aspects of the community.

"It's important to recognize we're moving on and it's nice to show a collaboration, too. We're going into the new school together, working together on a joint celebration," she said.

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