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INUVIK
It has been 19 years since the Peter Gzowski Invitational Fundraiser for Literacy has descended upon Inuvik and the events scheduled throughout this year's fundraiser ensure there is fun for the young, the old and everyone in between.

Caden Sutton, left, and Nicole Verbonic, right, get some mini-putt pointers from Jonathan Torrens ( best known as J-Roc from the Trailer Park Boys) at the Midnight Sun Complex Tuesday afternoon. - Katherine Hudson/NNSL photo

In 1986, journalist and award-winning broadcaster Peter Gzowski started raising money for literacy through an annual golf tournament. Even 10 years after his death, the annual fundraisers are held across the country to raise funds for literacy programs and inspire Canadians to celebrate literacy.

Every dollar raised through the NWT PGI for Literacy tournament stays in the territory to support community literacy programs.

The busy week began with a community feast on Monday at the Midnight Sun Complex with a few hundred residents in attendance to welcome the group of special guests and visitors to the town. At the dinner, Ivan Cockney and Agnes Noksana were presented with Learners Awards, Elijah Allen was awarded a special Lifetime Learning Award and Mabel English received the Gzowski Award.

The NWT Literacy Council's special guests include CBC radio host Shelagh Rogers; Canadian music legend, Prairie Oyster's Russell de Carle; CBC TV's Jonathan Torrens; singer, songwriter and author Connie Kaldor; musician and harmonica-player extraordinaire Mike Stevens; and the Globe and Mail's Alison Gzowski, daughter of the late Peter Gzowski.

Wednesday marked a community concert at the Midnight Sun Complex with performances by the town's guests, who were scheduled to be joined by Bob Mumford and Friends.

The group of celebrity visitors have been making their rounds all over town: the preschools, Sir Alexander Mackenzie School (SAMS), Samuel Hearne Secondary School, Aurora College and the long-term care unit at Inuvik Regional Hospital.

"In the North, we've always seen it as a community event that pulls in all the members of the community, babies to elders," said Helen Balanoff, executive director of the NWT Literacy Council.

"We try to reach as many people as we can and involve them. We think that's important because in the North, community and family are very important."

Although there's nothing green about it, the celebrities and other community members will take to a makeshift golf course today for nine holes making up the PGI Golf Tournament starting at the Lion's Club at 3 p.m.

The visitors got a bit of practice at the Midnight Sun Complex Tuesday afternoon, testing their skills with mini-putt in the company of students from SAMS. The community hall was peppered with six plastic obstacle courses for the students and guests to team up and conquer. Decorating the room's edge hung colour paper flags where students wrote the name of their favourite book.

Grade 7 student Connor Sullivan had fun with Jonathan Torrens, also known as J-Roc on the show Trailer Park Boys, while Torrens played improvisational games with students at SHSS Tuesday morning and explained the different ways people can tell a story.

"He played some games with us and told us how rap was made and a little bit of history about that ... Dr. Seuss was the first rapper," Sullivan laughed.

"We also played a game where everybody in the class wrote a sentence and four characters went up and picked a sentence and had to turn it into an act and it was fun."

Torrens has attended at least 10 PGIs in the North. He said literacy is an oral tradition as much as it is documented in writing.

"Literacy isn't just paper and pens; it's storytelling, drum dancing and things like that," he said.

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