Home page

Text size

E-mail this page

DEH GAH GOT'IE KOE/FORT PROVIDENCE
Volunteers from Saskatchewan helped give a Fort Providence church as facelift last month.

Local volunteer Leon Bonnetrouge, left, stands with Amy Gueguen, Rebecca McLean, Jennifer Rospad, youth minister Anthony Olusola, Debra Barwick and Randy Barwick, volunteers from St. Philip Neri Parish in Saskatoon, who spent a week volunteering in Fort Providence. - photo courtesy of Phoebe Parent

Six members of the St. Philip Neri Parish in Saskatoon spent a week in Fort Providence from Aug. 20 to 27. The mission trip was part of the parish's first year of a five-year plan to send parishioners to do volunteer work around the world.

The parish thought Northern Canada would be a good place to start, but wasn't sure where to go, said Anthony Olusola, a youth minister with the parish. Bishop Murray Chatlain of the Mackenzie-Fort Smith Diocese suggested Fort Providence.

"We are loving it so far," Olusola, said on Aug. 25.

The volunteers immediately got to work sanding and scraping the small wooden church that the Our Lady of Providence congregation uses in the winter. After staining the church, the group got to work on Father Wes Szatanski's residence.

The deck on the house was rotten so the group went to Yellowknife to buy supplies so they could replace it. The work and the location were a new experience for many in the group.

None of the six volunteers had been to the Northwest Territories before.

"It's been really eye-opening. You don't really know what to expect," said Jennifer Rospad.

Rospad, a teacher, went to Black Lake in northern Saskatchewan last summer. When she learned her parish was sending a group the territory, she wanted to come and learn about this part of Canada and the people who live here.

"It's always a good experience to meet different people in different communities," she said.

Fort Providence residents including Phoebe Parent, Theresa and Philip Bonnetrouge, and Margaret Field volunteered to house members of the mission group. Staying with families gives you a chance to learn what life is like here, said Rospad.

"We've met so many interesting people," she said.

The trip wasn't all work, however. Szatanski took the group on a boat ride on the Mackenzie River.

"That was an awesome experience for all of us," said Olusola.

While the group was in Yellowknife to pick up supplies, Chatlain gave them a city tour.

"It was an honour to have him drive us," Olusola said.

The group also had plans to go to the Deh Gah Got'ie First Nation band office and to Kakisa to see Lady Evelyn Falls.

To be able to come on the trip, the members of the group fundraised individually. Their church also helped in the fundraising efforts. Olusola said the success of this trip will be evaluated before the parish decides the destination of the next mission trip.

"It's been a wonderful experience for everybody," he said.

We welcome your opinions. Click here to e-mail a letter to the editor.