ULUKHAKTOK/HOLMAN
Four students in Ulukhaktok are now better bakers after a visit from a Skills Canada national competitor earlier this month.

Four Helen Kalvak School students in Ulukhaktok participated in a baking and a photography workshop earlier this month when Skills Canada National competitor Aimee Yurris came to visit. From left, Natalja Bristow Westwood, Topsy Banksland, Brandon Okheena, Rhea Klengenberg and Aimee Yurris. - photo courtesy of Jan Fullerton

Aimee Yurris, 17, placed fourth in the baking category during last summer’s Skills Canada National Competition in Vancouver, B.C.

Yurris, who lives in Yellowknife and graduated from Sir John Franklin High School a year early last year, said she travelled to Helen Kalvak School on Nov. 30 both to give students tips on what to expect during the Skills Canada competition, as well as just having fun sharing her baking skills.

“I offer them advice for what the competition experience will be like and I also share with them the recipes I use,” she said.

Earlier this year, Yurris also held a cake-decorating workshop in Inuvik and talked to students there and Norman Wells about the competition. She also gave a speech at the Power Up! Young Women’s Conference in Yellowknife.

Grade 10 student Natalja Bristow Westwood said Yurris was a great teacher. Yurris’ visit was the first time Westwood had ever attempted to bake.

“With Aimee, it made everything seem so simple compared to doing it by yourself for the first time,” she said. “She’s amazing at what she does.”

Together, the group made cinnamon rolls, two varieties of bread, buns and puff pastries. Westwood said the pastry recipe is her favourite.

“They’re extremely hard to make because they’re so delicate, but in the end they’re worthwhile,” she said.

In addition to the baking workshop, students learned photography skills from Lee Stacey, the technical chair for Skills Canada NWT’s photography skills competition.

The students are also part of the after school photography group.

Westwood said while she enjoyed baking, she plans to compete in the photography category during the Regional Skills Competition in Inuvik in February.

“Photography is my one true love,” she said.

Brandon Okheena was also a first-time baker.

“I did not know how to bake whatsoever,” he said.

But the Grade 12 student is no stranger to the Skills Canada competition. He’s been a participant for the past four years and said he plans to compete in the small engine repair category this year.

Okheena said puff pastries were also his favourite item the group made.

This year will be the third time Grade 12 student Rhea Klengenberg has competed in a Skills Canada competition. Klengenberg said she chose hairstyling during her first competition, but decided to switch to baking the following year.

“The first time was for hairstyling, which I realized I am not really into. Last year I went for baking,” she said. “I had a lot of fun and it gave me an idea of what people in bakeries would be experiencing.”

Klengenberg said now that she knows the basics, she wants to pursue a career in baking.

“I want to open up my own bakery when I come back from college,” she said.

For now, Klengenberg said she plans to compete in the baking category again this year. She said Yurris’ workshop helped show her ways she can improve.

“Previous times I tried to make cinnamon rolls, but they didn’t puff up,” she said. “I don’t know what she did, but she got them to puff up.”

Yurris said she also shared ways to make their baking unique.

“I found it really important to apply many different variations to the baked good so you stand out from the rest,” she said.

She said for her, decorating the treats is the best part of baking.

“I really love the creativity and decorating is probably my favourite part,” she said. “I really love producing products that are tasty and that look nice.”

Yurris said she is now taking a year off from school, but plans on applying to the Culinary Institute of Canada’s culinary program at Holland College in Prince Edward Island.

She said participating in Skills Canada gave her the opportunity to train new skills and learn more about possible careers.

“I’m really glad I got involved when I was in Grade 9,” she said. “I encourage other youth to do so as well.”

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