On-the-land program gets a boost
Tulita businesses pay it forward with gift of snowmobiles for Chief Albert Wright School
TULITA/FORT NORMAN
Northern News Services
Published Monday, December 1, 2014
SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
Youth in Tulita will be able to travel farther and faster for their on-the-land program in school thanks to a local company who wanted to share some of the proceeds of their work with oil and gas developers in the area with the community.
Four brand new snowmobiles arrived in the hamlet last month, a donation to Chief Albert Wright School spearheaded by Cornerstone Oilfield Services.
"This is our community and we wanted to give back," said George Illiopoulos, who co-owns the company with another Tulita resident, Benny Doctor. "We do work here, and we try to supply as many local jobs as possible."
After profiting from contracts with ConocoPhillips Canada, Illiopolous said he and others decided on donating the snowmobiles so the school could avoid the cost of renting Ski-Doos for their winter on-the-land programs.
Chief Albert Wright School principal Lorraine Kuer said Illiopolous approached her about two years ago asking what the school could really use.
Not only will owning snowmobiles save rental costs, it will allow students to learn hands-on how to maintain and repair the machines, she said.
"We have quite a robust trades program at our school, even though we're a small school," said Kuer, adding the snowmobiles will be integrated into the small engine repair portion of that program.
Chief Albert Wright School's on-the-land program gives students an opportunity to apply traditions in a land-based setting, said Kuer.
"It's been a wonderful way to engage youth in school. For some of the students, the land programming ... basically for some of them it's the highlight for coming to school," she said.
The students and staff were scheduled to put the machines through their paces for the first time during a winter trip scheduled for the last week of November or early December, depending on weather. The students taking part in that trip will gain experience setting traps and laying fish nets.
Other Tulita-based companies and residents helped make the donation possible, including camp supplier Empire Camp, which partnered with Cornerstone to purchase the Skidoos, and contracting company MYB Construction, which provided some of the transportation to Tulita from Yellowknife.
Along with the snowmobiles, the school also received a donated sea can where the machines can be stored securely.
"We choose to do what we want to do with the proceeds. We decided that with the money we made, we wanted to give back," said Illiopoulos. "We would like to be able to do a lot more things like this, depending on future work and contracts secured."
