Training teaches students Northern-style survival
Food, shelter, fire all part of Thomas Simpson Secondary School survival training sessions
April Hudson
Northern News Services
Thursday, December 15, 2016
DEH GAH GOT'IE KOE/FORT PROVIDENCE
In a twist on the usual Christmas season, children in Fort Providence are getting ready for an event that focuses on the parents.
Tyrone Lennie, left, and David Gargan huddle around the fire during Thomas Simpson Secondary School's survival training program for Grade 7 students. - photo courtesy of Steve Nicoll
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Deh Gah School's newly formed student council, with the support of Beverley Hope from Shakes The Dust Hope Consulting, is working on a Christmas store full of gifts children can get for their parents.
Priced between 50 cents and $3, the gifts are donations from community members.
Hope said the student council will be accepting donations until Dec. 21. Donations can be dropped off at the school or at the Deh Gah Got'ie First Nation band office. The store will open Dec. 22 at noon.
"It just seems to be taking on its own life - people are rally excited about it," Hope said.
"I'm getting lots of support from the community, lots of support from leaders (who) are going through their homes. It's stuff that can be re-used, and it doesn't cost anything to give it away."
Students are in the middle of creating a Santa's Workshop sign, and will be going through donations to make sure everything works properly and anything that needs to be washed is washed. Hope said once the store opens, shoppers can come in six at a time to purchase their presents.
"We'll have helpers at another station who will help them wrap and put their mom or dad's name, grandpa or grandma's name on it. They'll get to take those home and they'll probably just be so excited for their parents to open up what they've given them," Hope said.
The Christmas store is one of the first things the student council has taken on. The council itself is tied to Hope's efforts to foster a family focus in the community.
"We have some amazing young people on this council, and in thinking about what we could do for our community, this idea came up. I shared the idea with the youth," she said.
The student council decided their motto this year would be a Dene law: "Share what you can." That decision provided motivation for the Christmas store.
Hope said recent break-ins and crime in the community led her to begin a traditional parenting program in Fort Providence.
The idea, she says, is that children can only be held accountable if parents are able.
"If our parents, for whatever reason, aren't effectively parenting, then this is what I see as one of the solutions. It's not to blame people because people always do the best they can," Hope said.
"(We're) working through the different processes to get to a place where (parents) can be receptive to learning different ways to do parenting . the impacts through history that have created those rifts and separations from traditional parenting styles."
