by Marty Brown
Northern News Services

NNSL (Jan 24/97) - The kids at the Chekoa drop-in centre in Ndilo are into the design business.

A frog having a cigarette is emblazed on the back of short- and long-sleeved T-shirts.

"Don't Smoke, You'll Croak" is the warning of the anti-smoking apparel. A crest adorns the front, Cancer Society is on one sleeve, Chekoa, Ndilo the other.

The kids are always looking for projects, preferably those that raise money to pay for bowling, swimming or crafts.

When they found out the Canadian Cancer Society had money available to youth for anti-smoking programs, they jumped at the chance.

Staff member Jennifer Goulet said the kids first considered a puppet show or printing bumper stickers.

Then, after much deliberation, they thought that would be too boring. A brain-storming session produced the T-shirt idea.

"With T-shirts we'd have something to show for the program," Jennifer said.

That's when the design team kicked in. Although everyone had a say in the project, it was Heather Wifladt, Jennifer and Lisa Goulet, Sheryl Liske and Rachel Goulet that put pencil to paper and got to work.

The shirts have a crest on the front showing the Northern Lights, a teepee, water, and a ladder to success. The back shows a smoking frog.

The kids had a rule that stated anyone working on the project couldn't smoke. This put Lisa Goulet in a quandary.

"I was a smoker but if you're working on the project you can't smoke. You can't set a bad example," she said.

So she started to cut down on her nicotine intake and hadn't had a cigarette in a week at the time of the interview.

The kids ordered 130 shirts in all sizes and sold them in downtown mall kiosks. At $20 for a short sleeved and $25 for a long sleeved T-shirt, the kids don't figure the stock will last long.

The Chekoa program, which means "children" in Dogrib, has been running for four years. The drop-in centre operates every day after school and has special weekend programs.

It offers Dogrib language programs, a reading program for kids and parents, computer literacy programs and a place to just plain hang out with friends.