CAMBRIDGE BAY (Aug 03/98) - As a little girl growing up in Nova Scotia it wasn't long before Marion Glawson developed a lifelong fascination with Canada's Far North.

And that shouldn't be surprising. Here was someone whose father travelled on barges into the High Arctic, whose great-uncle helped build the DEW Line site in Cambridge Bay and whose uncle was a crew member on the Canadian icebreaker Louis St. Laurent.

The tales she heard made her want to head off into that mysterious place where so many of her relatives had made a mark.

Almost 20 years ago, she and her husband did just that, moving to Cambridge Bay.

"We came North to work for the co-op," she says, when asked about her move from Canada's East Coast. "I wanted to come North for many years.... There were always stories about the Arctic (in her family) ... they talked about the people and the wildlife, mostly the people."

In the past 18 years, Glawson and her husband have become the proud parents of three children. A son lives in Yellowknife, one daughter is at home in Cambridge Bay and another daughter lives in British Columbia.

In the early 1990s, she began to work with the GNWT and is now product development officer for tourism, arts and crafts with the Department of Economic Development.

Last week, she and her fellow staff members at the Arctic Coast Visitors Centre were kept busy becomes of the visit of a cruise ship. "We have three young and very energetic local girls who are visitor's counsellors," she says of her colleagues at work.

More than 70 American tourists took in the sites around Cambridge Bay with Glawson and her colleagues, among others, acting as their as enthusiastic hosts.

"It feels good here," she says of life in Cambridge Bay. "You contribute to the community and the community welcomes you."

Her answer comes quickly when asked if she'll ever again head south. "No," she says. "I plan on staying here. This is my home."