Richard Gleeson
Northern News Services

CAMBRIDGE BAY (Sep 06/99) - It was a while before she could bear to face the destruction, but by the time she did Cathie Rowan was prepared for the worst.

Rowan's cabin was one of a number in the Cambridge Bay area that have been vandalized this summer.

The vice-principal of Kullik Ilihakvik was in Ontario vacationing when she got the bad news.

Friends Steve and Brenda Mercer discovered it, then boarded up the broken windows to protect what was left of the interior. They called Rowan to break the bad news.

"My first question was, 'How bad?'" recalled Rowan. "They said, 'Trashed.' and it wasn't an exaggeration."

All the windows were broken, cupboards were torn from the walls, food was smeared on the floor, walls and ceiling.

"I went out and inspected that cabin and it broke my heart to see that," said Cambridge Bay Mayor Wilf Wilcox.

For three years, the cabin had been a refuge from the workaday life of town, a place she referred to as her "happy space." The single mother of two bought the cabin from friends with a small inheritance she received when her father died. Rowan did not have the money or skill to deal with the damage on her own.

On Friday, Aug. 27, Rowan saw a message principal Don Wilson had written on the white board in the school office -- Cathy's cabin clean-up, 2 p.m. Sunday.

"About an hour before we went out there, I started for the first time to get teary-eyed, because I thought I was going to have to deal with it myself," said Rowan.

"When I got there trucks and ATVs pulled up, the church minister was there, colleagues from school, my friends and my friends' children."

People brought cleaning equipment, a shop vac, shovels, refreshments and food -- including a batch of muffins baked by Helen Maksagak.

Rowan said she had promised herself, shortly after hearing news of the destruction, not to let it get her down or start thinking negatively of others because of the actions of a few. Any sense of loss she was feeling was erased by the outpouring of help.

"It just restored everything I needed to know," said Rowan. "Everything was right with my world."

A 12-year-old has been arrested in connection with the incident.

Rowan emphasized the experience has done nothing to diminish her opinion of young people.

She noted there were more youths than adults helping with the cleanup.