At work or at play, Keenan-Bengts likes to get the job done
Darren Campbell
Northern News Services
Yellowknife (Apr 30/01) - Last winter, Elaine Keenan-Bengts spent many a frosty Saturday afternoon parked in a Hummer sports utility vehicle around Yellowknife, trying to sell raffle tickets.
The raffle for the $150,000 Hummer was a fund-raising effort by the Yellowknife Gymnastics Club to help raise money to build the Northern Athletic Training Centre. And as club president, Keenan-Bengts was a driving force behind it.
It couldn't have been much fun, "flogging" the monster truck, as she puts it. But Keenan-Bengts, a self-described "doer," along with several other members of the club, did just that.
The club ended up making $20,000 on the raffle, which ran from October to April 1.
"It was a lot of work for $20,000," said Keenan-Bengts.
However, Keenan-Bengts does not mind work, as long as things get done. And make no mistake, she believes the training centre will be built.
"We're going to get this done," said Keenan-Bengts. "We have to."
But more on the training centre later. This family law lawyer started her Northern tour of duty in 1970.
The second oldest of four siblings, she arrived in Yellowknife when her father, Jack Keenan, got a job with the phone company.
It was not supposed to be a long stay for the Keenan family.
"We were going to stay for two years and leave but (Yellowknife) kind of grew on us," said Keenan-Bengts.
She admits she was a bit of a bookworm during her days at St. Patrick high school. She was involved in non-athletic activities like the debating team, the photo club and student council. In fact, she was student council president during her Grade 12 year in 1975-76.
"You know, I was a bit of a nerd. I was more academically inclined than athletically inclined," said Keenan-Bengts, who did play volleyball in high school.
Focusing on academic pursuits served her well. She graduated at the top of her class, albeit a small class of 12.
Keenan-Bengts also got plenty of chances to test her intellect at home. Her father was a lover of politics -- he served on the Catholic school board and was heavily involved with the Liberal party in the NWT.
The politically-minded father and his daughter debated a lot at home and about a wide range of topics. Jack Keenan died in 1978 from a heart attack. Her mother, Jeanne, now lives in Edmonton.
Career in law
After St. Pat's, Keenan-Bengts left for Edmonton and the University of Alberta to study political science. After getting her undergraduate degree, she was accepted into the University of Alberta law school at the age of 20.
Keenan-Bengts said the profession always appealed to her.
"I saw lawyers as people who got to argue. I enjoyed debating, I always enjoyed making my case and developing arguments," said Keenan-Bengts. "I can't ever remember wanting to be anyone else."
By 1982, Keenan-Bengts had graduated from law school and moved back North to Yellowknife. She articled in her hometown with the firm of Searle, Richard and Kingsmill -- now Peterson, Stang and Malakoe. She stayed there until 1988, when she opened her own practice.
Although she didn't intend it, she drifted into family law. She admits she tried to avoid it but many of her customers were family law clients and that became her professional niche.
"I don't think I chose it, it chose me," said Keenan-Bengts of family law. "I liked it and I was fairly good at it. The reputation was that I was a family law lawyer."
Keenan-Bengts said family law is a "difficult" area of the profession.
It is the product of dealing with families falling apart at the seams.
"You're dealing with people with their rawest emotions showing," said Keenan-Bengts. "Frankly, you see people at their worst."
Busy family
Providing Keenan-Bengts with balance in her life is her sporting activities and her family.
While she admits to not being the best athlete in the world, this mother of three girls keeps active. Since returning to Yellowknife in the early 1980's, she has spent her summers playing slo-pitch and her winters playing volleyball, when she isn't at the gymnastics club.
The Keenan-Bengts household is a busy one. She and husband of almost 20 years, Peter Bengts, who works for the Workers' Compensation Board and coaches soccer in his spare time, have three active daughters. Fifteen-year-old Amanda and 12-year-old twins Stacie and Lauren are all involved in sports.
"Our weekends are crazy," said Keenan-Bengts.
It was her daughters' involvement in gymnastics that eventually landed Keenan-Bengts in club's president's chair.
While her three daughters were with the club (Amanda has dropped out to focus on soccer) the Yellowknifer signed on with the club executive. Three years ago she became president.
Keenan-Bengts has been involved for 12 years. For the past 10 years, club members have dreamed of building a facility all their own.
The club has had to train in less than ideal conditions over the years. Their former home was now demolished gym at Weledeh Catholic school.
Two summers ago, renovations at Weledeh forced the club to move into an unused City of Yellowknife building on Old Airport Road in the fall of 1999. The club has made it their home but they could be forced out at any time if the City ever sells the building.
Simply put, the club needs to get the Northern Athletic Training Centre built.
"We certainly can't stay where we are," said Keenan-Bengts. "It's a great temporary solution but it is only a temporary solution."
The club's vision for the centre is that it will not just be a gymnastics training ground but a home for a number of sports clubs.
"There's so much potential for this facility to help talented kids to do better," said Keenan-Bengts. "It will provide cross-training for soccer kids, swimmers and figure skaters. It can only help all those groups."
Over the past 10 years the club has raised close to $400,000. The building is estimated to cost $750,000-800,000 to build.
With almost half the money raised, Keenan-Bengts thinks they can now convince a bank to lend them the rest of the money they need. She hopes they can break ground on the centre by this fall.
Which brings us back to the Hummer raffle. When the club came up with the idea they hoped to raise $60,000.
It was a very ambitious fund-raising effort for the club. However, despite all the flogging from Keenan-Bengts and other club board members like Ben Webber and Denise Robinson, they sold just over 12,000 tickets and made $20,000.
While the Hummer raffle did not raise much money, it did accomplish something the club didn't intend and something that could end up being more valuable than a large chunk of cash.
"The Hummer did one thing for us ... it did raise our profile," said Keenan-Bengts. "Until the Hummer (raffle) I don't think people knew what we were doing."
They know now.
