Darrell Greer
Northern News Services

Rankin Inlet (July 03/02) - Kids in four Kivalliq hamlets are being introduced to the joys of reading once again this summer.

Kate Baldwin is a recent political graduate at Queen's University in Kingston, Ont.

Baldwin and three other university students are travelling across the Kivalliq delivering Literacy Camps in four communities.

The students are part of the Queen's University Project on International Development (QUPID).

The program has been coming to the Kivalliq for the past few years, with a different group of students running the camps each summer.

This year's group of university students is quite diversified. In addition to Baldwin's political background, one student is studying education, one engineering and one sciences.

"The four of us are in Baker Lake now," says Baldwin.

"After Baker, two of us will go to Whale Cove and two will go to Repulse Bay. All four of us will then move on to Arviat."

The university students spend about three weeks in each community conducting the reading camps.

They volunteer for the program to gain experience in doing educational-development work, as well as living in a rural community with a cross-cultural environment.

Baldwin says the camp has been attracting about 50 kids every day in Baker.

The program has three different slots, with kids aged five to seven coming in the morning, eight to 11 in the afternoon and 12 to 15 in the early evening.

"We do a lot of reading, obviously, and we play some games that have reading involved, such as Pictionary.

"We'll also make up little plays or skits to help make reading fun for the kids."

Baldwin says she tried hard not to have any preconceived expectations on the reading skills of kids in the four Kivalliq hamlets.

She was, however, a little concerned about how they would react to a summer reading camp.

"In terms of motivation, it's been going much better than I thought. Overall, the kids really seem to be enjoying it," she says.

"Even the kids who aren't really strong readers are comfortable sitting down, looking through a book and trying to read it."