Tara Kearsey
Northern News Services

Rankin Inlet (Oct 16/02) - A representative of the Nunavut Literacy Council was pleasantly surprised at the amount of youth interest in Literacy Week activities.

Goretti Panika, literacy development co-ordinator for the council's office in Rankin Inlet, said she couldn't believe how many students volunteered to help plan Literacy Week events.

Panika never expected to capture too much interest when she visited Alaittuq high school in search of volunteers. But on Sept. 25 at least a dozen teens attended a meeting with plenty of ideas for Literacy Week events.

"Lots of students wanted to help. They made a really big contribution, they had a lot of ideas, they were very keen and they had lots of fun.

"They were so excited. They were even telling all of their friends to join," said Panika.

The students hosted a traditional games tournament at the arena on Sept. 30. The Literacy Council handed out prizes to kids, such as Inuktitut and English books, literacy t-shirts and tote bags.

The students also hosted a teen dance on Friday, Oct. 4, and a community feast on the Sunday night.

Panika said the interest and enthusiasm displayed by the students showed younger children that literacy promotion and volunteering are important to the community.

"So many of the younger kids are looking up to them and they're doing something for a good cause.

"I'm really proud of them," she said.

Pierre Kolit, a former elementary school teacher, organized a Scrabble tournament on the Wednesday night at the Arctic College Learning Centre.

The event has been held during Literacy Week for the past few years.

"I always encourage kids and people in the community to read and write, especially our language and English as a second language too.

"You don't have to be in Grade 12 to win a Scrabble tournament. That's what I'm trying to drive at," he said.

Unfortunately, Kolit said an Inuktitut version of Scrabble is not available yet, but maybe someday.

"We just have too many consonants in our dialect, so it's kind of hard," he said.