Inuvik (Mar 28/03) - The annual career fair was held in Inuvik last week, bringing students from all over the Delta together to a trade show of choices for their future.

A star-studded cast of speakers met with the students at Samuel Hearne Senior secondary school on Thursday to share their experiences.

The morning speakers included Roger Allen, MLA for Inuvik Twin Lakes, and Inuvialuit Regional Corporation CEO Nellie Cournoyea while in the afternoon the gymnasium was packed for another group of home town heroes.

Commissioner Glenna Hansen attended school at Samuel Hearne and she reminded the students that good career choices are made very early.

"I did a little bit of walking the halls here and I skipped a few classes and I had a good time while I was in school," Hansen said.

"Some of the choices I made were positive, some were negative, but nevertheless, here I am, the commissioner of the Northwest Territories."

Floyd Roland, MLA for Inuvik Boot Lake, said that opportunity abounds for those willing to take some chances and apply some effort.

"I started as a tradesperson and here I am now as MLA, so things can change, but we need to make the right choices when these opportunities arise," he said.

Inuvik Mayor Peter Clarkson reminded the students that good decisions now will provide many more opportunities for the future.

Clarkson recalled his small country school where there were two Grade 9 classes and only one Grade 10 class.

"Between Grade 9 and 10, about 40 per cent of the students dropped out," Clarkson said.

"By dropping out in Grade 10, they closed a lot of doors that were open to the rest of us," he added.

"It's easy to close doors, but the more doors you keep open, the more fun and the more challenges you'll have in the future."

Canadian North pilot Cecil Hansen started out flying with Fred Carmichael in his home town of Aklavik and went on to fly around the world.

"After school and on weekends, I'd wash his windshields, I'd pop his floats, I'd clean his airplanes, I'd sweep his floor, just for a chance to catch a ride," Hansen recalled.

"That was my introduction to aviation, but I was hooked."

"We all want to advance in life and we all want to get ahead, but we have to take advantage of any opportunity," he said.

Hansen's opportunity came flying for Dome Petroleum in the 1980s, but when the oil patch dried up here, he went to work with Wardair flying over Europe, Mexico and the West Indies.

When Wardair was sold, Hansen went flying in Australia in the early 1990s where he flew the Boeing 747 400 -- he said that was the pinnacle of his flying career.

After the terrorist attacks on the U.S. on Sept. 11, 2001, Hansen said the industry changed forever and his airline was one of the first casualties.

"That morning, I stranded 393 passengers in Brisbane, Australia, and worse than that, 16,000 people were out of work," he recalled.

He came back to Canada and went to work with Canadian North. He says the best flight he ever flew was when he returned home on the stick of a 737 last year.

Sharon Firth and her twin sister Shirley grew up on a Delta trapline and went on to became two of the best cross-country skiers Canada has ever seen.

Sharon told the students they owe it all to dreaming big dreams.

"Our dreams took us all the way to the Olympic Games," Firth said.

Setting and reaching goals saw the Firth sisters through four Winter Olympics.

"Every year, Shirley and I would set goals like that," she said.

"My dream was to be a tap dancer," Firth said.

"I wanted to be a tap dancer with Frank Sinatra."

She never got to dance with Old Blue Eyes, but her skiing career took her to Russia, Japan, Norway, Finland, Sweden and Germany.

She told the students that is all available to them too, with some hard work, some goals gained and some dreams dreamed.

"If you young people set your minds to doing these things, you can achieve this too."