Terry Halifax
Northern News Services

Inuvik (May 30/03) - Inuvik's volunteers were thanked for their efforts Saturday with a night of food and fun at the Midnight Sun Recreation Complex.

Hosted by Municipal and Community Affairs and the Northwest Territories Power Corporation, invited guests were treated to dinner, an awards presentation, and a fun money casino and auction.

More than 78 organizations contribute to helping out Inuvik through sport, arts and cultural organizations were praised for their unpaid efforts at the dinner.

Mayor Peter Clarkson noted the number of organizations on the list and thanked everyone for helping make the town a better place to live.

"We have active recreation, social and cultural groups, active education groups, great service clubs; everybody's pulling together and doing really well," Clarkson said.

Samuel Hearne Senior Secondary school principal Carson Atkinson said volunteers are "the lifeblood of any school and every community."

"Last night we held a school dance; the junior prom," Atkinson said. "Approximately half the staff turned up in some fashion or other to volunteer additional help."

"You can't hire people and you can't pay them to do that kind of thing."

Linda Eccles, manager of the Beaufort Delta SPCA, thanked the volunteers who helped more than 600 dogs find new homes.

Shirley Kisoun introduced the volunteers from Ingamo Hall who make up the oldest volunteer organization in Inuvik, that celebrated their 25th anniversary last year.

"Before we were in the log building we had the youth drop-in centre in the old Hudson's Bay building," she said. "We've come a long way since then."

After the speeches, presentations and dinner, volunteers were treated to a fun casino, played with Monopoly money.

Guests tried their luck at the wheel of fortune, blackjack tables and a dinosaur race, where they could try to win money for an auction held later.

The volunteers bid their winnings on steaks, gravel, electronics and clothing items.