Darrell Greer
Northern News Services

Rankin Inlet (Apr 14/04) - One good thing can often lead to another.

So it was when a group of individuals attended a family literacy festival in Rankin Inlet about a year ago.

Debbie Montpetit says the group was so impressed by what they witnessed, they decided to plan a similar event.

A year later, the Tell Me A Story Reading Festival was launched.

"We decided we wanted to do something to promote literacy here and modelled our festival after a similar program that's held in Toronto," says Montpetit.

"Those interested showed up for our meetings, we formed a committee, started planning and it all went from there."

Children's author Tololwa Mollel was the first storyteller in what the committee hopes will be an annual event.

Mollel visited Rankin schools and performed a public reading at the Siniktarvik hotel during his stay in Rankin.

"We got really good feedback from the children in the schools," said Montpetit.

"You could tell he was enjoyed because of how many students, who had already heard him in the day, came back to see him again during the evening.

"We were also very pleased to see a few elders attend."

Joining Montpetit on the committee are Gerry Pflueger, Michael Kusugak and school reps Deloris Kent, Sally Waters and Margo Aksalnik.

Montpetit and Kent were the chief fundraisers for the festival, with most of the funds coming from coffee houses and private donations.

"We were able to get Mollel because Michael (Kusugak) is also a children's author and the two of them have attended events together in the past," said Montpetit.

"Mollel's living in Edmonton now and our fundraising efforts paid his fees to come to the festival."

Montpetit says World Literacy paid for Mollel's flight, while the Siniktarvik donated his hotel room and meals. Canadian North donated an airline ticket to raffle.

"The money from the raffle gave us a good start of seed money for next year and we're donating some of his books to the local library and Literacy Council.

"The proceeds from his books sold during the event also went to the festival."