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Lewis Beck points the way for some visitors to the Pehdzeh Ki Spiritual Gathering in Wrigley. At any given moment Beck could be found co-ordinating security, chopping wood, setting up tents, picking up litter, lugging sundry items and patiently answering questions.

A friend indeed

Derek Neary
Northern News Services

Wrigley (Aug 26/05) - Sometimes a person so kind and helpful comes along that it's almost impossible to say enough good about them.

That's how Stella Pellissey feels about Lewis Beck, and she's not alone.

Pellissey met Beck four years ago when he and his wife Louise moved to Wrigley. In the short time they stayed, Lewis started a theatre company and a fiddling group. He continues to return to assist the aspiring young fiddlers in the community. He also is a key organizer of the annual Pehdzeh Ki Spiritual Gathering.

Soft-spoken and modest, his giving nature has endeared him to the community, according to Pellissey.

"The people in Wrigley really like him," she said. "I've never met anyone who's so generous with his time. He's just a wonderful person."

Josh Baton, 16, is one of the students who has benefitted from the introduction of fiddling in Wrigley.

"He's been helpful a lot," Baton said of Beck. "He enjoys taking us to places where there's fiddling going on."

Largely due to Beck's imitative, chapters of the Kole Crook Fiddle Association have sprung up in Fort Providence, Fort Simpson, Jean Marie River, Hay River and Fort Smith, which is Beck's home town.

"He does it for the love of fiddling and the love of the kids," said Pellissey. "He's the catalyst of what we've been doing."

Beck said it was Kole Crook, the young fiddling sensation from Hay River who died in a tragic plane crash in 2001, who truly inspired him to begin the movement.

"It really is phenomenal how it seems to be taking off," he said. "It's a privilege, really, to be part of it."

A proponent of the arts, Beck said he's pleased to see how music and visual arts are flourishing at festivals across the NWT.

Having been a helping hand at the Great Northern Arts Festival in Inuvik, the South Slave Friendship Festival in Fort Smith, and the Open Sky Festival in Fort Simpson, he is making a case for having the summer festivals planned and scheduled to complement each other. He is also advocating an annual convention of festival organizers so they can share ideas and resources.

Asked what it is about Wrigley that has made him so loyal, Beck replied, "I guess there's a strong bond with the people, especially the kids. That's a big part of it, for sure."