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Mysterious letter crops up in Iqaluit

Kent Driscoll
Northern News Services

Iqaluit (Aug 29/05) - If you ask people in front of the Storehouse in Iqaluit about the giant green letter "C" that appeared at the end of June, you will get as many answers as people you ask.

The guesses range from "C is for cookie" to "It might mean capital city." Is it a crop circle, a gang symbol or a freak of nature? To get the truth you have to ask Jim Little.

Little is driven to compost and made the letter "C" happen. His group - The Bill MacKenzie Humanitarian Society - is dedicated to encouraging composting in Iqaluit.

Little and his sons - 14-year-old Caleb and eight-year-old Evan - placed compost the group made at Iqaluit land fill in the shape of a "C." They planted grass seeds to show that composting could turn Iqaluit' s brown areas into green areas.

"The 'C' is actually 260 square feet and there is three inches of compost on top of that," explained Little.

After digging out the rocks, and placing the compost, they put a small layer of sand on top.

Little points out that grass cuts down on erosion, an added benefit.

Until now, Little has been quiet on the origin of the "C," hoping for people to question it on their own. "I would go by and water it and people would stop and ask me. I'd tell them that 'C' was the first letter of my girlfriend's name," said Little with a laugh.

He added that the board of the humanitarian society wanted to "keep the illusion of crop circles" to keep people asking.