FORT SIMPSON - With her fingers and hands covered in sticky white glue from pasting strips of yarn on a balloon to make a yarn basket, Aleyx Smith was all smiles on July 16.

Aleyx Smith proudly displays her progress on a three dimensional yarn basket at the Blazing Trails summer day camp program in Fort Simpson. - Roxanna Thompson/NNSL photo

Smith was just one of 20 children attending the first day of the Blazing Trails summer day camp program. The one-week program has an art theme and participants were all making yarn baskets as their final craft of the day.

"I like getting messy," said Smith.

One day in, Smith said that she was having a great time with the crafts.

"I like that everyone's having fun and I'm having fun too," Smith said.

Children who want to join in the fun are out of luck unless they have already signed up. Both this week's camp and the science camp scheduled for July 23-27 are already full and have a waiting list of 10 people each, said Tonya Cazon, the Brighter Futures co-ordinator with Liidlii Kue First Nation.

This is the third year that Liidlii Kue First Nation has offered a summer day camp. This year's program is different because the camp has been divided into two weeklong programs with specific themes, said Cazon. This week participants are focusing on the arts.

"It's a time for them to feel free to do some creative expression and learn about the arts," she said.

Art is more than just a way to pass the time, said Cazon. The arts are important for cognitive development and also help people learn to express their feelings, she said.

The camp has tried to incorporate all the streams of art including performance, visual, literary and cultural. Activities will include paper mache, print making, sculpture, creative movement, animation illustration and movie making.

Thursday will be devoted to cultural activities including traditional Dene drum stories, dreamcatchers and handgames.

During the camp participants are being encouraged to try all the activities. The staff tries to make the camp inclusive so it meets the needs of the children, said Cazon.

The camp is being staffed primarily by summer youth workers from the Liidlii Kue First Nation and the Deh Cho Friendship Centre. The youth received two weeks of training prior to the camp during which they focused on communication and leadership skills, said Cazon.

Following the camp, activities will move to a different realm with a week-long science camp.

With funding from Indian and Northern Affairs Canada, the band is bringing in a non-profit group from Toronto called Elephant Thoughts.

The group's goal is to encourage more First Nation youth to become interested in science and see it as a career possibility, she said. The program will draw a link between First Nations' ideas of land stewardship and ecology as well as the other sciences, said Cazon.