Karen Mackenzie
Northern News Services
Published Monday, September 3, 2007

IQALUIT - It's the final day of the Qikiqtani Inuit Association's popular Sprouts program, and the parish hall has been transformed into a giant, giggly game show.

Trevor Eetuk plays Plinko in the Iqaluit parish hall as part of the Qikiqtani Inuit Association's Sprouts program. - Karen Mackenzie/NNSL photo

About 20 young participants, grouped according to their coloured jerseys, cheer each other on as they are quizzed on Inuktitut vocabulary or challenged to finish-the-sentence.

"We're always talking about respect - respecting yourself, respecting others, respecting the land," says Becky Kilabuk, the Qikiqtani Inuit Association's (QIA) regional youth programs co-ordinator. "We are an Inuit organization - Inuit staff and Inuit kids - and respect is very important for our culture."

The QIA-funded day camp, which ran from July 27 to Aug. 24, attracted about 25 kids aged four to 13 this year.

Priority was given to children from large families or with lower incomes, who might otherwise find it difficult to afford organized summertime activities.

Besides Kilabuk, six youth leaders were hired to co-ordinate games, activities and healthy, homemade lunches.

As a program "run by youth, for the youth," its young employees were encouraged to be resourceful and plan the schedule together.

"In the end I like to think the students have gained a lot of meaningful experience, not just stocking shelves in a grocery store," Kilabuk says.

Dwayne Nowdlak, a 19-year-old originally from Pangnirtung, says he learned a lot working with youth on a daily basis.

"I'm more open to the kids now, talking to the kids," he says.

Aside from shuttling his charges to activities like skating and swimming, he recently spent four days creating an Inuktitut syllabic word search for the kids.

The puzzle features 85 words for body parts, like quturaq - thigh - or qungasi - neck.

"We went to go interview elders so we were asking about body parts. A couple days later I was thinking maybe kids can learn it too," Nowdlak says.

For Laurie Nakasuk, 13, it was simply a good place to hang out with friends during the long summer days. "I thought it was fun and my friends told me to go there," she says, sitting in the back row of the game show crowd. "I made some new friends too."