Inuvik - More than 100 people filled Ingamo Hall to capacity on Nov. 23.

The hall was host to a community feast which marked the official end of Addictions Awareness Week, Nov. 18 to 24.

Sarah Tingmiak, Esther McLeod and Susan Gordon, left to right, enjoy the feast. - Philippe Morin/NNSL photos

Guest speakers also spoke about their experiences with alcoholism and its effect on their families.

Fort McPherson's Bella Kaye said she had grown up with alcoholism in the home.

She then shared personal stories about alcohol's grip, and how it can seem impossible for some people to be sober.

But with enough effort, she said, it's possible.

"You don't focus on the upcoming year, you focus on the next 24 hours," she said.

"Sobriety is one day at a time."

Grace Blake said she herself had battled alcoholism for 15 years.

She said she managed to stop drinking with the help of Alcoholics Anonymous and the Delta House treatment centre.

"I recommend that we have such a place in Inuvik because it sure helped me," she said.

Before an audience of elders, parents and young children, she also spoke about her son's suicide.

He took his own life when he was 31 and a father of five.

"I never thought I could have raised him only for him to take his own life," she said tearfully.

Across Ingamo Hall - where only a few minutes earlier people had been laughing, eating cake and saying hello to friends over the dinner table - there was absolute and respectful silence.