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SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE - Downtown can be an ugly place where the struggle and pain of life on the street is on display for all to see.

For the past four years, Tanya Ramm has brought a little beauty to the downtown nightlife.

The flower vendor carries a basket of roses through the bars from 10 p.m. until 1 a.m. or later so folks can buy a gift for a sweetheart or friend.

It takes her about an hour and a half to individually wrap about a hundred red, white, pink, blue, purple and peach-coloured roses in tinted cellophane before heading out on her late night circuit.

The roses move quickest at The Raven, she said, where women are her main customers. At the Gold Range more men buy flowers.

Ramm also visits Harley's Hard Rock Saloon and the Elks Club.

In the summer she sells roses four nights a week. In the winter she only goes out on Fridays and Saturdays because of academic commitments.

Ramm is entering her second year of the four-year social work program at Aurora College.

She completed the school's criminal justice program in Inuvik a few years ago.

"I see too many bad things happen," she said.

"I see a lot of kids in the streets, in the back alleys especially. I've seen some nine-year-olds walking down the main streets at 1:30 in the morning and waiting outside the bars for their parents. That's really sad."

Ramm hopes to make a difference by applying her education to a career in the justice field. In the meantime she is making a difference by setting an example for the rest of us.

"I like kids and I want to help people," she said. "I feel for the street people. Everybody has their own story. I'm polite and nice to all of them."