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SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE - Three Yellowknifers were honoured this weekend at NWT Tourism's annual awards ceremony highlighting Northern tourism operators.

Kelly Cumming took home the Service Excellence Award for her work as assistant office manager at Blachford Lake Lodge.

Kelly Cumming, left, this year's winner of NWT Tourism's Service Exellence Award, encourages guests at Blachford Lake Lodge to take in the sights and smells during a guided nature walk. Also pictured here are, from left, hostess Sonia Erraud, guest David Johnson, chef Marc Andre Ferland and guests Nicola Finley and Jennifer Geens. - Guy Quenneville/NNSL photo

Cumming, born in Yellowknife, has done everything from cleaning rooms and emptying the compost toilet system to giving tours since starting at Blachford a year and a half ago. What started as a casual gig culminated in a stay at the lodge over break-up, where she tended to Kodiak Exploration workers drilling in the outlying area.

"They were there for six weeks so we really got to bond. It was almost like they were staff members in that they were there for a long time," said Cumming. "They definitely had unique perspectives on the North in that they weren't coming to appreciate what was around when they were there, in contrast to our regular visitors who are there to enjoy their natural environment."

A graduate of Native and Canadian Studies at Trent University, Cumming has an insatiable love of the land that is best on display when she takes Blachford guests out for guided walks on a four-km trail surrounding the lodge.

On one tour last fall, she encouraged her tour members to smell and taste the many types of moss and lichen that littered the trail and even started a collective effort to round up juniper berries the chef used to spice up his tomato soup for lunch.

Mike Freeland, Blachford's owner, said guests who stayed with Cumming at Blachford one weekend nominated her for the award. He threw in a nomination for her himself, writing in his submission, "Her product knowledge is excellent - from history of the lake and area, to wildlife, plants, flowers and what fun activities to partake in."

Greg Robertson, owner of Bluefish Services in Old Town, was named Operator of the Year.

Robertson, who's also an accountant, almost never made it to Yellowknife, where he has worked as a fishing guide on Great Slave Lake for the last 26 years.

"I always wanted to come North for adventure and I was heading for Whitehorse, but a job came up here with the GNWT Department of Finance," said Robertson.

When the summer comes to an end, Robertson does some accounting work for the GNWT and several non-profit groups, but taking people out on the water is his first love.

"It's very exciting and rewarding to take people out in a state where people are having fun," said Robertson.

"I cater to a lot of first-time fishermen, especially older people.

"To be with them when they catch their first fish is very rewarding, and to get paid on top of that..."

The late Jim Peterson, former owner of Peterson's Point Lake Lodge 300 km north of Yellowknife, was honoured with the Mike Stillwell Lifetime Achievement Award.

A slideshow with several photos of Peterson, who passed away this spring, played to the sound of Frank Sinatra's "My Way."

Peterson's son Chad accepted the award on his father's behalf.