.

Home page

Text size

E-mail this page

TTHENAAGO/NAHANNI BUTTE - When temperatures dropped into the -40 C range in Nahanni Butte at the beginning of the month a new structure in the community ensured students could still have physical education periods.

The long awaited gymnasium in Nahanni Butte is open for use.

The new community gymnasium in Nahanni Butte is already being put to use by residents. - photo courtesy of Wayne Ingarfield

Construction on the building, which started in January 2008, finished in December. The gym was ready for use on Dec. 16, just in time to hold a Christmas concert and feast the following day.

Community members are really excited about the gym, said Chief Fred Tesou, of the Nahanni Butte Dene Band.

"It looks really good. I'm really pleased with it," he said.

The community will hold a grand opening for the building later in the winter, but a date hasn't been set yet, said Tesou.

Arcan Construction Ltd., a company based in Hay River, built the structure, which cost a little more than $3 million, said Curt Snook, the regional superintendent for the Department of Public Works and Services in the South Slave.

The building has an area of 505 square metres (5,440 square feet) and contains a 327-square-metres gym, big enough for a regulation sized volleyball court or two badminton courts. The building also includes two change rooms with washrooms, a small kitchen and cafe, an office and an observation room looking into the gym, said Snook.

Despite being ready for use, a few tasks on the outside of the building that are temperature sensitive won't be completed until the weather is better, said Snook. The tasks include putting the final siding on the building.

Nahanni Butte is the last community in the Deh Cho to receive a gym.

It took a long campaign by staff and students at the Charles Yohin school before the territorial government promised the structure. Wayne Ingarfield, the school's principal, remembers starting to pressure for a gym approximately 10 years ago.

"It's a sense of accomplishment," said Ingarfield about seeing the finished product.

The students who helped start the campaign knew they probably wouldn't be in the community to see the final project, but worked on it any ways because they thought it was important, said Ingarfield. The completed gym impressed the former students, who were back in the community over the holidays, he said.

The gym is already providing benefits to current students who've played basketball and floor hockey in it when temperatures were too cold to have physical education periods outside.

"They love it," he said.

Next week a Beaver volunteer from the Frontiers Foundation will arrive to run recreation activities in the community. The activities could include after school and evening activities in the gym, Ingarfield said.

Ingarfield hopes the building will become a place that all community members, not just the students, use to build healthier lifestyles.

"Hopefully it will make a difference in the community in the long term," said Ingarfield.