ARVIAT - Community members in Arviat got the chance to show off their rock collections earlier this month.

Mine training co-ordinator Elisapee Karetak said her office was looking for a way to get community members interested in the day-to-day operations of her workplace.

Lucy Amarudjuak's black mudstone rock displays a trilobite fossil. Amarudjuak won first place after a community rock-sharing event in Arviat in July 2009 - photo courtesy of Mikilaaq Centre

"We had a pretty slow winter so we wanted people to come see our office and to learn where I work and where our team works, so we thought of some ideas we could do over the summer to have some activities for the community," she said.

Karetak said the idea came after the spring melt this year revealed the many interesting rocks around the community.

"We thought maybe people would have a collection of their favourite rocks that they could bring into our office," Keretak said. "There was a very good response. People brought in all sorts of their favourite rocks."

The rocks were put on display and judged by two elders and an office manager to choose the best rock.

Lucy Amarudjuak won first place for her rock, which was black mudstone and contained a trilobite fossil.

Karetak said the office's geologist helped label the rocks with their scientific names and shared information with community members.

"People were able to look at the rocks with a magnifying glass and we were able to tell them what kind of rocks they were and the approximate age of the rocks," she said.

She said many people had already named their rocks based on what the rocks looked like.

"People were very excited to bring their rocks. They even had names for them which made it a lot more fun," she said. "There was a lard and bacon slab and one was walrus meat and blubber."

Karetak said the office's personal collection was also put on display.

"Our office has a lot of rock collections we got from mines or from prospectors so they belong to the office but we opened it up to the community," she said.

She said people enjoyed the event so much that her office is planning on making it an annual event.

"We want to do it right after the spring cleanup so we'll have an incentive to get our community cleaned up," she said. "We want to do it in early summer and we would like to do it again next year."