RANKIN INLET - Grade 1 students at Leo Ussak Elementary School in Rankin Inlet will all wear knitted hats to keep warm this winter and to keep alive the memory of a former teacher.

Heather Solomon was a popular Grade 1 teacher at the school, known for her caring personality and the time she invested in Girl Guides in the community. She died of cancer in 1998 and since then, her mother, Ann Shiplett, has ensured her daughter's spirit of giving continues at the school by knitting hats each year for every Grade 1 student.

"It's very touching," said Delores Kent, vice-principal, who knew Solomon well. The hats have arrived by mail every year since 1999.

"Last year would have been the year that Heather retired at this school, and so we were surprised to see that the hats arrived again this year," Kent said. The hats are the same knitted pattern that Shiplett used to knit for her daughter.

"Heather always wore that type of hat, that same knitted pattern," said Kent. The students were thrilled when their own hats arrived in various colours, including pink, purple, green and blue.

One student, Simon Alaittuq Wiseman, 6, was so excited that his mother called the school the next day to tell them, said his teacher Barbara Legacy-Porter.

"She said he loves it and wears it all the time and doesn't take it off," said Legacy-Porter. "It's nice that her mom cares about the community and remembers the kids here."

The children wrote thank-you cards in Inuktitut to Shiplett, which will be mailed to her home near Cochin, Sask. There have been a lot of brightly-adorned heads in Rankin Inlet since the hats arrived.

"They all proudly wore them home," said Kent. "They carried the other hats they wore to school."

Kent said the hats were a fitting tribute to Solomon. "We used to do Girl Guides camps in the spring, we'd camp out for two nights and Heather always made sure all the girls wore hats, even going to bed at night. I think it's really touching, that part of it, it was that warmth that continues now."

Solomon also spent time teaching in Coral Harbour and loved the North, Kent said.

"She touched many lives and it's very touching and very fitting that her mother continues to bring her daughter to the forefront always because it's that love and the caring that Heather had for Nunavut."

And what would Simon say to Shiplett if he met her? A shy, quiet "thank you" and a beaming smile as he pulls his new hat on.

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