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A place to go Paul Bickford Northern News Services Published Monday, October 17, 2011
The youth centre and attached 10-by-15-metre outdoor pool have quickly become key elements of the community's recreation facilities. Summer Nicholls, 13, succinctly summed up the importance of the youth centre and the pool to the young people of Fort Resolution. "It's a way for kids to connect and learn more and have fun in the summer when there's nothing to do, or in winter because I know that it gets really boring," she said. Nicholls thinks the youth centre and the pool, which was recently drained for the winter, are awesome. "It's so fun because we barely have anything in town," she said. Isaac Simon, 11, said the youth centre and pool are pretty cool. "It's important to a lot of people because this is probably the first big thing we have," he said, noting the swimming pool was especially a lot of fun when it was opened. The youth centre has lots of things to keep young people busy - computers, video games, stereo equipment, table hockey, a pool table, foosball and much more. Vanessa Sanderson, the recreation programmer with the Hamlet of Fort Resolution, said the youth centre and pool opened in September, and the pool was running for a week before the weather turned too cold for it to stay open. Sanderson noted about 30 kids turned up for the first day the youth centre and pool were open. As for the reaction, she said, "It was really good." Adopting a description used by many of the young people, Sanderson said the new facility is awesome. "It just gives the kids a place to go and hang out, and be on their own," she said. "We got them to do their own rules for this place, because it's their place. So they sat on the floor and they did all the rules." The young people came up with about 15 rules, including no bullying, no drugs and no alcohol. Eddy McKay, manager of capital projects with the Hamlet of Fort Resolution, said the youth centre and pool cost about $1.8 million. Of that amount, more than $400,000 came from the GNWT's Community Capacity Development Fund, in an agreement among Deninu Ku'e First Nation, the Fort Resolution Metis Council and the Hamlet of Fort Resolution. About $980,000 came from the Building Canada Fund and the remainder from capital infrastructure money provided to the hamlet by the territorial government. Construction took almost a year for the new centre, which does not yet have an official name. "Hopefully, the youth will take some leadership in programming for themselves," McKay said. Chief Louis Balsillie of Deninu Ku'e First Nation welcomed the new facility. "The youth centre is an excellent thing for our community," he said. However, Balsillie would like to see the hours of the youth centre expanded. Currently, it is open from 3:30-5:30 p.m. and from 7-10 p.m. Sunday through Thursday, and 2-4 p.m. and 7-11 p.m. on Friday and Saturday. Balsillie said some teenagers hang around the band's DKDC Store (formerly Stan's Quick Stop) when the youth centre is not open. In November of last year, Deninu Ku'e First Nation opened a temporary youth centre in a band-owned building while the new one was being built. "We're just looking out for the best for our children," Balsillie said. "That's why we started that other youth centre because there was no place for the kids to go." The temporary youth centre was open for about nine months. Equipment such as TVs, Xboxes and computers from the temporary centre have been transferred to the new facility. Balsillie said, right from the day it opened, there was no damage to the temporary youth centre. "The kids were there and they respected it," the chief said. "I hope they do the same with the new one."
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