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SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
A Yellowknife-based non-profit organization is in the running for a share of the $1-million-dollar Aviva Community Fund this fall.

Girls hike along the Ingraham Trail during girl's hike day at Camp Connections last summer. - photo courtesy of the Foster Family Coalition of the Northwest Territories (FFC-NWT)

Camp Connections, an annual summer youth camp run by the Foster Family Coalition of the Northwest Territories (FFC-NWT), applied for $100,000 to $150,000 in funding to build a new cookhouse lodge and conference centre to serve children and youth living in foster homes throughout the territory.

In January, the NWT SPCA won $300,000 to put toward a future Yellowknife animal shelter as part of the last Aviva competition after earning thousands of online votes on the insurance company's website last winter.

"The Aviva Community Fund would make an incredible difference for Camp Connections," said Pat Strus, coalition president. "I don't think $150,000 is going to cover it, but it will be a good chunk toward the cost."

Strus estimates her organization needs to raise about $500,000 for the project, which would replace the camp's old plywood cookhouse with a winterized building, including a kitchen, meeting rooms, and a 40-seat hall. Located 63 km from Yellowknife on the Ingraham Trail, Camp Connections spans 3.7 hectares along a picturesque sandy esker on the Cameron River next to Reid Lake.

"We could use the cookhouse the way it is for a few more years, but we're holding it together with duct tape," Strus said.

The cookhouse was built decades ago along with most of the other structures at the camp, including four 16-by-24-foot winterized cabins, three summer cabins, and three dilapidated cabins slated for demolition.

"The cookhouse is an important part of being able to use the camp in the winter," Strus said. "We would love to run spring break camps and year-round weekend camps where we could work on life-skills, especially for teens and children in the eight to 12 age range. Our kids deserve it. These are some of our most at-risk kids and we should do anything we can to provide them with positive role models in a cultural context, positive peer support, and healthy life skills."

Camp Connections offers six week-long camp sessions each summer for children and youth aged seven to 18. About 100 to 120 campers participate each summer. About half of them travel from NWT communities outside the Yellowknife area.

The coalition took over the lease for the land, administered by the Department of Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Canada, formerly INAC, from the Tree of Peace Friendship Centre last month. The friendship centre held the lease since the 1980s. The former Territorial Young Campers Association used the campsite as far back as 1967.

In recent years the coalition has taken responsibility for the upkeep of some of the buildings, but its members did not undertake any major upgrades to the ageing infrastructure because the organization was not in charge of the lease.

"The coalition has done a marvellous job renovating and fixing things," said Tree of Peace executive director Joe LeMouel. "A high percentage of those children at Camp Connections are aboriginal and being out on the land learning skills and learning about their culture is very beneficial to them."

Supported in part by the Northern Aboriginal Suicide Prevention Strategy, much of the camp's programming focuses on self-esteem. Activities include 10-day-long canoe trips, hiking excursions, swimming, team sports, and hands-on lessons from visiting artists, elders, hunters, trappers, and RCMP officers.

This summer, campers took part in art workshops led by carver Koomuatuk "Kuzy" Curley and jewelry designer Jamie Look.

"The kids loved it," said Tammy Krivda, the coalition's executive director. "They were all decked out in bone jewelry."

Motivational speaker and songwriter Kiera Kolson also led a workshop for girls on the theme of self-empowerment. Kolson and the girls are collaborating on a camp song over e-mail this winter. Storyteller Rita Chretien introduced drumming to the campers this summer, as well.

The coalition shares the camp with other organizations throughout the spring and summer, including the YWCA, the North Slave Young Offenders Facility, the Territorial Treatment Centre, and school and church groups.

"This is the very beginning of our fundraising," Krivda said.

"We want to push for this funding because the camp means so much to these kids. Kids living in foster homes do not have their futures laid out for them. Camp Connections is something they have control over. They can say, 'I'm going to camp.'"

Voting for the Aviva Community Fund competition ends at 10 a.m. on Wednesday, Nov. 9. To vote for Camp Connections visit www.avivacommunityfund.org.

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