Home page

Text size

E-mail this page

IQALUIT
When Pierre Wolfe heard that one of his friends and another friend's girlfriend were likely killed in the Feb. 26 Creekside Village fire, he knew he had to do something to help the survivors. So at 10 p.m. Feb. 29, he started a 24-hour walk along Iqaluit's ring road.

Pierre Wolfe and friend Jimmy Kilabuk pass the 17-hour mark of Pierre's 24-hour walk-a-thon around Iqaluit to raise money for victims of the Feb. 26 fire. - Casey Lessard/NNSL photo

"The firefighters fought the fire for 17 hours with all that heavy equipment on," he said of his motivation. "I used to walk hunting with my friends 18 or 19 hours a day with a caribou on my back, so I figured a 24-hour walk shouldn't be that hard."

Dressed for the winter weather, he headed out with support from others who wanted to join him.

"Growing up, we were taught that if anybody needs help, you do what you can," he said. "Everybody will be walking in a circle. A circle is togetherness, and togetherness is healing."

Before taking his first step, he had raised just under $1,000 for the victims.

Money has been coming in from all over the territory, Canada and Greenland since the fire at Creekside Village destroyed 22 homes.

Elisapee Itulu, one of four from Kimmirut who lost a home in the fire, was overwhelmed by the support.

"I was thinking, 'How am I going to manage?'" she said, thinking about the hours after the fire. "I tried to get some items for my sisters and my boy. We don't even have any money. How? I didn't expect the next day that everything was there for us through donations. It's really awesome."

Property owner Nunastar Properties committed $25,000 right away. Other donations include $20,000 from Baffinland and $10,000 from Northwestel; Nunavut Tunngavik Inc., First Nations Bank and the United Church each pitched in $5,000; and Greenland's Red Cross offered 50,000 kroner, or about CAD$8,800. Donation figures from the Canadian Red Cross were not immediately available.

North West Company and Arctic Ventures, as well as other Iqaluit businesses, have offered gift vouchers for their stores.

The volume of donated goods is so overwhelming that some donations from Ottawa are being redirected to charities in that city, Iqaluit Mayor Madeleine Redfern said.

Nunavummiut on the ground started pitching in right away. Members of Nunavut's Arctic Winter Games teams helped sort donations at Nunavut Arctic College's Ukkivik gymnasium.

The parents of Jayko Akeeagok, Grise Fiord's only athlete at this year's Arctic Winter Games, had been fundraising for weeks to offset the costs of joining him in Whitehorse. When they heard news of the fire in Iqaluit, their priorities shifted.

"I lost two brothers in a fire, so I understand what they're going through," said Jayko's dad Amon, who will now be staying home so his half of the money raised can go to the fire victims. "A little town like this, people tend to be touched by whatever happens in other towns in Nunavut. A single mother from here (lost her home in the fire)."

Before the news of the fire, the family had raised $1,300, and kept $650 to offset the costs for mom Neevee Kakkee's $5,000 flight to Whitehorse. Kakkee, who knows the mother of the two believed to have died, was set to bring the money raised in the community to Iqaluit this weekend en route to the games.

In Clyde River, more than 200 people attended a loonie sale hosted by Ilisaqsivik, which raised more than $1,000 in three hours Feb. 28.

About 30 people attended a similar sale in Kimmirut Feb. 27, raising $790, said Syula Bobinski, whose two sisters, best friend and another friend from the community all lost their homes.

"It was shocking to me," Bobinski said of hearing about the fire. "I wish I could have been there to help them."

Those wishing to donate are asked to donate cash through agencies such as Canadian Red Cross, as more than enough clothing and material donations for the victims have been given already.

We welcome your opinions. Click here to e-mail a letter to the editor.