Home page

Text size

E-mail this page

ARVIAT
A 17-year-old Arviat youth has returned from a hockey crash course, and after a season in which her community's arena was under renovation, she said it felt good to be back on the ice.

Arviat's Charlotte Karetak is pictured on the ice at the Canadian International Hockey Academy in Clarence-Rockland, Ont., in mid-July. - Jeff Turner/Project North photo

"My favourite part of the week would be going on the ice and being able to just play hockey during the summer and meeting new people," said Charlotte Karetak.

With the help of Project North, Karetak went to a week-long hockey camp at the Canadian International Hockey Academy in Clarence-Rockland, Ont., returning to Arviat on July 22.

"In the morning, we would go on the ice at 9 a.m. and we would work on our skating

and right after the on-ice practice we would go to the gym and work out for about an hour," said Karetak, describing a typical day at the academy. "Then we go back on the ice at 1:30 p.m. and work on our passing, our stick-handling ... and then after that we would do team-building together and try to get to know each other and basically just work with each other."

The 17-person group would return to the ice at 6 p.m. to scrimmage and then do other activities. Karetak said she definitely strengthened her game while at the camp.

"I improved a lot, especially with skating and being able to keep my head up high and still know where the puck is, and help my muscles build up and my shooting," she said.

Hockey has been a huge part of Karetak's life since she started playing at age five. She doesn't yet know how it will fit into her future, she said, but right now she gets on the ice whenever she can – going as far as travelling to other communities in and out of Nunavut to get some practice.

Project North is a not-for-profit organization that provides sporting equipment and educational opportunities for children living in Nunavut, according to Project North president Michelle Valberg.

"The Canadian International Hockey Academy actually contacted me because at the time their director was a former RCMP (officer) up in the Arctic." said Valberg. "He really liked our program so he invited us out to see the Canadian Hockey Academy, out in Rockland and we were thoroughly impressed. It's a beautiful, beautiful facility."

During a British High Commissioners fundraiser, the two organizations started talking about bringing Nunvummiut to a summer camp for kids, and Project North was offered spots for girls to join the summer hockey camp in Rockland.

Karetak is happy she went. Hockey, she said, "is a huge thing for me."

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