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Another adventure in literacy education Fort Simpson schoolswelcome Beaver volunteer Miranda Scotland Northern News Services Published Thursday, Sept. 20, 2012
"I started to feel that I wanted to do something for the people in my own country and wondered how I could get involved," Ericson said. "Luckily, on New Year's Day I found an ad on the Internet about volunteering with Frontiers Foundation as a Beaver volunteer in Northern aboriginal communities." Frontiers Foundation is a non-profit voluntary service organization. The organization has stationed Ericson at Bompas Elementary School and Thomas Simpson School in Fort Simpson where she will be helping kids improve their literacy skills throughout the school year. "I really hope I can help them as literacy is very important," she said. For the past 10 years, Ericson has been teaching English in countries all over the world, including China, Russia and Peru. She has also volunteered with Literacy Victoria. Ericson, who arrived Aug. 29 and is staying with a host family in the village, said she is already really enjoying seeing a new side of Canada. "It actually feels good because sometimes when you go to these countries you don't know the language and it's very difficult to manage … you always have to count on somebody else to help you and here it's so neat because I'm in a different culture but I know what everybody is saying," she said. Last week, Ericson joined the students from Bompas for their cultural camp where she learned how to make slingshots, went fishing and picked Labrador tea. This week she is going with the high school students to Burnt Island. The students have been great, she said, adding everyone has been very welcoming and accepting of her. "I expected (the children) to be more shy somehow but they're not," she said. Ericson was a gutsy young woman growing up. At the age of 21 she left her home in Sweden to travel to Canada. She came for the adventure and expected to stay for just six months but 44 years later she is still here, she said. Over the years, Ericson has lived in various British Columbia communities including Vancouver, Duncan, Kelowna and now Victoria. She is the mother of two children and raised three aboriginal foster children. Through her foster children, she connected with the aboriginal community in Duncan, she said. But now, Ericson said, she is looking forward to getting to know the community members in Fort Simpson better and is excited to see the Northern lights and do some skiing and snowshoeing when the snow comes.
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