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Sports promoter Fort Smith's Brandon Thompson working for Municipal and Community Affairs
Paul Bickford
Northern News Services
Published Monday, June 3, 2013
THEBACHA/FORT SMITH
Brandon Thompson is looking forward to promote sports in various communities in the NWT throughout the summer.
Brandon Thompson of Fort Smith is working as a summer student with the Department of Municipal and Community Affairs to promote sports in various communities. - Paul Bickford/NNSL photo |
Thompson started work on May 21 as a summer student with the Department of Municipal and Community Affairs' (MACA) sport, recreation, youth and volunteerism division in the South Slave.
"Basically, I'll be just doing summer camps in the South Slave region. I'll be the lead for that," he said. "There are also other summer students in the same boat as me, but they're responsible for their regions."
While he will be concentrating on the smaller communities in the South Slave, such as Fort Resolution and the Hay River Reserve, he may also be attending camps in other regions whenever they need help.
"It's just introducing to youth different types of sports that they can get into," Thompson said.
His schedule is still being developed for the summer, but he expects to also be travelling to communities such as Lutsel K'e, Fort Good Hope and Fort Providence.
It is also possible that he might do some work in Fort Smith and Hay River, although those two larger communities are not priorities because they have their own recreation centres and co-ordinators employed by the municipalities.
The 26-year-old said summer students such as himself will most often be specialized in their own sport, such as swimming, traditional games or softball.
Thompson plays volleyball at Concordia College University of Alberta in Edmonton.
"That's my main sport. Basically, we practise five days a week for two hours and then on the weekends you're gone to either Medicine Hat or Lethbridge or Grande Prairie, wherever," he said.
His college is part of an intervarsity volleyball league with the Alberta College Athletic Conference.
"There are 20 teams and you play each team twice," he said.
Thompson said it will be interesting to work for MACA over the summer.
"It's going to be a different experience, that's for sure, because some communities, I've never been to," he said.
Thompson and the other summer students will be working in communities until mid-August. After that, they will have until the end of August to prepare reports for MACA on how the camps went, including how much interest there was in each community.
"They've had it almost every year, but it's a growing program for summer students," Thompson said. "It's getting bigger all over the North. MACA is trying to reach out to every single community and trying to hit every community."
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