SANIKILUAQ
Sanikiluaq is bound to create more bookworms in the near future since the community's elementary school has just opened its new library.

The Nuiyak School in Sanikiluaq has opened its new library more than a year after winning Indigo's Adopt-a-School contest. The school received $10,000 to buy new books and materials for staff and students. - photo courtesy of Nicole Wutke

The Nuiyak School, winners of the 2012 Chapters/Indigo Library Makeover Contest, used its prize money – $10,000 from the contest and nearly $4,000 from the community – to purchase thousands of new books for the hamlet's only library.

Nicole Wutke and Gerda Westenenk, both teachers at the school, organized the campaign and helped establish a library committee to make the best use of the winnings.

Wutke said there hadn't been a library at the school for more than 10 years.

"Each classroom did have their own collection of books but there was little organization or knowledge of what each classroom had," Wutke said.

"There is no public library in Sanikiluaq. I started teaching here in September 2011 and made it a goal to build a library for the school. But with no funding and libraries closing all over the country, this contest is the only reason Nuiyak School has a library today."

The majority of the funds were spent on new books but a new rug, a shelving unit and bean bag chairs were purchased to make the room more inviting.

The school's shop teacher, David Mickyuik, built the library a new qamutik bench, a replica of the one at the Legislative Assembly in Iqaluit.

Wutke said the number of books at the school, which had 129 students last year, has grown from "about 200" to "more than 3,000."

"We focused on high-interest low-level books to meet the needs of our students, making sure we covered curriculum themes and areas of interest to the kids," she said.

"We bought every known Inuktitut book published in our dialect, a new set of children dictionaries, a class set of Inuktitut dictionaries and a listening center complete with approximately 20 books with listening CDs to follow along. When you are given a large sum of money it's almost overwhelming – at first we were very cautious on what we were buying, we wanted to make Indigo proud for trusting us with this award."

The library is also equipped with a small computer lab with headphones at each station, where students can play literacy games and learn new skills during class time.

Wutke thanked the staff and students at Nuiyak School, the president of Keewatin Air, Wayne McLeod, Tara Lartar, RCMP officer Shane Lindsay, the Epiphany Lutheran Church in Winnipeg and Shirley Zayac at John Pritchard School for their help in getting new books over the last year.

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