Winter schedule heats up
A gamut of activities being planned by friendship centre's youth co-ordinator
Shawn Giilck
Northern News Services
Published Thursday, October 2, 2014
INUVIK
Walter Rogers is bubbling over with ideas on how to spend a long, cold, Arctic winter.
Walter Rogers, the youth co-ordinator at Ingamo Hall, has many plans to keep people busy with sporting and recreation activities this winter. - Shawn Giilck/NNSL photo
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The new youth co-ordinator at the Ingamo Hall Friendship Centre is preparing to launch an array of sporting and recreational activities starting Oct. 3 that seems certain to appeal to virtually anyone's tastes.
Rogers, who formerly worked at the Inuvik Youth Centre as a drop-in supervisor, has a passion for children's activities and community involvement. He's about two months into his position at Ingamo Hall, and about to put his stamp on a wide range of offerings.
On the opening day, he's kicking off a new floor hockey league for youths and adults of pretty much any age at East Three school.
"The whole idea is to help youth build self-esteem, self-confidence and get them moving."
Rogers said a similar program has been offered by Ingamo Hall over the years, but it's been two years or more since it's last been done.
"I love to see children having fun," he declared during an interview Sept. 26. "There's nothing I like better than seeing a smile on a child's face."
The next best thing, he added, is seeing a wide child-like smile on an adult's face as the inner child breaks loose.
"There's a little kid in all of us," Rogers said. "That's why I'm opening the floor hockey up to the public.
"I'm 41, and I still love to play basketball and other things," he said.
He's also preparing to offer curling and recreational hockey this month, all free of charge.
"And the drop-in curling has an invitation to adults to drop by and help and coach."
The Lace Them Up program will take place during the free skating time at the Midnight Sun Recreation Complex during weekday afternoons.
Everything is being offered in sessions of one-hour windows, Rogers said, so they are not too overwhelming.
"Right now we've got some good community support for this. Home Hardware is donating floor hockey nets, the school is donating sticks, and the youth centre is donating the use of their goalie equipment. With the three different organizations, we've been able to co-ordinate this community event."
Funding for the programs is coming from various sources, including the NWT Get Active program.
Rogers said one of the chief challenges to organizing programs like this in Inuvik is simply gaining the attention of the public.
He's planning on a broad advertising campaign to get past that barrier. There is no limit on the number of people who could participate, he added.
"The more the merrier."
One of his more intriguing projects, though, will be a snowshoe-making class that will lead to snowshoeing excursions.
As most people know, Rogers said the art of making traditional snowshoes is dwindling fast, and there are only a few elders left who still have hands-on experience. Most of those live to the south of the Inuvik region, and he's planning on tapping into their expertise, as well as whatever knowledge he can find here.
The program will strive to pass on that knowledge, and give participants a chance to test out their creations in the challenging sub-Arctic Inuvik winter. That will lead to other traditional survival skill training, such as trapping and snaring.
"There's many different things you can learn from snowshoeing."
He's looking at offering cross-country skiing as well.
