ENTERPRISE
Sometimes you have to leave a place before you can truly appreciate it.

Debra Richards aims to promote recreation and wellness in Enterprise. - Paul Bickford/NNSL photo

Debra Richards - now 23 - was like many other young people when it came to dreaming of leaving her small hometown of Enterprise.

"I just wanted to get out of here, I guess," she said, noting she headed south less than a month after graduating from high school in nearby Hay River.

For two years, Richards attended Grande Prairie Regional College - where she first studied business administration before switching to personal training - and then worked in hotel management in Prince George, B.C., and Grande Prairie.

"Being in Grande Prairie, it didn't feel like home to me at all," she recalled.

"I felt like I was chasing after something. I just didn't know what it was. So I moved home and, in all honesty, it was the best decision I ever made."

Since her return, Richards has found plenty of opportunities in her hometown.

At the beginning of this month, she began a new part-time job as the recreation/wellness leader with the hamlet.

Richards said she realized she needed to be home, mainly to be closer to her family.

"The business thing wasn't for me. It just wasn't appealing to me," she explained. "The personal training, I loved it and I want to finish that. I've only got about a half year left in that."

She hopes to be a certified personal trainer before she begins her other long-term goal of obtaining a degree in education.

Richards has realized she can do many things in the NWT.

"I knew the potential I had to grow in pretty much anything I wanted to do," she said. "And everybody knows that when you come up here in the Northwest Territories there is a lot of opportunity."

Plus, she just loves being in the North.

"I'm a small-town girl, I guess," she said.

"I'll always be and I figured that out. So much has changed in life. I've only been home for a year now, and my life is a complete 180 than what it was in Grande Prairie."

Now, Richards, with her own house and vehicles, is the fire chief in Enterprise and has an "amazing" part-time job as a special needs assistant at Harry Camsell School in Hay River, as well as her newly-secured job with the hamlet.

"How many 23 year olds can say that?" she said.

"If I'm not busy, I'm not happy."

Richards is excited about her new job as recreation/wellness leader, which will be about 20 hours a week in the afternoons.

"I want to be able to give people the same happiness that I feel here," she said.

As the recreation/wellness leader for the Hamlet of Enterprise, she will oversee the performance of two other hamlet employees implementing programs, and make sure the programs and activities benefit residents.

"I'm aiming for a healthy lifestyle," she said.

"I want to get everybody more involved as much as I can and co-ordinate programs and activities that are specific to the different age groups in the community and not just focus on one age group."

She started her new job with the hamlet on Dec. 1.

Richards has been fire chief with the hamlet since April, and admitted it has been a challenging responsibility that weighs heavily on her shoulders.

This winter, she is aiming to get more training for the volunteer firefighters.

"Nothing is going to get in my way of getting the guys the proper training, the proper gear, everything," she said. "Because we never know when there's going to be a fire."

Since she now has a new job with the hamlet, Richards withdrew as a candidate for councillor with the local government, meaning the three remaining candidates have been acclaimed.

She said she ran for council in case she didn't get the job with the hamlet.

"I wanted to be able to have some kind of impact on the community in a positive way," she said.

Richards has no plans to leave Enterprise anytime soon and added it is possible she may run for council sometime in the future.

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