Community warms up for indoor fun
Christmas Games draw dancers to compete
Darrell Greer
Northern News Services
Published Wednesday, January 14, 2015
RANKIN INLET
The 2014 Christmas Games were a hit with the community of Rankin Inlet this past month.
Lyle Wiebe, left, talks with Mayor Robert Janes as Coun. Theresie Tungilik works on the preparations for the Elder's Breakfast during the Christmas Games in Rankin Inlet this past month. - Darrell Greer/NNSL photo |
The games are a mammoth undertaking for the community's recreation department.
Rec director David Clark said it's a super busy time of the year, and there's a lot of pressure on the hamlet to have the games properly scheduled for the community.
He said it's often a stressful time for his department, but, for the most part, a pretty good job was done on the games this year.
"It's always a struggle to have people show up for the meeting we hold to plan the games," said Clark.
"But, as the schedule gets done and the events start, we always get a few more community groups and people willing to help run events.
"The square dances are always really popular, especially with the square-dance competition every year.
"But we don't have a big enough community hall for a town this size and that, in itself, sets us back in some of the things we want to do during these events."
Clark said the indoor games were a big hit this year, with a lot of people showing up to enjoy a lot of laughing and have a lot of fun.
There was only one bad weather day, he said, but that did cause a bit of a controversy when some people wanted the games to proceed when the weather cleared later in the day.
"The policy is: if the hamlet's closed, I'm not allowed to open the community hall or the rink for community events because of liability reasons.
"We also had to move the fireworks back a day because the blowing snow was just too much on Dec. 31.
"But, we got lucky because the next day was beautiful, with not much wind, so it worked out really well.
"You have to keep your mind on the big picture because you just can't make everybody happy, but, all in all, we had a nice mix of events that offered something for all ages and I would say most people seemed to really enjoy themselves."
