NORTHWEST TERRITORIES
Matthew Moore knows how life can make unexpected turns.

Born and raised in Austin, Texas, Moore said he was just finalizing the details for his new job teaching English in China last spring when suddenly everything changed.

"I had a job and a work visa and everything set up," Moore said. "Then towards the end of May, the company basically fell apart and kind of left me with nothing."

Moore started looking online for other volunteer opportunities and found the website for Frontiers Foundation, a Canadian non-profit organization aiming to improve education and housing in aboriginal communities. By August, he was living in Fort McPherson and getting ready to help run the e-learning program at Chief Julius School, as well as helping out with art classes.

He said he's been amazed by the community's friendliness.

"There are feasts for both happy and more somber occasions and always people are telling me to come out," he said.

Moore is just one of 19 people from all over the world, including Australia, England, China, Holland and Mexico, currently volunteering in the Northwest Territories with Frontiers Foundation, said Don Irving, the foundation's Northwestern Office co-ordinator.

There are seven volunteers in Hay River this year, as well as three in Inuvik. At least three participants in the territory have volunteered multiple years, Irving said.

Frontiers Foundation pays volunteers' accommodation and travel costs within Canada in exchange for their work.

"We really look for people that are going to make an impact on the community," Irving said. "When they do this, they don't go up there to simply do a 9 to 5 job and then go home and watch television. They want to get involved in the community, learn about the way of life in the North. They want to get out and meet people and do things."

That's the way Moore said he is using his time in Fort McPherson, where he can often be found at the school gym playing basketball with students after class.

"I would say I think it's really important to make yourself visible in the community," he said. "I know that I've built much stronger relationships with a lot of the high school students because I go out."

Experiencing community life is also a highlight for Tuktoyaktuk volunteer Tony Dawson. A retired farmer from southern British Columbia who arrived in Tuk in September, Dawson said he decided to stay over the Christmas break so he could see what the holiday was like in Tuk.

He said he was surprised to learn that the winter darkness doesn't last as long as he thought and by mid-January, light begins to return.

"I didn't find it somber at all; I find it very beautiful," he said.

"I've even gone out skiing."

Dawson, who is also volunteering with the e-learning program at Mangilaluk School, said learning about issues impacting the community has been important to him.

"I've gone to meetings about oil exploration up here and tried to listen to any presentations about the possibility of oil," he said. "We all need oil, but there are huge complications over the environment and the like, and how society and the town might change."

Now that the end of the school year is approaching, both Dawson and Moore are planning next steps. Dawson is aiming to continue his time in the North and paddle the Thlewiaza River near Arviat, Nunavut this summer. Moore said his parents are planning a road trip up the Dempster Highway to visit him in Fort McPherson before he heads home to Texas. He'll spend a month there before starting graduate school for social work.

In the meantime, Moore said he has learned the value of making connections.

"If someone invites you out Ski-Dooing, take them up on it," he said. "I was fortunate enough to go out on a few Ski-Doo adventures, going really far from town on the land.

"It's just incredibly peaceful and serene and beautiful."

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