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The inspiration behind the Arctic Inspiration Prize
Arnold Witzig explains why he and his wife founded the award

John McFadden
Northern News Services
Wednesday, February 24, 2016

SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
The man behind the money of the Arctic Inspiration Prize is, perhaps unsurprisingly, in love with the North.

NNSL photo/graphic

Arnold Witzig, co-founder of the Arctic Inspiration Prize, explains why he and his partner founded the award at a reception at the Great Hall of the legislative assembly on Feb. 17. The event also recognized the three winners of the prize from the NWT – FOXY, the NWT Recreation and Parks Association and the Thaidine Nene Initiative - John McFadden/NNSL photo

That was evident to everyone who showed up at the Great Hall of the legislative assembly on Feb. 17 to hear from Arnold Witzig, the man who created and funds the Arctic Inspiration Prize. The event was also held to recognize the NWT winners of the award, including FOXY (Fostering Open eXpression among Youth), the NWT Parks and Recreation Association and the Thaidene Nene Park Initiative.

The prize has been awarded annually since 2012 and has grown from $1 million to $1.5 million and will eventually reach $2 million.

The money is awarded to groups involved in government, science, education or community initiatives working to celebrate the North and inspire and change southern perceptions of the North, said Witzig.

He emigrated to Canada in 1999 after founding a successful international architecture company in his native Switzerland. His wife, Simi Sharifi, co-founder of the prize, came to Canada from Iran as a political refugee in 1986. They met in 1999 and for several years they studied and supported projects in the fields of education and gender equality in the developing world.

In 2011 they decided to focus the work of their foundation, called the Arctic Inspiration Foundation, in Canada. Witzig referred to the Arctic Inspiration Prize as the "Nobel of the North."

"We really liked Canada as our new home country and we came to the conclusion that we should do something from two new Canadians to the very first Canadians - in the Canadian Arctic," Witzig said. "I'm just in love with a cold environment and the North. I really know what it means to survive in such an environment and have great respect for the skills and knowledge of native Northerners to survive in this harsh environment."

Normally the prize is shared among a number of groups but in 2014, FOXY was awarded the entire $1 million. FOXY co-founder Candice Lys explained the group uses the arts to enhance the education, health and well-being of indigenous and Northern youth. Lys says the prize has been invaluable to her organization.

"The prize money has been used to develop the FOXY for boys program. We have been travelling all over the NWT with a male team and they've been doing focus groups with young men across the North," Lys said. "Without the Arctic Inspiration Prize we would have found a way to operate but it would have been much harder and we probably would have had to scale back programming.

The prize allowed FOXY to not only incorporate boys but enabled them to host a retreat for girls last summer and another one for girls this coming summer, Lys said.

The prize money has now been used to help fund 11 different teams including the NWT Recreation and Parks Association, which was awarded $600,000 when it shared in the award late last year.

Geoff Ray, the association's executive director said this team was honoured to share in the prize.

"We're working on creating a tri-territorial training program that is established to train volunteers, community councils, band councils ... around recreation," Ray said.

He said that there was no dedicated funding for the association's project and agreed with the other winners that the money has been extremely important in helping the association achieve its objectives across the three territories.

The third NWT organization that was recognized at the event was the Thaidine Nene Initiative which has been responsible for creating what will be a 33,000 square-kilometre national park on the East Arm of Great Slave Lake.

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