I can’t believe that it is already July! Where has the time gone? It feels like we have just got here. Regardless, there are over seven weeks left to go until I make the trip back to Edmonton and am very excited about what the rest of the summer looks like. Over the last few weeks, a lot of things have happened. To start off, the youth mentor was finally hired on by the band. The youth mentor has so many ideas for the youth and we are very excited to get most of the ideas in place over the rest of the summer for the youth. As this is the first summer that the community does not have Covid, there are many activities and events that are being planned. Some of the activities include various camps and community events.
To start off the week after the IRS commemoration event, the youth worker, Karmy and I took some youth into High Level to celebrate National Indigenous Peoples Day (June 21). This so happened to be the second day that the Starbuks were open, so we all got to get a little treat from Starbucks before we headed off to a round dance. It was very cool to see people come together to celebrate their culture.
After some fun in High Level, the next few days were full of youth activities. The first youth activity that was started was a program called Youth Gym Nights. This is where any youth from the community can come to the school gym for a couple of hours and play whatever they feel like. This can even include making forts! This program will continue throughout the entirety of the summer and will end when Karmy and I go home. The youth really enjoy being able to finally have some gym time and keep asking me if the program will continue throughout the school year. This is something that I will have to talk with some people about.
We also started the Jays Care program a couple weeks ago as well. Let me tell you, I was entirely unprepared for the first day. As this is the second year that the program is being run, some of the youth that come to the program attended the previous year. This makes it difficult as the program is centered around learning how to play the sport instead of advancing in the sport. I have to get really creative during the sessions to make sure that every youth is having a good time. It has also been really warm during these sessions, so we often take a lot of water breaks to make sure that everyone stays hydrated (even us coaches!)
Karmy and I also had our second community event which was a Youth Grad Night. We gave a presentation of post secondary funding and gave our experiences of university. There is a need in the community of inspiring youth to want to go to post secondary and then have them come back to the community. During our presentation, I could see that there were some youth interested and was excited that what Karmy and I were speaking about was interesting and inspiring. I know from first hand that having to listen to someone speak about post secondary education can be boring and seem like a waste of time. To counter those feelings, we made sure to have lots off yummy food for the youth to eat. Food makes everything better!
Another event that we planned was a bbq on Canada Day. This year, it was decided that instead of participating in the Canada Day parade, we were going to host a bbq at Machesis lake (which was named We Are Still Here). It was a lot of work to get ready for this event but it was a success.
We had lots of food and games which the youth really appreciated. The only thing that was horrible was the mosquitoes. When we got back to the loft later that night, I was covered in bug bites. Before we got to the loft, we first made a quick pit stop at the youth workers home to meet her dogs. They are big labs full of energy. It was nice getting to pet these dogs as I was in need of some puppy love! I smelled like a wet dog but could not complain.
The day after Canada Day, one of the counselors took Karmy and I out to take a ride on a ferry. It was quite a drive to get there but the entire way there, Karmy and I got to listen to various stories. We learned that there used to be a general store on the reserve but it shut down a long time ago. We also learned that the abandoned home that we use as a landmark to know when to turn was actually known as the home where the first settler lived.
As we got closer to the ferry, we started to see the damage of the forest fire that happened in 2018. There was a lot of damage. When we got to the ferry, we saw that the ferry was closed due to there being many logs in the river. Instead of going across the ferry, we took the opportunity to enjoy the space as well as took many photos. On our way back to the reserve, the counselor got invited to a family birthday bbq which he invited Karmy and I to attend. The family bbq was being held at Hutch Lake, a really beautiful space. Karmy and I got to meet a lot of people during this bbq and also got to eat some really good food, including ribs, salad, and steak! By the time we got back to the loft, it was midnight and time to get some sleep.
* Hutch Lake * Peace River full of logs * Ribs being made on campfire
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