The first in a series of stories by L.V. Rogers students who are organizing and participating in an exchange with students from Chief Julius School in Fort McPherson, Northwest Territories.
A life-changing opportunity approaches quickly for us and 14 other L.V. Rogers Secondary School students. We will experience a different Canadian culture than most of us have ever seen before.
As the first part of an exchange, 16 students from Chief Julius School in Fort McPherson, Northwest Territories will arrive in Nelson on February 10. Most of these northern students have never even been outside of their region so this will be an amazing experience for both groups.
With support from teachers Jeff Yasinchuk and Tamara Martin, we have been frantically preparing for their arrival. We have had to do a lot of fundraising for the activities that they will participate in while visiting our hometown. Some of these activities include downhill skiing, connecting with local aboriginal people and a tour of Baker Street — to our guests we will feel like a big city!
Our first donation came from the Nelson and District Credit Union. They gave us $2,000 for a community banquet at the Hume Hotel, which will be held on the last night our guests will be here. Their very generous donation helped kick start awareness for this exciting experience and since then we have recieved many more donations. The banquet will be an opportunity for us to thank everyone who is helping to make this experience possible.
We have just received a $3,000 grant from Columbia Basin Trust to put towards the making of a short documentary film on our experiences in this exchange. Amy Brohigian will guide us through the process of making the film. We want to show our film to the local community and possibly enter it into a couple of youth film festivals.
Later in the spring we will host a barbecue lunch fundraiser with help from Smokewood Barbecue for all the LVR students before we go to the north.
We are learning that what we are doing is not only important to us but of interest to the whole community. Thank you to EZ Rock, Kootenay Co-op Radio and The Bridge for inviting some of us on air to tell this story. Also the Nelson Rotary Club has asked us to come into one of their meetings and do a little presentation, one short one before the northern students come and another one after the LVR students go up north. We are very excited to share our experience with the broader community.
We are all looking forward to the arrival of the Chief Julius students and thank you to everybody who has donated their time and money!