Peigan youth planning a trip to Montreal

Page 2

Quinton Crow Shoe is excited about a program that the Napi Youth Council is accessing for the second consecutive year.

Funding through the YMCA of Greater Toronto is paying for 15 children from the Peigan Nation, located about an hour's drive west of Lethbridge, to make a one-week trip to Montreal in May.

"We're the only Friendship Centre in the province taking advantage of the YMCA's youth exchange program," said Crow Shoe, who is both program co-ordinator at the Napi Friendship Centre in Pincher Creek and advisor to the youth council.

The cost of flights is covered. Students and chaperones have to come up with their own spending money, which will include admission costs to events, such as the planned trip to the Olympic Stadium to take in a Montreal Expos/San Francisco Giants baseball game. Accommodation and the majority of meals are covered by the hosting families.

The three-year-old Napi Youth Council, which meets one Wednesday every month, has been fundraising for this trip, said Crow Shoe, through movies and pizza nights and a haunted house on Halloween.

The Napi Alternative School, which operates in the basement of the friendship centre, applied for the funding. Youth council members, who are required to be in school, attend the alternative school and two other high schools in Pincher Creek, Matthew Halton and St. Michael's Separate.

In Montreal, the group from Alberta will meet up with First Nations inner-city youth and will be hosted by the Inter-Tribal Youth Centre of Montreal and the Aboriginal Youth Council of Montreal.

Crow Shoe noted that the Napi Youth Council did some research of its own and requested specific destinations during its stay from May 9 to 16. Among the requests is a trip to the nearby Mohawk community of Kahnawake. Other stops will include boat tours of the St. Lawrence River, shopping in downtown Montreal, and tours of historical sites such as Notre Dame Basilica.

Ten of the Montreal youth will make the return trip to the Peigan Nation May 31 to June 6.

They will experience trips to Head Smashed In Buffalo Jump, Waterton Lakes National Park, the Fort Museum in Fort Macleod, the Frank Slide in the Crowsnest Pass, and a trip to Calgary where they'll visit the Glenbow Museum and IMAX theatre.

They'll be horseback riding, hiking and camping as well.

Last year's trip saw members of the Napi Youth Council head to Langley, B.C. Bonds that were formed then have continued, said Crow Shoe, with many of the children still communicating with each other.

Crow Shoe, who will be accompanying the students, feels the program is worth all the airport security hassles involved this year.

"It provides an opportunity beyond the parameters of the reserve," he said. All but one student lives in Brocket. "They'll see different parts of Canada and broaden their horizons."