Students run Thursday night cafe for credit and fun

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Thirteen students from the Chateh Community School are working at earning high school credits and raising funds for a school trip by running the Wolverine Cafe, open from 5:30 p.m. to 8 p.m. every Thursday.

The cafe serves full course meals, desserts and specialty fruit drinks.

Carlos Spinazzola, the school's cultural director, said the cafe is a creative place to visit and offers a friendly environment for the greater community to enjoy.

He said the Wolverine Cafe provides homemade meals, great service and wonderful entertainment by local musicians and artists.

The name of the cafe is derived from Noaga Koaha, Dene for wolverine house. This is the first year the school has ever done this project and Spinazzola said that upcoming events will include a tea dance, Karaoke, a teacher entertainment night and a storytellers night.

"We did a drum dance and a recording of our local drummers here. We also had our local poet come in and read, and our local artists came in and did their art work presentations during the meal," he said.

"The students serve up pretty well anything you can imagine. The amount of customers we get has been growing. There is bannock and soup and specials every week. For example, the special this week is barbecued meat balls, spicy roasted potatoes and buttered kernel corn," said Spinazzola.

He believes the word is spreading quite quickly in the community about the cafe.

"When they go home, they start talking about the time that they spent working in the cafe...It is one way that the word gets to their parents and then the word gets in and around the community. Just having the community come in and mingle where there is good food, good entertainment and no pressure and no shoptalk is great. It is a way for everyone to enjoy himself or herself," he said.

The supervisors of the project are Renee Elliot and Tasha Kott, the Chateh school teachers who came up with the idea.

"Renee Elliott had the idea that she needed to create some work experience for the students, so she came to me with the idea. She said to me 'We need you to make a couple of things, maybe design a stage,' so I said 'Well, I could offer you a little more than that.' So we put our heads together and talked to the board and soon everything started moving," said Spinazzola.

The participating students in grades 8 to 10 have to achieve 25 hours in order to obtain credits towards their education.

"This is part of their schooling. Not only are they working during school hours, but also after school hours. The students will have not only high school credits, but also experience to work in major restaurants in the city. We are going to give them certificates and a recommendation letter for the work experience they get here. We saw that a lot of Aboriginal kids go to the city where they want to work in restaurants, but because they do not have the work experience they often do not get the jobs," he said.

With the money earned at the cafe and a number of donations from the community, the students are scheduled to leave on a 10-day trip to the south on June 14. They will spend a day at the West Edmonton Mall, take part in a program called Art in the City in Edmonton, go horseback riding at a ranch near Edmonton, attend a powwow in Hobbema, take part in a whitewater rafting trip and visit the Tyrell Museum in Drumheller.

"Everybody is pumped to go on the trip and this project is a great discipline tool. They know that they have to have a positive attitude before they can go on it. We also work all year long to keep them focused on the positive outcomes they can accomplish when they do good things," said Spinazzola.

Under the supervision of the teachers, the students have to follow rules on hygiene and food safety. The students are made aware of how important it is to wash their hands and on how to handle food properly.

"They are always reminded to keep their aprons clean, and to keep their hair tied back, and both teachers ae very efficient, very hard working women and what they are doing with these kids is exceptional," he said.

Shelly Seniantha, a student and employee at the cafe, said that she looks forward to going to work every Thursday evening, because it is not only fun but it will help her get a job in a restaurant someday.

"You get to meet new people every day. I'm learning a lot from Mrs. Elliott and Miss Kott. They help us out a lot and Mr. Spinazzola is nice. He also helps us and he plays his guitar and sings for the customers," she said.

For 15-year-old Todd Yachetay, he takes his work seriously because he feels like this is like a real job. "It is pretty good. I like the cooking part of the cafe because I want to be a chef someday. I want to go to NAIT for the cooking course, and I get to meet people from other communities, such as people from Rainbow Lake and surrounding communities who come to the restaurant," he said.