M'Chigeeng First Nation members receive honors.

The achievements of more than a hundred M'Chigeeng graduates, employees and athletes were recognized July 8 as the community held its education awards and community recognition celebration and marked the 25th anniversary of the M'Chigeeng First Nation Education Program.

M'Chigeeng Chief Joseph Hare served as master of ceremonies for the event and welcomed everyone to the celebration. Before proceeding with the opening remarks, Hare welcomed Joseph Fox to the stage to give the opening prayer and respectful smudging. Medicine Star Drum was then called to the stage to sing the honor song.

The co-ordinators for the evening's events, post-secondary counsellor Justeen Debassige, education counsellor Sandra Taibossigai and education researcher Lyndsay Taibossigai, all agreed that the evening was a success, although they were disappointed by the turn out.

"I was expecting more people to attend but I know that some of them had prior commitments, like weddings in town," said Debassige.

After extending a big thanks to the people who made the award ceremonies happen, Hare proceeded to educate the audience about the history of the M'Chigeeng board of education.

"Time goes by so really very fast and it's events like this that help us remember what has happened in the years," said Hare.

In 1980, M'Chigeeng gained control of its education department, giving it responsibility for elementary, secondary and post-secondary students. The education department funds approximately 200 post-secondary students each year, about a quarter of whom attend on a part-time basis.

?Perseverance is what you need to be a better person and do your best,? said Hare. ?I encourage you to learn as much as you can. You don?t want to be in the basement. You want to be on the top floor. There?s no elevator, only stairs that lead to where you want to be and that?s the top.?

Two of the eight Ontario secondary school graduates who completed their studies during the 2004-2005 school year attended the evening events to pick up their awards. Fourteen secondary school students graduating during the 2005-2006 will go on to further their studies in post-secondary education.

The list of post-secondary students graduating in 2004-2006 was the longest called out Saturday night. About half of the 40 recipients that were called were there to accept their award or had their parents in attendance to accept the award on their behalf.

Kristy Corbiere, an electrical engineering technology graduate, was at the ceremonies to accept her award, and also to speak about the three years she spent at Sault College.

"This program is very rewarding," said Corbiere. "You don't do the same thing all of the time. It would be good if more women would go into the same program I did."

Other keynote speakers included Neil Debassige, principal at Lakeview public school; Brent Debassige, who is working toward his PhD in Education at York University; and Michael White, who is set to earn his masters degree from the University of Toronto's archeology program in the fall.

Following the keynote addresses, awards were given out to M?Chigeeng employees who were recognized for their years of service in the community, with special recognition awards handed out for community spirit, years of service and recognizing individuals who were retiring.

Athletic awards were given out to Katherine Corbiere, Deana Debassige and Natalie Lukiw, who all were participating in the 2006 North American Indigenous Games in Denver, Colorado and were unable to accept their awards.

Once all of the awards were handed out, the floor opened up to anyone interested in speaking about their post-secondary experience.

Perry Bebamash an electrical engineering technology graduate, was the only one who jumped at the opportunity. He talked about spending three years studying at Conestoga College and said that dancing traditionally is what helped him through school.

The evening closed out with Mediciine Star Drum singing the honong.