Worlds of sport and art meet in Crossing Bridges

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First Nations kids from in and around Saskatoon have a place to go to discover and develop their talents, thanks to the Crossing Bridges program.

The Crossing Bridges: Bridge City Track Program started out as a pilot program in the summer of 2000, bringing kids from the west side of Saskatoon across the bridge to the east side, to Griffiths Stadium to take part in a track and field program.

Since then, the program has run one indoor winter program and a second summer program, and preparations are underway for a second winter season.

The program is a project of Saskatoon Tribal Council Urban First Nations Services Inc., with funding from the National Crime Prevention Centre. It targets at-risk children, Aboriginal children, and girls from the city's core area.

This year's summer program wrapped up with a mini-Worlds event, held the day before the World Championships in Athletics started up in Edmonton. Kids competed in a number of track and field events, including sprints, hurdles, long jump, high jump and shot put. The participants even had a doping tent set up on site, just to make it feel more like the real thing.

While the main focus of the track program continues to be on athletics, the arts are slowly finding their way more and more into the program. From the beginning, Crossing Bridges has offered program participants more than just track and field, with guest speakers from the world of sport and beyond coming to the practices to talk to the kids. Last winter's program saw a cultural element added to each practice, with guests ranging from an opera singer to a group of samurai warriors.

This past summer, participants in the Bridge City Track Program had a chance to stretch their artistic creativity as well as their muscles, with Bridge City arts workshops being added into the mix.

In addition to twice weekly track practices, weekly arts workshops were held during the summer program at the White Buffalo Youth Lodge, giving participants a chance to develop and expand their artistic talents.

The program has also made some additions for those members wanting more challenge on the track and field side, as well. A competitive unit has been created for the participants wanting to compete in mainstream track and field events. At their first mainstream competition in April, the members of the competitive unit did themselves proud, with all 16 of the young athletes achieving a personal best, and two taking home a medal.

Perhaps a poem, written by a young member of the Crossing Bridges family, best illustrates how the program is combining athletics and art, and reaching out to children to give them a sense of belonging, and a deeper sense of self.

Belonging

A blur of faces

no specific race or color

no names just smiling faces

each one with a story to tell

they unify

unknowingly they are crossing bridges

and breaking every barrier that society has place on them

they learn that they can have fun together

they run

exercising their right to be healthy

mentally and physically

satisfying the soul within

they jump

feeling the freedom of flight

and coming back to reality

a reality that does not seem so overwhelming

they throw

with all their might

the pain that each has endured

melts away with each passing moment

they compete

not with each other but within themselves

and with every step they knock down a wall

and they will overcome

they laugh

as each child must in order to survive

innocent to the powers of hate

struggling with a reality unknown to them

they belong

because they want to.

-Mika Lafond

For more information about Crossing Bridges: Bridge City Track Program, call STC Urban First Nations Services Inc. at 956-6130.