Winter track program a go for urban youth

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A new program sponsored by Saskatoon Tribal Council (STC) Urban First Nations is giving Aboriginal youth in Saskatoon's inner city a chance to get involved in track and field.

The Crossing Bridges: Bridge City Track Program was started earlier this year, thanks to funding from the Community Mobilization Program, part of the government of Canada's national strategy on community safety and crime prevention.

Brenda Zeman is coordinator of the Crossing Bridges program. Prior to the launch of Crossing Bridges, Zeman had been working with Harry and Iva Lafond of Muskeg Lake, bringing children from the reserve to spend time at the Saskatoon Field House indoor track on Saturday nights. The trips were held to give the children involved in the track program on the reserve a chance to train in a fully equipped track venue, Iva Lafond explained. It was during these trips that they noticed the lack of participation in track by Saskatoon's Aboriginal youth.

"We certainly were very aware that there were not very many Aboriginal children in the field house, and certainly not very many Aboriginal children in the track clubs," Zeman said.

When the Lafonds began working in the city, it was decided it was time to see what they could do about providing access to track and field for children living in Saskatoon, especially those in the inner city area, and the idea for Crossing Bridges was born.

Zeman said they found out their grant application had been successful in May, and managed to get a program in place for the summer.

The Crossing Bridges program is aimed at youth aged 10 to 14. A total of 125 kids were on the list of participants for the summer program, of which 75 were regulars. Each night of the program, between 40 and 50 kids took part, Zeman said.

According to Iva Lafond, the Crossing Bridges program was very well received by the kids taking part in the summer program.

"Kids are always very willing to do all kinds of things. They're just basically looking for people to do it with. So they're very happy to be involved," Iva Lafond said. "You see a lot of change with some of them. Some of them are really developing some self-esteem and some pride, and that kind of thing, which is one of the main goals of the program."

The summer program consisted of 12e sessions - eight practices and four twilight meets. The last meet led up to a mini-Olympics for program participants.

"We had a real Olympic ceremony," Zeman said. "We had kids saying the actual Olympic oath that was said in Sydney. We had kids running in with the torch, and one of our training coaches running behind with a fire extinguisher."

The winning athletes were even given laurel wreaths to wear as part of the mini-Olympics.

"They were walking around, the victors, with their laurel wreaths. They were pretty proud," Zeman said.

"At that age, 10 to 14, you see Aboriginal kids on the podium, and they were just as competitive as the non-Aboriginal kids. And what we'd like to do is keep that going, so that when they're 17 and 18, they're still on the podium," Zeman said.

During the summer program, kids were bused from the west side of the city to the east side, where the stadium is located, and youth from the east side were invited as well. And for the last two meets, children from the reserves within the Saskatoon Tribal Council were also invited to take part.

"I've never seen such diversity at Griffiths Stadium in my whole life.

Those last two meets were just marvelous," Zeman said.

"The whole thing is about training young coaches and young people to take leadership roles," Zeman said. "It is about access and accessibility and affordability. We're training the coaches. We want them to become certified coaches, and eventually we'd like to train some officials too," she said.

There were 18 coaches involved in the Crossing Bridges summer program, including 12 trainees and six mentor coaches. Zeeman is one of the mentor coaches, as are Iva and Harry Lafond

O Oct. 26 a pipe ceremony and feast was held to kick off the Crossing Bridges winter program. The program itself will begin Nov. 4.

Iva Lafond expects the majority of the kids who were involved in the summer program will be back when the winter program begins in November, although she expects some may get involved in some of the other sports programs that have started up in the inner-city, including a hockey program and a soccer league. In fact, she expects even more participation in the next session, now that summer is over and kids are back in school again.

For more information about the Crossing Bridges program, call the STC Urban First Nations office at 956-6130.