The Newsletter of the Gwaii Trust Society
     
                                         Volume 5, Number 3 - November 2001

MASSET SOUL FOOD

L-R, Volunteer tasha Wilson, 19, is served lasagna by Shayna Davidson, 15, as chef and teen Coordinator Sarah Hillis-Davidson takes a well-deserved break.
It’s Wednesday night which means Sarah Hillis-Davidson is enroute from Old Massett village to the Teen Centre in Masset, picking up stragglers along the way and stopping off at the video store for the evenings selection.

By 6:15 pm a dozen kids are lounging around on couches, playing pool and talking on the phone. The first plate of lasagna is served, fries are in the fryer and grilled cheese sandwiches are primed, waiting for the guys to return hungry from basketball practice.

Since the launch of the Supper Program in January the only thing that’s changed is the menu. Hillis-Davidson regularly sees 45 to 75 teens come through the door three nights a week. Of that number about 20 regularly partake in the fare that revolves around tacos, spaghetti, salad, veggies and dip and chilie. 

While the teen centre operates a small concession, Hillis-Davidson wanted to offer a healthier and more substantial option for hungry teens.

“Now they get healthy food for free rather than charging up chips and pop,” she says. “This program really targets the most hungry kids.” 

 Program funding has come from the Gwaii Trust ($575) and Old Massett Social Development ($350 a month).  		The Teen Involvement Centre itself is located across from the hospital in New Masset. Décor is minimal, but the large screen tv, stereo, pool table and couches — purchased with the help of a Micro-Infrastructure grant — give a homey feel to the otherwise cavernous double-wide trailers. And the mood is social, playful and active, which seems to have a lot to do with how Hillis-Davidson runs the show, something she has been doing for 17 years.

There are few rules at the centre except for a “no tolerance” for drugs and alcohol. A good relationship has been cultivated over the years with the RCMP and Hillis-Davidson is not afraid to call them when things get out of hand, which is rare. 

“I’m no policeman. I just try and keep the kids safe in the centre,” She explains.

Help also comes in the form of Mary White, a mother of three teenagers herself, who helps with the program. Parents and older teens also volunteer their time. ·
BRIEF CASES

HUNDREDS OF YEARS

·Taax Wi Laas Substance Abuse Program received $3,835 for an innovative community-based alcohol and drug prevention program called “Hundreds of Years of Sobriety.” Counsellor Wendy Malesku says the project will provide a forum for youth and adults in Skidegate to speak about personal and community issues that are connected with substance abuse. The project will promote education on how substance abuse effects everyone while celebrating those in the community who are clean and sober. Watch for poster campaigns, open houses, workshops, a Walk for Sobriety, pancake breakfast and family night .·

PROPOSAL TIPS

· Those who did not successfully receive funding the last go round for the Legacy or Micro-Infrastructure programs shouldn’t lose hope.

Administrator Cliff Fregin says that he receives more than one funding application without key information and support documents. One of the areas applicants find the most confusing is Proof of Project Costs. “All this means is that when you’re hiring a consultant for a project we need to see a quote from him or her,”
 Fregin explains. “The same goes for building projects. We need to see a quote from the contractor.” The Trust is launching a series of proposal writing workshops in the new year to help applicants to develop proposals.·

Annual General Meeting

The Trust is holding its annual general meeting December 1st at the Sandspit Community hall, starting at 2 p.m.  The agenda includes a presentation on the annual audit, appointment of new directors, and the long-awaited release of the new business plan.

BUYING LANDS

The Sandspit Community Hall will soon have a new owner. The community of Sandspit.  

The land on which both the community hall and ballfield sit are legally owned by a Sandspit-based logging company which has been the case as far back as 1967. That was the year the community began building the hall as a Centennial Project. The Lion’s Club offered to caretake the building and Crown Zellerback provided the land. Through the years a succession of logging companies have honoured the agreement, waiving the rent and paying the property taxes. But through the passage of time many of the details of this agreement, such as ownership, were lost.

“Two years ago the Lion’s Club gave over stewardship to Moresby Island Management Committee (MIMC) and we found out we didn’t have ownership over the land and building,” says Sherry Price, chair of the hall committee. “We found out when we were searching for funding for improvements. Nobody will give you finances for building improvements without ownership of the land.”

But the present land owners, Teal Cedar Products Limited (JS Jones), agreed to transfer title to the community once the land had been professionally surveyed. That’s when the Sandspit Community Hall Commission applied to the Gwaii Trust for $5,860 to pay for 50% of the survey costs.·

TRUST TO 
THE RESCUE

The Community Health Council’s much publicized search for the money needed to replace an aging hematology analyzer has come to an end.
The Gwaii Trust offered the CHC a repayable loan of $25,600, after discussing the proposal they had sent in, to buy a replacement for the older machine at the Masset hospital. 

It’s an incredibly generous offer,” says CHC Chief Executive Derry Martens. “The Ministry of Health should be funding its own programs but that’s difficult in the face of a funding freeze. This was our last avenue of hope, other than maybe having a bake sale.”

The machine is used for differential blood cell counts which provides doctors with enough information to decide whether an infection is bacterial or viral which would then influence the course of treatment. 

While thankful for the loan, Martens says it is still only an offer which must be presented formally to the CHC board of directors when it meets later this month.·

GATEKEEPERS

A new program sponsored by the Skidegate Band Council provides training in suicide awareness to members of the community who have significant contact with young people either professionally or through volunteer service. Social worker Michelle Pineault says Community Gatekeeper Training is aimed at those who are generally in a position to provide ongoing supportive counselling to young people who have experienced a suicidal crisis. “These people are often the best early detectors of young people at risk,” she says, adding the program focuses on risk recognition, reduction and referral procedures. The Gwaii Trust provided $4,100 in funding to this program through the Legacy Fund. ·

EYES WIDE OPEN

GM Dawson students on tour: (L-R) Deborah Low, Sam Roberge (back), Anthony Davis, Blanche Bell, Sheri Crist, Alicia Collinson (sitting), Cody Hillier, Maxwell Terpstra, Patricia Trautman, Patty Douglas (guide), Ron  Williams, Freddie Wilson.

Education has become a greater priority in the soon-to-be-released Gwaii Trust Business Plan. 
“The directors felt that because of the loss of jobs coming up all over the Islands there needs to be more money invested in education,” explained director Kay Pringle, who represents Graham Island-South and sits as a member of the education committee.

Changes mean increased allocation for funding by as much as 50% in most cases. Grants from the Post-Secondary Education and the Mature Student Bursary programs were increased from $1,000 to $1,500. 

Mature students seeking affordable education and training will also be glad to learn the program has been expanded to two years. Each successful applicant will be eligible for two bursaries of $1,500 in two successive years. As well, the number of bursaries available has increased from seven to 10. 

One other change made to the criteria means applicants no longer require Grade 12 to qualify.
“If you’ve been accepted at an institution and you’ve met the criteria then it should meet ours as well,” explains Pringle. “Otherwise how fair is that for loggers who are laid off and need training?”

If it isn’t broken don’t fix it. That’s the tack directors took with both the scholarship program and the Post- Secondary Institution Tours program. The Trust will continue to provide $10,000 in scholarships to both Islands high schools as well as $15,000 per school for Post-Secondary Institution Tours. This last program allows each school to take up to 20 students ($750 each) on the road, touring universities, colleges and training schools throughout the province. The idea is to help students understand what is required to take the next step to higher learning. 

This November, Queen Charlotte Secondary School is taking Grade 11 and 12 students to Vancouver on an Arts Education trip. On the itinerary is a stop at the Fine Arts and Theatre departments of the University of British Columbia; the Vancouver Film School and new media departments; make-up artistry courses at Blanche-McDonald School; the theatre faculty of Langara College, Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design and the Fine Arts department of Kwantlen College. The students will also be taking in the symphony, touring the Vancouver Art Gallery and enjoying the comedic antics of Vancouver Theatresports. “We’re trying to expose them to as much as we can,” says Principal Claudette Lavoie. At the north end, a mix of Grade 11 and 12 students from GM Dawson toured schools in Vancouver, Kamloops, Kelowna and Victoria this spring.

“It opened up a lot of eyes,” says teacher and chaperone Alex McQueen. “They get to see there is life beyond the Islands and that they need to be prepared. It inspires them to see what they can do.” 

Are the tours successful? McQueen estimates that 60% of students who participated in the tour last year have left the Islands for school or are now in Grade 12 preparing to go to college or university.

“The tour gets bigger and bigger every year,” McQueen says.·

ARTS ENDOWMENT
The Gwaii Trust approved $50,000 in applications to the Arts Endowment Fund in the areas of education and training, collaboration and mentoring. Here are just a few of the artistic projects now underway:
Two emerging artists from Old Massett are in the third year of an apprenticeship with Christian White, learning totem pole carving and block printrTia^'ing.Vernon White 2\ and Alien Weir, 20, are working with three senior carvers on a 16-ft cedar house pole for a longhouse and two smaller poles standing at seven feet. White says his apprentices spent the first year designing and painting wall screens and then, in the second year, carving ceremonial masks. Vernon has already carved 24 masks in less than two years.
When Margaret Davies was house-sitting for a friend in TIell she came across a brochure highlighting a dynamic summer arts program offered at Red Deer College in Alberta. She was hooked. By July she had enrolled in two courses, jewelry making and a course called "Boxes for just About Anything," both of which complimented her work in book making design.

Textile artist Judy Perry of Over the Edge fabric studio spent two weeks at the Haliburton School of the Arts in Ontario taking advance spontaneous geometries and art clothing and service design, a total experience she described as a "creative explosion." Perry is booked at the Museum at Qay'llnagaay for her first solo show next April.		 All she did was ask. Painter Debbie Gardiner was touring artist studios in Victoria when she came across the work of Brenda Grant. Gardiner was so struck by her unique blending of collage (using hand-made paper) and watercolours she phoned the artist up and asked for private lessons to learn the technique. Gardiner plans to teach what she learns to the art class at QCSS and at an evening session open to the public.

This summer found teacher Clemens Rettich back in the classroom. Only this time it wasn't at Queen Charlotte Secondary School but Vancouver's famed TheatreSports School where he took the last level of an improvisers training course before entering the school's internship program. Rettich is currently preparing a piece with performing artist Toby Sanmiya for the Utter Theatre Festival in Prince Rupert. He is also doing research in the area of improvisational drama and group dynamics.

In preparing to bring more than 180 ancestors home from museums in Chicago, New York, and Oakland, California, the Old Massett Repatriation Committee is working with a number of artists and apprentices to create the bentwood boxes, cedar mat weaving and button blankets required for the burial process. Much of the Trust funding is used to train apprentices in weaving, preparing and working in the medium. Projects of this scope depend a lot on volunteers such as Robbie Williams, Christian White, April Churchill-Davis, the late Rosa Bell and Leona Clow with students from Tahayghen Elementary School.·

The Gwaii Trust is funded from the interest of a $42-million principle sum. The original amount is inflation-proofed for future generations.

Cliff Fregin - Administrator
PO Box 397
75 Raven Avenue
Old Massett, BC V0T 1M0

p. 1.800.663.2388 · p. 250.626.3654
f. 250.626.3261 · gtrust@island.net