Music and golf for literacy in Nunavut

If you want to support literacy in Nunavut, Iqaluit is the place to be.

Tonight, musicians Barney Bentall of “Barney Bentall and the Lengendary Hearts” fame, harmonica player Mike Stevens, Russell deCarle of the country rock group “Prairie Oyster,” folksinger Connie Kaldor and others will perform at a fundraising concert for the Nunavut Literacy Council.

Doors open at the Iqaluit Curling Club at 7:00 p.m., with tickets at $20 for adults. $5 for youth, six to 15, and free admission for elders and children five and under.

Then, tomorrow, you’re invited to join these performers along with broadcasters Shelagh Rogers, Alison Gzowski and Jonathan Torrens (best known perhaps for his role as J-Roc in the television series “Trailer Park Boys”) for Nunavut’s seventh ice golf tournament for literacy.

The game — which uses brightly-coloured golf balls on the ice — starts on Toonik Lake across from the Arctic Winter Games arena at 1:30 p.m. on Tuesday.

The PGI Golf Tournament for Literacy, named after the late CBC radio and television host Peter Gzowski, rallies well-known broadcasters, musicians or actors who give their time to raise awareness for literacy.

Similar golf tournaments across Canada have raised $12 million since 1986. In the North, the annual PGI golf tournament alternates between Nunavut and the Northwest Territories.

The PGI is the Nunavut Literacy Council’s single largest fundraising and literacy awareness event, an April 17 news release said.

“We are so grateful for the support that we receive from the celebrities, sponsors, and volunteers,” said Kim Crockatt, executive director of the Nunavut Literacy Council. “The money we raise through the PGI allows us to provide groups and organizations across the territory with small grants to support their literacy programs and events.”

Peter Gzowski attended PGI events in the NWT and Nunavut before his death in January of 2002.

“He loved the North and was always one of our organization’s biggest supporters. He was there in 1999 at our founding conference and he requested that upon his death people donate to the Nunavut Literacy Council in lieu of flowers. Many of those donors continue to support us,” Crockatt said.

The musicians and broadcasters associated with this year’s Toonik Tyme events will also visit and preform at the Visitors Centre and the Baffin Correctional Centre on Tuesday morning, and at the youth detention centre on Wednesday morning.