Pond Inlet residents show off their community in calendar contest
2022 calendar will be given away for free, says hamlet’s wellness co-ordinator
An inuksuk stands in front of Eclipse Sound in Pond Inlet. Joanne Ootook won a cash prize of $100 and a spot on the front page of the hamlet’s 2022 calendar with this photo. (Photo by Joanne Ootook)
Joanne Ootook went out for a walk with her children in Pond Inlet on a Wednesday afternoon in August last year. On the hill beside the gas station, she saw an inuksuk against the backdrop of a calm Eclipse Sound.
She snapped a photo and carried on with her walk.
“It was so nice out, so I took that picture,” Ootook said, recalling the day.
Now, that photo will be on the front of a Pond Inlet themed 2022 calendar.
The hamlet began asking community members for photos of the scenery in Pond Inlet for a calendar contest on Nov. 14, said the hamlet’s wellness co-ordinator, Nezha Soumir.
Hundreds of entries poured in through social media, emails and printed pictures, she said.
From left: wellness committee chairperson Moses Koonark and members Elisirie Peterloosie, Ragilee Ootook and Catherine Killikittee look through printed photos at the Pond Inlet hamlet office on a Friday evening. The winners they chose that evening for the community’s 2022 calendar were announced the following day on the radio. (Photo courtesy of Nezha Soumir)
Ootook submitted four, although the picture that won wasn’t her favourite, she said.
The wellness committee, which is made up of five residents, laid all the photos out on tables and counters and went through them one by one to determine the winners on the evening of Nov. 26.
The results were announced over the radio last weekend. Ootook won $100 and the winners for each month of the year won $50 — Donna Pitseolak-Kublu, Jay Simon Nashook, Megan Hutchings, Cody Pitseolak, Listina Koonark, Sherry Parks, Cathy Pewatoalook, Richard Killikittee and Eric Siggy Kublu.
The hamlet isn’t sure how many copies it will print, but is hoping to have them before the end of 2021. The calendars will be given away for free.
“It’s a calendar from them, to them,” Soumir said.
Ootook said she’s going to be happy and nervous to see her photo on the front of the calendar. She’s never entered a contest before.
“I didn’t think I would win,” she said with a laugh.
BEAUTY! What a great photo!
Would be cool to see more communities get a project like this going and then start to trade calendars. Try to collect them all like Pokemon cards!
Please save one for me friends and/or family? Qujannamiik!
I always love the great photos that come out of Pond Inlet – there are awesome mountains and bodes of water. .
Interesting fact is that the name of “Pond Inlet” is NOT because there are ponds nearby – but after an early 19th century British astronomer named John Pond.
I made that inukshuk last year in August