Students stay awake for a cause

MIRIAM HILL

Iqaluit’s Qimaavik women’s shelter is on its way to getting the commercial mixer its kitchen desperately needs, thanks to some Grade 7 students at Aqsarniit School.

After securing sponsors earlier in the week, two classes of Grade 7 students came to school April 19 at 7 p.m. and didn’t leave for 12 hours. The wake-a-thon, which required the students to stay awake for 24 hours, raised more than $2,200 for the shelter.

Trish Hughes-Wieczorek, the executive director of the Baffin Regional Agvvik Society, which runs the women’s shelter, was at the school last Friday to accept the handmade cheque.

“I didn’t realize they had raised so much money,” she admitted in an interview after the presentation.

Qimaavik opened in 1986 as a shelter for women who face violence, and has increased its bed-space capacity by 45 per cent in the past decade. Hughes-Wieczorek said the shelter runs on about $455,000 a year in core funding from the Department of Health. Other contribution agreements and community donations help to pick up any extra slack.

Qimaavik is the only transition house in Nunavut and employs three full-time and three part-time workers.

The money raised by the students will go toward the purchase of a commercial mixer, which the cook at the shelter has requested, to grind caribou meat donated by hunters and to use in preparing other foods, including dough for baked goods.

The shelter also received more than $6,000 last month from a Jail ‘n’ Bail fundraiser held during the Arctic Winter Games by parole and RCMP officers.

“It amazes me how broad-based the support [for the shelter] is,” Hughes-Wieczorek said, “from Grade 7 students to parole officers.”

The show of support came not long after an episode in the legislative assembly when an MLA questioned the appropriateness of a system that allows a woman to be separated from her husband, even though he may be abusive. The couple should have counselling together, he suggested.

Hughes-Wieczorek did not wish to talk about the issue, but said she thought the shelter always had support, but sometimes it was hard to see.

“In a high stress workplace you tend to get tunnel vision and end up focusing on the negative,” she said, “when there are hundreds of people out there who want us to do well.”

To receive such overwhelming support from Grade 7 students is wonderful, she said, especially since they are at an impressionable age and are starting to show an interest in dating.

Thirteen-year-old Eric Guimond was one of the students who watched movies, played video games and stayed up for 24 hours. He said he knows the money he raised will go to help people.

“I heard they were saving lives,” he said.

Teachers Rodney Corkum and Carol Horn chaperoned the event, which was inspired by a class on current events. Corkhum handed out an article on the shelter and the class discussed relationships, how they don’t always work out and the concept of abusive relationships. The fundraiser was a natural follow-up, he said.

“I thought it would make it hit home,” he said, “make it real.”

Jennifer Naglingniq, 12, said that for the first time she and her classmates were able to run around the halls of the school and make as much noise as they wanted, but she said, she realized the event was for a good cause.

“Sometimes people need help and that’s what we did.”