Arrival

It's so nice to be here in Cross Lake. What a beautiful place full of rivers, lakes, trees, beautiful sunsets and wonderful people. 

 

 

We enjoyed a nice dinner, followed by a great visit at Ronnie and Elaine's house. It was so nice to finally put a face to all the phone calls and emails we've done over the last six-seven months. 

It was a very emotional day. We ended it by all watching "The Secret Path" in our hotel room. Congratulations to everyone who worked on it. It was very well done. It was great seeing so many people from across Canada watching live on Facebook - 2.4k at one point. Hopefully, this is the tipping point.

The plane

Walking across the airstrip we were handed ear plugs from a bowl before climbing a few stairs and then ducking into the Metro aircraft that will take us north for about 2 hours in the air.

Lisa's first words are "at least there's no middle seats."

Another passenger responds "your mistaken if you think it's that kind of plane, no washrooms either."

It was a rather smooth flight considering the plane only holds 14 passengers plus the two pilots. We landed safely last night to a warm welcome from our driver Rose Anne. 

The baggage pickup is a shed outside that the pilots place your items on so you can easily put them in your car. Pretty neat!

Waiting.

Nothing like waiting for a plane that is suppose to leave at 2:15 and you're still in the waiting room, but the display says it's on time? 

And security is telling you not boarding yet. 

Not sure if we're on the "dash" (the larger plane). We're learning a lot just at the airport.  A couple of planes have been delayed due to noises and mechanical issues. Apparently the dash you don't need ear plugs on. Oh my! 

 

Perimeter Air

We are checked in and ready to fly! 

We have some stuff coming with us...

 Heck! 

 

 

 

 

Cross Lake Director of Education

On Thursday night, Oct 20 we had the 

pleasure of meeting Greg Halcrow the Director of Education for the Cross Lake Education Authority, and his wife Cheif Betty Lou Halcrow. 

It was a really enjoyable evening getting to know one another over dinner at Judi's home. They are in town to see their sons movie which is playing at the ImageNATIVE film festival.

That day they were shown the sites of Toronto with a visit to the Hockey Hall of Fame, Eaton Centre and a fun game called find the missing car in the huge unmarked Toronto parking lot! Thanks to Meredith and Marshal for showing them around downtown. Meredith and Marshal were both vice principals at Downsview before their retirement.

Dinner was full of great conversation and we learned even more about Cross Lake. We were saddened to learn that another teen had taken his own life this summer, only two weeks before school began. 

As awful as things have been in this community there seems to be a lot of great things happening too. There are a lot more organized sports and clubs and they had a musician come and play for 500 students.

With the Indigenous Games coming up in Toronto in July 2017 many students are preparing to participate in the games from Cross Lake! It'll be great to show them around our city and school! 

Winnipeg bound

We left Toronto in the dark Oct. 22, 2016 in the morning and arrived in a sunny and fairly warm

Winnipeg around 10am! 

Judi and Monica will be running PPC workshops, Garth is hosting hands on video and lighting/sound workshops for small groups of students and Lisa is setting up the 3D printer and doing training/troubleshooting lessons and will show staff and students how to build 3D models at Mikisew.

This afternoon we thought we'd take advantage of the stop over and visit the Canadian Museum of Human Rights. What a gorgeous building. There is a lot to take in at this very interesting place. 

The architecture is stunning. 

And of course we saw "the forks". 

https://humanrights.ca/

We are now going to get the 3 D printer!

Tomorrow we leave!

We cannot thank everyone enough for the support! We leave tomorrow on an amazing journey to Cross Lake, Manitoba! This week the 3D printer will be set up, 48 books should be arriving and PPC training sessions begin at Mikisew School! We are so excited. Our students are so excited. Thank you.

Landscapes of Truth & The Land of Rock and Gold

Today Downsview students got to see four films at the ImagineNATIVE Film Festival in Toronto. All of the films were very different in nature from stop animation to documentary to full length feature. It was a really great day and the students had some really great questions after viewing the films. These movies really helped open a lot of dialogue.

The Land of Rock and Gold was great. We debated what happened to Willie all the way home. This film happened to be filmed in Stanley Mission, Saskatchewan that just lost two young girls to suicide. The film debut was dedicated to them.
Overall, it was an amazing day. Much was discussed, seen and thought about. There are some truly talented people doing wonderful films at this festival. We highly recommend you check it out if you can.

Orange Shirt Day Posters - why this is such an important day

Signage 3d, 300, 3 letters: PPC