Rick Garrick — Wawatay News

Fort Albany has been working on promoting food security in their community since establishing a food security committee in January.
“We established it because we were concerned about the availability of affordable food,” said Gigi Veeraraghavan, a member of the food security committee and coordinator of the community’s Healthy Babies Healthy Children program. “It’s just impossible to feed a family, especially a large family.”

Sandy Lake’s Ida Kakekagumick is looking forward to spending Christmas with her three grandchildren in their new Habitat for Humanity home in Ottawa.
“We’re getting excited,” said Kakekagumick, who has been living in Ottawa since 1986 and currently works at the Minwaashin Lodge - Aboriginal Women’s Support Centre. “At first I couldn’t believe that this was happening — this is my very first home. Habitat for Humanity has made it a reality for me and my grandchildren to own a home.”

Keewaywin’s Patrick Charles Kakegamic said it was “pretty cool” bringing home two gold medals and one silver medal he won at the Ontario ParaSport Summer Games Aug. 19-21.
“My family wanted to see them and they said they were proud of me,” said the 17-year-old athlete. He won gold in discus and shotput and silver in javelin at the games, held in the Sarnia-Lambton area in southern Ontario.
“It feels great. It was a good experience to go down there. I saw new faces,” he said.

Ginoogaming Chief Celia Echum plans to continue pursuing her vision of a vibrant, self-reliant community after being re-elected in late August for a third two-year term.
“Our people are very capable of becoming managers, teachers, lawyers, doctors and our youth have special talents and aspire to be actors, singers, and professional athletes,” Echum said. “My role is to empower them, support their dreams and put those resources in place as they supported my dream to lead as chief.”

Doris Slipperjack’s battle against prescription drug abuse was featured at the Biindigate Film Festival in Thunder Bay in the world premiere of The Life You Want.
“This was my third time watching this video and it still makes me cry,” said the 22-year-old mother of three after the Sept. 24 screening. “It’s been really rough, actually. But even though I’ve relapsed, I don’t let that stop me from getting back on.”