Suboxone walkers raise $78,000

Kingfisher Lake Coun. William Mekanak and youth Bryan Sainnawap raised $78,000 for a new Suboxone treatment building during their 500-kilometre walk to Sioux Lookout.
“The weather wasn’t cooperating, it was freezing rain, so it made the walk delayed,” said Mekanak, who came up with the idea for the walk in Sept. 2011 after the community lost two band members due to prescription drug abuse. “(The winter road) melted in less than three days. It was pretty hard (walking).”
Mekanak wore out his first pair of shoes on the first section of the winter road.
“The shoes I was wearing were already shot by the time we reached the Summer Beaver (Nibinamik) turnoff,” Mekanak said. “We wore out a lot of shoes. Shibogama (First Nations Council) got (walking) shoes for us, like Reebok and Nike.”
Mekanak said the weather was mainly good during the walk, but it would get cold quickly in the evenings. They usually walked about 12 hours a day, from about 7 a.m. to about 7 p.m.
“It was usually about seven when the sun went down,” Mekanak said. “We went back to where we stayed and started again in the morning around seven.”
The two walkers completed their fundraising walk on April 3 after setting out from their community along the winter road on March 14.
“Everyone joined us a little past the Sioux Lookout airport,” Mekanak said, noting that Grand Chief Stan Beardy, Deputy Grand Chief Mike Metatawabin and a group of Pelican Falls First Nations High School students and Shibogama staff completed the walk with them. “It felt great.”
Mekanak and Sainnawap were also honoured during a celebration at the town beach in Sioux Lookout and at a big gathering when they arrived back in Kingfisher on April 4.
“They were just emotional and shaking hands and hugging,” Mekanak said. “They were congratulating us that we finished.”
While the walkers didn’t reach their fundraising goal of $150,000, Mekanak appreciates all the donations received on the walk.
“What they gave will really help us to get our treatment centre,” Mekanak said. “Seventy-eight thousand is still a lot of money.”
Mekanak is now considering another fundraising walk this summer from Sioux Lookout to Ottawa to raise the remaining $72,000 needed to reach their goal.
“It’s still continuing — this is just the beginning,” Mekanak said. “People can still donate.”
Kingfisher’s Suboxone treatment program has operated two treatment sessions so far at the community’s nursing station, with 23 clients taking part in the Sept. 2011 intake and 18 this past January.
Plans call for Kingfisher’s proposed Suboxone treatment building to serve clients from the Shibogama communities as well as other surrounding communities.