Rick Garrick — Wawatay News

Anishinabek Employment and Training Services plans to launch Food Services Worker and Personal Support Worker training programs on May 2 in partnership with St. Joseph’s Care Group and Confederation College.

“Partnerships like this with … AETS is going to benefit our community — we are always trying to build capacity,” says Biinjitiwaabik Zaaging Anishinaabek Chief Bart Hardy. “The partnerships with Confederation College we’ve had in the past were pretty successful.”

Hardy says the partnership announcement was “a good day for us.”

Aroland’s Greg Meshake plans to study culinary, carpentry or welding at Confederation College after graduating from Kiikenomaga Kikenjigewen Employment and Training Services Aboriginal Skills Advancement Program.
“I chose (culinary) because I have a passion for cooking,” says Meshake, one of two valedictorians at the March 3 graduation ceremony at the Davinci Centre in Thunder Bay. “I do enjoy cooking and I’d like to learn more skills on how to do it properly.”

Moose Cree’s Stan Wesley encouraged students to move forward and achieve their goals during Dennis Franklin Cromarty First Nations High School’s career fair.

“We don’t want to live in the past anymore,” says Wesley, the keynote speaker who created and played the Bunnuck character on Wawatay TV in the 1990s. “We want to live in the future, we want to move forward.”

Wesley says his own career path has led him on a journey across the country.

Seine River’s Charles Friday credited team work and technique for winning the third segment of the Builders Challenge at the 14th Annual First Nations Northern Housing Conference.

Classroom attendance has increased in Wapekeka since the temporary Reverend Eleazar Winter Memorial School was opened on Jan. 11. The community’s former school burned to the ground in May 2015.

“The students have more freedom to roam around,” says Reverend Eleazar Winter Memorial School principal Ivan Sakakeep. “Even during recess some of them don’t even want to go out; they just want to play inside the hallways. That’s how happy they are; there’s lots of room for them.”