Teachers and students journey to Kashechewan during March Break to help
From the Brockville Recorder & Times
Helping the less fortunate 'right in our own backyard'
By Tracey Tong ttong@recorder.ca
While many of their counterparts are leaving Brockville for sun, sand and surf over the March Break, a small group of local students will be freezing in -40 temperatures in an isolated northern Ontario community.
Grenville Christian College teacher Fred Bowen is heading a 10-day mission to Kashechewan, a First Nation community located near James Bay that suffered a water quality crisis in late 2005.
The group - which consists of five students from Grenville Christian College, two Thousand Islands Secondary School students, seven staff and volunteers from GCC and a member of the Centennial Road Standard Church - left for the community of 3,000 Thursday. The purpose of the trip is to build much-needed storage facilities for the elementary school and help out in the classrooms.
It all started when Bowen made a visit to Kashechewan - a community with a high suicide rate and an unemployment rate of 87 per cent - during the water crisis. At the time, talks of relocating the community to other existing communities were underway.
Still thinking about the community upon his return, Bowen had his data management class do a study on the cost of relocation. From there, the project ballooned into the inspiration for the mission.
During the crisis, the local elementary school had moved temporarily into Francine J. Wesley Secondary School. There, Bowen learned that the elementary teachers had to carry their supplies back and forth on a daily basis.
Pulled together in a few short months, the trip is a collaboration between GCC and Centennial Road Standard Church.
Kashechewan is a 3,000-kilometre round trip that includes a bus ride to Cochrane, for which Bowen got his school bus driver's licence.
From there, it gets a little more complicated.
Because there are no roads between Cochrane and Moosonee, the bus will be loaded onto a northern train called The Little Bear. From Moosonee, Bowen and volunteer Bill Bushnell will continue the drive to Kashechewan.
Hours before leaving on Thursday, students and volunteers packed up the bus for departure. Group members brought their own bedding, food, water and other supplies required for the 10 days.
The volunteers raised funds to help come up with the $600 required for each person. They got lots of help from the community, Bowen added.
St. Francis Xavier School donated a sum of money to purchase sports equipment, as well 800 to 1,000 books. The Grolier book company also donated 500 storybooks.
Culligan supplied 180 litres of water. The Community of the Good Shepherd and Home Hardware were also among those who made donations.
"It was really a community effort," said Bowen. "It's amazing how it came together."
Bowen believes part of the reason the community was so supportive is because, unlike other mission trips like ones to Belarus and Africa that have happened in this area, this one reaches out to people in Canada.
"We wanted to do something right in our own backyard," said volunteer Michelle Jones-Bushnell.
Bowen hopes the trip will expose students to cultural differences between their own community and the First Nation lifestyle in northern Ontario.
"It's very difficult to understand the lifestyle unless you see and explore the conditions people are living under," he said. "We are so blessed here."
TISS student Breanna Heine believes the trip will be a great learning experience.
"Instead of just watching the news, we're going to be there experiencing how they live for 10 days," said Heine, a Grade 12 student.
When Grade 11 TISS student Kaylee Hodgeson learned about the trip, she took the opportunity to research Kashechewan.
"I didn't know anything about the town," she admitted, "but I did my own research."
For Nastia Pestava, this trip is a chance for her to pay it forward. Pestava, who grew up at the Chaussy Orphanage in Belarus, is at GCC on scholarship.
Bowen hopes this trip will mark the beginning of a relationship between the people of Kashechewan and Grenville Christian College.
It's all about helping others, said Pestava.
"I can't wait to see the sparkle in the children's eyes when they get their own books," she said. "I got the opportunity. Now I think someone else should have that opportunity. Everyone should have a chance. We're bringing them help and hope and love."