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Treaty day activities, games and much more are coming up on July 4-6, in Poplar Hill. This is an event that we have every year. Also there's a fishing derby, this weekend June 14-15, 2002. The men are going for the biggest jackfish. The ladies will go for biggest walleye and the kids go for the smallest walleye.

Poplar Hill had a community engagement workshop review on May 22, 2002. From the Northern Chiefs office were Les, Jacob, and Jesse. The local resource people were Health staff, E-centre staff, and two band councillors. It was good to see our results from the workshop on January 24,25 2002. See the pictures from the workshop

Poplar Hill had a one day fishing derby on May 19 2002. There were 4 catagories: Men, ladies, youth and kids. Men Issac - 1st place - $500.00 Cash - 28 5/8 " Johnny - 2nd place - $ 20.00+VCR - 27 7/8" Ladies Patricia - 1st place - $200.00 cash - 27" Mary - 2nd place - $20.00+elec.skillet - 26 7/8" Youth Leon - 1st place - $70.00 cash - 27" Johnathan - 2nd place - $10.00+getto blaster - 24" Kids (smallest walleye) Bryon - 1st place - $70.00 cash - 10 1/8" Felix - 2nd place - $5.00+cassette walkman - 10 3/8"

Spring hunt in Poplar Hill took place on May 18, 2002.The entry fee was $50 per person. There were 24 entries dividing themselves into 3 per group in each boat.They started at 5 a.m. in the morning went until 9 p.m. in the evening. First place took $350.00 for each hunter, 2nd place took $50.00 each plus $100.00 credit shopping at the local Northern store. 1st place - Ronald, Alec, Paul 2nd place - Allen, Leslie, Shorty

After weeks of planning and two postponements, our commmunity's 1st Winter Carnival finally began. Once the announcement was made on the radio station, about fifty excited boys and girls showed up at the hockey rink in a flash.They had been looking forward to this huge, long talked about event that promised fun, games and lots of prizes! For starters, everybody got into a friendly game of soccer,then there were other games that were played in different age groups like the three legged race, Monster (yes,it's a game), sled races and snow shoe races. For other type of games like tug-of-war and the snowman making contest, the children were divided into teams to play in. When it was time to warm up and take a break, the children were brought into the Community Centre where volunteers had hotdogs, juice and hot chocolate ready to be served to the energetic youngsters. For the spectators there were bannock hotdogs and cheeseburgers ready for sale. A game of musical chairs was also played while they were inside. At the end of the day, prizes were given out. Each winner got the opportunity to choose his or her prize. There was also a fireworks display on the last evening. Even with the minimum amount of volunteers the three day event was a huge success. A huge thank you to all these volunteers.

Release A Suicide Prevention Workshop was held in Poplar Hill this week. Micheal MORRISON (Nishnawabe-Aski Nation, Marlie SQUIRELS (Nishnawbe-Aski Police) and Dan MCLEOD (Northwest Patrol Unit,Ontario Provential Police) presented the 3 day workshop at the community's "E Centre". The workshop focused on helping the community to reconize signals of suicide and ways to prevent and to deal with suicidal persons. The main focus of the workshop was to inform participants that SUICIDE IS NOT ABOUT DYING, IT'S ABOUT STOPPING THE PAIN. The participants learned some of the SIGNALS OF SUICIDE, three of which are: i) giving away prized possessions (i.e such as a CD collection) ii) saying good bye in an important manner (i.e a letter saying they're going away) iii) correcting past mistakes (i.e making apoloyies, paying old debts) They also learned THE THREE STEPS TO PREVENTING SUICIDE which are: i) Ask directly if he or she is thinking about suicide. ii) Listen, don't judge. And don't say things will get better. iii) Get them HELP. NAN has the lead role in the cooperative effort netween themselves and other agencies that includes Nodin, Tikanigan Child and Family Services,OPP, RCMP, Mattawa and Delico. NAN is presently scheduling training sessions for Nothern Communities. If First Nations are interested in having a workshop in thier community the should contact Micheal Morrison, NAN at (807) 623-8228.

Anna Owen opened the second day of the workshop with a prayer. Most of the local Health staff attended this planning session to share their community’s ideas and needs around the vision of “Good Health in Poplar Hill”. Lots of information was recorded as everyone began to understand the process of putting together our different goals and strategies to achieve this vision. The highlight was how everyone agreed that we need a new and larger Nursing Station to serve our community as soon as possible. Having 2 full-time nurses will help to achieve our community’s vision. See the Workshop Pictures and read the report on-line. New Health programs, services and training support were also identified and included in the list of things we would like to see in our community. The need for training of local staff to do all the work in these new programs and services will ensure we are successful in achieving our vision of “Good Health in Poplar Hill”. The final step in the planning process involved identifying which communication technologies we would require in the future for each of these programs and services. This information is being posted on the web, so everyone can review it and add more information whenever the need arises. Bella Moose closed the ICT planning workshop for the Poplar Hill Health programs and services. We thank everyone who participated and shared their ideas during this session.

Community members met on the evening of January 21, 2002 to begin their week long ICT planning workshop. The meetings are being held in Poplar Hill's new Smart Business Centre where the local e-Centre is located. The Introduction workshop turned out great with Chief and Council, Health Dircetor, Prenatal / Nutrition worker, NNADAP, Band Constable and the E-Centre staff attending. Galin showed us the surveys that were done in the years 2000 and 2001. One of the things these showed was the changes in the use of the Native language spoken in the homes. They also showed how computer use is climbing as more people are using it in their workplaces and to access information on the Intrenet. Dan Pellerin explained the network and how we're able to connect with other First Nations and organizations. He also explained how the cable system is being put into place in Poplar Hill. Video conferencing and telehealth services are being set up in all the KO communnnities to connect to other specialists. This network will support more wide open communication to the outside world. Dan also explained how much money is spent to operate the network and how we can charge different users of the networkso we to hire pay for the new staff like the E Centre staff and so forth. For the complete story on the work covered during this first evening of the workshop, visit the day 1 photo gallery.

Poplar Hill First Nation is working with a number of partners to construct their new Smart Business Centre. Wawatay News (June 28 edition) carried a story about how Poplar Hill's new business centre is being supported. Plans include wiring all the Hotel rooms so people will have high speed Internet access when they visit the community.

Two teachers from Poplar Hill (Kurt MacRae and Tom Axtell) posted the Abe Scatch Memorial School web site on April 27, 2001. The web site was created using Netscape composer. Check out the school's web site at http://www.abescatch.myknet.org/Scatch/index.htm Tom writes ... "Next week, I will be working with the grade 8's to make their own simple pages to link to this site. You can let Kurt know he's joined the club!!"