New grant, New Partnership

Julie Druker | Jun 18, 2015

Louise Moody, the newly appointed executive director of Northern Frontenac Community Services (NFCS), attended her first event with the organization at their sixth annual Great Outdoor Adventure, which took place at the Child Centre in Sharbot Lake on June 13.

The event, which was funded in part by the Ontario Trillium Foundation and the Kingston Community Foundation with help from Pathways for Children and Youth, included many activities for youngsters, an Aboriginal corner, live music courtesy of Tom Asselstine and the Kokumis Drummers and a United Way yard sale. New this year were demonstrations and workshops in snowshoeing and lacrosse that came about thanks to a successful two-year grant obtained by NFCS through the Ontario Sports and Recreation Communities Fund.

A partnership with the Shabot Obaadjiwan First Nation, the Limestone District School Board, the First Nations Youth Advisory, Kingston Kross Fire Lacrosse League and the Northern Rural Youth Partnership will make these two new traditional sports activities available to local children in the community, who will also now have access to a snow shoe lending library and will be able to participate in a new lacrosse league as well as in a number of skills-related workshops and demonstrations in both activities.

Maribeth Scott, manager of children services at NFCS, was thrilled with the opportunities these two new activities will bring to youth in the area. “Getting local youth active in a relevant, cultural way is exciting. We have a large population of native families here and now through this grant, we are able to continue to encourage youth to be active by introducing them to these two culturally relevant activities.”