By Arlene White

On April 24th, 2 CAAWS facilitators Arlene White and Valentina Nolan facilitated two workshops at the Birch Brook Nordik Ski Chalet, to 13 powerful ladies from Nain, Makkovik, Postville, Natuashish, Lake Melville and Cartwright.

The first workshop, "Aboriginal Women and Leadership, Building on our Strength" was presented by Arlene White.

The morning kicked off with a beautiful prayer from our elder, Ms. Mary-Ann Doucette, thank you Mary-Ann, and a round of introductions. Our workshop focused on women and young girls while motivating them to be the leaders they are. It really focused on their strengths and helped each individual to realize they are in fact a leader. This workshop focused on different leadership styles, barriers, and strengths us women bring to each community. Building our strength workshop allowed an extremely positive networking session with a free flow of information and ideas amongst all participants.

On behalf of CAAWS I personally would like to thank all who attend! First of all for giving up their Saturday, but most of all for opening up to us and sharing all your ideas, stories and most of all your laughter! Thank you to Todd Winters from the Aboriginal Sport and Recreation Circle of Newfoundland and Labrador for organizing the workshops. Arlene White, CAAWS Facilitator

The Second workshop sponsored by CAAWS "On the Move" was presented by Valentina Nolan.

This workshop brought forth some great discussions on Women in Sport and opportunities for girls in sport. Most women felt they had much information to take back to their communities now realizing the many barriers that girls and women have in Sport, Recreation and physical activity in their small communities. These women now have created a network of resources and contacts sharing their knowledge and experiences with each other. They also have the tools of what makes a program appeal to most girls and young women.
Some lessons learnt include:
Having fun is the ultimate goal of life long activity and program success.
Asking those who are inactive what things they would like to try for fun.
Having healthy snacks at the program.
Making a special effort to invite individuals on a more personal level.
Partnerships with other organizations can help your program achieve its' goal.
We had many laughs with a free flow of information from all participants, creating a successful workshop.
Valentina Nolan, CAAWS Facilitator

The ASRCNL would like to thank Arlene and Valentina for doing such a wonderful job and Mary-Anne Doucette for overseeing the days activities. We would also like to thank Sydney Millar and CAAWS for their support for the advancement of women involved in sport and recreation in Newfoundland Labrador

I was delighted to get the opportunity to visit the Labrador coast, thanks to Todd Winters of the Aboriginal Sports and Recreation Circle and Michelle Healey of Memorial University and do several Cross Country Running Clinics with Coaches and Athletes. Elizabeth Rose was my host in Forteau and she arranged for me to speak with the students at the school about our Cross Country Program at Memorial as well as doing a short clinic/ practice with the team she coaches. I was very impressed with the good work Elizabeth has done with her runners. She has turned them into a school team that will be a major contender at the Provinicial level. Elizabeth also gave me an opportunity to spend an hour with the local adult running community discussing various running topics and I believe we had a very productive session.

In Goose Bay I met with Jamie Snook and Eric Skogland and had a tour of the Trapline Marathon course. This new event has caused enormous interest around the province and the Goose Bay running community has to be applauded for putting on an exciting and challenging running event.

The final leg of my trip took me to Makkovik where I spent two days with Recreational Director John Andersen his two running coaches Trent and Travis and the school teams. We did three sessions that included an Indoor and Outdoor session that emphasized various running workouts that can help young runners improve. I really enjoyed my time in Makkovik and was very impressed with the enormous amount of sports activity that takes place under John's direction in such a small community. John, his coaches and athletes were very receptive to my suggestions and eager to learn as much as possible about how to make progress in the sport of Cross Country Running. One of my best memories is having a Caribou supper at the Adlavik Inn, provided by the gracious and friendly proprietor Lori. I am looking forward to another opportunity to visit additional communities in the future and make some contribution to the tremendous Cross Country running potential that I saw in Labrador.

ART MEANEY
Head Coach/ Cross Country Running
Memorial University

Head Sea Hawks invade Makkovik

BY ANDREA ANDERSEN
for the Labradorian

Well not literally, but members of the Memorial University Volleyball team had recently been in the North Coast community of Makkovik for a fun filled weekend of teaching, and coaching the sport.
There were youth present from all ages and all North Coast communities. The Nunatsiavut Government, Innu Nation, Torngat Recreation Commission, Labrador Institute and the Aboriginal Sport and Recreation Circle of NL all had a role in aiding the cost to have the members of the university along with youth and coaches from other communities. People came from Nain, Natuashish, Hopedale, Postville and Rigolet.
John Andersen, the recreation director of Makkovik, said having both the male and female coaches from the university along with a few players from the team was a great outreach program.
"The main idea was to have students who are maybe looking into going to MUN in the future. They would be able to see students who are actually graduating from a university with a degree, that are playing sports as well."
Luke Harris, a male coach for the Memorial Sea Hawks, said they were approached by the university with the idea of doing a community outreach in Northern Labrador in early September of this year. Both he and Melissa Oates (female coach) were very enthusiastic about the opportunity and got started on planning the details of the trip.
Mr. Andersen said this outreach program was held in Makkovik because he asked for it to be hosted there. Next time something like this happens it can be placed in any other community, he said.
The Memorial Volleyball players/coaches arrived in Makkovik along with youth from the other communities on Thursday, Feb 17th.
Alex Barrett, setter of the Sea Hawks, said once he found out that he would be travelling to Labrador he was pretty excited, as he had never been to Labrador before and had no idea what to expect.
He said he knows a few people from Labrador who are awesome volleyball players, so his hopes were pretty high.
"I was the city boy out of the bunch. I knew I was in for an experience when I saw that a ski-doo was our only way of getting around, I was never on a ski-doo before so I was pretty excited about that and they let me drive right away which was awesome. I had no idea what I was getting myself into, everything was so different from what I was used to."
Megan Conroy, right side hitter for the Sea Hawks, said, "As we landed in Makkovik and got off the plane we realized that we were not going "inside" an airport. The fact that there were no cars or vans there to pick us up, but skidoos were, definitely caught us off guard! I think we were all in a joyous shock as we packed our luggage into a Komatik and hopped on the back and travelled the short distance to the Adlavik Inn. The whole ride we were giddy, laughing and so excited to be there and just enjoying the beautiful scenery that was in front of us. First impressions were definitely of excitement, enthusiasm, and anticipation."
The group met with the girls who would be taking part in the program on Thursday evening and went over a few basic drills and ball control. It was less of a way to pass the time and have a little fun before the hard work started. Then on Friday evening it was a slot for the coaches from the university to pass some of their skills on to the coaches from the North Coast. They learned court rotation and basic structures of the sport. The real training started on Saturday through Sunday for both girls and boys sessions; in total there were six volleyball training sessions, and seven sets of games played.
Coach Harris says, "We touched on basic skills, some ball control drills, then on Sunday we moved into more team oriented drills, I really enjoyed meeting the boys, getting to know some of them a little better. It was great to see how much they loved volleyball!"
Mr. Barrett said, "I couldn't believe how passionate everyone was here about volleyball it was really great to see, and I think that translates well into the work ethic the athletes showed in practice. They really listened to what we had to say and all the advice we were giving them. For me it was a shock to see so many skilled athletes in such a small population, I can't say enough about that. I was especially impressed by the younger children; I guess from having to play with the older crowd they were very talented."
It was a very volleyball filled weekend, where every time the MUN crew came into the gym, most of the community showed up just to watch. It was something very different for a change, where they also took part in the 100th day of school celebrations by reading to the younger grades, playing a Volleyball game against students, and participating in the 100+ ski-doo parade, not to mention participating in the Winter Meet practice and trying their hands at some traditional Drum Dancing.
Mr. Barrett said, "I really enjoyed working with the kids in school and then trying some of the different games they were training for."
The training concluded up on Sunday evening where the Sea Hawks along with their coaches played games against two teams. They were really intense games, going point to point with great energy from all the teams. The Sea Hawks ended up losing their first game to one of the teams, and then winning their second games against the other team.
Mr. Barrett said, "The funniest part of the trip was stepping onto the plane in Goose Bay, and then of course getting picked up from the "Air Port" on ski doo. Not something that was expected, but still a lot of fun. There's a lot of potential in Labrador, it's unfortunate that sometimes the athletes don't get the chance to continue on with it, but I hope in the near future we can get a few more athletes in the provincial programs and then maybe on to university level competition because the skill level is certainly there."
Coach Harris thanked the people of Makkovik for being so accommodating, like John Anderson, Lori and Randy Edmunds.
Mr. Andersen said, "We are hoping to do something like this again next year. The Aboriginal Recreation and Sport Circle of NL will bring training to our North Coast communities for our young people. We do not have a lot of funding but we try and spend wisely and piggyback on other training that may be taking place. I hope that all the young people who took part in the training use and pass on what they have learned. We look forward to working with Memorial University on another project of this kind."
So with this jammed packed weekend of a little Inuit culture, Volleyball, and celebrating 100 days at school these members of the Sea Hawks team were beat, unfortunately they got stuck in Goose-Bay on their way back to St. John's for a few hours but made it home six hours later.

Mike Alexander held Badminton Development clinics in the Lake Melville Region on the 16-17-18 of April 2009. Mike is the Coach of the 2009 Provincial Canada Games team. He visited Labrador again this Year through a cost share between the ASRCNL and Badminton NL. On Thursday Evening Mike held sessions at the Labrador Training Center for the local women Badminton players.
On Friday he replaced the current Phys Ed. teacher of Queen of Peace Middle school for the day and held grassroots development sessions teaching the youth,in a fun way,the basics of Badminton. As coach of the Provincial Badminton team, he is getting a good look at the regions future athletes and says that "there are quite a few players that could become Provincial team members if they work at it and most of all enjoy it" "If the basics are taught well then they could evolve into some excellent players"
On Friday evening Mike held a session with the local badminton club in Happy Valley-Goose Bay.
Saturday morning he did a two hour session with the currrent and future team members of Lake Melville School. Special thanks to Sarah Townley and Frank Phillips.
Saturday afternoon Mike attended a local Badminton Tounament when after the tournament was over he got to play against some of the local competition.
Mike said as usual he really enjoyed the opportunity to get to Labrador and can't wait for the next visit.