THUNDER BAY – A floor hockey game on Tuesday gave local high school students an opportunity to interact with Thunder Bay leaders.
City councillors, administrators and members of the Thunder Bay Police Service, Fort William First Nation Chief Peter Collins and leaders from Nishnawbe Aski Nation met on Tuesday for a friendly game of floor hockey with Dennis Franklin Cromarty High School students.
“We tried a couple of years ago, COVID got in the way and we thought now we’re in a better place, you know, with the vaccinations and such, But I think a lot of these young students coming to Thunder Bay can be a bit of an intimidating experience,” said Mayor Bill Mauro.
“Some of them are here for the first time, some of them not, but it’s just all about trying to create the relationships and make them feel more comfortable in the community, so, we’re just building on that.”
Dennis Franklin Cromarty refers to its students as future leaders, and that sentiment is shown through many opportunities that it facilitates for its students to meet and interact with leaders from the city of Thunder Bay and the region.
“It’s not necessarily just the city council, they invited other people, like today, we had Jason Simon come in, he spoke to the children and gave them his story and yeah, more like that, getting to meet the police officers, I found it quite fun,” said William Bottle, student from Mishkegogaming First Nation.
“I met one of the guys on my ride home and we had a good conversation, and actually, policing is a career that I want to choose, so, having been able to have a one-on-one talk with them was very inspiring for my future,” Bottle said.
The Game ended in a shoot-out featuring the five best shooters from each team with the DFC student team coming up victorious to the cheers of the crowd.
“It’s fun, we all enjoyed ourselves, I think this is an event that the students have been looking forward to for a while because it was cancelled two years ago when we were initially trying to set up this event, but it’s a fun event,” said DFC principle Sharon Angeconeb.
“It’s time to run around, time to laugh and hopefully score, have a few goals in between there, so, we really enjoyed ourselves,” Angeconeb added.
Mauro hopes to be able to set up a time for students and leadership to be able to play together again but perhaps next time a game of volleyball.
