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Junior Canadian Rangers find new place to meet amidst pandemic

The Port Hardy patrol has historically used the facilities at Port Hardy Secondary School.
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Junior Canadian Ranger Miguel Catarata was awarded the Lord Strathcona Medal back in 2019 at Port Hardy Secondary School. (Tyson Whitney - North Island Gazette)

It looks like the Junior Canadian Rangers (JCR) have found a new place to meet and conduct business.

Port Hardy council received a letter at their Oct. 13 council meeting from Canadian Ranger Kevin McGhee, requesting the use of district space for the JCR recruits to be able to gather at.

“As you know the Port Hardy JCR program is normally bustling with activity at this time of the year,” wrote McGhee. “Unfortunately we have had a very diffcult time restarting the program after the summer due to Covid-19.”

McGhee noted the Port Hardy patrol has historically used the facilities at Port Hardy Secondary School, which he said have always been “generously donated to us by School District 85. Due to Covid-19, the [school] district is unable to allow community use this year in their efforts against the pandemic. Due to the size of our patrol and travel distances of our at risk youth it is very difficult to find a location central to Port Hardy where we can be in a lit, warm and dry location during the many months of poor light and weather we are blessed to have here in the North Island.”

The letter added that the Civic Centre would be the only facility McGhee could foresee them utilizing at this time.

“The JCR program is also a non-profit organization and our only means of fundraising has been setting up the fall fair each year; due to the pandemic we were unable to fundraise this year. We would like to request the use of the Civic Centre, on a no-cost basis, on Wednesday evening or an alternate evening from 7-8:30 pm, although we are open to other time slots that may be available.”

Port Hardy mayor Dennis Dugas confirmed the patrol are “making arrangements to use the Civic Centre, which is fantastic for them.”

Dugas added while there is strict protocol in place to follow when using the Civic Centre during the pandemic, it’s still open for business as usual and being managed by the Lions Club.


@NIGazette
editor@northislandgazette.com

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Tyson Whitney

About the Author: Tyson Whitney

I have been working in the community newspaper business for nearly a decade, all of those years with Black Press Media.
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