HUMBOLDT — Celeste Leray-Leicht and her family have started the Northern Lights Movement for Kids as a way to create opportunities for students from non-Indigenous and Indigenous communities to connect.
It also honours their late son, Jacob Leicht, who was a member of the 2017-18 Humboldt Broncos team and was among the 16 who died in the bus collision on April 6, 2018.
The idea first started in February of 2018, when Leray-Leicht began a pen pal relationship with another teacher from St. Dominic School, where she works as the vice-principal.
Leray-Leicht said part of the goal with this initiative is to respond to recommendation 63 iii of the “Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada: Calls to Action,” a document which she encourages others in the community to read. This recommendation calls for building student capacity for intercultural understanding, empathy and mutual respect.
As per the recommendation teachers in Saskatchewan are mandated to teach treaty education in all provincial schools at all grades.
“Originally the idea was to build a relationship by exchanging letters. It was an initiative to encourage Indigenous and non-Indigenous youth to build relationships and make connections,” Leray-Leicht said.
As an educator, Leray-Leicht said that comes with the responsibility of doing their part to help shape their youth into becoming responsible and caring citizens, which she believes happens by creating opportunities for their youth from Indigenous and non-Indigenous backgrounds to build relationships and make connections while serving others.
“We began a pen pal relationship with a Grade 4 class at the elementary school in La Loche, and we thought, ‘let’s start here and see where this takes us,’” Leray-Leicht said.
One set of letters was exchanged, and then the Broncos tragedy happened.
Within hours of losing her son, Leray-Leicht said she felt a new purpose of continuing the idea and expanding it.
“From conversations with family and close friends, we came up with the Northern Lights Movement for Kids, and they all were supportive. I think through education, it’s kind of an easy way to make these connections happen because educators are very passionate about the wellbeing of youth.”
That idea became broader, with the organization of a 111 km challenge, involving community members walking, running and biking to reach a total of 111 kilometres together.
“People in Humboldt were very, very supportive and then I would say most of the people who participated out of Humboldt had some sort of connection either directly or indirectly to someone we know,” she said. “There were people all over Alberta, a few people in British Columbia, in Montana, in Chicago, Illinois who participated.”
Leray-Leicht said they were so pleased with the overwhelming response that she initiated a second 111 km challenge which is running from July 11 to Aug. 11.
“The reason why we choose 11 and it’s significant is because it’s the number Jacob wore on his jersey while playing with the Broncos, so we have some fun around that number.”
People are encouraged to keep track of their kilometres and post them on the Northern Lights Movement for Kids Facebook or Twitter page.
Leray-Leicht said at the end of the day, the connections don’t have to be through one specific thing, they can be letter writing, art sharing, or even exhibition sports games held in other communities.
“We washed chairs in the arena with the high school students last year, we’ve done some fundraisers – our student leadership committee have done some fundraisers at school for other people in need, we’ve sent letters and hearts to, for example, Makwa had lots of tragedies this winter so we wanted to reach out and let them know we’re thinking of them, we’re praying for them and their wellbeing matters.”
Hashtags used for it include #buildingrelationships #makingconnections #servingothers #kidstrong
“In the fall we’re hoping to do an art exchange and do some fitness challenges, and the great thing about doing things online is it makes it more feasible both for time and cost to connect.”
