Jersey Towegishig and Dora Ooshag, left to right, attend the Matawa Education and Care Centre in Thunder Bay, Ont. The centre held a grand opening ceremony on Friday to mark the completion of construction and renovations at the building.
Classes moved to the centre in 2019. Last fall, a 100-bed facility was opened to provide on-site accommodations for students. Construction was done in a few phases, but there were pandemic-related delays. Total capital costs since 2018 amount to $23 million, with the federal government taking on the bulk of the investment."Now that we have the gymnasium, we can join the city and the city leagues for sports," she said. "There's always something going on in the school for the students."
She said her childhood friend, Dora Ooshag, encouraged her to enrol, and now she hopes to see more students do the same.Dora, a Grade 12 student, transferred to the Matawa Education and Care Centre this year. She's completing a co-op placement with the school's land-based program and hopes that helps her toward her goal of taking outdoor recreation at Algonquin College.
"Basically we harvest off the land, be it moose hunting, geese hunting, duck hunting, fishing — we get them to set nets," he said. "We try to get them out on land because they're all from up north, and it's a good experience for them and it's part of their credit."