The visits emphasized the importance of youth's mental health during the holidays. (submitted photo/Tarra Olson)

By Elliott Knopp

Spirit Week

Makwa Sahgaiehcan teachers supporting students during Christmas break

Dec 29, 2020 | 4:40 PM

Students at Makwa Sahgaiehcan School may be away from the classroom during the winter break, but that isn’t stopping their teachers from being there to offer support.

During the week before Christmas, the staff at Makwa Sahgaiehcan First Nation School wanted to reach out to their students during the holidays. The theme of the visits during the virtual Christmas Spirit week focused on mental health and offering support to students as they stayed at home during the holidays because of the public health guidelines.

Vice-principal Tarra Olson said the visits are important during this time as the community has been tasked with overcoming many challenges throughout the year, including COVID-19 and the community’s State of Emergency, which she adds is still a concern.

“We know a lot of people are struggling with depression, so we like to make sure our students are getting looked after during this time,” Olson said.

Olson and vice-principal Jon Kemp began gathering supplies and assembling care packages for each of her students to enjoy during the holiday break. The care packages included bath bombs, stress balls, hygienic products and gingerbread houses.

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With the students’ gifts ready for delivery, Olson and fellow teacher Dorothy Angus dressed up as Christmas characters and went door-to-door dropping off the holiday surprises.

She said seeing the students’ faces and reactions to the gifts was a touching moment that made her happy.

“We wanted to give the students a hug, but of course, we couldn’t do that and had to keep our distance,” Olson said. “They were very happy, and I took pictures of almost every student that we delivered to. Seeing the smiles on their faces was enough to tell us that they know we’re still thinking about them and that we still care about them.”

Along with the gift deliveries, contests and events were held on the school’s Facebook page throughout the week. Gift cards were awarded to the winners of the daily challenge.

Olson believes it is important to reach out to the youth in the community during these trying times. She said along with the pandemic, the students are going through many challenges at this point in their life.

“We have to try and reach out any way we can because we don’t know what they’re going through right now. If adults are struggling as we’ve noticed, then they’re going to be struggling too.”

As the community prepares to enter the new year, Olson hopes people will reach out and communicate if they are facing adversity and know that they are not alone.

“Anyone who is feeling down or depressed, please reach out to someone and talk to someone. There is always someone out there that will help you,” she said.

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Elliott.Knopp@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @ElliottKnopp