Sarah Pruys
Now in its fourth year, the “Walk for Good Life” is still going strong.
Fifteen people, along with any others who may want to join in along the way, are walking from Eagle Lake First Nation and back—around the heart of Treaty #3—on a trip lasting from July 29-Aug. 4.
In total, they will cover 563 km, stopping in First Nations’ communities on the route.
The Good Life for Young Peoples, which organizes the annual walk, is a “non-profit corporation whose mission is to bring to life the dreams and aspirations of aboriginal youth through confidence-building and culturally-affirming activities,” according to its website.
They aim “to provide educational, cultural, and recreational services to First Nations’ youth in need, as well as outreach and intervention programs . . . in an effort to reduce and prevent First Nations’ youth substance abuse and suicide.”
In addition, they aim “to advance education by providing bursaries, awards, and other forms of financial assistance to First Nations’ youth.”
The trek is a way to raise awareness about the issues, as well as provide the youths involved with a great experience.
While the walk is not always easy, many of participants continue to come back year after year.
“Yesterday [Monday] these young people walked 64 miles,” noted organization president Al Hunter.
He added they had already walked 100 miles (161 km) but still had 250 miles (402 km) more to go when they stopped at the Couchiching pow-wow grounds for lunch yesterday.
Hunter said the youths wanted to keep walking even as the rain was pouring down and it started hailing on Sunday, and that they were not deterred when there was a tornado warning and their campsite got flattened.
He alluded the walk to life, saying there will be challenges and hardships along the way but it is important to keep going.
Justin Morrison, 16, got up to speak, as well.
“There’s been rough patches on the walk,” he admitted. “People get grumpy and cry, and miss being with their families.
“[But] at the end of the walk every year, we are all as one . . . together in the end, we are family,” he stressed.
“I love this walk. I wouldn’t miss it for the life of me.”
Morrison said his cousin introduced him to this walk.
“She came up to me a couple of years ago and said, ‘Do you want to go for a walk?’” he recalled.
“Later on I figured out that it was a 350-mile [563 km] walk!
“It’s the hardest thing I’ve ever done,” he added. “But each year it just gets easier, and you meet great people.
“It empowers us, and every year I get stronger after we’ve accomplished something so great,” Morrison concluded.
Larissa Desrosiers, 16, youth co-ordinator for the “Walk for Good Life,” agreed.
“We got rained out,” she noted. “It was hard because all of our stuff was wet.
“[But] it has been fun [and] everyone is just very supportive of one another,” she added. “We don’t keep to ourselves, we take care of everyone else.
“We get so close out there, and like Justin said, we’re like a family.”
Desrosiers said there likely will be some changes to the walk next year.
“We walk in the heart of Treaty #3 right now, but we’re thinking of expanding to all of Treaty #3 and all of the First Nations,” she noted.
She estimated it would take two to two-and-a-half weeks to complete the longer walk.
Another new thing, said Desrosiers, is that “our CEO is working on a scholarship and bursaries program” that will start up in the fall.
“The surplus of what we make in the walk goes to that,” she explained.
