Into the North

              Teslin, were organized. Mrs. Fred Lambert, former President of Destruction Bay W.I., assisted with the organization of these Branches. In the Mackenzie District, two W.I. Executive meetings were held, one at Yellowknife for the Southern Branches, and one at Inuvik for the Northern area. Mrs. L. T. Year, President Discovery W.I., accompanied Miss Eadie and assisted with the workshops held in conjunction with these meetings. For 1968, arrangements were made to have Mrs. Year assume the responsibility of Field Worker in the Mackenzie District, and Mrs. Lambert to work in the Yukon. These experienced women, long time residents of the North, conducted programs of interest to the W.I. members in their respective areas this summer. Mrs. Year reports a new W.I. formed by the Eskimo women at Coppermine and Mrs. Lambert hopes to have some new ones joining the circle in the Yukon. The Northern Institutes entered into the spirit of Centennial Year by sponsoring the project, "Make Canada Lovelier", with pleasing resuIts. They also assisted in establishing community centres, rinks, swimming pools, and arranged community celebrations with old-time Northern settings. They have fulfilled the purpose of the organization to better home and community living and develop leadership. One Northern W.I. member stated, "It is a joy to see our native women taking part in community activities, with dignity and ability". In reading these accounts of the founding of the Women's Institutes, it all sounds quite simple. But the truth is it takes weeks of planning, setting up itineraries which cannot always be followed through because of weather conditions. This can mean long, frustrating waits. On one trip Mrs. Wm. Hough says, "I was weather bound. Inuvik recorded one of the worst storms they ever had. Winds up to 60 miles an hour were accompanied by snow, sleet and rain. Planes were damaged, some lost, and barges in the river overturned". However, this delay had a silver lining. Mrs. Hough succeded in sparking sufficient interest in the native section of Inuvik and a new W.I. was formed. Miss Eadie laughingly tells her experience when rain turned the road from the runway to the settlement into a sea of mud and she was borne to higher ground by a Northern Sir Galahad. PUBLIC RELATIONS

In 1961 I had just completed three years as Public Relations Officer for FWIC, and was asked to set up a public relations program for the NCWI. I decided on a three-fold approach. First to reach across the miles, not only to W.I. members, but prospective members, I asked Mrs. Hough to join me in a IS-minute taped radio program in the form of a brief W.I. program, with a topic, FWIC news, recipes, and a short poem or story. This program was carried North by the CBC Northern Service to Whitehorse, Yellowknife, Inuvik, and other stations for relay. This was done for two and a half years. It was then decided it would be an advantage to the NCWI Branches to use their local stations in the North to announce up-coming meetings and special events. The second public relations project was the magazine for NCWI members, which I named the Northern Lights Bulletin. This magazine continues to be published three times yearly and is read from sea to sea to sea and overseas. The third approach was through releases and special articles in news media throughout Canada. A fourth valuable approach developed with the expansion of the W.I. program and ,the setting up of the UNESCO financial assistance plan. It was now possible to send NCWI representatives to Provincial and National W.I. 15