Santa in the North: Fond memories of Fond du Lac, Uranium City, Wollaston Lake and Stony Rapids
Even while bundled up and shivering, Peter Godber appreciated the warmth.
The Saskatchewan Roughriders’ centre savoured an eye-opening journey earlier this month when he visited small, isolated communities in our province and spent time with students as part of the 24th annual Santa in the North excursion.
“All the kids were really excited,” Godber says. “They wanted autographs. They wanted pictures.”
And they wanted to hear messages about literacy and mental health — two cornerstones of the Saskatchewan Roughrider Foundation.
“We also wanted to have some fun and play some games and make this a memorable experience,” Godber continues. “The kids really wanted to play tag, so we played tag in the gym. We just did activities for a few hours that we had a lot of fun doing.”
Godber was part of a delegation that included Roughriders defensive tackle Charbel Dabire and Community Program Co-ordinator Karina Peterson. They spent time in Uranium City and Wollaston Lake.
Earlier, a travelling party that included long snapper Jorgen Hus, receiver Kian Schaffer-Baker and Digital Media Co-ordinator Morgan Fleury had visited Fond du Lac and Stony Rapids.
In both cases, Santa Claus took time out of his busy December schedule to tour northern Saskatchewan while flying with Rise Air.
Both trips were supported by direct donations from Greg Yuel and family. Yuel, a member of the Roughriders’ Board of Directors, is also the team’s Lead Governor.
“One of the coolest things about being a provincial team is the opportunity to share our entire province with our players,” Peterson says.
“They come in and they see Regina. Regina’s great and it’s awesome that they get to experience that, and they see Saskatoon during training camp. But our province isn’t just Regina and Saskatoon, so when we get opportunities to share the expanded version of what our province is, that’s really special.
“It was really good to share that with Charbel and Peter and let them experience a part of Saskatchewan that not very many people get to see. They both did a very good job of not taking that for granted.
“Peter said at the end, ‘Thank you so much for allowing me to get this experience.’ Is it cold? Do you not get much sleep? Are you tired because you’re visiting lots of people. Absolutely, but I think they did a very good job of living in the moment and being grateful for the experience.”
The gratitude was noted at Father Gamache Memorial School in Fond du Lac, which is located on the northeast side of Lake Athabasca — 60 kilometres south of the Saskatchewan/Northwest Territories border.
“The kids just loved it,” says Bella Adams-Moolla, who spent the past four months teaching Grade 7 in Fond du Lac. “They loved seeing Santa and they loved the extra activity.”
Not to mention the rare opportunity to interact with professional athletes.
“There was a mix of shock and excitement,” Adams-Moolla recalls. “It’s not the typical reaction you would get down south, where it’s like, ‘Oh, I know who this player is!’ Most of them needed to take in that experience and that moment, because they’re just not used to it.
“As the day progressed, it was, ‘This is really cool. These people are in the school and they’re around. They didn’t just stop in for two minutes. Now I see them in the hallway. Now I’m seeing them in the gym.’
“Once you see them in different places, they get more excited and then they want to get to know them.”
Along the way, the kids provide an education while showing their visitors a different way of life.
“I think we take a lot of really simple things for granted, with how simple and easy our life can be,” Peterson says.
“Getting to school is a lot more complicated for the students who live in those areas, as opposed to those students who live right down the road from their school.
“There’s even the matter of planning meals for a trip like that. If we’re sending players on a three-day trip in Saskatchewan, we don’t have to think about what they’re going to eat, because they’re just going to stop somewhere and grab food. You don’t necessarily have those options when you’re somewhere that’s so remote.
“We talked a lot about the grocery store prices that they have to pay up there, because everything has to be flown in. Unless it’s winter and everything has turned to ice, there aren’t roads up to these communities, so everything has to be flown in.
“What does that look like in terms of the resources that are available to them? It’s not even just regarding groceries, but also with school supplies and different things like that. I think it’s a healthy reminder for us of how blessed we are in a lot of ways.”
As one who enjoys the outdoors, Peterson extracted so much from her trip to some of Saskatchewan’s northernmost regions.
“You realize that life can be simpler and it can be OK,” she says. “Especially coming up to Christmas, there’s so much emphasis on things.
“When you live somewhere where it’s a lot harder to just go to Walmart and buy all your Christmas gifts, they don’t have that option, so I think there’s less of an emphasis on things. There’s a lot more of an emphasis on the people.
“The kids were just excited to see Santa and the gifts were like an afterthought. It was like, ‘Oh, wow. We get to leave with a present. That’s awesome. But I got to see Santa today!’ ”
Peterson’s family members, including her Weyburn-based parents, got to see something different.
“Once I got up there, I took a screenshot of my location and sent it to my family group chat,” she says.
“It was like, ‘Isn’t this crazy? I’m as close to the north border as you are all to the south border. We’re on opposite ends right now.’ ”
The journey completed a cycle for Godber, who spent significant time in the south (at Rice University in Houston), east (growing up in Toronto) and west (playing for the B.C. Lions) before recently adding the far north to his list of destinations.
“My high school in Toronto had 2,000 students,” he notes. “Growing up in that kind of environment in a busy city, you’re taking a streetcar, a subway and a bus to get to school. As a contrast, going to a school with nine kids in it in northern Saskatchewan opened my eyes and gave me a perspective on different ways of life.
“It was awesome. The kids were respectful and bright and just great kids. It showed me that it doesn’t matter if you grow up in a big city or a small town. It showed me a different way of life that I’m not used to at all in big cities.”
Godber was unaccustomed to windchills exceeding minus-40 until his request to participate in Santa in the North was accommodated.
“It was eye-opening how some of these kids walk to school every day in the cold,” he marvels. “They’re all wearing these balaclavas over their face. They’re so prepared for the cold and it really doesn’t affect them.
“For me, it was, ‘Hey, this is pretty cold.’ The kids were like, ‘Oh, this is another day up north.’ It’s pretty cool how they all have this mindset of, ‘No matter how cold it is and no matter what’s going on with the weather, we’re going to go outside and we’re going to have fun, regardless.’ ”
There was, as it turned out, fun aplenty.
“The Santa in the North group from Rise Air kept saying ‘Thank you so much,’ or people at the schools would say, ‘Why do you do so much? Why are you guys here?’ ” Peterson says.
“Well, we’re provincial. We’re your team. We may feel like we’re very far away from you, but our intent is to be provincial. We want to reach everyone and provide the opportunity for everyone to connect with our brand.
“To be a part of it, it was a pretty unique, once-in-a-lifetime type of experience.”
