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Forty years of play

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The Yellowknife Playschool Association celebrated its 40th anniversary on June 11 at its location on Burwash Drive. Here, Susan Fitzky and her two daughters, Myriad Fitzky, 4, left, and Ingrid Fitzky, 2, grab and bite to eat at the event. “It's an amazing place for kids to come and learn about socialization and just have fun without their mom and dad,” she said. NNSl file photo

A lot has changed since the 1970s, yet it’s good to know some things stay the same.

The Yellowknife Playschool Association still runs a playschool program that fills up quickly each year and parents are still dedicated to its success.

In 1977, a group of parents of young children got together and started up a parent cooperative. The Yellowknife Playschool Association was born. Its mission was to provide part time play-based learning and socialization for young children.

Its temporary home was the old city hall building on 50 Street where a Reddimart now stands. Toni Auge, then Toni Harker, was one of the first teachers at the school and brought her two-year old son Jordan with her when she taught at the drafty building.

“It wouldn't pass code now,” she said, laughing as she remembered the shared bathrooms, long hallways and other oddities of the 1950s era city hall. “We were very creative, very inventive and made the most of the space.”

A year later, the association moved to a portable next to St. Patrick High School as the old city hall was slated for demolition.

During this time, Auge said the playschool association was very much “out there in the public eye,” holding bake sales, participating in the former Caribou Carnival and functioning as one of the only early childhood care spaces in the city at the time.

“In those days it was a young town, with lots of young families and the ones that really saw the need for this,” she said. “To me it was filling a gap, or providing a lovely environment for young parents with kids that were new to the North because it was a really good introduction and involvement.”

Money was always an issue, Auge said, and finding a permanent home wouldn't happen for a few more years. In 1980, the association's lease with the Catholic school board was up and the playschool was temporarily homeless. Thanks to the generosity of residents Albert and Gladys Eggenberger, who purchased the former RCMP building with help from Dr. Clare Moisey, the playschool found its forever home at Burwash Drive and 56 Street.

What makes the playschool unique was the same in Auge's day as it is now, according to association Jill Stephenson.

“I've really made a lot of really great connections with families that go to playschool,” she said, a sentiment echoed by Auge, who added friendships formed at the playschool seem to endure. Stephenson has also seen her daughter Leah make fast friends in her two years attending playschool.

“For my oldest daughter, and I know it will be the same for our youngest, she's made really great friends,” she said. “Whether or not their friends until university, whoever knows, but right now she has a connection with them and for me it’s been really easy to also become friends with their parents.”

With pre-kindergarten in existence and junior kindergarten starting up this fall, the fear among the association's board was that enrolment at the playschool might drop. Yet that didn't happen. Enrolment this year is near capacity. The playschool has also been holding a summer camp for the past two years, which Stephenson said has been immensely popular.

Assistant teacher Maribel Dela Cruz puts her heart into her work at the Yellowknife Playschool and it shows. Emelie Peacock/NNSL photo

She said the focus on play, cultivating imagination, allowing for flexibility and letting the children guide their learning is one reason why the program remains popular 40 years on.

A great teaching philosophy is one draw, but it is nothing without the passion and dedication of teachers to bring it to life.

Assistant teacher Maribel Dela Cruz, or Belle as she is known by everyone at the playschool, spent 20 years as a public school teacher in the Philippines before moving to Yellowknife. She said when she arrived in Canada as a retiree, she decided to find somewhere to work where she could share her love for children and their learning. She has now been at the playschool for eight years this fall.

“There should be always love for your work, you are not counting the (hours),” she said. “You need to give your big heart, full heart in that. That is what I am doing in my work here.”

And it shows, Belle greets her students and former teachers who stop by to say hello with warmth and love as she prepares for another day of imagination and play for her young students.