
100 ANGIK ROAD
PO BOX 100
PAULATUK, NT X0E 1N0
Monday â Friday
8:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.
Phone: (867) 580-3201
Fax: (867) 580-3105
Angik School has a unique history as the school actually began in the home of Nora Ruben in the late 1960s. Nora had books sent to her from Inuvik and she did her best to teach any interested children from her own home. Bertha Ruben would help Nora as well. In 1975 Sister Manning arrived to open the school in Paulatuk. In 1985 the new school building was built and named after Angik Ruben a very respected elder and relative to many Paulatuk residents.
Our mission is for students to grow and thrive in a safe environment where they learn tradition skills, go on-the-land, honour culture and strive for academic success.





We hope to engage parents/guardians in discussions about each of the four indicators of success. We are asking if you had discussions with your childâs teacher about Literacy, Numer … 2 Likes
Volatus Youth Drone Camp
with Matt Johnson vice president of Volatus Aerospace and Indigenous Aerospace CEO Jacob Taylor!
They learned about:
â Careers
â Te … 2 Comments
Just a reminder that there is no school for students on Friday May 19th, as the teachers have a planning day.
Students who are interested in participating in the drone camp … 1 Comments

Everyone is welcome to either set up a table and sell items, or come shop! Pay … 7 Likes


âAn elder is a big kid.â Lennie đ …
Jason Caskenette, a (CEA) Career and Education Advisor will be in the school until Friday afternoon.
You can call the school and schedule too speak or meet with him anytim … 4 Likes


Monday – JK-6 After school sports – Callia
Tuesday-JK-6 After school sports – Adri
Wednesday – Grade 6 and up Beading – Julie & Katie
Thursday … 10 Likes
Thank you Lanita, it was so much fun! 3 Comments
They support Grade 9-12 students in their next steps after graduation and provide practical support w … 2 Likes




Permission slips went home for ice fishing and sledding next week! Please return signed forms to school! đđ đŁ
The exchange … 15 Likes
Corey Terrence Ruben
Andy Kudlak
Jerry Nels … 2 Comments

The school is looking too hire somebody too make at least 16 fishing sticks for the upcoming fishing trip (April 25th & 28th).
That, or we are looking too borrow some, if you hav … 3 Comments


Aaron Ruben
Corey Ruben
Andy Kudlak
Jerry Nelson Ruben
Chris Ruben
Gilbert Thrasher
I just need too collect some information off … 3 Comments
Just a quick reminder for those who are attending the skiing festival in Inuvik today.
Can students make their way too the airport by 1:30 PM, as the plane is scheduled too lea … 7 Likes
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2022-2023 News and Updates
Beaufort Delta District Education Council (BDDEC) is aggressively working to improve graduation rates.
Superintendent Devin Roberts said the district has gone so far as to expand its team of mobile teachers.
âThis year new trades teachers were hired to travel the district and provide more high school courses to smaller schools outside of Inuvik,â he said. âThe plan is to improve graduation rates and reduce the number of students who enter grade ten but do not graduate. This has become a focus of the BDDEC vision which we hope to report on over the next five to ten years.â
As of the 2020/2021 year, the six-year graduation rate for the Northwest Territories is 60 per cent. Split between regions, the rate is 74 per cent in Yellowknife, 55 per cent in regional centres like Inuvik and 45 per cent in smaller communities. Graduation rates for Indigenous students is 49 per cent across the territory, compared to 81 per cent for non-Indigenous students. Roberts said BDDEC wants to turn those lower numbers around.
It is part of BDDECâs overall 2022 to 2027 vision, developed by a council with representatives from all eight Beaufort Delta communities. The vision will renew the districtâs focus on the Dene Kede and Inuuqatigiit curriculum, which teachers are expected to bring into lessons as much as possible. To help facilitate this, teachers are encouraged to bring in knowledge keepers and Elders to help students learn traditional skills, stories and languages alongside learning science, technology, engineering and math.
A renewed focus on trades education as well as mental wellness is also part of the new vision. Roberts said the vision follows a concept of three âIâsâ â Indigenized Education, Inquiry and Inclusive Schooling.
âDecolonizing the education system as much as possible within our local locus of control is a main priority for BDDEC,â he said. âThe efforts to advance truth and reconciliation can be seen with the Elders in the School programs and BDDECâs new vision which includes a focus on voice and choice for students. The voices of the youth in the region must be valued, fostered and supported throughout their education. BDDEC has asked all schools to develop a student council. These student councils will work together to provide youth more of a forum to bring forward ideas and concerns about their education system in real time.
âAlso in the day to day classes BDDEC teachers are providing students more opportunities for voice and choice using inquiry as the main method of teaching. Students become active in their learning. They are encouraged to practice and become more comfortable with oracy skills. This is supported through partner talks and small group work eventually building students up to become confident in public speaking, presenting, critical thinking and articulation. The students are the future leaders of the communities and thus BDDEC believes fostering communication skills will support the youth in becoming confident leaders.â
To help students feel more included, the district has re-branded its logo and purchased orange lighting to shine the message that Every Child Matters throughout the dark Beaufort Delta nights.
Implementation of the new vision is already underway, after a motion at the annual District Education Council meeting in March set it in action. Roberts said the first step of that is community engagement to gather feedback on where the vision is going. Changes from said feedback will be announced this fall. After that, the plan is to partner with the Gwichâin Tribal Council and Inuvialuit Regional Corporation to develop a 10-year plan for student success across the Beaufort Delta.
âIn the meantime staff have been trained using the Dene Kede and Inuuqatigiit curriculums learning how to Indigenize programming,â said Roberts. âPartnerships between schools, Elders and Traditional Knowledge Keepers are underway. An Inquiry network for teachers and principals meets monthly. The inquiry networks are supported by consultants and BDDEC senior management.
âBDDEC has a repository of lessons and strategies to support Indigenized Education, Inquiry and Inclusive Schooling through Google Drive available to staff. BDDEC senior leadership and a team of consultants travel the district supporting schools with the BDDEC vision.â
Every night since last Sept. 30, Beaufort Delta District Education Councilâs windows have glowed orange to remind the world that Every Child Matters. Photo courtesy of Beaufort Delta District Education Council
Currie, Crook and Kilo: NWT names its first music award winners
MEGAN MISKIMAN AND OLLIE WILLIAMSLAST MODIFIED: SEPTEMBER 11, 2022 AT 5:39PM
Miranda Currie, Crook the Kid and Kilo November were among the winners as Music NWT staged its inaugural awards ceremony in Yellowknife on Saturday.
Meanwhile, the Yellowknives Dene Drummers, Ted Wesley and Norm Glowach entered a newly formed NWT music hall of fame during a combined awards and induction ceremony at the Explorer Hotel.
Drummer Cody Drygeese said the award demonstrated the health of Dene drumming.
âIâm very happy to say that right now we have many people in our First Nation who are still participating in this ancient cultural practice,â he said.

Guitarist Ted Wesley passed away last December. Sister-in-law Heather Pritchard, appearing on his behalf, said Ted was âa wonderful musician with a very large rangeâ who obsessively studied songs he heard.
âHe didnât do music for money or fame. He mostly played for free,â she said. âAnd he missed his chance for fame when he went to the Juno Awards, because they really wanted to sign up this wonderful young talent, but he would have to move to Toronto. And who the hell wants to leave the North to move to Toronto?â
Mayor of Yellowknife Rebecca Alty, introducing Norm Glowach as the nightâs final inductee, noted he had spent decades focusing his immense skillset, from musical ability to audio engineering, on the Northwest Territories.
âIâm lucky,â said Glowach. âI get to record people. I get to work with my bandmates, who I have been playing with in Priscillaâs Revenge for 15 years. This is a pretty good life, Iâd recommend it to anybody.â
Currie, named the NWTâs Indigenous artist of the year on Saturday, recently released an album designed to help children learn their traditional language.
âEvery time I hear Miranda play, her music plays in my mind for the next six hours,â said the ceremonyâs host, Inuk author and throat-singer Tanya Snow.


âIt feels really nice that folks are recognizing my music,â Currie told Cabin Radio.
âWe played a lot of shows this week and kids are singing the songs and the lyrics, even for the new album. Thatâs the thing that always touches me the most, when you see parents and kids singing along to stuff.
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âYouâre like, yay, because I write this music with a message to change that Indigenous narrative in Canada, starting with young people and their families.â
Gnarwhalâs Deep Spaced was crowned the best new single of the past year. The award for best new album went to Al Beeâs One From The Other.
Kilo November, the teenage DJ who sensationally closed the Cabin Stage at Folk on the Rocks 2019 and returned in 2021, was honoured for the territoryâs best live performance.
âIâm still shocked. I kind-of donât believe it,â said the 14-year-old, adding he discovered he had been nominated after his mom received the call while he played video games.
âShe came into my room and said, âSomething crazy has happened.â Iâm like, âWhat?â And sheâs like, âYouâve been nominated for this music award thingy.â And Iâm like, âOh no way, thatâs awesome.â
âI decided not to get my hopes up because I didnât honestly think I would win.â
Fort Good Hope rapper Crook the Kid, who performed on the night, won the songwriting award of excellence. âI canât believe someone in this room thought it was OK to give me an award,â he told the audience, laughing, following his set.
Other performances at the gala, opened by the Yellowknives Dene Drummers, included Nara, Johnny Cole, SkyFire Taiko (a form of Japanese percussion), Munya Mataruse, Five Thirds Mad, and Brenden MacIntosh, who won best debut release for Coffee Break.


David Doweâs Double D Studios won 2022âs music industry award, while Inuvikâs Great Northern Arts Festival won an award recognizing its work as a venue. Inuvik resident Abe Drennan collected that award on the eventâs behalf before picking up the nightâs fan choice award.
Saturdayâs ceremony, the first such awards night ever staged by Music NWT, took place in a gold-bedecked banquet hall with two stages and a live online broadcast.
The event was masterminded by Music NWTâs president, Trevor Sinclair, in the hope that a dedicated and, by Yellowknifeâs standards, lavish annual awards night will help to give the territoryâs industry a higher profile.
The winners, in the order they were announced:
- Songwriting:Â Crook the Kid
- Music Industry:Â Double D Studios
- Venue:Â Great Northern Arts Festival
- Live Performance:Â Kilo November
- Music Video: Keith Robertson for Thin Ice, by Andrea Bettger
- Fan Choice:Â Abe Drennan
- Indigenous Artist:Â Miranda Currie
- Debut Release:Â Brenden MacIntosh
- New Single: Gnarwhal for Deep Spaced
- New Album: Al Bee for One From The Other
See the full list of nominees in our earlier coverage.
Abe Drennan canât say enough thanks to his fans.
He was named the first-ever NWT Music Awards Fan Choice at the first-ever gala Sept. 10 â edging out other big-name artists like Leela and Jay Gildayâs project Sechile â Sedare and the band Welders Daughter â for his music video Way Up North, which he filmed with local video-pro David Stewart. The video was also nominated for Music Video Excellence.
âIt was amazing. It was an exhilarating feeling,â he said. âRight before the nominees are announced, you get this whole build-up and all of a sudden my name came up. I was just so happy.
âThe Fan Choice award is a great award to win. All the awards are great, but I think the Fan Choice is great because youâre chosen by the people who listen to and like your music. And that matters most, because without our fans as artists weâre just folks making music in our basements. The fans are the ones who appreciate and value what we do â how could I not be more grateful.â
With 20 years of work put into his music, Drennan said being named the fan favourite felt like an acknowledgement of the time heâs put into his craft. But more-so he said it was the result of the many friends heâs made through music along the way.
âFor years and years I have been sharing my music with people,â he said. âFrom my hometown in Bancroft, Ont. which I know is always supporting my music and what Iâm doing, and folks from here and family and friends. Itâs just a culmination of time. That adds up and those relationships build.
âIâm all about connecting to people and building meaningful relationships. Thatâs who I am. And you know, I know my people have my back, but this was just a further confirmation of that. It just felt so good.â
His own recognition aside, Drennan said it was an important milestone for the NWT to host an Music Awards Gala and the effort to bring it about has been underway for a long time.
Put on by Music NWT and initially pushed by Trevor Sinclair, the awards ceremony was the first of its kind.
âItâs was an important step in establishing our musical community in the NWT,â he said. âIt was good for artist recognition, good for community building and great connecting with everybody.
âMany of the award winners and such were people I havenât had the chance to meet face to face, but I have been collaborating with people around the NWT virtually for over a year now and finally we came together. It so special that way.â
Now that heâs earned his mantelpiece, Drennan is back to his lifeâs work, with plans to put together a new single and album over the winter.
He said heâs working on an EP with Bell Rock recording out of Fort Smith, but didnât have a release date yet. So stay tuned.
âIâm honoured and grateful to be chosen for the fan choice,â he said. âShout out to Trevor Sinclair and the NWT Board of Directors and to all the award winners and nominees â it was such an honour to be a part of it all.â
Ulukhaktok mural reflects life in a new land for Muslim teen from Ontario

For 17-year-old Ruqaiyah Noor-e-Zahra Naqvi, living in the small N.W.T. hamlet of Ulukhaktok means muskox hunts, snowfalls like she's never seen before, drum dances and ravens.
Naqvi, a Muslim student at Helen Kalvak School who recently moved to the community of about 400 people, brought all those concepts together with the help of fellow student Alison Klengenberg-Kuneluk for a mural that now hangs on a wall at the school.
"It's definitely [an] interesting thing for me to try, because I never worked on a project that big," said Naqvi, who is in Grade 12.
"I think definitely because of the friends I've met here, I was able to try new things and kind of open myself up a bit."
Naqvi and her family moved to Ulukhaktok in 2020 when her mother took a job as a junior high teacher at the school. It was an unplanned move for the family, who had been living in Burlington, Ont.
"When we were going to move to Ulukhaktok ⊠I almost felt like I get to see another view, another side of my brothers or sisters in humanity," said Ambreen Zahra Bokhari, Naqvi's mother. "We are all part of the same light."

Though out of her comfort zone at first, Naqvi soon settled in. She began to meet people, make friends, and started her own creative arts club. She joined a muskox hunt with other students, took part in a drum dance and learned from elders about what they experienced at residential schools.
"It broke my heart," she said of hearing those residential school experiences. "But I think the point of them sharing it was to remind people of how far they've come in what has happened in the past, so you don't forget."
She wove those emotional and special experiences all together with paint. She's thankful, she said, for the history, culture and knowledge people have shared with her.
"If you told me two or three years ago that I would go hunting for muskox for nine hours in deep snow ⊠I would be like, 'Are you crazy? I would never do something like that!'" she said.
"That's an experience you don't forget."
The mural is one of 33 funded by the Inuvialuit Regional Corporation and commissioned by the Inuvialuit Community Economic Development Organization back in March as part of the Inuvialuit Mural Project. The project aimed to support artists across the Inuvialuit Settlement Region with a stipend for their work.

Though most of the artists for the other murals are Inuvialuit, school principal Nicholas Kopot recommended Naqvi and Klengenberg-Kuneluk for this one â an unusual opportunity for the new student.
Alexandrea Gordon, communications manager for the Inuvialuit Regional Corporation, said in an email that individual community corporations selected the various artists.
She wrote that the decision to allow a non-Indigenous student to be one of the painters "demonstrates how inclusive our people are."
Gordon said the idea was to give artists freedom to express empowerment, culture and self-pride.
"This allowed the artists to create art without boundaries," she wrote.
Naqvi's finished product features a pink-cheeked girl with an ulu-shaped earring, breathing on her mitts to warm her hands. Three hills rise amidst clouds, and a baby raven takes flight over the silhouettes of a woman and a child holding hands. The silhouettes represent the important message of Orange Shirt Day.
"I thought, there's a lot of great things, but you shouldn't forget about the sad things that happened as well," she explained.
Copies of all the murals will be displayed down the streets of Inuvik early this winter.
With files from Karli Zschogner
The latest GNWT satisfaction survey suggests life at the territorial government is, for an increasing number of staff, as appetizing as a gentle slap in the face with a wet fish.
While a majority of employees are broadly happy, results published on Tuesday show morale has dipped since a 2016 survey and pride in the NWT government is slipping.
Sixty-five percent of people said they are proud to work at the GNWT, a drop of six percent since 2016. Sixty-six percent of people said theyâd recommend the GNWT as a great place to work, also a six-percent decline.
Seventy-four percent of staff responding to the survey said they agreed with the phrase: âOverall, I am satisfied in my work as a GNWT employee.â That figure had dropped just under one percent since the last survey and has essentially remained unchanged for a decade or more.
Overall, the survey reported a 3.4-percent drop in GNWT morale since 2016. High turnover rates and an inability (or disinclination) to take annual leave were highlighted issues. The report containing the results stated that the Covid-19 pandemic and its associated travel rules were probably factors.
A GNWT press release about the results on Tuesday avoided mentioning any of them, though there were some bright spots among a general sense of mild decay.
âThese results provide the GNWT with the information needed to improve employee engagement and satisfaction across the public service,â said finance minister Caroline Wawzonek, whose department oversees human resources.
The good news? NWT government staff think some aspects of diversity at work are going well.
Seventy-five percent of respondents agreed that âthe GNWT promotes cross-cultural awareness opportunities for employees,â a whopping nine-percent increase on 2016âs figure and the largest improvement across any aspect of the survey. The reportâs authors concluded GNWT initiatives in this area are having âtangible impacts.â
On top of that, 90 percent of respondents said they have good relations with their coworkers. More than 80 percent find at least some of their work âchallenging and interesting.â
Yet despite this, only 52 percent of people responding agreed with the statement: âI would describe our workplace as being psychologically healthy.â (This was a new question for 2021 and doesnât have a previous result for the purposes of comparison.)
Only 57 percent said they felt valued as a GNWT employee.
If you work at the GNWT, you may find some of the lowest scores telling.
Just 37 percent of respondents, the surveyâs lowest score, agreed that âthe GNWT has adequate reward programs in place to help celebrate and acknowledge individual and team efforts.â (The report recommends, as one solution, that âemployees may be given pay-for-performance as a reward for work well done.â
Forty-nine percent agreed that âessential information flows effectively from senior leadership to staff.â Those were the only two scores below 50 percent.
You can find report cards by department and agency on the GNWTâs website.
Students' caribou hunt in Aklavik provides meat for entire school
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6 students teamed up with 6 skilled hunters for an on-the-land experience

It was an all-new experience for Jordan Archie.
"My brothers and them would go, but for me, this was my first time ever going caribou hunting," said Archie, a student at Moose Kerr School in Aklavik, N.W.T.
Archie was part of a group of students from the school that teamed up with some local hunters this month to harvest some caribou. It was organized as a one-on-one learning experience on the land, with six students and six experienced hunters.
"I think of it as a great opportunity and I was thankful of going," Archie said.
Megan Lennie, a regional youth coordinator with the Inuvialuit Regional Corporation (IRC), helped organize the event along with another teacher at the school. It was organized through Project Jewel, an on-the-land wellness initiative run by the IRC.
Lennie said the original idea for the hunt came from a student.
"They wanted a community harvest but they had no knowledge on how to get up there, and what the terrain was going to be like," Lennie said.
"So it was a perfect way to encourage knowledge sharing, and to provide meat to the entire school."

She said it all came together quickly.
"The idea came on Wednesday and we ran it ⊠we decided to run it the next Monday. So then the boys went out on Monday to harvest," she said.
It was a cold day â around â27 C with the wind chill, Lennie said. They packed up some sandwiches and snacks for the six students and off they went.
The Porcupine caribou herd was not far from the community, so it was possible to do the excursion as a day-trip.
Some of the students had been hunting before, but Lennie said it was still a good learning experience for them.

"We were explaining to them, you know, it's important to learn from different people so you could get a couple different tricks up your sleeve, and share that to your own family."
The group returned to town just as it was getting dark, Lennie recalled. She was waiting for them at her in-laws' house.
"It was kind of beautiful ⊠we saw the lights of 10 skidoos coming down off the hill."
The next day, the harvested animals â six of them â were taken to the school to be skinned and butchered. Lots of people from the community, including parents and elders, came to watch and participate. Everyone went home with some meat.

Archie missed that part, though â he was still worn out from the hunt. There wasn't a lot of snow yet on the land so the travel had been rough and exhausting.
"I was still at home sleeping, stiff and sore. That's why I didn't have a chance to get any skinning or butchering of the caribou," he said.
With files from Wanda McLeod
POSTED BY: IAN DOWNÂ NOVEMBER 24, 2022
Inuvik singer-songwriter Abe Drennan remembers the fear that gripped him in the first weeks of the pandemic.
âI went out to buy groceries at Stanton for the first time since we shut down,â he remembers. âAnd I remember feeling a real fear that I have never felt before â Iâve felt fear before, but not like this. And it was going to the grocery store.â
âWhenever I feel something like that, something that powerful, I have to work it through it, through song and through writing.â
Almost two-and-a-half years later, that writing process turned out âUnknown Road,â a modern folk tune that reflects on the resilience of the Inuvik community in the face of pandemic adversity.
Gradually, the community was able to come back together as restrictions were lifted and life returned to normal. âTrying to see the light at the end of the tunnel was really hard sometimes, right?â says Drennan. âBut when the mask mandates were lifted, and we could actually gather, I was like, âNo, we need to do this as a community, we need to come together.'â
The accompanying video is also a tribute to Drennanâs home community: It opens with a shot of him walking across the ice road that connects Inuvik and Aklavik, and features shots of the inside of East Three Secondary School and a crowd of local students.
At the climax of the video, âWhen the community joined me on the walk down the road, it was the opportunity to symbolize that, here we are, having come out of this horrific experience,â says Drennan. âAnd here we are back together again. And it was a reason to celebrate.â
Drennan, who is also a teacher, won this yearâs Fanâs Choice award at the NWT Music Awards. âUnknown Roadâ is part of a planned new EP that should be released sometime next spring. A new Christmas song, âLight of the Season,â will also be released on Dec. 17.
âUnknown Roadâ and its accompanying music video are now available to stream on YouTube. The single is also available to stream on Apple and Spotify.
Grade 9 teacher in Inuvik is Sport North's Coach of the Year
'When you hear from teenagers that they appreciate you ... it kind of makes it all worth it'

Stephanie Parkes didn't previously play basketball.
But recently, she was named coach of the year by Sport North, in honour of her efforts coaching the boys' basketball team at a school in Inuvik, N.W.T.
"I was shocked," she said. "Honoured. It's nice to have the recognition."
Sport North aims to develop and promote amateur sport in the Northwest Territories. It's responsible for providing programs and services for organized sport throughout the territory.
Parkes teaches Grade 9 math and is the boys' basketball coach at East Three Secondary School.
She said her journey into coaching began around 2008 when a friend needed her help chaperoning. It was a chance for her to hang out with the kids outside of the classroom setting â and she loved the experience..
"I see the kids a lot in the building. But it was really nice to get out of the school, make connections with the kids. Some of the students that maybe struggle academically â you really get to see a different side of them," Parkes said.
"You get to see them shine. I just fell in love with it."

For the last six or seven years, she's stuck with the same group of kids, who are now in Grade 12.
"It's been a journey for sure," she said. "A lot goes into coaching."
That includes five days a week in the gym, a lot of effort fundraising and travelling with the kids to Yellowknife.
"There's a lot to juggle," Parkes said. "It's time away from your own family. And my family has always been super supportive of me working outside of the house and chaperoning."
The time commitment, she said, pays off.
"We've had a pretty consistent team through the years. The kids are super dedicated," Parkes said.
"When you hear from teenagers that they appreciate you, and the things that you've done for their life, it kind of makes it all worth it."
'The long game'
The big reason she sticks with it, on top of her passion the kids, is to help promote staying in school.
"For some of our students, it's a reason for them to be in school, it helps to motivate them," she said of sport. "The ultimate goal here is graduation, right? So whatever we can do to help keep kids engaged in school, wanting to be there... we'll do what it takes."
While Parkes said she's seen the kids "through all the ups and the downs," she said she's confident "they're gonna get there."

"It's always been about the long game," Parkes said. "Sport for me has always been about a way to motivate kids, you know, to show up and to do the best that they can do so that they can have these opportunities."
What was perhaps most touching about winning the award, to Parkes, was getting to read the written submissions sent in by the athletes she coaches.
"They were pretty special, pretty emotional," she said. "[I'm] very grateful."
Our Youth of the Week is Noah Cormier, seen here with RKV Bladesmith Rory Voudrach. Noah has been participating in an on-the-land school program with his father, learning traditional survival methods. After watching others working with an ulu, Noah decided he wanted one himself and has been operating a lemonade stand and collecting bottles for the past several months to save up. He finally got his blade at the Christmas Craft Fair Nov. 25 to 27. Photo courtesy of Kimberlly Walters