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Meeting House yard sale will help First Nations youthsBy David LeaThe suicide rate for First Nationsbefore and they invented them, saidOAKVILLE BEAVER STAFFyouths is 13 times higher than theJohn.average Canadian suicide rate. ThisWe cut the connection, saidThe Oakville church group The would be equivalent to 17,000 peopleJanet.Meeting House will host a special yard taking their lives every year inThe Residential School situationsale Saturday to help two of its mem-Toronto, said John. Those statisticsthat was done by us. The Canadianbers continue to make a difference in floored us.government decided the best way tothe lives of First Nations youths.High unemployment and highsolve the Indian problem was to killIn 2004 John and Janet Reynolds school drop-out rates, alcohol andoff the Indians through assimilation.left their comfortable lives in drug abuse and a wide variety of The reasons for a lot of these prob-Burlington and moved to the north-health issues due to poor diet werelems really harken back to when weern Ontario town of Nakina, located other problems the Reynolds' werestole their children from them, tookjust 22 kilometres from the Aroland introduced to, which made themthem away, taught them anotherFirst Nation (pop. 325).want to help.language, another culture and taughtInitially brought to the area God has been good to us in ourthem that their culture had nothrough the consulting firm he was life. Hes given us lots of things, saidvalue.working with, John said he and Janet John. I dont know if you know theThe widespread abuse presentdecided to stay after a friend who lives Good Samaritan story from the Bible,within the residential school systemon the Aroland Reserve informed but we just wanted to help themdid little to help the situation, Johnthem of how deeply their help was when they are hurt and when they areadded.needed.needing. If something needs to beThrough funds raised via theThe couple, whose backgrounds fixed or helped with, were there.Christian charity Adventive Crossare in manufacturing and business, Thats really what we decided to do.Cultural Initiatives, the Meetinghave lived in Zambia, the Philippines One big problem is a completeHouse, full-time and part-time jobsand Bangladesh where they have lack of things to do and places to gothe Reynolds work in Nakina whenhelped the less fortunate through within the reserves.they can, and other sources, thecharities such as World Vision.Many of the other problems, JohnReynolds embarked on a number of Despite being in a first world said, can be traced back to the pastinitiatives intended to give youths inMICHELLE SIU / OAKVILLE BEAVERcountry, the Reynolds were to find no actions of the Canadian government.Aroland and the surrounding nativeshortage of needy people in the north-I started helping out with thecommunities something to do.THANK YOU:Janet and John Reynolds, who live in Nakina near the ern communities of Canada.Grade 7-8 class in 2005 and these kidsOne of these initiatives was theAroland First Nation after relocating from their Halton home, visiting at We have the highest suicide rates had never snowshoed. Out of 14 kids,creation of the youth centre andCoronation Park this week. They are raising money to help support First in the world for First Nations peoples. only one had been on snowshoesNations families youth programs with a yard sale Saturday.See Youths page 13What would your perfect home in Oakville look like?If you are interested in purchasing a new home or participating in a Research Survey designed to find new ideasfor living in Oakville, we would like to hear from you.Please phone (416) 937-4589 to submit your contact information and a researcher will be in touch with a short 5 minute survey.Information provided is for the proprietary use of Mattamy Homes Research and will not be disclosed to any third party. You will not be contacted by sales agentswww.insideHALTON.com OAKVILLE BEAVER Friday, May 27, 2011 12