Kids try out their new bikes at the end of the school year celebration. (Submitted photos/Raj Hathiramani)

By Angela Brown

Community celebration

Red Pheasant FN gifts students with new bikes to cap off school year

Jun 27, 2022 | 6:36 PM

Kids at Red Pheasant First Nation had a big surprise at the end of the school year.

Chief and council presented them all with brand new bikes in a recent “Year-End Farewell Day” to celebrate the occasion.

More than 200 bicycles were given to all the kids attending Clifford Wuttunee School as a year-end gift.

Chief and council started planning the project in the spring, to give the kids something they could take home.

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The leadership purchased the bikes with support through a cost-sharing initiative with various programming departments in the community.

Lacee Wuttunee, of Red Pheasant, who helped behind the scenes during the event, told battlefordsNOW the bikes came in all sizes for the students in the Kindergarten to Grade 8 school.

“I believe it’s the first year that chief and council gave out bikes,” she said. “Chief and council came up with the idea a few months ago to give bikes to all the kids to reward them for showing up and doing the work the past year at school.”

Wuttunee said it was about a year and a half that students attended remotely so it was great to see them back in the classrooms again when some of the COVID-19 restrictions lifted.

She said the bikes were a great reward for the kids for “making it through the school year.”

And the reaction from the children?

“The kids were ecstatic!” Wuttunee said. “They were all smiling, very happy. For some of them, it probably was their first bike.”

The afternoon celebration also included a community barbecue, kids activities and a drive-in movie in the evening.

Red Pheasant First Nation leadership and the school staff said on Facebook the bike give-away was a great way for the kids to get started on a fun summer.

–

angela.brown@pattisonmedia.com

On Twitter: @battlefordsNOW