Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, on May 11th to the 15th, I had an opportunity to travel with over 60 youth on their annual soccer trip to Grande Prairie. Talk about an adventure! What is really unique about this adventure is we have youth from Fort Liard, Nahanni Butte, Fort Simpson, Wrigley, and Trout Lake playing on this team -- which is Sambaa K'e now, sorry Trout Lake.
So, when we took this adventure, how do we start? Well, it starts at 7:30 in the morning. We get the stuff to the school. Then we have to use Rose Construction's cube van to get our luggage transported to the ferry landing. There, Rose Construction takes the luggage, packs it for us, and then Great Slave Helicopters flies our luggage over the Mackenzie River. Then Great Slave transports all our athletes and chaperones to the bus. Then it's a 14-and-a-half-hour drive, or adventure, to Grande Prairie with a bus and a convoy of vehicles.
Mr. Speaker, this is the uniqueness about this soccer tournament and the commitment of our community for our youth. I would like to thank a number of organizations and businesses here: the Mackenzie Recreation Association, who commit $4,000 to each community for the opportunity for them to travel. This funding is thanks to the Department of Municipal and Community Affairs.
Then we have the local businesses such as the Nahanni Inn, who sells our bingo cards for us throughout the whole year. Thanks to them. Then, the Sambaa K'e First Nations, they do our bingos for us. These people make a commitment to our youth. Sambaa K'e is a small community who does recycling and utilizes their core funding to get our youth to this event.
The youth look forward to this event and are great ambassadors for the Northwest Territories and their communities. Each year they get this great opportunity. I'd like to thank all the coaches and chaperones, businesses and bingo players, because, if I miss the bingo players, we're not going to be able to do these trips, so I thank them again. I would like to get the House to give them a big round of applause. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
---Applause