Tournament Date: 2009 season (alternates years with PGI NWT)

Musician Mike Stevens, The Hon. Ed Picco, Minister of Education, singer Connie Kaldor (4th to 6th, back row) and the rest of the winning team pose with their dog-powered golf cart.

The Nunavut PGIs are much more than golf tournaments. They are an opportunity to celebrate the value of learning with celebrities, dignitaries, elders, children, adult learners, sponsors and community members.

The Nunavut PGI, benefiting the Nunavut Literacy Council, is a unique event that lasts over three days. It includes a dinner sponsored by the Premier, a trip out on the land via dog sled or snowmobile, and a community celebration that includes an awards ceremony and musical entertainment. Celebrity guests deliver workshops for children, youth and adult learners at local schools, daycares and community learning centres.

The golf tournament is meant for only the toughest of golfers, and is certainly not for the faint of heart. The players – dressed in parkas, mitts and garniks, out in the bitter cold on arctic ice – must beware of natural hazards such as golf ball-snatching ravens, arctic hares and foxes. They are warned in advance to abandon their golf balls immediately if they are confronted by wildlife larger than themselves. Not exactly a regulation course! The Nunavut PGI golfers, however, can boast that they are part of an exclusive group of people playing a truly unique course: when the ice melts in the spring, this one-of-a-kind fairway disappears!

These golfers are a select group of Canadians who put their sanity aside for the cause of literacy, and for that, we are forever grateful!

For more information about the Nunavut PGI, please contact:

Kim Crockatt
867-983-2678
kimcr@qiniq.com
Nunavut Literacy Council website: www.nunavutliteracy.ca