The Fort McMurray Catholic School Board celebrated the grand opening of the Elsie Yanik Catholic School on Sept. 25, 2018, which would have been the distinguished elders 101st birthday.
Yanik called both Fort McMurray and Fort Chipewyan home, and had many lifetime achievements. She was ordained as a lay minister, has been blessed by Pope John Paul II, received the Governor General’s Commemorative Medal, Honorary Degrees from the University of Alberta and Keyano College, was the recipient of the Indspire 2015 Lifetime Achievement Award, and was an Olympic Torchbearer in Fort McMurray for the 2010 Olympics.
As a proud Métis elder Yanik shared her culture throughout the region and served the community in a number of ways including with the Catholic Women’s League, a decade of service to the Young Offenders Board and work with the Nunee Health Authority in Fort Chipewyan.
Superintendant of the Fort McMurray Catholic School District, George McGuigan told MyMcMurray that this is an exciting time.
“It certainly has an extra significance when we decided to name the school after such a respected elder in our community,” said McGuigan. “Elsie Yanik, long-time member of the community, so well-known by everybody and loved by everyone that it’s taken on a very very important and special meaning for everyone.”
Yanik was known for her promotion of kindness and McGuigan said it is an important aspect of the school, as they will work to instill her messages to their 200 students from the early entry program to grade six.
He noted that her legacy would live on within the school.
“We’ve got lots of artifacts of her life, we have her spiritual prayer that she used all the times when she visited our schools, when she spoke at our celebrations, we’ve put that up on a board and put it up in the hallway,” said McGuigan.
Yanik was able to tour the construction site of the school before her passing in 2016.
Along with Yanik’s messages of kindness on display, there are many homages to her Métis heritage throughout the building, which boasts lots of natural light, many classrooms, breakout rooms, a music room, gymnasium, a daycare, a sensory room and a craft room.
The learning commons, which acts similarly to a library, is also name named two local of Fort McMurray, Geraldine and Jim Carbery. The Carbery’s were both long-term advocates for Catholic education and served as board trustees. Geraldine was the longest running trustee as she served on the board from 1989 until her passing in 2016.
