MK and The Help Desk held their staff party on Friday, December 16, 2005 in Sydney. All staff was in attendance and all enjoyed. Santa even came to help out and give everyone presents. All enjoyed the gifts and company of all present.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year’s to everyone and enjoy a safe and happy holiday’s.

On December 12^th, the children at the Wallace Bernard Memorial Day Care welcomed a special guest. Santa Claus came to visit the children and brought them gifts.

The concert for the K3 and K4 group at the Daycare was held on Friday, December 16^th at the Membertou Elementary Multipurpose room. The children entertained us with selections of Christmas songs. A light lunch was served afterwards. There was a great turnout by parents, grandparents and members of the community. Congratulations to the children (and their teachers) for the great job they did!

Shipyard Elementary School had their annual Christmas concert on December 14^th. The theme this year was a Musical Christmas. This was truly an awesome concert as it had music to suit anyone’s taste. They had rap, hip- hop, celtic, country, etc. Some of our Membertou students attend this school. The winner of the even-split that the students sold as their fund raiser was won by Ann Marie Doucette of Membertou. Congratulations to the students on putting on a great show!

Bear River First Nation was the host of this year’s Annual Assembly of the Tripartite Forum.  The community displayed its museum exhibit.  This is excellent as it shows how the Mi’kmaq lived traditionally prior to the arrival of the Europeans.  Bear River is also a very scenic spot and it is such a wonderful area to visit.

This year the theme of the Assembly was that the working groups sit down and share the work that each is doing.  There are many things that are accomplished with each of the working groups and for each to work together there can only be improved program delivery.  One of the major contributions that the First Nation Help Desk can provide is the use of the video conferencing in setting up meeting, courses or general discussions.  Several of the groups have expressed interest in the video conferencing.  We expect to see many things come out this process.