SIB PLANS COMMUNITY MARCH

Sechelt Indian Band members will be taking to the streets in a march
to take back their community from drugs and alcohol and to send a
message to dealers.

The march, set for Oct. 20, will make stops along to way to sing and
drum and serve letters to alleged drug dealers' homes, according to
SIB drug and alcohol counsellor, Howard Paull. The letters from chief
and council will "tell all the dealers here in our community that we
want them to stop what they're doing," Paull said. "We're going to be
offering letters of support to them as well, informing them that there
are services and programs available to them to help them there is
going to be schooling available, there is going to be treatment
options for them -- anything and everything from the Band that we can
offer them."

The march will begin at 1 p.m. outside the Band's health and social
development building. Participants will walk down along the waterfront
towards the church, then back up to the trailer court. Next the route
will take them to Porpoise Bay, back along Wharf Road to Cowrie
Street, where it will finish outside Sechelt Elementary by
approximately 4 or 4:30 p.m.

Sunshine Coast RCMP constables, elders and students -- since it falls
on a professional development day -- are expected to participate.
Paull anticipates Chief Stan Dixon, Mayor Cam Reid and some Sunshine
Coast Regional District directors will attend at the elementary
school. He expects people will join in the march along the way and
noted the march is open to everyone.

"The drugs and alcohol issue is not just a Band issue -- it's a
Coast-wide problem."

From the school, participants will head to the Longhouse for a
potluck, again open to everyone.

A committee was formed within the Band earlier this year called Taking
Back Our Community. The committee's idea for the march has been in the
works for several months.