MICE IN A MARIJUANA MAZE

Canada World Youth Volunteers Build Learning Labyrinth To Teach Kids Drugs
Are A Trap

If Jeremy Burridge and Pawel Kuzniewski have their way, Peace River teens
will soon feel like nothing more than a bunch of mice in a maze.

The Canada World Youth participants are putting the finishing touches on
the maze they've been creating since September as part of their work
placement program at AADAC.

Pawel, the Polish half of the team, wants teens to realize "their lives are
in their own hands".

"Drugs and alcohol are not important to live their lives," he said.

"There are other ways to spend time productively."

Jeremy hails from Newfoundland, and is Pawel's exchange partner. He knows
how hard it can be for teens to escape what he calls "the easy way out".

"It's not about never drinking. It's about doing it responsibly. In high
school, people ask what others are doing on the weekend, and they say
'drinking'. Is that it? That's doing nothing."

Jeremy wants the maze to suggest to young people "there's other things to
do besides nothing".

The maze is just one project the two have been working on. Since their
arrival in Peace River, they have been learning about native culture,
co-ordinating activities such as a family day held at the Family Resource
Centre, and have helped the Sagitawa Friendship Centre's Ground Level Youth
with the haunted house put on Oct. 29 and 30.

It seems like a lot of work, but the two exchange workers are no strangers
to the joys of volunteerism.

Jeremy has been involved in the Canadian program Katimavik, and Pawel has
been a volunteer in his hometown of Olsztynek for six years. His current
pet project is called the European Youth Club, an organization promoting
Poland's joining of the European Union.

So far, Jeremy says, his experience with Canada World Youth has been
nothing but positive, and he's looking forward to spending Christmas in
Poland. "It's a good opportunity to travel, but it's a different kind of
travelling," he said.

"It's not staying in a hotel where you only meet foreigners. You get to
experience the lifestyle firsthand, get involved in the community, and give
something back." "It's a good chance for people from Poland to learn more
English," agrees Pawel.

The maze, at Fairview College's L.S. Phimester building on the east hill,
is open until mid-December.