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The Story behind
the Boyz
We are all Band
members of the Pays Plat Band but we were living in Schreiber at the time,
as we had no house on reserve.
Robin had applied
for a job on the housing program happening at Pays Plat and was hired, we
had an idea of the start up time early and as the Boyz were being
homeschooled at the time we wondered how much time taking Robin to work,
coming back home, going back to pick him up and returning home would take
every day.
We had no where to
stay there to wait the day for him, and we didnt know if he would have to
work overtime and it was a real inconvenience for us. What to do
So we started to
discuss the problem and came up with the concept of opening an eating
place for the construction crew to eat and hopefully the community and
highway traffic so that we could stay there the day without having to
drive back to Schreiber.
We tried the
community hall first during the Pow wow and learned quite quickly that we
could handle this business idea , but it didnt work out at the hall as the
Band needed it for community activities.
So we decided to
build a cook trailer that we could park on the side of the highway with in
the Business Center lot and quickly built the trailer and moved it to the
location it is now in. It was hard work as we did everything with coolers
which we had to make the ice the patties and other food items and move
everyday with our food and cooked with power from a 7000 watt generator,
but we managed it. moving everything every day in a car that barely fit
the four of us
in it.
We asked the Band
if we could use an outside plug for a computer, lights and our open sign
and they agreed so we now had power with a long extension cord over sixty
five feet long and the boys could use the computer to do their school
work.
We now have a
fridge in the trailer, and a proper under ground electrical connection to
power it, but we use the generator for all other appliances for cooking.
We do need a steady power source but will do until our expansion next
year.
The Boyz learned
alot and made over a thousand dollars in tips over four month which they
used to buy themselves a computer with monitors each for their rooms.
Our plan to reduce
our travel time and start a business was a success in our minds and we
again did it this year with their Auntie managing it and teaching them
more about the business which we are planning to expand into a drive
though next year.
We have also started to
discuss getting into the grocery business as a part of the boyz projects
on the reserve with a goal of providing grocery shopping to the residents
of Rossport to Gurney as our focus with out funding
from any source.
the Boyz will never use
any Canadian government funding or Band funding for our projects as it is
a political stance we take on the Sovereignty of our personal financial
Affairs
we would however like
to design a homeschool policy in education for the band members who wish
to do so or community schooling.
In the last few weeks
we made the signs and planned the inventory we needed to start, its gonna
take a little to get it right but we will do it.
we got our square to
take card transactions so we dont need just cash although we prefer it, as
there is no fees taken off of the almighty dollar and i like the idea of
cash over digital transactions
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