Arctic Inspiration Prize co-founder wants more Yukon nominees

One of the co-founders of the Arctic Inspiration Prize has been in Yukon recruiting new ambassadors to identify and nominate potential prize winners.

Arnold Witzig was at the Association of Yukon Communities meeting in Watson Lake this past weekend to encourage municipal leaders to join in.

"MLAs, mayors, and so on, these are the people who are in the communities, who have access to their people and should be interestedand will know if there is something going ona project, a team, that wants to do something," Witzig said.

Witzig and his wifeSima Sharifi areboth immigrants to Canada andcreated the prize as a way to contribute to the future of their adopted country.

The award is meant help groups that are working to better the lives of Northerners.

In 2015,the $1.5 million prize was shared by three groups:Better Hearing in Education for Northern Youth, whichworks with youth in Nunavut whose education is suffering because of hearing loss;Qaggiq, which uses performing arts to improve the prospects for youth at risk;and the Tri-Territorial Recreation Project, whichpromotes recreationas a way to improve Northerners'quality of life.

Witzig said the competition is in its fifth year.

"We are now in kind of a transition phase to make it really owned by the North.This always was for the North, but the goal was always to be owned really by the North."