'Rock star experience': Airline to fly northern First Nation kids to Bomber games

Perimeter Airlines and the Blue Bombers are teaming up this summer to bring youth from several northern Manitoba First Nations to Winnipeg to take in CFL football games.

"I know this is something that is going to be a great experience for these kids and I look forward to getting to meet every single one of them," Bombersquarterback Matt Nichols said.

Chartered flights will take45 people from each of 14 First Nations down to Winnipeg to experience home games this season.

The initiative is part of suicide prevention and stay in school programs in northern communities and is meant to encourage good school attendance and leadership.

"They're going to get treated like rock stars when they come down here and get the full game-day experience," said Mike Pyle, CEO of Perimeter Aviation's parent company Exchange Income Corporation.

"A lot of the places we go to have very difficult economic conditions and its expensive for someone to come down and see an event like the Bombers."

Kids and members of the First Nation communities will be shuttled from the Winnipeg James Richardson International Airportto Investors Group Field, where they'll take in games and meet withBombersplayers on the field afterward.

Next spring, Bombers players will visit some of the communities in northern Manitoba, club president and CEO Wade Miller said.

"The Blue Bombers are really Manitoba's team and this really extends us to Manitoba," he said.

JoeAntsane, chief ofNorthlandsDenesulineFirst Nation in LacBrochet, said members of his community are looking forward to seeing the Blue and Gold play up close.

"This helps a lot with all the struggles we go through on a day to day basis in remote communities," Antsane said. "We get a lot of suicides in our communities and there's a lot of struggles that the youth go through. This will uplift their spirit."

Timothy Muskego, chief of Oxford House Cree Nation, said his community is also plagued by youth suicide and suicide attempts. He hopes the trip south will help change that in some small way.

"These young people that will be brought to the city to watch the Blue Bombers game, most of them have never been outside Oxford House," he said."It's a good opportunity for them to experience the good things that are happening down here."

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The one matterthat still needs sorting out, Pyle says,is which communities will go to what games.

"When I was speaking with some of our First Nations communities, one of the chiefs ... said, 'You know, we love this idea, Mike, but it's really important that my community gets the Saskatchewan game.' And I kind of went, 'Well, why is that?'And he said, 'Because we hate the Roughriders here.'And that's when I realized this really is Manitoba's team, it's not just a Winnipeg thing."