Members of the Fort St. James Secondary School (FSJSS) Rugby Football Club were out collecting garbage on Pinchi Road recently.
The group of grade 8 and 9 boys were giving back to Teck, the company which gave them $1,500 towards new uniforms.
Teck is also the company working on the reclamation of the Pinchi mercury mine site, and their activity there made them want to do something to clean up the access and camp area of the mine.
So the rugby boys provided the bodies and the company then provided the uniforms.
Some of the team, coaches John Butler and Russ McDonald and parents Lynn Jackson and Chris Greenaway all walked the ditches picking up garbage for the 20 km of the Pinchi Road, and then cleaned up around a camp area.
Twenty new uniforms are now on order, which the $1,500 will go towards.
The young team has also swept the Integris Credit Union parking lot and is open to other opportunities to help out the community.
“We need money, as any sports club does,” said coach Butler.
The team is a fairly new enterprise, with most of the boys new to rugby in general.
“If we can keep the interest by the time they reach grade 11, 12, these boys will be amazing,” he said.
While there wasn’t enough interest for a senior rugby team, there are also not many junior rugby teams in the area either, and the Fort team will have to travel to Williams Lake to play.
There have also been some set backs with the late snow melt shortening their playing season.
But the team has been to a scrimmage session at an indoor venue in Prince George and hopefully the new uniforms will help to maintain some morale in the face of a few stumbling blocks.
