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whole life. Four of them had never fished before. You should have seen the smile on this one boy’s
face when he pulled in a huge jack fish for the first time. The joy of seeing them learning how to
canoe.They were so excited going down the Bird River and then going down to Elbow Lake — it was
incredible.” “Showing them the beaver dams, the different animal scratches on the trees. We saw a
bull moose and a cow and lots of other animals. It’s great to see the kids and their eyes light up
when they’re out there.” Denis recalls how the teenagers quickly began to trust and respect him soon
after arriving at the camp. He says they opened up and talked a lot about their lives and their
feelings. “It paid off,” he explains. “No matter how many hours of work we logged putting this camp
back in shape, it was worth it. The smiles on the kids’ faces was the reward. You couldn’t pay me
enough in dollars to equal the value of that.” Denis believes these types of trips are extremely
valuable to innercity teenagers. He says it allows them the opportunity to see a part of the world
they’ve never before experienced, giving new meaning to their lives and a more positive outlook on
their futures. “It shows them that there’s a lot in life that you can look forward to,” he says.
Denis is planning more trips out to this remote wilderness camp. He says as soon as the lakes freeze
up, he would like to take a group out there via skidoo. He also hopes there is an opportunity to do
several trips next summer as well.
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Denis, 47, has two daughters of his own,Tracy, 26, and Jennifer, 24. He also has two grandchildren.
Along with his volunteer work at MYS, Denis helps out in the wood working and metal shops at Selkirk
Junior High School in Selkirk, Manitoba. An expert welder himself, and a recently self taught wood
worker, Denis is an extra set of eyes in the shop, and an important mentor for the up and coming
students. Denis says he will continue to volunteer at the Jessie James Ranch and with MYS in other
ways as well (presently he is teaching wood working to a boy in MYS’ APH program). But he says the
wilderness camp on Elbow Lake at Nopiming Park is the crown jewel. “I want Elbow Lake to be my
dream come true,” he says. “At Elbow, we’ve really accomplished something. The kids have a great
time.They think and do things that they don’t think and do in the city. They don’t want to leave the
camp when it’s time to go.” His nearly fatal accident in 1996 and the subsequent selling of his farm
and his trucking company could have turned Roland Denis into a bitter man who felt like a victim of
circumstance. Instead, he chose to be a survivor and to return the gift of life that was given to
him. “The accident, the long recovery, losing the farm, losing the trucking company was hard,” he
says. “But I have my life and volunteering was just one way of giving something back to society.”
“Maybe God didn’t want me just yet,” muses Denis. “He just had something for me to do on earth and
working with kids was it.”
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Jim Swackhamer joined Macdonald Youth Services in May of 1999 in the newly created position of Human
Resource Manager. From January to June 1998 the Agency was involved in developing a Strategic Plan
and one of the recommendations was for the creation of such a position at the Agency. The need was
also identified as urgent due to the recent rapid growth at the Agency and the increasing range of
programming offered. Jim comes to Macdonald Youth Services with some 25 years experience in the
Human Resource Management field both as a practitioner and as a consultant. He is also currently
President of Brant & Associates, a Winnipeg based Consulting firm. Since arriving at Macdonald Youth
Services, Jim has been very busy working on a variety of Human Resource issues ranging from staff
recruitment, reviewing Agency job descriptions, implementing a performance evaluation system and
working with Management to identify Human Resource Management needs. With continued growth and
expansion it has indeed been a very demanding time for him. And as Jim comments below, MYS may be
facing human resource challenges that are surfacing throughout the industry. “Although not
necessarily a new phenomena, MYS is faced with an ever increasing challenge of recruiting and
retaining high quality staff. This appears to be growing into an industry wide issue that is going
to require some innovative solutions to correct. Without finding some solution, we are heavily
taxing our current human resources far past normal limits. Although not originally envisioned, I
believe MYS may need to become a training agency, through the offering of our rich heritage and
program opportunities to recently graduated students in the Youth Care field. In this way they will
have the opportunity to gain the experience we need to serve our clients and help ensure we can
continue to offer industry leading treatment and support to them.”
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