Portage Friendship Centre looks back to 2019 as a busy and growing year for the team. 

Executive Shirley Bernard recounts their various accomplishments 

"We have our regular things such as our local Indigenous Days, which used to be our Aboriginal Days," explains Bernard. "Every year it gets bigger and better. That will be one in their future we're going to be preparing for. We had the Halloween event for the children. We always partner with Fort la Reine Museum, which is awesome."

She adds they also did their annual Elders Christmas Banquet at McKenzie United Church. Bernard notes they began the dinner years ago with only a few people in their hall, and eventually grew until they used both classrooms and the front area. They then acquired the church hall, and are now outgrowing that as well.

"The Elders Thanksgiving Dinner," she continues. "That, again, was held at the McKenzie Church, and it was a big success. We lots of people. This past year we had the storm -- the blackout before the Thanksgiving Dinner -- we brought our food over there just thinking we were going pack up our food and give it to people stranded in town."