Once a month, Prince George Airport passengers will be greeted by a warm orange glow.
Starting Jan. 31, the Immigrant and Multicultural Services Society's Welcome PG initiative and the airport are teaming up for YXS Airport Days, where members and volunteers with Welcome PG's youth advisory board will be out in force in their distinctive orange t-shirts acting as airport ambassadors.
Each month - generally coinciding with a school district professional development day - up to two dozen students will be on hand during a peak period to welcome first-time visitors and returning residents, to provide information about the city and points of interest and sometimes to offer entertainment.
To mark with the beginning of the Chinese New Year, the Jan. 31 outing will have a corresponding theme, with volunteers offering fortune cookies, lucky red envelopes and performing a Chinese Lion dance.
Upcoming months will feature a Valentine's Day theme on Feb. 10 and a Holi - Festival of Colours - theme for March 28.
It was an idea borne out of a desire to create something to build towards and beyond the 2015 Canada Winter Games, said Welcome PG's Romana Pasca.
"Their goal was to kind of grow this movement for the winter games and maybe make it once a week and be more present at that time in the airport," said Pasca.
The 14-member youth advisory board also came up with last December's Winterfest Christmas market.
"They sat together and discussed what they would like to do for the community in the long term that can be perpetuated," said Pasca.
The majority of participants are in their last two years of high school, but there are some elementary school students involved, a demographic which Pasca said she would like to see more of.
"We would like to grow more into the younger [ages], just to grow them with us," she said.
Anyone interested in the volunteering as an airport ambassador or with Welcome PG's youth advisory board can contact Romana Pasca at IMSS at 250-562-2900.
