By paNOW Staff

Local music troupe gives out school supplies, backpacks as way to give back to city

Aug 20, 2018 | 5:00 PM

Busy hands stuffed backpacks sprawled out on a table in Kinsmen Park Monday afternoon with all the back to school essentials; glue sticks, pencil crayons, pencils and notebooks. 

Burgers and hot dogs cooked on an open flame, while buns and condiments sat neatly organized on another table nearby. Setting this barbecue apart, however, was the music that echoed modestly from the cab of a parked pickup truck. 

The afternoon was organized by members of Times 2 Salute, a Prince Albert based music troupe that strives to write music to inspire youth and provide an opportunity for people to come together and talk about the realities of everyday life.

“We have seen a lot of hardships that people have gone through and we give out hope in our songs and try to uplift people with our music,” Dakota Shepherd, who goes by the stage name Dekoy Sacredscripts, said.

He and colleague Montana Primeau, or MoePreemz, organized the community gathering to give away 30 backpacks with school supplies, free haircuts and clothing to kids in the community. Both said it was a way to give back to a community that has helped aid them in growing their musical careers.

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“For us, growing up as youth, we lived through a lot of poverty and for us, it is the joy and the feeling we get when we give back,” Primeau said.

The event was able to go ahead thanks heavily to a $1,500 grant from TakingITGlobal, an international organization aimed at empowering young people to become agents of change and positively influence their home communities.

“It is all about giving,” Shepherd added. “We are just giving back to the community and trying to influence the youth to do something positive like we are doing.”

The group also has a performance Monday night in the city, where they invited Illiano, a well-known artist among Western Canadian rap circles from Winnipeg, to headline.

panews@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @princealbertnow