A second group of 10 youth participating in the Katimavik program has come to Weyburn, having arrived in the city on April 6.

On Thursday, a welcome party was thrown at the new Violence Intervention Program (VIP) offices for the 10 Katimavik participants who will be living and working in Weyburn until mid-June.

This new group, which hails from Quebec, B.C., Ontario, Manitoba and Nunavut, came to Weyburn from their first placement in Cheticamp, N.S., near Cape Breton.

For the next three months, they will be working at a number of different agencies as volunteers, including VIP, the Family Place, Early Childhood Intervention Program, the Sun Country Health Region and now the Weyburn Big Brothers and Big Sisters Association.

As with the first group, they will live out of the former city hall. Every participant is a full-time volunteer in the community except those weeks when they take care of cleaning and cooking at their residence.

The first Katimavik group arrived here in January and left in early April.

For the most part, those who took in the Katimavik volunteers had nothing but positive comments about the program.

"(Our volunteer) David Racine was excellent," said Lynda Bell and Verna Paul, who work at Tatagwa View. "For being 17, never being in a job before, he was great."

Linda Rudachyk said volunteers from Katimavik put in 640 hours of work helping with the Family Place's move from Souris Valley to their new location.

Katimavik is a national youth program aimed at contributing to the development of its participants and promoting community service across Canada.

The program covers the transportation and lodging costs of its participants, who also receive a small daily allowance and a $1,000 bursary at its end.