Four young Yukon artists will be taking part in the Northern and Western Francophone Youth Games, or Jeux Francophones du Nord et de l'Ouest (JFNO), which will be held July 1-4 in Coquitlam, B.C.

The local Espoir Jeunesse Committee (youth hope committee), is sponsoring the participation of Selina MacMillan, Sophie Daniels, Iris Binger and Joscelyne Ponsioen at the fourth annual JFNO, in the visual arts competition.

They will be accompanied by Catherine Bouchard, their coach, and Maxime Dugre-Sasseville, coordinator and head of the Yukon delegation.

The mission of the Espoir Jeunesse Committe is to contribute to the development of the Francophone language and culture of French-speaking teenagers by offering them personal development and social opportunities.

Dugre-Sasseville said the JFNO are similar to the Canadian Francophone Games, in that they give the opportunity to youths from 14 to 18 years of age to celebrate Francophony with their peers, travel in Canada and discover inner talents and abilities. The JFNO are also held every three years.

But he said, they are different from performance-oriented games because they are more about participation and developing what you've got.

At the JFNO, participants have two different competition platforms sports and culture. The traditional sports offered are: volleyball (boys/girls), badminton (simple/double/mixed) and track and field (running/jumping/throwing). And the artistic events offered are: music awareness, improvisation and visual arts.

'It gives a better range of activities for kids to participate in,' he said in an interview this morning. 'It gives them a nice opportunity to travel too, and meet people.'

All four Yukon youth will be participating in the visual arts event. Dugre-Sasseville said while the local committee offers lots of activities, when it came to the JFNO most of the athletes had plans for the summer, so it was difficult to field a full team.

'But we're happy with our team. The girls who are competing are not girls who travel a lot usually. So it gives them a chance to do something.

'They're real artists. Most of them are not common people they have a different way of thinking and it really shows in their work.'

The Yukoners will be competing in four different categories throughout the weekend. One of the most interesting categories is reproduction.

'Whether it's a sculpture or painting, or something else, they have to reproduce it in their own way,' said Dugre-Sasseville. 'If it's a painting, they can draw it. They can use any method they want.

'They haven't been trying a lot of styles other than their own, so they can develop other skills and learn new things at the Games.'

One of the other categories the youth will be competing in is masterpiece.

'They will have four hours to do whatever they want,' he said. 'I would really like to see new things come out of those girls.'

Since the group will be competing all weekend, they will mainly pass their time in class doing their art work. That means they won't have much time for sight-seeing around Vancouver.

'So, I would really like them to meet other people and chat around and have fun,' stated Dugre-Sasseville. 'On the first and last days, we will have some free time, so I will be renting a van and we'll be going around to visit. We'll try to show them the city a bit. And we'll take some time to go and see other people compete as well.'

The Yukon contingent will leave for the Jeux Francophones du Nord et de l'Ouest Thursday morning and return Monday, July 5.