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Floating sauna still in the works

Plans to build a community floating sauna on Yellowknife Bay might be slowing down, but they are still steaming ahead.

Tyler Fissel, Peter Kelly and Thomas Whittaker started The Great Slave Sauna Society, a not-for-profit with the intent to build a sauna on the lake. The three friends created the group late last year, but the idea has been gathering steam for a while.

Bogdan Stanciu/NNSL photo
Peter Kelly, Tyler Fissel and Thomas Whittaker stand in front of Yellowknife Bay, where they're hoping to launch a community floating sauna.

Kelly, who’s spent time Finland building a sauna as part of a master’s architecture project, was inspired by the sauna culture there.

Community saunas are not common in Canada. In Yellowknife, there are no community saunas, and only two to which the public could gain access to – one at the Multiplex and one at the Yellowknife Racquet Club.

The floating sauna project would allow members of the community to access the sauna at any time -- as long as they bring wood for the fire.

The GoFundMe fundraiser for the sauna, with its original goal slated at $20,000, has about 35 days left to reach its funding, but with current numbers at $1,600, the original plans have been revisited.

That means looking at in-kind donations instead of straight cash.

“If we were donated a whole bunch of sheet metal, that would be a different sauna than one made of wood,” said Kelly.

The society was formed earlier this year when a group of three friends with a passion for architecture decided that what Yellowknife was really missing was a community Sauna.

The sauna scene is radically different in Finland, said Kelly.

“There are more saunas in Finland than cars – it'd be unacceptable for a building not to have a sauna, it'd be like not having a shower.”

Saunas in Nordic countries are traditionally used for more than just sitting and sweating, said Whittaker.

“Traditionally, the sauna was the first building that you would build because you would do everything – your bathing, cleaning, cooking – all in your sauna. It’s where traditionally all Finnish mothers gave birth and where they would dry meat. They'd even clean the dead.”

Though the group's sauna would differ in use than those of traditional Swedish ones, the community aspect would be there. And alongside it, the experience of having a sauna on Yellowknife Bay.

“It’s beautiful and very calming – basking in the sun is really nice – this will become a place where people can come, hangout on the water, and get to experience and enjoy a sauna,” said Kelly.