The Social Justice/Interact Club at Ă©cole Secondaire Sainte Marguerite d’Youville (ESSMY) was given a lunchtime surprise last Thursday as representatives of the Rotary Club of St. Albert brought them some well-deserved awards.
The three District Youth Services Awards recognized the school group with prizes for best community project, best international project, and best video for some of the club’s recent efforts.
“They were ecstatic. It was quite surprising that in our first year we received three awards,” said Gidget Bouchard, who is one of the club’s two co-lead teachers, along with Louise Shervey. There are 15 members of the group from grades 7 to 12.
The accolades included best community project, best international project, and best video. The club’s activities included doing a sandwich-making drive for Youth Empowerment and Support Services (YESS) and a Stop Hunger Now event in conjunction with the Rotary club. The club members also conducted a Purple Pinkie Day to help eradicate polio worldwide, another one of Rotary International’s long-term projects. When a child gets vaccinated through the program, they are given a purple stamp to put on their little finger.
The club also hosted the April screening of a documentary called River Blue that addressed wastewater created by the fashion industry.
“We put on a viewing as well as a trade fair. It was more like a fair trade awareness project. Some of our awareness kiosks… were so that people could be informed of the different organic or local products that they could purchase that have a lower environmental impact.”
The video was a compilation of all of the club’s activities in the first four months of the school year. It was made by student Teaira Current and it was presented to the Rotary Club during a luncheon in December.
“They loved our video so much, they wanted us to submit it for an award.”
One of the group’s most noteworthy efforts was a colouring book called It’s a Colourful Life, which was a joint fundraising project for local literacy programs. It was supported with a United Way grant of $2,500. It sold more than 300 copies.
These second annual Youth Leadership Awards were announced the week prior by the Rotary Association of 5370. This is the first year that ESSMY’s club has been established. Bouchard remarked that this made her and the other club members pleased to have made such an early and positive impression.
“We’ve set our bar so high, now we have to keep it up,” she said. “The students are stepping up to being leaders in the community and being involved in the community. It’s so refreshing seeing such engaged students with some great ideas.”
