Brooks


BY STACEY LEE It takes an entire community to raise resilient


children, and that spirit was celebrated earlier this month with the 11th Annual Resiliency Celebration. Each year the Brooks and District Resiliency Committee tackles the task of sifting through hundreds of nominations, to both recognize those making a difference in the lives of local children and to inspire the rest to invest themselves. Moe Andruschak, committee spokesperson, says the process begins with presentations to Grade 5 and 8 students discussing what resiliency is. The students are then given postcards on which they write the name of a “mentor” that has helped them feel resilient. “When we first started there was probably about 300 post cards returned each year.We now get between 550 and 600 post cards back … and the committee has the difficult task of selecting 35 out of that 600. They try their best to pick a variety of community members.”


PRAIRIE POST - SHOWCASING BROOKS AND COUNTY OF NEWELL - Friday, April 20, 2012 - 9 Those who help young people recognized for their efforts She says mentors are nominated for a wide variety


of reasons and each year, the celebration is emotional and heartwarming. “This year, there was one young girl who spoke


about her father,who had recently adopted her as his own. You could see, with the two of them on stage, the impact that they had on each other’s lives.” From the crowd,where a box of tissue adorns each


table, Andruschak says it was easy to see how proud he was to have been recognized in that way, and that the girl counts herself blessed to have a father in her life. Four young males in Grade 8 recognized another gentleman, a counsellor at a local school. “The mentors the youth have recognized are


brought out onto the stage one at a time. The youth reads what they had written (on the post card) about the adult, and the adult has the opportunity to respond. Sometimes the adults talk about the difference that child makes in their lives, and sometimes they even talk about someone who made a difference in their own lives when they were young.” Fostering resiliency in your children, or the


community’s children, isn’t a difficult task. Andruschak says it is as simple as saying hello to a quiet or seemingly shy child every morning, or talking with the energetic child on the block about their interests.


“Whether it is a pharmacist or a neighbour... it can be a brief encounter, or it can be a relationship where an adult takes a young person out hunting in the fall. People have been recognized repeatedly every year as having had a positive influence on the lives of children.”


She adds people in positions of trust, such as


coaches, teachers, older siblings, and neighbours are commonly recognized. Many are “mentors that don’t view themselves as having done anything special.” She says the volunteer committee feels it has done its job if just one person walks away from the annual event having been inspired. “This is our way of saying that you don’t know the


difference you make on those around you.” The next round of presentations is slated for next December and January.


Winning essay punches Brooks’ sea cadet's ticket to Vimy Ridge


BY MATT DUGUID — mduguid@medicinehatnews.com This year marks the 95th anniversary of Canadian


troops defeating the Germans in northeastern France at the Battle of Vimy Ridge and a local sea cadet will get the trip of a lifetime to commemorate the occasion. Nikolas Parr was to be in attendance at the commemorative ceremonies taking place this April in France. Parr won the chance to go France through an essay writing contest put on by the sea cadets and the 15-year- old from Brooks was surprised to find out he had won. “I was really excited, I was beside myself, it was


awesome,” said Parr. Parr’s essay detailed the Battle of the Atlantic and he originally wrote it to try to win a trip to Derry, Ireland, close to where his family originally hails. When the trip to Ireland fell through,Parr was


awarded a trip to Paris, with plans to tour other parts of France as well. “I’m really excited about going to visit Vimy Ridge because of its history,” he said. “I’ve seen so much about it ... I’m excited to visit the trenches and the tunnel systems used in the battle.” Parr has also been researching a Canadian soldier killed during the battle, 32-year-old Army Private


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Charles Johnson, and will visit his grave and leave a monument to the fallen soldier. The trip is the first time Parr will travel overseas. Although he’s not looking forward to the flight over, he


is excited to see Paris and plans to visit the Eiffel Tower and the Louvre, among other things. Parr is a member of the Royal Canadian Sea Cadet


Corps of Medicine Hat and although is mom originally pushed him into cadets, it’s the travel and the people that he has met that keeps him in it. “I am just really excited.From past cadet experiences, the people you meet and the stuff you get to do is awesome.”


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