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BCHS students take the stage for local charities

Local students went head-to-head in hopes of winning a donation for their favourite local charity.
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Here, BCHS students Brook Rondeau, Sadie Lyons, and Sabrina Pricope (centre) accept the $5,000 donation on behalf of the Bonnyville Victim Services Unit (VSU) from judges Kevin Zazula (far left), Mikaylee Beck (second right), and Mario Bouvier (right).

Local students went head-to-head in hopes of winning a donation for their favourite local charity.

This year, it was the Bonnyville Victim Services Unit (VSU) who benefited from the Youth Philanthropy Initiative (YPI) program at Bonnyville Centralized High School (BCHS).

As part of YPI, Grade 9 students at BCHS researched various local non-profit organizations to learn about the positive impact they have on the community. On Tuesday, Jan. 29, the students presented to a panel of judges in hopes of winning the $5,000 prize for their charity.

"It's a great opportunity for our students to do learning outside of school," noted BCHS teacher Lorelei Gertz-Cummins. "It's important to help students to understand empathy, and that playing a role in the community, helping out, and doing something other than for themselves or work... is a really important part of life."

Including this year's $5,000 prize donation, BCHS has contributed $80,000 to local charities through the YPI program over the 15 years they've been involved.

While the number of students participating was lower than usual, there were still 18 presentations from students groups about organizations such as the Bonnyville Municipal Library, the Dragonfly Counselling and Support Centre, Lakeland Special Olympics, and the Dr. Margaret Savage Crisis Centre.

The main goal of YPI is to showcase charities in need of funding, along with the impact they have on the community.

It was the trio of Brook Rondeau, Sabrina Pricope, and Sadie Lyons that won best presentation of the day, receiving the prize money to donate to their charity, Bonnyville VSU.

"We just thought that was the (organization) that needed the most help, because it helps everyone around the Lakeland," Rondeau noted.

A crucial part of their research was finding out what the local VSU would be putting the funds toward. Along with their dog Odie, Pricope said the money would be used to help those who need the services.

"Sometimes when victims come in and they've lost everything or their lives have changed, victim services is waiting on donations and they're trying to provide for these people. Now that they have the $5,000, the stuff is already there and the people don't have to worry about finding a hotel, clothes, or food," she explained.

Debbie Winstone, program manager for the Bonnyville VSU, was pleased to hear they would be this year's YPI grant recipients.

"I was really disappointed that I couldn't be there to see their presentation, because I really hoped that I could have been there... I'm really happy for them. Obviously, they did a really good job at explaining what we do and what we're all about," she emphasized.

Lyons said the group was surprised they had won because although they "put a lot of work into the presentation, there were a lot of good charities."

One of the major takeaways for Pricope was just how far the reach of Bonnyville VSU is. During their presentation, when they posed questions to the audience about if their parents were divorced, or if they'd lost a loved one, or someone had cancer in their family, Pricope noted roughly 75 per cent of those in attendance raised their hands.

For Winstone, seeing local youth enthusiastic about their organization was great.

"It's really nice to have the interest from the younger generation. They don’t all know what exists out there, and even this group... didn't realize what we do. They kind of knew we were there, but they didn't know... the scope of what we do."

Demonstrating how the Bonnyville VSU assists people through their programs was an important factor for the judges.

"They did a really good job of showing what the impact of that charity is on the community, and how it's not only an impact right at the start of someone's process of grieving or working through the trauma, but, the services extend to the full amount of time that a person would need to recover from a tragedy, accident, or victimization," detailed Gertz-Cummins.

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