Kiwanis Club of Victoria marked 45 years of student recognition with it’s annual reception and luncheon at Cedar Hill Golf Club House on June 5.
“Every year we get in touch with School District 61 and they choose six students from each of the seven high schools,” said Paul DeGagne, past president Kiwanis Club of Victoria. “We’ve been doing this since 1974.”
He’s been organizing it the past eight years.
“You hear in the news about the bad stuff that teenagers do. Here we’re hearing the complete opposite. Here we’re hearing about kids volunteering in the community,” he said. “You get all the success stories. It’s very uplifting. … that’s what we get from it.”
For the students, it’s about connections. On Tuesday (June 5) for example, a couple kids who didn’t know each other discovered they’ll attend the same university in Halifax this fall.
“There’s stuff like that that happens all the time,” DeGagne said.
One student from each school makes a presentation, from poetry to topics of youth today.
Attendees for 2018:
Reynolds - Gillian Braun (vice principal), Katy Berglund (speaker), Equia Doller, Antonia Kowalewski , Shae-Linn Davies, Priya Sandhu and Jennifer Tang Tran.
Oak Bay Secondary - Randi Falls (principal) Rebecca Hartley, Trevor Izard, Kip Johnson (speaker), Cam Paul, Nicole Quast and Karlee Zaruk.
Mount Douglas - Phil Pitre - (vice principal), Jonah Heyman (speaker), Amancio LeRoux, Hayden Naylor, Kiera O’Connor, Michelle Song and Kiana Swift.
Lambrick Park - Tina Pierik (principal), Evalyn Braybrook, Danial Mirsajedin, Sam Holland, Zoe Kinakin (speaker), Jade Quan and Andy Weir.
Esquimalt - Jason Johnson (vice prinicipal), Nicholas Andrianos, Isabella McKay, Zach Mears, Emma Paul, Meghan Scott (speaker) and Saskia Van Beers.
Victoria High - Aaron Parker (principal) Eden Murray (speaker), Ben Rutkowski, Nick Sandor, Mehdi Mazaheri-Tehrani, Moloud Mazaheri-Tehrani and Katherine Strom-Trudel.
Spectrum - Bruce Bidney (principal), Ashley Bauder Eldridge, Aya Endrigo, Carson Faux, Clayton Flett (speaker), Talia George and Carmen Ho.
cvanreeuwyk@oakbaynews.com
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