Leaders in the community are emerging at a young age in Ponoka and are being recognized for their outstanding contributions in the community.
The Leaders of Tomorrow award honours individuals who have strived to make a positive difference in their community with their hard work, dedication and innovative ideas.
The names of nominees have been submitted and two winners from each age category will receive the award. The winners will be announced at the Kinsmen Recreation Centre on April 27.
Lynn Gray, manager of volunteer services for the David Thompson Health Region believes that this award is important to the community as well as the recipient.
“I think that Leaders of Tomorrow certainly demonstrates to the community incredible leadership,” said Gray. “This is an opportunity to recognize those students for their outstanding contributions.”
Gray also believes that the award can personally benefit the recipient and help them with their next steps in life.
“The award can really boost a student’s self-esteem because it recognizes the work that they have done,” she said. “It’s also a great achievement that can go on their resume and will help them in the future.”
An impressive number of nominations were received this year for the Elementary, Junior and Senior categories. The only category that nominations were not received for was for the primary category which includes ages kindergarten to Grade 2.
Elementary nominees: Meagan Dutka, Grade 5 at Ponoka Elementary School, Steven Olsen Grade 5 PES, Allecia Verheire Grade 5 PES, Kimberlynn Rose Grade 5 PES, Amy Hodges Grade 4 PES, Hailey Boser Grade 4 PES, Dravin Louis-Parker Grade 3 St. Augustine School, Kay-Cee Loeppky Grade 5 PES, Taylor Dubitz-Paquette Grade 5 PES, Ian Ferguson Grade 5 PES, Hannah Allin Grade 5 PES, Chance Longjohn Grade 5 PES and Fallon Jenkins Grade 5 St. A’s.
Junior High nominees: Taylor Baron Grade 7 St. A’s, Alexandra Josephison Grade 8 St. A’s and Alison Beier Grade 7 St. A’s.
Senior High nominees: Shayna Baron Grade 12 St. A’s, Brittany Hehr Grade 11 Ponoka Outreach School, Deanna Henderson Grade 9 St. A’s, Sean Brake Grade 10 St. A’s, Casey Wiancko Grade 12 St. A’s, Collette Vogel Grade 12 St. A’s, Kelly Cire Grade 9 St. A’s, Samantha Sperber Grade 11 Ponoka Composite High School, Katie Cire Grade 12 St. A’s, Wendy Salvisberg Grade 12 PCHS, Courtney Longjohn Grade 11 PCHS, James Fenske home school, Katelynn Neddo Grade 9 St. A’s and Jenica Kostiuk Grade 12 PCHS.
The names of the nominees will now be given to an anonymous judging committee who will make the difficult decision of selecting two recipients from each age category.
“Our committee is totally excited about the number of nominations that we have received, it’s impressive,” said Gray. “All I can say is that the judges have a tough road ahead of them to make these decisions because each nominee is a winner.”
All nominees will be able to attend a 4-H leadership camp held at the Alberta 4-H Centre at Battle Lake on May 9 and 10. The participants will participate in workshops that focus on team work, communication skills, self-esteem and leadership skills. The workshops are completely free of charge to all those who participate.
The event to honour these nominees and announce the winners from each category will be held at the Kinsmen Recreation Centre at 1 p.m. on April 27 with special guest speaker wrestler Christine Nordhagen.