Global Citizenship Award

The third phase of the YFC program is recognition at CAYFO's Spirit of the Capital Youth Awards. Only youth who attended the YFC Conference can win an award in Global Citizenship.

The Spirit of the Capital Youth Awards is one of Ottawa's top annual events.Each year CAYFO celebrates and recognizes the talents and contributions of young people in our community at the Spirit Awards. CAYFO wants to recognize outstanding Ottawa youth, promote a positive image of young people, and generate awareness of the valuable contributions youth make in Ottawa.

For the 13th year, CAYFO is proud to host the Spirit of the Capital Youth Awards, which will take place at 
the Marriott Hotel, on Monday, May 31st.

Global Citizenship Spirit Award winners 2010: AY Jackson Secondary School: Charlotte Nahon, Andrea Alamo, Robert McDonald

AY Jackson’s grade 12 international business class were takes with a global leadership project to raise funds for a particular cause. Charlotte Nahon and Andrea Alamo became the presidents of the Darfur Genocide project. The focus was not only to raise funds for Darfur, but also raise awareness. Darfur has been an epic issue prevailing in today’s world, yet it has been greatly obscured by media and governments.

The class was divided into various groups such as human resources and marketing. Robert McDonald was the president of the finance team, and became a huge attribute to this cause. They held an assembly in the library, had a student-teacher hockey game in the gym, sold hand made bracelets, and held a fundraising dinner along with a silent auction at Lonestar Texas Grill with over 85 guests.

The fundraising dinner made community members, adults and other guests aware of just how dire the situation still is in Sudan. Guest speakers included Major Bill who had served as a Canadian peacekeeper in Southern Sudan in Operation Safari, and Maurice who escaped from the violence of Sudan to Ottawa.

In total, the AY Jackson team raised over $3500 for UNHCR, all of the money going straight to the grounds in Darfur.

Global Citizenship Spirit Awards winners 2009: Glebe Goes Global

GGG is a unique, experiential, 2 credit learning experience that focuses on Global Issues, Volunteerism, Leadership and Spanish.  Throughout the year students participate in regular classes, attend conferences, listen to guest speakers, organize numerous fundraising events and local volunteer activities and finally, the highlight, travel to Ecuador in April. Students spend 2 weeks living, working and playing with the local people in a rural community situated along the coast of Manabi.  This year, the hard work of 14 students paid off as they raised $10,000 which was used to sponsor 4 students to attend highschool, pay for a teacher’s salary for the year ($150 / month), buy the materials to build a fence around the school, renovate the school washrooms, install pipes for water, and build desks and chairs for the preschool children.  Glebe students helped with the manual labour during their trip and also spent 2 days teaching English in the local public schools.

It is a life changing experience for those involved.  Many students decide to change their post-secondary goals based on this experience.  A number of GGG alumni have gone on to do full year programs with Canada World Youth and Youth Challenge International, once they have graduated. Thank you to Canada World Youth for developing a solid Global Learner Program and for working together with our schools to provide kids with an unforgettable experience.

FUNDRAISING included: Bake sales, bottle drive, Christmas bizarre, coffee house, comedy night, global assembly, pancake breakfast, raffle, students selling various merchandise from their fundraising kit, presentations outside of school, volunteering locally and including the presentation board, fundraising dinner – silent action, Ecuadorian market.

Congratulations to the GGG team!

James Bickerton
Laura Bland-Lasso
Julia Boucher
Olivia Charlebois-Branauold        
Sarah Hall
Carolyne Hawkins
Dana Howell
Maya Inglis
Maire-Soleil Lee
Noah Margo-Dermer
Jessica Metuzals
Janina Hojczyk
Marta Rituma
Taylor Vanduzer

Greg John, teacher
Jacklin Coolican-GGG supervisor

Global Citizenship Spirit Awards winners 2008: AY Jackson Secondary School:  Breanna Pizzuto, Sanah Assaad and Michael Xu

Breanna, Sanah and Michael were the Kindness for Kenya organizers and leaders of the Ubuntu (Humanity Towards Others) Club at AY Jackson. Kindness for Kenya provides sponsorship for girls to attend Lwak High School in rural Kenya and become community leaders. The project raised funds for the Lwak School as well as raising awareness that empowerment and education of females can break the cycle of poverty. The team partnered with CANRAD, a not-for-profit organization that helps alleviate poverty in the western area of Kenya, to organize a number of fundraising and awareness raising initiatives in the school, including a pen-pal program that gave students the chance to connect with each other and exchange information about family and culture. Their big fundraising event was a Kindness for Kenya dinner that involved a live and silent auction to raise funds for Lwak and included such prominent guests such as Her Excellency, Judith Mbula Bahemuka, the Kenyan High Commissioner. The Ubuntu Club was initially formed to exchange pen-pal letters and raise tuition for 2 girls ($500 each) but the club surpassed that number by raising almost $10,000 for the school, 100% of which will go directly to the Lwak girls. Breanna, Sanah and Michael are excellent examples of acting locally to make change globally.