Prince Edward Visits Regina to Present Awards to Youth
- Jeanelle Mandes | September 19, 2014
Prince Edward, the Earl of Wessex,
makes a stop in Regina to present the Gold Duke of Edinburgh’s Awards to 28
young people from across Saskatchewan.
“It’s a great sense of achievement...it’s great to recognize what [the youth] have done. It’s really important,” says Prince Edward. “There’s a support that goes on to enable that to happen,” he adds.
The Duke of Edinburgh’s Award is a
program designed to empower self-development to young people from ages 14 to
24.
Crystal Kaye,
from Sakimay First Nation, is the Community Youth Challenge (CYC) officer for
the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award program and she was involved in coordinating gold
award event.
“The division
itself is very honored to have His Royal Highness attend our gold ceremony and
made it a success,” says Kaye.
Kaye explains
the bronze program is a minimum six month program where youth complete four
non-competitive component areas which are physical, recreation, community
service and skill and outdoor excursion. The kids are required to do it one
hour per week for six months.
Once a
participant completes the bronze program, they can go on to the silver level
and then onto the gold level which completes the entire program. Leaders are
very much a part of the program; they are the ones that enable the youth to
continue with the programs.
The Earl of Wessex acknowledged leaders
who have helped support the youth along their journey. One of those leaders are
people such as Peter Sutherland from One Arrow First Nation.
“I was invited because I participated
in the Tim Horton’s Camp Kananaskis and
had become [one of the] leaders for the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award. Like what
the Prince said, it’s a good opportunity for the youth to excel out of school,”
says Sutherland who was happy to attend and observe the gold awards.
“I was very
honored to meet him and shake his hand. I’m surprised of how nice of a person
he is and he’s pretty down to earth,” says Sutherland. “I encourage all the
young people when they have a chance to go into the program because just from
what the Gold award winners today were very accomplished people,” he adds.
Kaye says they are currently starting to get more
Aboriginal groups through their community challenge initiative and they now have
141 Aboriginal participants in the bronze program.
“We are
striving for our next gold ceremony to have Aboriginal achievers in there when
they complete the gold level,” she adds. “I encourage Aboriginal youth to join
the program because it is worthwhile, you do get to meet Royalty in the end and
you feel a tremendous accomplishment of going through the program and
incorporating all the component areas into your lifestyle,” she adds.
The award
ceremony was concluded with R.C.M.P and police officers doing a parade march
with drums and the bag pipes playing in the background. Prince Edward made his
way to the government house and departs to Saskatoon for a visit.
There are about ten reserves in Saskatchewan that are now involved in the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award. Prince Edward presented the last gold ceremony back in 2006. The program was introduced in the province in 1983.