Youth honoured for being role models in their communities
- EFN Staff | May 26, 2014
The SaskTel Youth Awards of Excellence were created to honour youth like Summer Michel-Stevenson. She is the Junior Chief of the Pelican Narrows Youth Council and works hard to make sure there are activities and a voice for young people in her northern community. Her hard work and dedication saw her rewarded with the Leadership Award at the recent SaskTel Aboriginal Youth Awards.
"It is great that someone is recognizing all of the young people that work hard," said a shy but excited Summer after the awards. "It felt amazing to hear my name called."
Michel-Stevenson was one of over 130 youth that were nominated for awards in 10 different categories. Over 800 people gathered at TCU Place in Saskatoon to celebrate all of the young people's success.
"We were literally overwhelmed with the quantity and quality of the nominees this year," said SaskTel Youth Award Board Chair Colleen Cameron. "The most difficult part was actually picking the recipients. Some of these young people are so outstanding or courageous or athletic or smart or all of the above. Some of their stories are very powerful."
To see photos of all the winners, visit our photo gallery.
Terrell Flett was the recipient of the Spirit Award. This award is given to someone who has overcome obstacles in their life. Flett is a survivor of cancer and has been fighting health challenges almost his entire life. But he perseveres and is very humble.
"I wasn't expecting to win. I was really surprised as I was up against a lot of good people," said Flett, who is in Grade 9 from Pasqua First Nation and loves school and sports. He credits his strength to his family and his grandma. "I also get strength from my younger cousin. He fought the same cancer a year after I did."
Flett received a standing ovation from the audience.
"It was nice," he added shyly. "I was kind of like....everyone sit down now. This has been awesome seeing all the people here."
Michel-Stevenson is one of a myriad of youth that are cutting new ground and future leaders in Saskatchewan, but before she graduates from Junior Chief to the Chief, she has a few stops along the way yet.
"No, I am not running for Chief quite yet, first I intend to go to university and for the first two years study arts and science then figure it out from there," she said, very optimistic about the future. "If you stay in school and with the way our youth are being taken care of I believe we as First Nations are going to lead in the future in a positive way."