Garden City graduate takes volunteer commitment to record-setting level

Rachele Bolisay is marking the end of her high school career with a volunteer log sheet containing more than 1,000 hours worth of entries.

Collège Garden City Collegiate records show Bolisay has racked up 1,048.5 hours of volunteering between September 2022 and her convocation this month.

That’s the equivalent of 43 days, 16 hours and 30 minutes. It’s a record among, at minimum, her graduating class in the Seven Oaks School Division.

“When you volunteer, it actually helps you more than it helps the other people,” the 17-year-old said.

“Everyone has their own biases, whether we like it or not, but going out and volunteering and meeting people from all sorts of backgrounds really helps remove those biases.”

It’s been through meeting fellow volunteers and neighbours in need of assistance that Bolisay said she’s come to truly understand the cliché, “You shouldn’t judge a book by its cover.”

She cited the new faces, stories and skills she’s learned — as well as the feel-good sensation that comes with helping others without expecting anything in return — as her main motivation for picking up unpaid shifts.

Bolisay has spent much of her downtime in various volunteer gigs, be it helping put on a Terry Fox Run or organizing her church’s livestreams, over the last four years.

She’s visited personal care homes, tutored peers, recruited donors for Canadian Blood Services, walked with Bear Clan Patrol and co-ordinated the Food Access Bus for seniors with mobility challenges, among other activities.

She surpassed the 110 hours of volunteering required to obtain a community service course credit before she’d even started Grade 10.

“When you volunteer, it actually helps you more than it helps the other people.”

Unlike Ontario, Manitoba does not mandate that high schoolers complete any community service to obtain their provincial diploma. Instead, local students can leverage volunteering to earn a half or full credit.

St. James-Assiniboia School Division used to require students to engage in at least 40 hours of volunteering between Grade 9 and 12 to obtain a division-specific diploma.

That criteria was removed two years ago in response to reports from school administrators that students were being excluded because of challenges related to managing coursework, mental health, part-time jobs and chores and other family responsibilities.

“Young people are very busy. They have a lot of things competing for their time and their energy. They have their studies. They have their social lives. They have their extracurricular activities. They have family obligations. Jobs, too,” Garden City teacher Heidi Reimer said.

Reimer called it “a really remarkable thing” for a teenager to dedicate in excess of 1,000 hours to help others in their community.

“Our school has really invested in this. I’m thankful to admin who’ve encourage this program to continue and made time for it.”

Garden City students have racked up a combined average of 15,487 volunteer hours annually over the last four years. That translates to about 11 hours per student enrolled at the grades 9-12 school on Jefferson Avenue.

Its Class of 2026, made up of about 330 graduates, reported a total of 14,333 hours.

In Reimer’s experience, about half of the student body is actively engaged in volunteering at any given time throughout the school year. She’s held a special position in recent years requiring she split her time between teaching and co-ordinating community service opportunities for students.

The role isn’t universal in high schools across Manitoba, let alone in the Seven Oaks School Division.

“Our school has really invested in this. I’m thankful to admin who’ve encourage this program to continue and made time for it,” she said.

While she said many of her students have completed hundreds of hours of volunteering, Bolisay set herself apart as a caring student leader as soon as she entered Grade 9.

“If you asked her to come, she’s there, she’s on time and she’s recruited three friends,” Reimer said.

“If you asked her to come, she’s there, she’s on time and she’s recruited three friends.”

Perhaps unsurprisingly, the Grade 12 graduate earned a community service award, along with her bilingual diploma, last week.

The honour recognized her involvement with everything from her high school’s philanthropy and Asian heritage clubs to a public-awareness campaign promoting the health risks associated with youth vaping.

Bolisay said she’s inspired by her community-minded parents — “the most selfless people I’ve ever met.” She said she’s been carrying on a family tradition by helping out at Siloam Mission, Harvest Manitoba and elsewhere.

“No matter who you are, where you come from, no matter your religious background, everyone deserves to feel cared for,” she said.

maggie.macintosh@freepress.mb.ca