Volunteer inspired by mom

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This article was published 31/03/2015 (3855 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A leader in the community, Joyce Ayo never hesitates to lend a helping hand.

The St. James Collegiate senior immigrated to Canada from the Philippines with her family in 2011 and has since managed to have a tremendous impact on her once-foreign surroundings.

“For me, citizenship is how you belong in a community, it’s about how much you’ve done, for example your volunteering or your helping others,” Ayo said. “It’s not about living in a country or being born there or migrating to it.”

For her extensive community service, Ayo was recently selected as the Region 5 recipient of the Manitoba School Boards Association Student Citizenship Award. Her Grade 12 English teacher, Lauree Kopetsky, says Ayo’s name was submitted more than once by teachers in the school involved with student groups.

Ayo attended a special award ceremony on March 19 at the Delta Hotel, along with six other finalists, where she was presented the prestigious George Harbottle Memorial Award by the Association of Manitoba Municipalities, which recognizes contributions beyond school borders in the broader community.

“I was so surprised, I thought they were going to announce somebody else,” Ayo said. “And I’m still thinking what I did to win this award.”

Upon arriving to Canada, Ayo volunteered for the CIBC Run for the Cure. She remembers how one of the marathon runners at the event shouted back to her saying ‘thank you CIBC volunteer,’ and how that filled her with joy. She volunteered through school at open houses or concerts and began tutoring immigrants and refugees in chemistry and English at the University of Winnipeg.

“I know what it feels like to come to a new school in a new country because when I was first here I was really scared, but really excited too,” Ayo said.

Janet Frolek, a guidance counsellor at St. James Collegiate who supports EAL (English as a second language) students, says Ayo was a leader of a student-led, Grade 11 project, which analyzed and raised awareness of water usage both globally and locally.

“We joined hands with two other schools in the division and did a walk for water,” Frolek said. “Middle and high school students did an eight-kilometre walk from Assiniboine Park to Golden Gate School with eight litres of water to represent the average distance an African women would walk with water and Joyce had a huge part in it.”

St. James Collegiate is a UNESCO school, meaning it’s a member of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization and participates in different rights movements around the world.

“We are very proud of Joyce, she is a great example of a role model for others in our school,” St. James Collegiate principal, Kevin Dueck said. “She’s taken part in the 30-hour famine and school spirit activities, created shirts for students in the school to make them feel more welcome and connected to the school culture.”

Her inspiration behind her community involvement stems from her mom, Teresita. Ayo says she was a very kind person who always helped everyone around her and that no one ever had anything bad to say about her. Sadly, her mother passed away in November from ovarian cancer and didn’t have the chance to see her latest acknowledgements.

Ayo, a Brooklands resident, plans to continue helping out in the community wherever possible after graduation, as she has met a lot of people this way and genuinely enjoys helping out others.