A feel-good story from Churchill High

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 04/01/2017 (3485 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

It being the holiday season and a time of giving, I asked the people around me if they knew of any feel-good story of someone doing something remarkable for others.

  From here I was introduced to the name Kakeka Thundersky. Kakeka’s mother, Raven Thundersky, who died just last year, was a lifelong grassroots activist who inspired her daughter to begin volunteering in her neighbourhood.

Kakeka graduated from Churchill High School in June and she is motivated to make the world a better place. She was a dedicated force in the introduction of new course at Churchill High School — Current Topics in Indigenous, Metis and Inuit Studies.

She also organized the school’s Aboriginal Leadership Program, which commemorated murdered and missing Indigenous women with a beading activity open to all students and staff in the building. She initiated a backpack drive with Siloam Mission, she mentored aboriginal youth in a business program and she volunteers at Thunderbird House and the Christmas Cheer Board.

On Dec. 8, Kakeka was named the under-18 recipient of the Everyday Political Citizen award which is given out each year by Samara Canada, a national charity focused on democracy and working towards reconnecting Canadians to politics.

According to Samara,  an “EPCitizen” can be any ordinary citizen who is working to improve Canadian democracy. They state that “at a time when countries across the world are facing crises in their democracies, we want to showcase the individuals holding up Canada’s strong political system and contributing to our rich social fabric.”

CBC TV’s Rick Mercer was one of the Everyday Political Citizen jurors.

“Out of tragedy Kakeka chose to try and improve the lives of those around her,” he said. “To take action like this, to become a leader among your peers when — even at the best of times — it is so easy to retreat into your own world, is something I greatly admire.”

Another Churchill student whose name was mentioned is Ana Mohammed Lou, who has been an inspiration in the school’s traditional talent show since she was in Grade 7. Each year she performs a song on guitar and next year, although she will have graduated, she would like to come back and perform with her sister.

Dan Sylvestre is a community correspondent for Fort Rouge.