Gabrielle Matthew

Gabrielle’s nomination focused on a single, stunning achievement. They wrote a modern adaptation of Shakespeare’s All’s Well that Ends Well, produced the show and was involved in all aspects of the play at Weldon. Gabrielle also designed the production to raise money for a local charity, single-handedly gathering items for a silent auction. Those kinds of achievements are especially worthy of applause from a youth!

Logan Gerzymisch

Logan has racked up a lot of experience at the Lindsay Little Theatre. From light and sound technician, to stage manager, to producer, to director – she has excelled in every role. She has also mentored others and promotes an inclusive environment.

The other finalist in this award was Alyssa Codling, who also has lots of experience at the Lindsay Little Theatre. Logan serves on the Board of Directors and co-chairs the social media role with Alyssa.

Runners-Up

In addition to Gabrielle Matthew and Logan Gerzymisch winning the Arts Achievement awards, our runners-up were Jaslyn Jolicoeur, Henry Oliver and Alyssa Codling!

Jaslyn is a multi-talented musician and actor. She studies piano, flute and is in multiple choirs. She has also been in many theatre productions including James and the Giant Peach last fall. She’s been described as very encouraging of all those around her.

Henry is dedicated to his pursuit of theatre. His commitment includes the participation in the integrated arts program at Thomas A Stewart, meaning a daily commute to school. Over the years, he has also learned guitar and piano, and been a strong advocate for the arts.

Alyssa has developed a broad range of skills at the Lindsay Little Theatre from the early days when she began behind the scenes, to later as she became an accomplished director. Alyssa is studying arts at university and continues to secure opportunities in a highly competitive environment. She volunteers with the Lindsay Little Theatre and is a co-director of their social media alongside Logan Gerzymisch.

Ella Marsh

Ella has made waves with her business. She identified the challenges parents often face getting their children to swim lessons and created a new enterprise where she sends qualified swim instructors to them! Her Swim 2 You business was conceived and launched in the spring of 2023, impacting many children and families in the community. It is amazing seeing the difference a youth can make like that!

Jack Georgiou

Jack was an Ontario Summer Company grantee last year. He had a dream of creating a successful boat detailing company. From sourcing the best products and equipment to designing his own social media promotion, this candidate handled all aspects of his new business. If you’re in the market for a clean boat, you need look no further!

Runner-Up

Also nominated for our Entrepreneurship Award is the incredible Theo Ward, who frequents our Warehouse Youth Centre and is a delight.

Theo’s journey to create took him down the path of establishing a band. A dedicated musician himself, he used his creative energy to inspire others to join him. Like any new initiative, he tapped into his promotion and organizational skills to recruit other band members and plan a rehearsal schedule. Staff at our youth centre sang Theo’s praises in his nomination!

Leah Roxborough & Sage Stapleton

Their campaigns and activities have diverted garbage from the landfill through recycling programs and they’ve even prevented hundreds of socks from getting thrown out. By raising money at the school, they also were able to work with the Canopy Project to plant trees. And that’s just scratching the surface of all they have done.

Runners-Up

The runners-up for our Green Award were Eden Carter and Zoe McIntosh!

Eden has inspired action through her membership with the youth council at BGC Kawarthas. Not only does she frequently focus on issues related to the environment but through her intervention, the youth council spent some time at Ken Reid Conservation area and planted a tree there as well. She’s also dedicated to rehoming animals.

Zoe has been identified as a leader on green issues at Fenelon Falls Secondary School. She frequently brings ideas to the table of ways that school activities and initiatives can be more sustainable and have less impact on the environment. She’s also an active youth representative with the Horticultural Society.

Abbey Williams

Abbey is active in watersports and has dedicated her talents to teaching and mentoring others. As a certified swim instructor and lifeguard, Abbey teaches the fundamentals of the sport and also a love for it. As a volunteer with Big Brothers Big Sisters, she has also shared her love of canoeing with kids who have never before had the opportunity to try it.

Katelin Langford

Katelin has been competing on the ice since she was 10, through school and as a member of clubs in Lindsay and Peterborough. She’s a skip with a winning record including Gold at OFSAA this year. She even organized a program to introduce more kids to the sport. She’s learning as much as she can about curling and even the ice, achieving certification as an ice maker.

Runners-Up

In 12-17 we had Malcolm Johnson and Harrison Smeaton, and in 18-24 we had Abby McGinn and Kaylee MacKinnon.

Let’s start with 12-17. Malcolm is passionate about soccer. He’s a terrific player himself and shows exceptional leadership at his school, Jack Callaghan, where he mentors younger players in a recess soccer program. He makes a selfless contribution to school sports.

Harrison demonstrates respect on and off the field. As a baseball player with the Whitby Canadians and as a young coach with the Kawartha Cubs, he has consistently modeled this in team sports.

Now onto 18-24. Abby devoted many hours to playing hockey with the Lindsay Lynx, as well as other sports, in her lifelong commitment to staying active and fit for life. A role model for her brother as well as many others, she continues to make a commitment to physical activity while juggling her studies overseas.

As a BGC staff member, Kaylee is mentoring children in her care about being active for life. She has been an enthusiastic sport and camp leader for 3 years, teaching the fundamentals, and striving to make everyone feel welcomed. Kaylee is a positive role model for young people at BGC Kawarthas.

Rachel Goodhand

Rachel’s dedication to making the world a better place is evident in her contributions at school, church and in the community. The list of social justice activities she’s involved in is really long! One of the ones we liked best was the creation of a candy gram initiative that she and a few of her friends launched to raise money for school initiatives. She was also a volunteer with the Sparkle and Swagger event this year that raised $20,000 for school sports at our 4 local high schools.

Runners-Up

In addition to Rachel Goodhand winning the Humanitarian Award, our other nominees were Sophie Kaloudas, and the winners of the Green Award, Leah Roxborough and Sage Stapleton.

Sophie observed the effects of COVID 19 in her peers and was concerned about the lack of activities in school once they were back in person. So, she decided to do something about it! The number of initiatives she spearheaded is incredible. Athlete of the Week, Lunchtime Intramurals, Team photos, and an army of volunteer scorekeepers so teams could resume play. The result was a return to fun, active opportunities for her school community.

And as we learned earlier, Leah and Sage are eco warriors. Something we didn’t share was their advocacy efforts – they’ve organized letter writing campaigns regarding local environment policy, and about clean investment choices. They’re definitely willing to stand up for the things they believe in!

Angela Staples

The adversity Angela faced has been massive since April 2023 when she was diagnosed with a brain tumor. While undergoing multiple rounds of chemotherapy, Angela maintained a positive attitude that inspired all of those around her. Throughout it all, she kept up her marks, volunteered, and excelled at a new co-op placement, despite the challenge of the treatment. She is an inspiration to us all.

Runners-Up

Here are the runners-up for our Resiliency Award, Summer James and Reagan Lusted!

Summer approaches life with grit and determination and to know her, you wouldn’t know that she had lost most of her hearing as a young child. Today – Summer balances high school with 2 jobs – one at Extendicare in Fenelon Falls and the other with BGC. According to her nomination, “she loves working with children and the elderly and strives to make a difference every day”.

Reagan was a Physical Literacy award winner in 2022. Her nomination for Resiliency is from how she takes strength from her faith, and a belief in hard work and the importance of continuing to move forward. These are the qualities her nomination said make her resilient. Over the years, she’s faced numerous obstacles including bullying and anxiety, but she’s the first to extend a helping hand to a new student, or to local charity efforts.

Harrison Smeaton

Harrison demonstrates leadership in all facets of his life and says it has shaped him as a human being. Being involved in community events or with charitable work is important to him – one of the most impactful was delivering food to A Place Called Home. He’s also a leader in sports as we heard earlier, in the church, at work and at school. His leadership qualities have been recognized with greater responsibility at the school board’s arts camp.

Calisa Bean

Calisa has become a strong advocate for youth, noticed during her Co-op placement with the Kawartha Lakes Police Service. She jumped into the effort to engage youth in developing a pitch for a youth wellness hub in Kawartha Lakes. This was no surprise for those who know her since she has been a longtime leader with Brownie and Guide groups, and at school.

Runners-Up

In addition to Harrison Smeaton and Calisa Bean winning the Leadership award, the runners-up in 12-17 were Malachi Crandell and Gabrielle Matthew, and the runners-up in 18-24 were Corissa Bilodeau and Katelin Langford!

Malachi is described in his nomination as a natural born leader. A grade 8 student, younger kids at school look up to him, notice his attention and encouragement. A specific incident caught the attention of the principal who saw Malachi stand up to older kids who tried to bully their way onto the basketball court. Telling them to wait their turn, he spent time with the grade 5 children, supporting their right to play.

Gabrielle will be familiar to you from her Arts Achievement Award. You’ll remember that she wrote an adaptation of “All’s Well that Ends Well” which she mounted at school. Her nomination points out the elements of leadership required to pull off such an ambitious endeavour – persistence, organizational skills, problem solving, diplomacy – and so many more.

Corissa impressed the team at Kawartha Lakes Food Source with her kindness and compassion as she stepped up to support a variety of roles there. One of the most impressive things she did was to accept the role of coordinator of the Lindsay Community Food Market where she served vulnerable clientele with respect.

Katelin you’ve met in the Physical Literacy category. As a skip of curling teams for many years, she has had the important role of guiding a group of athletes through months of practice and competitions. She’s valued for her encouragement and mentorship, and as we know, the results speak for themselves as her teams have overcome adversity to achieve success.

Nikita Tamlin

Nikita is recognized as exhibiting the club’s core values inside and outside the Club. Working to create a positive environment at school which encourages participation in activities like spirit days, Nikita’s enthusiasm is infectious. In the classroom she’s respectful and speaks out about injustice. In her role as a sports leader for BGC, Nikita encourages participation and creates a welcoming environment.

Kaylee MacKinnon

Kaylee will happily describe her own journey with the Club from when she first began attending at the age of 3. For the last several years, she has proudly become one of those Club leaders she first looked up to as a child. Kaylee enthusiastically jumps into Club roles – from sports coach to summer camp leader to after school supervisor, embodying the spirit of the Club every day.

Runners-Up

In addition to Nikita Tamlin and Kaylee MacKinnon being our Club Spirit winners, our additional nominees were Alex Schvedenkova in the 12-17 category and Kathryn Elliott in 18-24.

Alex gets a big High Five from the Youth Warehouse team at BGC Kawarthas. New to our program this year, Alex is said to make it a better place. They are the first to volunteer whether to help prep dinner or clean up, or to participate in a new program or workshop. Alex definitely reflects the BGC core values.

Kathryn demonstrates her commitment to Club values in her involvement with the Warehouse and the Keystone Leadership Youth Council. She demonstrates respect and support for others. One of our favourite examples was her effort to learn to speak a bit of Japanese to see what it was like for our Japanese exchange student last year. Kathryn recognizes the importance of listening and giving space to others.

Ron Kennedy Scholarship

Our final Youth Awards winner to announce was the winner of our Ron Kennedy Scholarship, Sophie Kaloudas, who was also nominated for the Humanitarian category.

Sophie observed the effects of COVID-19 in her peers and was concerned about the lack of activities in school once they were back in person. So, she decided to do something about it! The number of initiatives she spearheaded is incredible. Athlete of the Week, Lunchtime Intramurals, Team photos, and an army of volunteer scorekeepers so teams could resume play. The result was a return to fun, active opportunities for her school community. She definitely has the traits that Ron Kennedy would be proud of.

We had eight other strong nominees – Katelin Langford and Abbey Williams, our Physical Literacy winners, Calisa Bean and Harrison Smeaton, winners in the Leadership category, Kaylee MacKinnon, winner in the Club Spirit category and the Marcie Beall scholarship, and Amy Lamb and Megan Prouse.

Amy Lamb was recognized last year as one of our Physical Literacy Award winners. Amy is a highly skilled athlete and has participated in a wide range of team sports. She’s a leader on her teams, at her school, and has a positive influence on others. And finally, Megan Prouse who is heavily involved in the agricultural community and 4-H. Last fall she was crowned Ambassador of the Fair for her outstanding leadership.

Congratulations to the 2023 Award Winners and thank you to our sponsors and partners.