Monday wasn’t an average day at school for a group of about 80 south Okanagan students who were participating in a whirlwind day of group activities at Spirit Ridge conference centre in Osoyoos.
The day-long event is called Spirit of Leadership. It involved team-building exercises and guest speakers including former NHLer Ryan Walter.
“It was just really inspirational and I was very happy to see how they wanted us to be leaders just like them,” grade seven Osoyoos Elementary School (OES) student Andon Maynard said.
However, Monday’s event isn’t quite the one the OES students originally hoped for.
They worked hard to fundraise for a leadership retreat in Grand Forks.
Many were eagerly anticipating the camp but three days before they were ready to leave there was a sudden cancellation.
The news was a big let down for many students.
“It was really disheartening; I was very upset over it,” grade seven OES student Makenna Pederson said.
The plan B was to hold a simple event in their school gym but once local nonprofit, Spirit of the Game Society, got word of the students’ disappointment over the cancelled camp, it decided to step in.
“I thought it was a great opportunity for me to get involved and see if we could put together a day around leadership and that’s what we are doing,” chairman of the board for the society, Mike Campol said.
The society’s mandate is to help youth who face financial barriers to playing organized sports.
So, putting on an event like Spirit of Leadership is a first for the society, in more ways than one.
“And it was put together over the last 10 days or so; it was quick,” Campol said.
Osoyoos Indian Band students from Sen’Pok’Chin School were also invited to join in.
“We don’t really do too many activities with the public schools so it’s really great to be able to come and see some of the other kids,” Sen’Pok’Chin School teacher Lisa Caruso said.
Organizers and the 80 students taking part in the event are calling the cancelled camp a blessing in disguise, with many students, like Pederson, taking away a new meaning for the word leadership.
“It’s taking action and helping out the community and not to do it to get popularity or anything it’s to do it because you want to help someone and because you want to make a change in the world” Pederson said.
Campol said this last-minute event, is now likely to become an annual initiative.
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