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DEATHS Local youth volunteer challenges his peers By HARNOOR GILL Special to the IFP My name is Harnoor Gill and this is my second year participating in the Ontario Youth Volunteer Challenge which is a three-week campaign with one goal: getting high school students to volunteer in their community. I had a wonderful time participating in this challenge and am looking forward to enrolling again this year. Ontario Youth Volunteer Challenge started as a test project in 2008, with the goal of getting 300 youth to volunteer locally. Since then, every year has been a huge success. Last year, 21 volunteer centres took part representing more than 265 communities across Ontario. With all of their generous contributions over 15,000 youth volunteered nearly 70,000 hours in their cities and towns doing amazingly during their campaign. Halton's Youth Advisory Council was established in 2011 and is campaigning for Change The World! I am one of the youngest members of this group of youth aged 14-18 who work alongside the regional government. We meet on a monthly basis to give youth, perspective and input and strategize about ways to engage youth in civics. Last year, we successfully ran this volunteer challenge during the international volunteer week in April. Volunteer Halton had a fantastic year of volunteer service in 2011. Thousands of Halton students throughout the Halton region dedicated their talents, ideas and skills towards making a better place with 10,000 youth volunteering three hours each over three weeks in 2011. It was a proud mo- 11 ·The IFP· Halton Hills, Tuesday, February 28, 2012 HARNOOR GILL ment for youth volunteerism and they made it a great success while changing the world! Go Make A Difference (MAD)! Volunteering is a great way to help, so make it happen and make it special in 2012 which starts during National Volunteer Week, April 15-21.Interested to know more about it? Explore www.citizenship.gov.on.ca/english/citizenship/changetheworld/faqs.shtml I urge the youth out there to participate in the youth challenge. Students are rewarded with community involvement hours that they need to graduate high school. One of the goals of volunteering is to ensure building safe and strong communities throughout the world. We all can take part in and we all can make a difference! The extraordinary work these volunteers put in maintaining parks, assisting with youth programs, and serving on Boards and Committees are invaluable to Volunteer Halton's ability to provide the high quality facilities and services in the community. Volunteer Halton is now looking for new members to join this Youth Advisory Council, if you are interested please contact Shannon Kitchings at ctw@cdhalton.ca or leave them a message on facebook link: http://www. facebook.com/pages/VolunteerHalton-Youth-Advisory-Council/188550557904714 A donation after a donation Francie and Jim Egerton of Georgetown recently donated a painting they had commissioned from an Alabama artist (also their friend) to the Multi-Organ Transplant Program at Toronto General Hospital. The acrylic painting depicts the façade of the hospital, members of the transplant team, angels and the hand of God. Francie underwent a successful liver transplant at the hospital in December. Her sister Mary donated a portion of her liver to her. On hand for the donation of the painting were from left the artist Marla Kenney, Dr. Gary Levy, the Medical Director of Toronto General Hospital's Multi Organ Transplant Program, Francie and Jim Egerton. The painting is hanging in the main lobby of the hospital's transplant unit. IN MEMORIAM SECCO, Victorino February 20th, 1998 The world is better because you were here, Your ways of living I still now hold dear. A word given was a word kept for sure, Keeping things in order did much to cure. Work was good and not hard to do all day, Friends were made for life and for time to play. Nature's joys of gardens, fishing were best, Simple ways did help to feather the nest. I love you Secco for being so true, You are special .... thank you for all you do. Bet In loving memory of Mark Kirley February 25th, 1995 He walks with us down quiet paths, And speaks in wind and rain, For the magic power of memory, Gives him back to us again. Love, Jackie and Kent, Michele and Hal Kyle and Kourtney Magical Merlin Merlin was one of the special guests at the recent Upper Credit Humane Society Thrift Store's fifth anniversary celebration. Merlin was just recovering from one round of eye surgery and it was the store's "Trooper Fund", which raised $2,000 for his surgeries. The store, located in the Moore Park Plaza on Main St. N, and run by volunteers, offers gently used items at bargain prices for those looking for treasures or practical items. Photo by Jon Borgstrom DID YOU KNOW... NOW YOUR AUNT MILLIE IN MONACO CAN READ YOUR INDEPENDENT & FREE PRESS THE SAME DAY AND THE SAME WAY THAT YOU DO! www.theifp.ca/ print-editions Things we don't think about: Wheelchair ingenuity I enjoy CBC radio as their programming is so diverse. You can be listening to a performance artist in Vancouver followed by an interview about the Canadian Union movement. Their programming exhibits the very fabric of our country. I heard a piece on wheelchairs, which speaks to the difficulty of fully empathizing with those persons having to live with the reality of using a wheelchair. It's easier to consider broad issues such as access in the built environment, far more difficult to think about fitting in the chair itself. Is it a one size fits all type of arrange- Andrew Tutty ment? What are the choices in chairs? What are the costs? Who pays and who decides? Christopher Bagg competed as a semi-pro in mountain biking and snowboarding before a snowboarding accident left him paralyzed. He's been in a wheelchair for 15 years. He turned his attention to adaptive sports. Due to his height he recognized a need for a lightweight adjustable wheelchair, so he built one. This interest, his background as a machinist, teaching at Southern Alberta Institute of Technology and working with engineers at the University of Calgary, led him to design an adjustable wheelchair. Together with Jeff Adams and Matthew Hodgson, and after years of struggle, and after unsuccessfully pitching this idea on Dragon's Den, they have recently begun manufacturing fully adjustable wheelchairs. Icon Wheelchairs can be contacted at: http://www. iconwheelchairs.com The need for an adjustable wheelchair would never have occurred to me. I also saw a piece on CBC Television out of Alberta regarding experimental electric undergarments that stimulate muscles in a paralyzed person to simulate the fidgeting movement in a chair so as to reduce bed sores. If you cannot move yourself, bed sores are problematic. As the saying goes; walk a mile in another man's moccasins (or wheels). Andrew Tutty is a member of the Halton Hills Accessibility Advisory Committee (HHAAC)