The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

www.insideHALTON.com | OAKVILLE BEAVER | Thursday, January 23, 2014 | 4 Oakville's Junior Citizens awarded certificates by John Bkila Oakville Beaver Staff Four Oakville teens are proving youths can make a difference in the community they call home. Nicole D'Armiento, 17, Samuel Han, 15, and sisters, Emma and Julia Mogus, 15 and 16, respectively, are nominated for this year's Ontario Junior Citizen of the Year Awards. The Ontario Community Newspapers Association (OCNA), of which the Oakville Beaver is a member, organizes the annual awards in which youths are nominated by people in their community. The quartet of local youths recently stopped at the Oakville Beaver's editorial office for the presentation of their nomination certificates. Winners of this year's awards will be announced Friday (Jan. 24) on the OCNA website www.ocna.org and will be invited to an awards ceremony in the spring where they will receive a plaque and lapel pin, citing their accomplishments, as well as a cash reward. · Nicole D'Armiento Nominated by her 20-year-old sister, Alanna D'Armiento, Nicole is no stranger to volunteering -- at age 10, she would accompany her father selling pizza at Toronto's Union Station as part of a United Way campaign. "Nicole is a very hard-working individual who applies herself to all aspects of her life 150 Four Oakville high school students nominated for Ontario Junior Citizen Awards, from left, Nicole D'Armiento, Samuel Han, Emma Mogus and Julia Mogus, were presented their certificates Monday by Oakville Beaver subeditor John Bkila, centre left, and managing editor Angela Blackburn, centre right. | photo by Graham Paine ­ Oakville Beaver (Follow on Twitter @halton_photog or facebook.com/ HaltonPhotog) per cent, whether it is at school, work, volunteering or at home," said Alanna. "Volunteering since a very young age, she has secured parttime jobs since was 14 and working during the week and most weekends." Since April, Nicole has been driving neighbourhood seniors to appointments, grocery stores and doctors' appointments on a weekly basis, while for the past seven months she's volunteered at ErinoakKids Centre for Treatment and Development where she helps provide one-on-one care to its young clients by reading books, playing games and swimming with them. Nicole has also been an active member of the Oakville Soccer Club for 13 years, where she helped her team organize a fundraiser yard sale for a teammate diagnosed with cancer to help that friend receive treatment unavailable in Canada at the time. · Samuel Han Samuel, a Grade 10 student at Abbey Park High School, was nominated by his teacher Riley Watson, who says he felt his student's commitment to community service should be recognized. "As a member of our school, he (Samuel) has been an exemplary student who not only achieves high marks, but does so in addition to being one of the most highly-active, self-motivated and involved students," Watson said. Samuel is the founder and co-president of the Abbey Park Community Involvement Council, which helps students become more active, engaged and contributing members of the community. He is also the founder and president of Equipment for Excellence, a youth-led, non-profit organization that improves the accessibility and affordability of sports equipment to local youths through fundraising and the collection of gently-used items. Samuel is also vice-president of the Newcomers Information Centre Youth Advisory Committee and volunteers with Big Brothers and Big Sisters of Halton, the More than Sound initiative at Sunrise Senior Living, YMCA and Relay for see Ontario on p.19 Voted the Best in Oakville We Invite you to find out why! Call today for your personal tour. We'd love to have you join us! Retirement Living 380 Sherin Drive, Oakville, Ontario (905) 847-1413 www.vistamere.ca At Its Best