My Wish For Kenya…..

I’m Shayla Gillis! I am a 16 year old, grade 11 student from Baldur, Manitoba. I have grown up in this small town and I truly care about it. Small towns require volunteers for anything to happen. I help with current activities, as well as create new projects.

• Cancer Relay Walks

• “Meals on Wheels” (Delivering meals to the elderly in the community)

• Soup kitchen/food bank

• Student mentoring programs for elementary & middle years students

• Rachel’s Challenge projects

• Vet clinic

• leader for kids camps

• Community Kitchen

• leader for Kids Curling Clinics

I am a part of a group at my school, we have a group that is designated to help other people. Every month we meet and come up with ideas to raise funds to help other people both locally and globally. This group teaches us that helping other people not only has benefits for them, but it also benefits us. Helping other people makes a huge positive impact on my life.

I participated in a summer program called Homegrown Leaders, in 2011. This program taught us about food security. This world issue is very serious and one that I am very passionate about . Living in an agricultural community I am aware of the large role that we play in this global crisis. Food security is defined as the availability of food and one's access to it. A household is considered food secure when its occupants do not live in hunger or fear of starvation. Stages of food insecurity range from food secure situations to full-scale famine. At the end of the Homegrown Leaders program, we were challenged to make an action plan that changes people’s lives in our communities. I decided to do a food drive and called it Halloween for Hunger. One small way to help out with our local food security.

The first year of this now annual event, I did it alone by pulling a wagon around my small community. I then donated what I had collected to the local food bank. The food bank was so happy to see this much food being brought in as the donations were very low and the use of the food bank was very high. I saw how much food I collected alone and realized, what if I could get more people to help collect? That’s exactly what I did this year. The response was overwhelming and so positive. We collected from not just 1 community, but 2 communities. My goal for this year is to involve more communities and more volunteers.

I am always willing to help, and very passionate about my work. I care about the people and environment around me. I try to better myself and educate people about local and globally issues. I love meeting new people and being in new situations. I would love to learn from this trip, and I would bring what I learn back to my community.

Pick me, please!