Two students graduating from Port Elgin Regional School (PERS) this year have been honoured with a Rick Hansen Difference Maker Award for their project hosting a disability walk.
CHMA stopped by the bustling school to meet Maizie Carter and Lexie Lewis, and hear a bit more about their project. We started off talking with teacher Beth Weatherbee about how Maizie and Lexie came to take on their award winning project.
Last year after completing a food security project ahead of schedule, Carter and Lewis were on the lookout for a new project to finish off their grade 7 year. They decided on a disability walk, where students of PERS could briefly experience some of the physical challenges faced by people with disabilities. Students tried out wheelchairs, blindfolds, sound cancelling headphones and went for a walk around the school and in Port Elgin.
The experience was enlightening for some students, says Lexie Lewis. “They said it was a lot harder than they thought,” says Lewis. “And we explained to them, imagine doing that every day, and the amount of challenges that you would run into.”
Lewis said some immediate obstacles were noticed, like large cracks in sidewalks that people in wheelchairs had to navigate around.
The walk was so successful last year that Lewis and Carter hosted another one this year, of their own accord.
Carter says she encourages students to “go out of your comfort zone” and work to raise awareness about important issues in their communities.
The Difference Maker award is one of five given across the country to students who made positive contributions to inclusion and accessibility for people with physical disabilities. Carter and Lewis will receive a $500 honorarium to recognize their contribution.
Both Carter and Lewis say they were delighted to win the national award, and their teacher Beth Weatherbee is visibly proud of the pair and the school they are graduating from. “This is a national award, and we’re a little teeny, tiny school. So it’s really, really a great thing,” says Weatherbee, “We’re extremely proud of them… And we realize how much they’ve come along as being leaders in our community and in the school.”