Three ‘fearless girls’ honoured

Vikki Hui

VHUI@RICHMOND-NEWS COM

It’s hard to stand up to bullies, but three young Richmond girls make it seem easy

The trio of elementary students recently received the Fearless Girl Award, an initiative of Hugh Boyd secondary’s social justice class, for demonstrating moral courage and community spirit

Anderson elementary’s Isabelle Lissack, Grade 6, stood up for younger classmates being teased by other students and refused to succumb to peer pressure

She also participates in the school’s student council and carries out crossing guard duties. Furthermore, she recently completed the Canadian Red Cross’ stay safe course

Isabelle told the Richmond News it felt “amazing” to receive the award

“I just want to be kind to all my friends and help them I just want to be a good person, ” she said

Another winner, DeBeck elementary’s Mikaela Preysler, Grade 4, advocates for others to do the right thing and makes sure her classmates don’t feel left out

Meanwhile, Whiteside elementary’s Kyah Gale-Neal, Grade 7, is kind to both her peers and adults and has taken on many leadership roles including lunch monitor, morning announcements and helping out at assemblies

All three played an important part in helping their peers feel safe and included, according to the award organizers Grade 11 and 12 students at Hugh Boyd’s social justice class

The Hugh Boyd students created the awards to celebrate young girls for doing the right thing and to encourage them to keep doing the same It was named after Kristen Visbal’s Fearless Girl sculpture

“Often, women and girls are undermined for their actions so, by rewarding them, it makes them feel recognized,” said Jasmine Dulay, a Grade 11 student who was part of the selection committee

“I saw this first-hand when delivering the award to (Isabelle), the smile on her face when she heard the news was unmatched ”

The recipients of the award were selected by the social justice class’ selection committee from dozens of nominations from students, parents and teachers

“My students kind of felt like it was almost like a college admission Like it was kind of cool for them, but they felt the weight of those decisions, too,” said teacher Michael Taylor

He added the experience was “really rewarding” for his students as well

“They got to get a sense for the kids that they were reading about, and they sort of started to feel connected to them,” said Taylor “So when they dropped off the awards, their spirits were lifted, too ”

Last week, the three winners got a trophy, a certificate and $100 for a pizza party lunch with their classmates

The initiative is part of the class’ Lift Project that aims to recognize members of the community who have been adversely affected by the pandemic

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The MacNeill Ravens seniors boys basketball team is off to the provincials at the Langley Events Centre this week The team finished second at the South Fraser regional finals last week to qualify for the big provincial tournament Meanwhile, the Ravens’ senior girls basketball team battled hard to finish 14th at their provincials last week in the 2A category However, according to the girls’ coach, Justin Dy-Pe, notable performances came from Kim Tiu (49 points) in an overtime loss to Fernie (73-78) and a 41-point performance in a win vs St Patrick (81-59) Thrive Productions photo