‘Inspire and You’ for Young Girls

Rosanne Fortier News Correspondent

Young girls can become anything they want to be! This was the general message which was laced into the ‘Inspire and You’ program for girls from preschool to grade three on November 25 at Vegreville Centennial Library.

Mental Health Capability Building Vegreville (MHCB) hosted this program in partnership with Vegreville Centennial Library and Vegreville and Area Parent Link Centre.

Many parents attended this program with their daughters. One parent, Samatha Stephen, was with her daughter Ava Krezanoski. Ava mentioned she loves the way her mother loves her and she wants to be nice to people like her mother is.

Lindsay Robinson was with her two daughters, Tahlia and Ariya. Ariya said she admired her mother because she is a nice person. Tahlia added her mother is pretty and she wants to be a scientist when she grows up just like her mother is.

The program then jumped in with a bunch of fun activities where children put their fingers in ink and then read what their fingerprints revealed about their personality traits. Later, children participated in a jelly bean game and a play doh activity where they created animals and shared parts of their animals with other children to make an extra interesting project.

When suppertime arrived, the parents and children were treated to a light meal which was followed by Manager of Vegreville Centennial Library, Donna Williams reading the children a story which followed the program’s theme-Little People, Big Dreams- Marie Curie. This book was written by Ma Isabel and based on a true story about a young girl who wanted to be a scientist instead of a princess and who achieved great things at a time when it wasn’t popular for a woman to do this.

However, the highlight was when the guest speaker, Aliaa El Mezawy who is a scientist and a library board member gave an inspirational speech to the children where she spoke about her life and her journey towards achieving the goals she set out for herself. Aliaa was born in Africa and she credited her curious minds to motivating her to getting a university degree. “It doesn’t matter where you live, if you have a dream and want to know more and you’re curious; have no fear to pursue your dream,” Aliaa said.

The finale activity was a science experiment where the kids got to make some slime to take home.