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$1.25 GST included Serving the communities of Blyth and Brussels and northern Huron County Thursday, February 21, 2019
Volume 35 No. 8
SCOUTS - Pg. 10
‘The Citizen’ honours
local Scouts and Guides
GALLERY - Pg. 19
Blyth man now president of
Blyth Festival Art Gallery
AMBASSADOR - Pg. 6
Morrison comes away from
convention rejuvenated
Publications Mail Agreement No. 40050141 Return Undeliverable Items to North Huron Publishing Company Inc., P.O. Box 152, BRUSSELS, ON N0G 1H0
INSIDE
THIS WEEK:
Blyth student’s essay named world’s best
Initiative
impresses
MPPs
Mikayla Ansley’s “Kindness
Matters” has won the grand prize in
the Lions Clubs International peace
essay contest. This is the first time
that a Blyth Lions Club-sponsored
participant has triumphed on the
world stage.
The official announcement will be
made at Lions Day with the United
Nations in New York City on
Saturday, March 9. There, Ansley
will be honoured with a plaque and a
prize of $5,000 U.S. Ansley and her
family have been invited to make the
trip courtesy of Lions Clubs
International.
Ansley and her family were
informed of the win on Monday
evening by Lions Club President
Barney Stewart and several other
members of the club. Stunned,
Ansley cried when she heard news
of her win.
This comes after Ansley’s essay
placed first in Lions Multiple
District A, which comprises all of
Ontario and Quebec. With that
victory, Ansley’s essay was part of
the international competition and it
would be read in Milan, Italy this
summer.
She won $1,000 Canadian for her
Multiple District A win, on top of
the $100 she won at the District A9
competition late last year.
The competition, which was
spearheaded by Lions Clubs
International several years ago,
invites students between the ages of
11 and 13 with visual impairments
to write an essay on their answer to
peace. This branch of the
competition was established as an
answer to the organization’s peace
poster competition but for students
with visual impairments.
The essay details Ansley’s battle
with bilateral retinoblastoma, a rare
form of ocular cancer that caused
her to lose her left eye and most of
the vision in her right.
Ansley said many people were
very kind to her family at a time
when both of her parents, Mike and
Katie, had to quit their jobs to take
her to the hospital on a regular basis.
“I’m so thankful to all the people
that held our hands through it all, by
donating toys, blankets and money
so that this family could stay on our
feet,” she wrote.
She also details the steps she’s
taken to pass kindness on in recent
years, whether it’s a fundraiser at her
school, writing letters to world
leaders or simply exchanging a
smile. Ansley wrote that the smallest
acts of kindness on a daily basis can
change the world.
When speaking with long-time
Lion John Stewart and Club
President Barney Stewart, Ansley
wondered aloud how she would
spend her prize money. While her
father Mike suggested saving it for
college, Mikayla said she could see
herself buying everything from an
iPad to the iPhone X to a year’s
supply of candy or an electric fence
for the family’s dog.
Mikayla’s journey in the
competition began through her
father, Mike, who is a member of the
Blyth Lions Club. Long-time
member John Stewart informed
Mike of the competition, specifically
aimed at children between the ages
of 11 and 13 with visual
impairments.
From there, Mike and Katie
mentioned it to Mikayla and she was
immediately interested, although she
says she has never considered
herself much of a writer.
Mikayla has won numerous
awards for her public speaking
achievements over the years, a
forum she says she much prefers.
With her limited vision, she said, the
physical act of writing or typing on
her iPad can be exhausting.
However, she committed to
writing about a topic she’s
passionate about and asked her
father to proofread for her before
she submitted the essay late last
year.
Before Mikayla turned the essay
over to her parents, she said she was
confident she had done a good job,
knowing it was a good opportunity
to get the message of kindness
across.
When Mikayla found out that her
essay had triumphed at the local
level, she was really happy with her
success, but she said she was truly
over the moon when she found out
about winning the competition at the
Multiple District A level.
The Blyth Lions Club hopes to
host a come-and-go open house to
celebrate Mikayla’s win sometime in
the coming months. More news on
that event and the Ansleys’ visit to
New York City will be available in a
future issue of The Citizen.
Phil Beard of the Maitland Valley
Conservation Authority thinks some
great progress has been made on
bringing the details of the Carbon
Footprint Initiative (CFI) to the
provincial government.
Beard was part of a special
meeting with members of the CFI
and Huron-Bruce MPP and Minister
of Education Lisa Thompson and
Perth-Wellington MPP and
Parliamentary Assistant to the
Minister of Agriculture, Food and
Rural Affairs Randy Pettapiece.
Beard says that the provincial
government is currently undergoing
consultation to help inform its
climate action plan and both
Thompson and Pettapiece seemed
excited by what was going on with
the CFI.
The meeting was held earlier this
month at the Pioneer Seed Plant in
Wingham and included
representation from across the
initiative. Beard said that the
meeting was meant to bring the
MPPs up to speed on the initiative
and the CFI’s work to reduce
members’ carbon footprint and to
sequester carbon.
Martin Vogt, the CEO of EFS
Plastics Ltd., was the first to speak,
discussing recycling plastic and the
competition his company faces.
With subsidies in Alberta for the
production of new plastic bags,
A time for family
Family Day weekend is always a busy one in Huron County.
Thanks to service clubs and other volunteer groups,
there is always plenty to do. In The Citizen’s coverage
area, the Londesborough, Brussels and Blyth Lions
Clubs were all serving up breakfast in their own
communities, as were the Blyth Legion and the Legion
Ladies Auxiliary. At the Brussels Legion there was karaoke
and the Catch the Ace draw while the arenas were full of
young hockey and broomball players. In Belgrave, several
teams took their skills to the snow-covered volleyball courts
on Sunday for North Huron’s annual Family Day event, which
boasted events in Belgrave, Blyth and Wingham. (Quinn Talbot photo)
By Shawn Loughlin
The Citizen
By Shawn Loughlin
The Citizen
Continued on page 3