Leaders in Training0

by Paige Desmond of Brantnews.com

More than 50 First Nations youth from Sault Ste. Marie got the celebrity treatment during their sendoff this week as they embarked on a bus trip to the Tim Horton Onondaga Farms camp north of Brantford.

Family members, chiefs and city dignitaries were on hand to wish the kids luck during the five-day trip, which got underway Thursday.“You couldn’t tell where the kids were, there were so many adults,” said special aboriginal educator Mona Jones, the day after the kids arrived at camp here.

The 51 students are taking part in a joint project between Tim Horton Children’s Foundation here and the Ted Nolan Foundation.

This is the first year of a five-year partnership between the two, with those students who complete the leadership course and keep up their studies eligible to attend each year, said John Malcolmson, general manager at Onondaga Farms.

“The actual meat and potatoes started a year ago,” said Malcolm, of planning for the project.

He said the aim is to take children aged 11-16 who have shown some leadership skills, but who are at-risk or may be having problems in school. then give them an opportunity to build on those skills and take them back to their communities.

“They were ecstatic,” Jones said about the parents of the children who were invited to attend.

“I think some of the kids that are here at the camp,” were having problems at school, she continued.

She said bringing them to a new environment and teaching them leadership “is the whole point of the trip.”

During their time at the camp the students will participate in team building exercises, digital photography sessions and hear the teachings of the seven grandfathers from a Sault Ste. Marie elder, aimed at teaching them how to treat other people.

They will also travel to Niagara Falls on Sunday and see a Rochester Americans’ American Hockey League game.

Nolan, who set up the foundation in 2004 to help promote leadership skills for First Nations youth, is the Rochester vice-president of hockey operations. A native of Sault Ste. Marie, he is also a former coach of the year in the National Hockey League.