Seven Royal City youth are embarking a busy year after being installed as the 2018 New Westminster Hyack Ambassador leadership team.
Talia Monno was crowned Miss New Westminster 2018 at the Evening of Stars awards gala, held at the Laura C. Muir Performing Arts Theatre at Douglas College on Saturday night. Along with being named Miss New Westminster, Monno received the James Daniel Cartwright Diamond Award, the $1,000 Hyack scholarship, the Top Communicator Award and the Top Essay Award.
Chanel De Capite, who was named Hyack Princess, received the $750 Hyack Scholarship and Princess Pendant. Jasmine Rattan, who was the unanimous choice of all the candidates for Miss Friendship, received a $500 scholarship.
Sierra Pitkin was awarded the Bernie Legge Scholarship of $500; Isha Sandhu received the Bill Brown Memorial Award for Top Talent and a $250 scholarship; Emma Canil won the Top Knowledge Award of a $300 scholarship; and Leah Binns won the People’s Choice Award and the Alumni Award.
Each Hyack Ambassador will also receive an additional scholarship of $400 at the end of their ambassadorial year to assist with their post-secondary education.
Retiring 2017 Hyack Ambassador, Maddie Lemieux, was awarded the Spirit Award and a $500 scholarship for her outstanding community service.
Becci Dewinetz, who has helped program coordinator Deb Wardle for the past 10 years and assisted with the program for many years before that, said more than $7,000 worth of scholarships and awards were handed out at the event. She said it’s amazing to how much the young women have grown since starting their weekly Tuesday night training sessions in September.
“Every Tuesday night we bring in a different professional to train them, whether it’s public speaking or writing a resume or changing a tire or self-defence. It just goes on and on and on,” she said. “There’s a lot of skills that we teach them that they just don’t get in school. How to carry on a conversation – they get their full Toastmasters certificate when they are finished the program. Public speaking is so important.”
Dewinetz said the training enables the young women to become “fantastic ambassadors” for New Westminster. While attending festivals in B.C. and Washington State, the young women bring greetings from the mayor and city council and the City of New Westminster and promote the city
“They have a full year ahead of them,” said Dewinetz, who was Miss New Westminster 1981. “The year includes tons and tons and tons of volunteer hours through Honour House, Dunwood Place, Thornebridge Gardens, cystic fibrosis. There is a whole list of things they volunteer for. They travel throughout the Pacific Northwest for the full year to all the out-of-town festivals.”
With a mandate of “serving our community – representing our city”, the youth program aims to provide leadership training, volunteer and service opportunities and awards post-secondary scholarships to all participants.
“It would be nice to have more people wanting to help, wanting to step up and join the program,” Dewinetz said. “The benefit to the youth is so huge, it would be nice to see people coming and wanting to be more involved. It just warms my heart that these girls come out and do this.”
Applications for the 2019 New Westminster Hyack Ambassador Leadership Program will be available on the Hyack Festival website www.hyackfestival.com on May 1, and an info session for interested families will be May 10. Anyone who is interested can email [email protected] to reserve a seat.
