Children do amazing things, we just don’t always hear about them. The City Parent Kid of the Year awards program let us hear about the accomplishment of some exceptional children and select one recipient in each of three categories.
The difficult task of helping to decide the Kids of the Year was shared by City Parent columnists Rob Stringer and Karyn Gordon. They were impressed by the children nominated and struggled to come up with the best of the best. It was Sydney Johnstone’s selfless act of shaving her head in support of her friend Evan – who was to lose his hair as a result of chemotherapy – that earned her the Exemplary Citizen Award. The 10-year old had her extreme haircut in front her entire school, raised more than $5,000 for Make a Wish Foundation and donated her ponytails to be made into wigs for kids coping with hair loss due to illness. Now that’s a friend!
Our writer was brought to tears during her interview with our Challenge Champion, Jackie Cheng. Jackie’s challenge was to catch up with schoolwork after missing months of classes as she and her family stayed in Taiwan with her dying father. Not only did she catch up, she moved to the top of her Grade 4 class, employing determination and a positive attitude despite her grief over the loss of her father. Jackie is hailed as an inspiration to all who know her.
If you aren’t into recycling when you meet Branden McQueen you are likely to be a convert afterwards. Our Green Leader has changed his tune to green since his school started to decrease its environmental footprint. Branden brought the earth-friendly practices home and wants to spread the word. The same afternoon that he found out he was selected as our Green Leader, Branden emailed to me a long list of items than can be recycled and how to properly dispose of them. We need more leaders like Branden.
Congratulations to the award recipients and to all of the nominees. It was indeed heartwarming to learn about so many children doing such great things. Thanks to those who took the time to nominate an amazing child and share their story.
We’d also like to thank our awards program sponsors TVO, Classic Bowl and Tundra Books for their support of kids who are making a difference.
Take a few minutes to meet our Kids of the Year through their stories on the following page. There are many more like them out there and we are honoured to have been introduced to this sample of deserving kids. Share their stories with your children. We just might get something started here.

Kid of the Year Winners:

Kid of the Year - Green Leader

Kid of the Year - Challenge Champion

Kid of the Year - Exemplary Citizen