Two Goderich young people awarded by the Town of Goderich for volunteerism

BY BOB MONTGOMERY

Two Goderich students were awarded the 2025 Youth Recognition Award this past week.

 

Nominees for the award have to be a resident of the Town of Goderich or a dependent of a ratepayer of the town and must be between the ages of 12 and 19. The purpose of this program is to promote a positive image of youth and to generate awareness of the valuable contributions that youth make in their community.

 

April Selkirk is in her final year in high school and was involved with the United Way Perth-Huron (UWPH) three years ago when it was looking for volunteers to help build a stage and she’s been with the group ever since. She is particularly interested in housing and homelessness and has had a significant impact in raising awareness of the homeless issue among other young people. 

 

She was a member of this year’s Coldest Night of the Year planning committee and, in that role, she encouraged students and staff to get involved. And then she became involved by joining Mayor Trevor Bazinet and Councillor Randy Carroll in spending 12 hours in the cold overnight to give them an idea of what it was like to be without a home in the winter.

 

Beyond the Coldest Night of the Year, April has helped staff the UWPH booth at Huron County Pride for two consecutive years. She also rallied her peers to join Goderich's Santa Claus parade. Most recently, April has stepped into a governance role as a youth member of UWPH’s Community Impact and Allocations Committee where she reviews funding applications and contributes to funding recommendations, ensuring a youth voice is present in decisions that shape services and programs.
April says when she goes to university next year she plans to apply for biophysics or some type of medical science and she also plans to continue being active in her community, wherever that community is at the time. She also plans to continue her work with the United Way. 

 

She says students in high school and university are often not aware of some of the challenges facing a community and the work that United Way does to address those challenges. She thinks that a lot of those students would like to be involved if they knew more about some of those challenges.

 

April also says she wouldn’t have had the opportunity to be as involved with the community as she is if Goderich hadn’t been so welcoming. She says there are more seniors than younger people in Goderich, but the seniors in Goderich are very welcoming and that gave her the opportunity to be part of the community and be involved in what’s going on in her community.

 

The second recipient of the Goderich Youth Recognition Award is Siobhan Kleuskens. She has been a pillar of leadership both at the Goderich High School and in the Goderich community.

 

She has been involved in a wide range of events and initiatives, including organizing the Friendship Games, Grade 7 and 9 Orientation Days, Food Drives, the Maitland Trail Meets, haunted houses, and Valhalla Day - one of the school’s most anticipated events. She also represented the school at the Leadership Conference in Niagara Falls and continues to play a vital role on their leadership team. 

 

She was not able to attend the council meeting to receive her award because she has already started her first year at university in London.