Vancouver Island students are once again making a national impact.
Every year Habitat for Humanity launches its Meaning of Home contest, which encourages children from all across the country to share what home means to them.
Over 12,000 kids answered the call, and Alexandra R on the North Island was one of three runner-ups for the Grade 4 category, winning a $10,000 grant towards Habitat VIN projects.
This year, Habitat says 190 Island students participated, which helped get an extra $1,900 towards building homes for families in need of a safe and secure place to live, for a total of $11,900.
This is also the second year in a row that Habitat VIN received a $10,000 grant. Last year Alice Hopkins, a student at École Robb Road in Comox, was a runner up in the grade 5 category.
“Every year we’re inspired by the submissions we get to this contest, and the strong understanding youth have around the need for a safe and decent place to live. We are so grateful to the teachers and parents in our community who championed this program, and to Alexandra for her moving essay. This grant will have a life-changing impact on local families,” said Cady Corman, Habitat VIN’s director of communications.
You can read Alexandra’s poem below:
The feelings of home by Alexandra
To me, home is not a place, but a feeling. Home is about love, connection and belonging.
Home is about being understood and accepted for being your authentic self.
Home is about comfort and security.
Home can’t be contained in four walls because home is much broader than that. Home is something greater than ourselves and our immediate families. Home is about my community, my province, my country, and my world.
Home is striving to make a positive difference in the lives of the people with whom we are all connected.
Home is collectively working together to make the world a better place.
My home has never been the same.
My home constantly changes.
But the feelings of home remain the same. Home is the people I meet and the different cultures I experience.
Home is the community that embraces me and where I embrace others. Home is the place that I give and make certain sacrifices such as having my dad deploy so that others may have the same feelings that I do: that they are worthy of love, connection, freedom, peace and security. They are worthy of the feelings of home.
To learn more about Habitat for Humanity Vancouver Island North, or the Meaning of Home contest, visit their website.
