Doing the extras for the experience

BY SARA KEDDY

Kings County Register

Emerald Kelly doesn’t do what she does as a volunteer with recognition in mind. “It’s surprising,” she says of her nomination as Berwick’s youth volunteer of the year. “I like to do it.”

Kelly, a Grade 12 West Kings student, keeps busy. At school, she’s a member of Teens Against Drunk Driving and the Safe Grad planning committee, co-ordinated the 2007 post secondary info session for parents and students and is now rehearsing as “Frenchy” in the school’s Grease production .

Outside of school, she’s the youth representative on the Western Kings Community Health Board. “I’ve been able to talk about my own experience with the DARE program and Active Kids/ Healthy Kids programs,” she says. “And they’re such nice people!”

She volunteers at Berwick’s New Visions home for special care. “A lot of the people don’t have a lot of family, and the home is small.”

She steps up at church: a Grade 7/8 Sunday school teacher at St. Anthony’s, a youth group member, a lector in services, helps organize youth masses and service projects. “Emerald has a wonderful gift of leading others, while remaining focused and enthusiastic,” says the church’s religious education co-ordinator, Rodina Braden, in her nomination papers. “It is refreshing to see a youth who can balance academics, sports and spirituality... and still have time to share her gifts.”

Kelly has also been a competitive figure skater since childhood, taking volunteer leadership roles as early as 2001 with the former Berwick Skating Club, and then with Kentville and Greenwood clubs through 2007, working with beginner skaters under coaches’ supervision.

She finds time for paid work, too: last summer, she helped with Berwick’s day camp program and now shares a job leading the town’s after school program through the week. “A lot of my friends are busy with sports and part-time jobs,” Kelly says. “I’m also looking for the experience - I want to work with kids, and I feel good.”

She’s waiting to hear from Memorial University’s nursing program on her acceptance, and plans to become a pediatric nurse.