Youth Speak News

{mosimage}TORONTO - No one sat out on the side lines during a baseball mini-camp for 125 special needs students.

The Toronto Blue Jays and the Halton Catholic District School Board sponsored the half-day event at the Rogers Centre May 16.

I just turned 16 years old.  Wow!  I seem so old!  If you’d asked me even five years ago what I thought I would be like, I don’t know what I would have answered, but it was probably not this. I imagined my birthday would be something huge, something life changing, something so big that I couldn’t even imagine it. Yet I woke up that morning and, surprisingly, nothing really seemed different. I didn’t physically change in any way and I didn’t feel that different emotionally either.

{mosimage}TORONTO - At the ripe old age of seven Caroline D’ Souza penned her first two stories and sold them to family and friends to raise funds for needy children in India.

OTTAWA - Alanna Dalton attributes her close relationship with God to her time spent at Waupoos Farm 30 minutes from downtown Ottawa.

I  was 18 years old when I competed in a regional lifeguard competition. My boss agreed to pay us to compete. However, days before the competition, we were practising for several hours and my teammates were signing in at work for their practice hours. They knew that it was wrong, but they did it anyway. I was jealous because they were making money and I wasn’t so I signed in too, thinking “if I get caught, we’ll all get caught.” Our manager never noticed what happened and we got away with stealing.

As a six-year-old, I always had trouble understanding why I could not have my favourite Mexican candy before dinner. I thought it was unjust that I was not allowed to satisfy my hunger in a manner I saw fit. I felt my freedom was constantly restricted and that my parents did not want me to be a happy child. Back then I believed freedom was doing whatever you wanted, whenever you wanted; therefore I wanted to be free and have my candy.

{mosimage}TORONTO - This July 170 youth from 10 countries will convene at Saint Paul University in Ottawa for a week-long Youth Teams of Our Lady international meeting. This is a first for Canada.

After his long battle against non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, my father, Robert Paul Murphy, passed from this world on Holy Saturday, April 7.

TORONTO - It is halfway through second period and I’m lying on my classroom floor, away from all of the windows and doors, alongside other classmates. The room is silent. Luckily, this is just a practice lockdown drill that schools must go through in case of an emergency.