Calling all young Native achievers

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If you know of an Aboriginal youth or two who have accomplished amazing things, then you can nominate them for an Alberta Aboriginal Youth Achievement Award.

"We want to recognize all Aboriginal youth in the province for any outstanding achievements that they have," said Kim Mueller, the youth awards co-ordinator. She wants people to nominate young Aboriginal people who have contributed to the community or "done something in a positive way that would just show good leadership or role modeling to other youth."

This will be the second year for the awards, which began in the fall of 2003 thanks to Kim Mueller and Metis Nation of Alberta (MNA) co-worker, Amanda L'Hirondelle. Mueller and L'Hirondelle run the youth program for the MNA and both are involved in Metis National Council, which runs the Metis National Youth Role Model program. The National Council asked Mueller and L'Hirondelle to be Metis representatives on the revamped National Aboriginal Role Model Program, now run by the National Aboriginal Health Organization.

"We did so and had a wonderful time and thought, well we can do this provincially for the people here in Alberta," Mueller said. The end result, 14 Aboriginal youth were recognized at the awards last April.

Up to 17 young people could be honored this year in the following categories: culture and heritage, volunteer service, academic achievement, athletic achievement, career advancement, personal achievement, walking the red road and community leaders. There will be two winners from each category, except for a possible third in the culture and heritage category. The awards committee hopes to present a First Nation, Metis and Inuk person each with an award for work in preservating and promoting their culture.

Last year's awards committee added two categories to the six originally advertised. Mueller explained that the awards committee created walking the red road and community leaders when they found that two nominees stood out from the rest but did not quite fit into the other categories.

The Community Leaders Award went to Matthew Wildcat from Hobbema. Wildcat is a straight A student at the University of Alberta who is heavily involved in Aboriginal Affairs and is "amazing at everything," said Mueller.

The Walking the Red Road award went to Lenny Labelle, a Metis from Slave Lake. Lacking parental guidance, Labelle began hanging with the wrong crowd and started using drugs and alcohol. On his own initiative, he went to Poundmaker's Lodge for treatment and turned himself around. Labelle was only 16 years old. Mueller said it is important to recognize the effort it takes to turn one's life around from such difficult circumstances.

"We thought it'd be really cool to have an award like that for those people because a lot of the time we don't recognize those people or consider them to be role models when I think they need some recognition as well," said Mueller.

The Walking the Red Road award is also open to those who promote sobriety and healthy living choices. Recognition of her own hard work inspired Mueller to work on this project.

"I won the National Metis Youth Role Model Award in 2001and it was such a wonderful experience to be recognized for all the things that I've done for my community and I wanted to recognize other young people for their contributions," Mueller told Sweetgrass.

The deadline for nominations is Dec. 24. Call (780) 455-2700 in Edmonton or 1-800-252-7553 in the rest of Alberta for more information. Winning nominees will be announced in mid-January, and the awards ceremony will take place in late-February in Edmonton.