Ohsweken girl named as Easter Seals ambassador

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Eleven-year-old Chastity Staats of Ohsweken, Ont. is a busy girl, and has added even more activities to her agenda for the coming months.

Chastity is this year's "Tammy" for Brant County, acting as ambassador for the area's 2000 Easter Seals campaign. Funds raised through the campaign are used to provide services to children with physical disabilities.

Bruce Williamson is chairman of Easter Seals Campaign 2000 for Brantford and Brant County.

As this year's ambassador, Williamson explained, Chastity, who has Cerebral Palsy, will make public appearances during the Easter Seals campaign. Chastity's appearances so far have taken her out to stuff envelopes with the young offenders who were helping with the Brant County Easter Seals mail-out, and meetings of the Rotary Club of Brantford, the service organization which co-ordinates the Easter Seals campaign in Brant County. She also attended a sledge hockey tournament at the arena in Ohsweken.

The role of Easter Seals ambassador is one the Grade 5 student sought out, according to Williamson.

"She asked if she could be this year's Tammy. That's the kind of girl she is, so it's something she wanted to do," he said.

According to Williamson, Chastity attends the Landsdowne Centre for Physically Challenged Children in Brantford a couple of days a week, but goes to school at Oliver M. Smith school at Six Nations.

"She's pretty active in her community," Williamson said. She has won the wheelchair division of the annual Rotary Club half-marathon race for the past three or four years. Williamson said Chastity also plays sledge hockey and t-ball, and loves to swim.

"She's an all-around neat little person. I like her a lot," Williamson said.

Chastity's mother, Brenda Green, summed up her feelings about her daughter's selection as this year's Easter Seals ambassador in one word - pride.

"I was really proud . . . she really wants to get involved in the community. She wants the community aware of special needs children. She's a really good kid," Green said.

Becoming the Easter Seals ambassador was just one of the many things Chastity has set her sights on, then set out to accomplish.

Green explained how Chastity's selection as this year's ambassador came about.

"We were always getting information on it in the mail, and she had said that she would like to be the Easter Seals Tammy, and I said, 'all right, I'll ask around, I'll ask questions.' And then a flyer came in the mail, so I asked them at Landsdowne Children's Centre, and they said they would put her name in. And when they came to Landsdowne and asked them, they said, 'well, we have the perfect person. We have someone who already wants to do it,'" Green said.

Chastity has already done much work to pave the way for herself, and for other children who are disabled.

"She opened up the cross country meet at the school," Green said. "She asked me if she could join the cross-country team, and I said 'I don't know. We'll have to ask.' So we asked different people and they just kept saying, 'I don't know. I don't know. We'll have to ask somebody else,' and then finally, one day they came to her and said 'Yes, you can join.' And then they decided to ask the other kids in the other schools if they would like to have a little competition. . . I thought that was just great, because I think the other kids enjoyed it too," Green said.

"That's the kind of feeling that I have. If she wants to do it, then she can. Just go right ahead," she added.

Among her other accomplishments, Chastity was also chosen as Miss Mini Six Nations for 1998 to 1999.

The Easter Seals Campaign for Brant County began in Brantford on Feb. 18 and will wrap up in June. Williamson said the goal for this year's campaign is to raise $55,000 for the county.

For information about donating to Easter Seals, call 1-800-668-6252.