As the Youth in Philanthropy group of Balmoral Hall School, we are proud of being able to participate in the process of working in a team and with local charitable organizations. We are self-motivated YiPpers who have come together to make a difference in our community.
Maya Angelou said: “When you learn, teach, when you get, give.” It is the same with us: we are a group of young ladies who are passionate about exploring the amazing work people have done in their charitable organizations and to make wise decisions on allocating the grant money The Winnipeg Foundation has generously offered to us.
From the beginning of the year we have worked extremely hard by meeting new people from different grades and connecting ourselves through trust and care.
We lose our members as they graduate each year, and last year, grade 12s were almost one third of the group.
However, this year we recruited new members from grades 9, 10 and 11. It is truly inspiring to see how people are willing to help when there is a need.
Many of our members were part of YiP last year as well. Some of them came back for the experience of visiting organizations of all kinds, and some came back to lead the group due to their past experience with YiP.
This year, YiPpers are made of four value groups. They are Women and Children value group, Poverty value group, Animal value group and Health and Disability value group.
We meet every Day 4 (in an 8-day cycle) and work quietly and efficiently when we are researching the organization. Despite taking notes during the interview, we improved our efficiency during the meeting by doing research on the charitable organizations on the list before hand. We created a new questionnaire, adding the pre-research part to it.
There’s nothing we can’t do as a team, there’s nothing we can’t solve as a team. We are the generation that is going to make a difference in the world by being actively involved in helping our community.
We’re grateful The Winnipeg Foundation has offered us grants every year to make all of this happen. We are proud of being YiPpers and we hope to continue giving back to our community in various ways.