Mia Elisha spent much of a recent Saturday baking cupcakes with her mom.
Some were ube, or purple yam, and some were orange creamsicle — 48 in all as her contribution to her group’s bake sale at the Bradford West Gwillimbury Public Library.
“We do a lot of service projects, giving back to the community,” explains the 12-year-old, Grade 6 student.
Mia is part of Bradford’s Junior Youth Spiritual Empowerment Program which, in its latest effort, set out to raise money for Toronto’s Hospital for Sick Children through a bake sale at the library. The global program aimed at kids 10 to 14 is meant to inspire the youth to make positive contributions to their community through a variety of initiatives.
Local facilitator Noora Akhavan says that it aims to provide the youth with a ”profound understanding of their own potential” by helping them to develop their comprehension and critical thinking, among other goals, allowing them to consider circumstances and how they might respond before they actually encounter them.
“It’s sponsored by the Bahá'í community, but it’s not a religious group … it’s a global movement basically getting to try to get the kids to make good decisions,” do good for the community, have fun and build bonds through friendships, says the Bradford family and criminal lawyer.
“They learn to make positive decisions in their lives and navigate the world.”
The members of the group meet every week and decide, together, on the activities — the current group has focused more on visual arts, while others might choose sports, music or drama.
Together, with their peers, they also learn to deal with different situations through the help of a workbook.
And they also give back to the community by choosing their own service projects.
Their first one occurred shortly after they began meeting weekly in November. It involved reaching out to merchants in the community create care packages, which included positive notes from the kids. They then presented the packages to the director of the local food bank, who gave them a tour of the facility.
Their second project centred around the creation of a children’s festival at the library which included a number of stations, each managed by a different group member. The activities included a bean bag toss, button making and woodworking, attracting about 100 participating children.
Grade 7 Fieldcrest Elementary School student Raunak Shahanad and another group member ran an egg-and-spoon race, although they used a less messy ball instead of an egg. The main attraction of the group, says the 12-year-old Bradford boy, is having fun. He’s also been making new friends.
But he says he’s been picking up skills along the way, some of which he figures will come in handy in the future.
“It gave me confidence to speak to a public audience, like what I’m doing right now,” he said during a recent interview.
The workbook, he says, contains stories with life lessons and focuses on friendship, honesty and team work.
The group’s latest service project was the April bake sale which netted $943 for Sick Kids hospital, $200 of which was a donation by BMS Karate and Sensei Louis Rossi.
“Its really a space for young people to have time together,” explains Akhavan.
