High-school and college students share ideas about reaching ill, elderly, homeless, and disabled

The B.C. Catholic



One hundred high-school and college students gathered at Corpus Christi College to discuss dignity and social justice Feb. 24.

They covered a vast range of topics, from reaching out to the disadvantaged locally and abroad to accepting oneself.

“Today’s symposium takes place during Lent and allows us to explore the need for hope in a world challenged by competing desires and values, despair, homelessness, infirmity, and age,” said Corpus Christi College president Peter Meehan during his welcome address.

The symposium, in its ninth year, was held on campus and featured a keynote speech by Kristi Blakeway, as well as presentations from up-and-coming social justice activists.

“We wanted to help people who were homeless,” began Blakeway, the principal of Harry Hooge Elementary School in Maple Ridge and founder of Project Helping Everyone Locate Loved Ones (HELLO).

In 2009 she planned a field trip to take students and loads of food and clothing to the Downtown Eastside. Then, days before the trip, they found a long list of charities that served food to the homeless and drug addicted there.

They changed their plans, instead creating handmade Christmas cards and giving them away blank, for people living on the streets to give to others.

“One of the first questions we got from people was can you send them to my family?”

This launched an initiative that is going strong seven years later. Blakeway has young students create blank cards for Christmas and Mothers’ Day, and takes teenage students to the streets, where they offer to fill out the cards and mail them on behalf of the people who live there.

HELLO has connected about 550 homeless people with their loved ones through cards, phone calls, and even face-to-face meetings.

“They need food and shelter, but they also need to be loved,” Blakeway said.

Corpus Christi College students shared their ideas and social-justice initiatives as well. In one classroom, Jasmin Bermejo talked about lessons learned from volunteering at a seniors’ home.

“I started out thinking of the elders as merely weak, disabled, lonely, and needy people,” she said. “They need help eating. They need help bathing. They need help flipping the pages when we’re singing a song.”

Her perception completely changed when she began spending more time with the residents. Bermejo, an artist, revealed drawings of three seniors she had befriended, including Verna, who has dementia.

“The fact that she doesn’t remember me and the fact that all these things are happening to her doesn’t change the fact that she is still beautiful and she is as radiant as that colour I put on her face.”

Student Lise Johnston talked about the value of human life in the context of assisted suicide and euthanasia.

“Dignity is an intrinsic quality of all humans, regardless of functional status. It is not something that can be lost when health fades,” she said. She urged the students from Catholic and public high schools to write to their MPs.

Down the hall, Katherine Figueiredo talked about initiatives for underprivileged children in the Northwest Territories and in New York City. Down another hall, students including Isabella Bonato and Mikey Jose urged their peers to nurture positive self-esteem and refuse to have their own dignity undermined.

“Don’t ever sacrifice your gifts and talents,” urged Jose, a musician.

Organizer Alexandra Fung said the annual event “celebrates the college’s commitment to social justice” and “the formation of emerging leaders.”