Since 1977, the YMCA/YWCA of Winnipeg has handed out the Women of Distinction Awards at a gala in May. This year’s gala, held at the RBC Convention Centre, honoured a Grade 12 student from Niverville, Abigail Olfert, with the Prairie Promise Award.
NCI’s guidance counsellor Deanna Wiebe, along with teacher Danielle Cadieux, nominated Olfert for the award.
“For the past five years, Ms. Cadieux and I have nominated a young woman in our school who is exceptional,” says Wiebe. “We attend the awards ceremony with our nominee and her parents each year if we can.”
Olfert is highly involved in school activities and her community at large. She was the editor of the yearbook, a lead in the senior high drama this spring, plays in numerous school bands, including senior jazz and a handbell choir, and also volunteered for a year at This Little Light Artistry, where she is currently employed as an art teacher.
Art has always been important to Olfert. “To me, art is freedom and shelter,” Olfert says. “It’s a way to remember, a passage of expression, and a voice to speak when your mouth can’t.”
This is the attitude she brings to her paintings, and also her students.
“This year, because of her strength as a leader and a student advocate, Abby was chosen to represent our school on the Superintendent’s Student Voice committee,” says Wiebe. “[The committee] meets with the superintendents and other student leaders in the Hanover School Division. She was also recently selected to attend our school division’s conference ‘Hunger No More’ to learn how to tackle food insecurity in our communities.”
The Prairie Promise Award had three nominations in total.
“I was so lucky to get the chance to meet and talk with both of [the other nominees],” Olfert says, “and I will just say that they are incredible young women doing amazing things, and they both deserved an award.”
The award came with a $2,000 scholarship towards post-secondary education. Olfert plans to attend the spring session at Capernwray Hall Bible School in England next year. Afterwards, she adds, she would like to attend university back in Manitoba, but she’s unsure which field she’d like to pursue.
For young people looking to make an impact in the world, Olfert offers her two cents. “In our world today, we can so easily be disheartened by the conflict and tragedies we hear of on the news. It makes us feel small and helpless… and [this] is what I would say for all people: find something that you are passionate about, something that draws at your heartstrings, and work for that cause doing little things every day, because in time you will see that the little things add up.”
