Earlier this month, Larissa Einarson of R.D. Parker Collegiate was the only northerner to receive the 2017 Premier’s Healthy Living Award for Youth, a $500 prize that is given out to a small group of Manitoba high school seniors every year or so.
According to Premier Brian Pallister, in a letter that was read aloud during a June 27 school board meeting, “This prestigious award is presented to outstanding Grade 12 students from across our province that have demonstrated exceptional contributions to their school and community in one or more areas of healthy living.”
Einarson’s journey down the path of promoting healthy living began during her first year of high school when she joined Hands, Hearts, Hope (H3), a social justice group that is dedicated to a number of local and global initiatives.
Outside of pulling off feats such as gathering 7,000 pounds of food for the local food bank or collecting clothes for the homeless, Einarson has also raised thousands of dollars to help build schools and wells in places such as Ghana, Sierra Leone and Haiti.
Einarson is also a public advocate for mental health through the group Students Offering Support (SOS). Last year, she mentored over 100 elementary school students on topics such as positive lifestyles and drug prevention, a move that she hopes will make their transition into high school a little less intimidating.
“I know when I was in Grade 9 I was scared of the Grade 12s. I thought they looked down on us,” said Einarson. “So I thought it would be nice to show that we’re here for them, we’ve been through it before, and that we know what they’re going through.”
In an email to the Thompson Citizen, Teresa Jenkins, who is a teaching advisor for H3, wrote that Einarson’s work took on a whole new meaning for the school in the wake of recent events like the death of Grade 9 student Dylan Cripps.
“This year we have had many tragedies in our school, and her group, SOS, offered support to those students who may be affected by these tragedies.”
In terms of what she plans to do with this $500 bursary, Einarson wants to put that money towards her post-secondary education, since she plans on pursuing a degree in either criminology or psychology at the University of Manitoba.
While transitioning into university life is difficult for many high school graduates, Jenkins believes that Einarson’s experiences with these different initiatives will allow her to thrive and potentially even take on a new mentor role in this post-secondary environment.
“She has been an integral part of (H3’s) success for many years and has grown into an excellent leader and champion of human rights, mental health education, safety and injury prevention,” wrote Jenkins. “Throughout the time I have known her, she has continually demonstrated that she is a positive community leader with amazing potential.”
