submitted photo Rachel Guergis is lucky to have a happy home life with her family, but she knows not all teens in Barrie are
that fortunate. That’s why the Barrie student has developed a greater respect for one local organization, Youth Haven, that reaches out to young people who can’t cope with family struggles. “It connects to us (students) because the organization takes in youth who are troubled,” said Guergis, a Grade 10 student at Innisdale Secondary School. “It’s nice to know that there’s a local group that cares about people my age and will help keep them safe.” Youth Haven was the charity of choice for Guergis and schoolmates Morgan Miller and Amanda Franklin for their civics course project last semester. The group was one of three team finalists at the school to participate in a national project known as the Youth and Philanthropy Initiative. This is the high school’s third year participating in the project. The teams were chosen to compete in the schoolwide competition yesterday at Innisdale, and Guergis’ group was the winning team who won $5,000 for their charity. Charities picked for this year’s event included Youth Haven, Athena’s Sexual Assault Counselling and Advocacy Centre and Barrie Out of the Cold.
“It was really exciting to have won that money for Youth Haven,” Guergis said after the competition. “It was really rewarding for us, because we were so compassionate towards that organization.”