Meredith Bragg
What YAC were you involved with and for what period of time were you a member?
I was a board member of the Calgary Youth Foundation (CYF) from December 1999 to June 2003.
How old were you then and how old are you now?
I was 12 – 16 while with CYF, and I’m 19 now.
What is your favourite YAC memory?
It would be a tie between working on our fundraiser for our mini peace grants, The Rock for Peace CD, and meeting the other YIPers at Community Foundations of Canada's conferences in Ottawa and Kelowna.
What was your favourite grant?
There are too many, but two that stick out in my mind are an anti-bullying program at an elementary school and a forum-theatre project for street youth on safe sex.
What are you doing now?
I’m in my first year at the University of British Columbia, studying International Development Studies and African Studies. I’m also volunteering with the Social Justice Centre and International Peer Connection – a group setting up a peer education program in the Downtown Eastside about HIV/AIDS.
How has your involvement in youth philanthropy influenced your life today?
It has given me skills that are invaluable in all volunteer work I’ve done since – from knowing how to conduct meetings, to organizational skills, and how to evaluate projects. It was [also] my first major volunteer commitment, and essentially introduced me to the idea of grassroots development, a philosophy that I will always carry with me.
What else would you like to tell people who are reading this?
Favorite quote (cheesy, but): "The plain fact is that the planet does not need more successful people. But it does desperately need more peacemakers, healers, restorers, storytellers, and lovers of every kind. It needs people who live well in their places. It needs people of moral courage willing to join the fight to make the world habitable and humane. And these qualities have little to do with success as we have defined it." - David Orr
My favourite things in the world are chocolate ice cream, the ocean, licorice spice tea, 80s dance music, and the western fjords of Norway, where I spent the past two years.
March 2006
