Non-profit gives Cameron Pennell unique educational experience
The Rotary Club of Selkirk is well known for its generosity in our community. Though they may be more recognized for their bigger donations like the Echocardiogram donation to the Selkirk Hospital or their community donations like the Peace Poles which now make their home in our region, they also are involved in our community in smaller but still very important ways. Local Comp student Cameron Pennell recently was able to take part in Adventures in Agriculture, a program where he attended an agriculture conference in Regina and brought back knowledge as well as an appreciation for the efforts of our local Rotarians.
“Adventures in Agriculture started probably around 25 years ago and outside of maybe the four years when COVID was on and there was no program offered, we’ve taken part and sent a student from the high school every year to Regina to take part in this program. We provide the airfare and the registration for it, and then the Rotary Club in Regina takes over,” said Jean Oliver, Rotarian.
The Rotary Club works with the Comp. staff to find students who are interested in Agriculture and who could benefit from an experience like this and this year they chose Pennell as the student who would receive this opportunity.
He says that he was very grateful to find out that he was chosen for this grant.
“This was so unexpected, but, like, super exciting,” he said, “I’ve never really travelled without my parents, and to go for farming, which I love, to learn more about that was nice.
This experience was even more useful to him because it will be beneficial for this upcoming post-secondary education.
“I’m going to college next year in Olds, Alberta for agriculture. So, I wanted to get a better idea of what I want to go do with agriculture,” said Pennell.
The Adventures in Agriculture program was just the right fit as it taught students more about agriculture and all the different parts of the agriculture business from financing, to production, farming livestock, and the many different pathways that someone specializing in the field can venture in, they had it covered.
Though Pennell doesn’t live on a farm, he does work on his family’s farm with his dad and has learned about their grain farming, peat, and sod operation so far. He says the biggest thing that he learned from the conference was the many directions that he could choose from.
“I knew there was a lot to do with farming, but yeah, it just showed more the different opportunities and a little bit behind the doors,” he said.
He also spoke about learning about the more scientific aspect of farming.
Another great benefit to him was that, though it was a smaller group because it was the first year back since the COVID-19 pandemic, he had 13 other students who attended with him, some of whom are going to be attending his same post-secondary production major and culture management program next September, so he has already made some great connections for the future.
Pennell wanted to thank the Selkirk Rotary Club for this experience as well as the Rotary Club in Regina who organized the event as well as the host family who he stayed with in Regina acknowledging the effort of many people to make it so that he could take part in this event.
He also suggests that future students look for opportunities like this in our community. You don’t even have to be involved with agriculture to take part as the Selkirk Rotary Club has a few options for students.
“There’s another one called Adventures in Citizenship, where we send a student to Ottawa for five days to see how the Canadian government operates and all of the different venues that are available in Ottawa. We’ve done another one in Saskatoon called Adventures in Technology. Saskatoon, they’re on the cutting edge, in technology, and have been for years and so kids that are interested in that we’ve been able to send them. And then, in the summertime, we have another program called Rotary Youth Leadership, and it’s offered to a junior high kid and also a high school student, and they go up to Clear Lake for a week and learn all about leadership, and then we hope, when they come back, that they take part in their school leadership program. Those are just a few of the things that we do for kids, and that’s why you always hear about Rotary raising money, because all of our money goes back into the community, and kids are a big part of what we believe in,” said Oliver.
She encourages residents who might want to join a non-profit that’s doing good for our community to check out the Selkirk Rotary Club.
“We are always open to new members, whether they’re young or old,” said Oliver.
Also, keep your eyes open for upcoming Selkirk Rotary Club events including their Rib-a-polooza which will be an affordable dinner out in February. The best way to keep informed about Selkirk Rotary Club events is at www.facebook.com.
