Vernon teen receives second annual Junior Good Citizen Award

A 15-year-old student received the second annual Vernon Junior Good Citizen award from the North Okanagan Optimist Club on Wednesday.

The award is given to a youth between the ages of eight and 18 who stands out, is dedicated to changing their community for the better and who leaves an impact on the world around them and this year Ash Burdett is the recipient. They will be given $300 to donate to a charity of their choosing.

The Optimist Club received the nomination from Burdett’s Awaken Education teacher Robert Buchanan.

“We had multiple nominations and they all blew our socks off. There are great kids in Vernon doing all kinds of things,” Kathleen Dubois with the North Okanagan Optimist Club said.

“There would have easily been other kids we could have picked just based on the incredible activity in the city, but for this year, Ash is definitely our person. We just think they’re the perfect role model for what the Optimist Club wants to help bring to town.”

Burdett has collaborated with the Vernon Family Resource Centre to help kickstart The Binder Exchange project, a project that helps youth lacking resources and materials to navigate their gender identity.

“I never thought I’d be able to do something like that,” Burdett told iNFOnews.ca. “I’ve always had a passion for helping people and I know for myself I am a really privileged person.

“I’m non-binary and I consider myself under the trans umbrella. As a trans person, I consider myself really fortunate for my circumstances, my accepting family. I have access to all the gender gear I need. I know some people are not as fortunate as I am and I know how detrimental gender dysphoria is for people who are trans and so I wanted to help people in that way.”

The Family Resource Centre received additional funding to continue the project after Burdett and their classmate created it.

Burdett has read personal works of poetry at the Transgender Day of Remembrance held at the Ritual Barbershop in Vernon. The poem recounts their coming out story, which Burdett publicly read as a way to show allyship to other queer members of the community.

Throughout the last year, Burdett has also participated in a class project under a Truth and Reconciliation theme. Burdett created a written and visual art piece examining the effect residential schools had on LGBTQ2S+ people.

“We want to notice and celebrate the great things kids in our community are doing and adding to our community as a whole. It makes us so happy to know that there are future generations of true optimists growing up and contributing to this city,” Duboise with the Optimist Club said.

Burdett credits most of their push toward community involvement to Awaken Education, an outdoor, community schooling system in Vernon. Burdett says the program pushes them to get out of their comfort zone, meet new people and stay active in community happenings.

Their mom, Carla Burdett, said Ash is too humble.

“They are just authentically themselves and always true to themselves and I think people just recognize that it’s really difficult for people to be themselves a lot of the time, and so it makes other people feel good. I think that’s where a lot of Ash’s impact comes from,” Carla said.