Classroom Champions at several local schools recently received a visit from Michelle Salt, two-time Paralympian, World Cup silver medalist and national champion, including Queen Elizabeth School in Weyburn. The Classroom Champions program pairs teachers with Canadian and U.S. Olympians and Paralympians who use video lessons and live video chats to engage students and encourage them to recognize their potential, set goals and to dream big.
“When I think about the Classroom Champions and being a mentor to this program, I look back to when I was a child and don’t remember being able to access something like this and I wish we did,” explained Salt. “Through Classroom Champions you are able to really teach the students about resilience and teamwork, healthy living, and how important the community is. And a lot of these lessons come through from our own personal experience, as mentors.”
“Classroom Champions was such an incredible program for me too. It is not always easy to compete at the Paralympic Games and to come in fourth, a place short. But these Classroom Champions were really supportive of me, and were such positive cheerleaders,” said Salt.
“I think that all that our Classroom Champions did a really great job of showing their support through Google Classroom and through their teachers,” added Salt. “As a program, all the classrooms that I had the opportunity to mentor, did a really good job of supporting me going into, and during the Paralympic Games.”
Aiden Aaslind-Quist and Jeremy Symes were two of the Classroom Champions at Queen Elizabeth School who had a chance to meet with Salt during a community celebration held on Thursday.
“We got to learn about different topics, such as healthy living, courage and perseverance,” said Aaslind-Quist. “Perseverance was actually a word that I didn’t know what it meant before, so I was really interested in that.”
“One of the things that we were asked to do was a class project to raise donations for different groups. My group raised money for the STARS ambulance, and we learned that Michelle was rescued by STARS after her accident,” said Symes.
“We did a local and international fundraising, so for the international one we went over to the track and did a ‘Walk for Water’, to give someone in Africa fresh water for life,” explained Aaslind-Quist. His group of students raised money for the Weyburn and District Hospital Foundation for the local fundraising.
“During the Classroom Champions program, we were challenged to do something every month, such as writing a paragraph of when you showed courage,” added Aaslind-Quist.
Crescent Point Energy sponsors the Classroom Champions program, and helps support visits from the Paralympic and Olympic athletes into local schools.
