Autistic wins Trent University Community Leadership Award

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Trio receive Trent University Community Leadership Awards

Friends of Kinark founder, Norwood high school history teacher, student with autism honoured

Posted By ELIZABETH BOWER/Examiner Staff Writer
Updated 2 hours ago

Lewis Schofield didn't go to school Monday morning so he'd have enough energy to attend a ceremony to accept a leadership award.

The 14-year-old Peterborough boy gets tired out quickly because he has a rare and complex form of muscular dystrophy called myasthenia gravis.

The disease also makes his eyelids droop and slurs his speech.

But nothing could hold him back from attending Monday's Trent University Community Leadership Awards ceremony, held at Peter Gzowski College.

Schofield, a Holy Cross Secondary School student, was honoured in the youth leadership category for educating people through blogs, artwork, videos and podcasts about his complex health issues, which include autism. He has said he wants to give others "hope through knowledge."

"Lewis, I think you embody the spirit of Trent — you're mighty, tenacious and very creative," said Su Ditta, a selection committee member, in front of a crowd of about 60 people.

The other award winners were Goodith Heeney, a long-time community volunteer and founder of Hospice Peterborough, and Norman Vandenberg, a history teacher at Norwood District Secondary School.

The awards are handed out every other year and the winners have a Trent bursary created in their name.

Heeney has founded and developed programs across Peterborough to help people in need. She's the founding chairwoman for Friends of Kinark, which supports programs at the children's mental health agency, and is a community advisor for the YWCA Crossroads Safe Haven Campaign.

Heeney is also a founding member of the board of the community Hospice Association of Peterborough. She says one of her most exciting current ventures is helping organize a free community lunch every Saturday at St. John's Anglican Church.

"To be nominated and receive this award is very touching," she told the crowd.

Meanwhile, Norman Vandenberg, known as the "living history teacher," won for leadership through education.

Twice nominated for a Governor General's Award, in 2002 and 2003, Vandenberg created the re-enactment programs of the American Civil War and the War of 1812, which have operated on alternating school years since 1991.

Each year under his leadership, the ancient-history class puts together either a Roman banquet or a medieval feast complete with costumes, props and music.

Other annual re-enactments include the trial of Joan of Arc and the Salem witch trials.

"I want students to appreciate there's real drama in history….. And something like the re-enactment does that," he said yesterday.

He said he felt guilty for accepting the award because the whole community helps stage the re-enactments.