Photo Courtesy EverythingGP Staff

By Tanner Smith

Community

Alberta 2022 Great Kids Award goes to Grande Prairie teen

Aug 17, 2022 | 4:43 PM

A 2022 Great Kids Award was presented by MLA for Grande Prairie – Wapiti Travis Toews to 18-year-old Erin Pelé for her commitment to the community and her wanting to “live her best life.”

The awards are given to young Albertans who have given back a lot to their community and inspires others to do the same, all while overcoming a wide range of obstacles.

For Erin, her obstacle was a leukemia diagnosis when she was just 14-years-old. She ended up missing forty per cent of that school year, but was still able to hold a 91 per cent academic average.

She volunteered with the Kids with Cancer Foundation, The Stollery Hospital, the Terry Fox Run, supported the sports teams she played for, and was a member of her school’s Maverick Movement Club for social justice projects throughout her time with leukemia.

She did all this while still attending school and visiting other schools to tell her story and share hope with people from all across the Peace Region.

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Erin said she gives so much back to the community because of what they have done for her and wants to keep the cycle going.

“When I was diagnosed, I really saw the power that a community holds in someone’s life and I just really wanted to give back, like how people gave to me.”

“I hope they (residents of the Peace Region) would be proud of me (for winning the 2022 Great Kids Award) and I hope it gives them the pride to continue doing this for other people, in hopes that it gives people like me faith that you can do great things like I have done.”

Erin wants to continue helping people in the Peace Region and is now enrolled to start this fall at University of Alberta for Education and Sciences. She plans on using her degrees to make the lives of others better.

Jeanette Pelé; Erin’s mom says “Erin is who she is, not only cause of our teachings (as parents) but because of the larger community that has supported her and everyone from mentors to coaches to teachers… have shaped who she is. So all of them that have a little bit of themselves in her life, this is their award as well.”

Jeanette added all those people have shown her daughter how to be a good person and why giving back matters.

She is also thankful for all the community members that helped the rest of her family when she and Erin were away.

“The larger Peace Country community and Grande Prairie area have been an amazing support to us. When we spent three months in Edmonton when she was first diagnosed and left our two sons behind who were in Grade 12 and the other who had just graduated not long before that, the community stepped up provided meals and supported our boys.”

She added the community made her believe the saying “it takes a village to raise a child.”

Erin looks forward to starting in the fall at the U of A and begin her next chapter of life by helping others, using her compassion and competitiveness to coach volleyball.

Photo Courtesy EverythingGP Staff