The Yorkton Regional High School will host the Canadian Student Leadership Conference (CLSC) in 2020, bringing it back to the place where it began back in 1985. But the school isn’t doing it alone, it’s going to be a community effort, and they recently announced the first Premier sponsors for next fall’s event.
Two sponsors have been announced as part of the category. One is the Good Spirit School Division, which is donating $44,000 in order to handle all of the transportation needs during the week-long event. Board chair Lois Smandych said that student transportation is naturally a major component of a school division’s job, so they’re the experts at getting these students around the city.
“On average, we have 106 routes for our school division and we travel 22,000 kms every day. We have a pretty good handle our transportation and I think that will play well in getting all of these kids around.”
While centered around YRHS, they consider it a Good Spirit School Division event, and schools across the division will be sending students to the conference over the week. Smandych is proud that the conference is at YRHS for a third time.
The second sponsor is the Yorkton Kinsmen, which is providing $20,000 for the event. The Kinsmen have also been sponsors of the other two CSLC conferences hosted in the city. President Mike Wilson said that their decision to sponsor the conference is really about the future.
“You never know who is going to be at this conference. There could be a future Prime Minister, there could be another mayor of a town, you never know. We want to make sure that the future leaders of our country are going to be well-trained, well-groomed and ready to go.”
Now the school is preparing for the event itself, getting the final details ready. Kids from both YRHS and other schools in the region were designated as spirit leaders, and will be going to the CSLC conferences in the lead-up to the conference. Johnna McBride, vice-principal of YRHS, said that beyond 15 students who are spirit leaders, more students from nearby school can attend, while they might not otherwise have the budget to attend a CSLC in a city further away.
McBride said their goal is to have a conference like no other, and sponsorships like the one announced help them achieve that goal, whether that means booking bigger name entertainment and create different events for the students attending.
Four keynote speakers have been announced for the event said SRC advisor Roby Sharpe. Returning from the first conference is Mark Scharenbroich, who Sharpe said doesn’t talk to high schools as much any more, but is coming back as a favor to the school. Olympic medalist Mellisa Hollingsworth. CFL player J.R. LaRose has also been announced, and Sharpe expects he will bring a different message to the students. Alvin Law is the fourth speaker, and as a local boy they’re happy to have him return to the school.
“It will be a world-class event when you have speakers like that,” Sharpe said.
