Every year, kids from all over Canada are invited to write poems and essays for the Meaning of Home contest. Kids who write the best entries get a grant that goes directly to the Habitat for Humanity where they live. This year, Alexandra, who is in grade 4, won a $10,000 grant for the charity in northern Vancouver Island.
There were more than 12,000 entries in the competition this year. Alexandra’s entry was among the top four in her grade.
Cady Corman, Habitat VIN’s director of communications, told the Campbell River Mirror that she’s grateful to everyone who helped make the contest so successful, and for Alexandra’s winning essay.
“Every year we’re inspired by the submissions we get… This grant will have a life-changing impact on local families.”
Alexandra also won a Samsung tablet as part of the prize, but she decided others needed it more.
“Alexandra and her classmates were quite devastated to hear about the news that came out of Kamloops,” said Corman. “She is donating the tablet she won through this contest to the Indigenous Education Program at her school.”
Here is Alexandra’s essay:
The Feelings of Home
by Alexandra
To me, home is not a place, but a feeling. Home is about love, connection and belonging. Home is about being understood and accepted for being your authentic self.
Home is about comfort and security.
Home can’t be contained in four walls because home is much broader than that. Home is something greater than ourselves and our immediate families. Home is about my community, my province, my country, and my world.
Home is striving to make a positive difference in the lives of the people with whom we are all connected. Home is collectively working together to make the world a better place.
My home has never been the same. My home constantly changes.
But the feelings of home remain the same. Home is the people I meet and the different cultures I experience. Home is the community that embraces me and where I embrace others. Home is the place that I give and make certain sacrifices such as having my dad deploy so that others may have the same feelings that I do: that they are worthy of love, connection, freedom, peace and security. They are worthy of the feelings of home.
