The Duke of Edinburgh’s Award “Young Canadians’ Challenge” is an exciting, self-development Program available to all young people, equipping them with life skills to make a difference to themselves, their communities and their country. Brought to Canada in 1963, the Award program is open to all young Canadians between the ages of 14 - 25.

There are three levels of the Award in which you can participate - Bronze, Silver and Gold. To gain an award, four sections must be tackled in a specific period of time.

The four sections are Service, Adventurous Journey, Skills and Physical Recreation.

Norwood High School has students enrolled in the program who are at the “Skills” level of the award. John was approached to help them build a boat.

The first year we participated, John suggested a restoration project - restoring a cedar strip boat, which is very labour intensive, and could lend itself to many hands involved at once. John Petrosoniak and Mary Jane Dundas generously offered to donate their 1950’s cedar strip to the cause. After completion, it was sold at a fair market value.

The next year that John was involved, the students built a cedar strip canoe from start to finish. The finished canoe was then raffled off, and  the proceeds went back into funding the program.