The Orléans Star is proud to announce the recipients of this year’s Orléans Outstanding Youth Awards.

The youngest recipient is just five years old and the oldest is 18. The list includes a gifted pianist, an environmental activist, a recipient of the Bernard Grandmaître Youth Laureate Award, and a record breaking ringette player.

The Orléans Outstanding Youth Awards were first launched in 2005 as a way to recognizåe the many accomplishments and selfless endeavours undertaken by young people in Orléans and the surrounding area.

They were suspended in 2016 for logistical reasons and are being reinstated after a four-year hiatus.

The awards are open to anyone 18 and under as of Sept. 1. They are unique in that there are no specific categories, instead individuals can be nominated for their achievements in a given area in a combination of areas. For instance, they may be doing well academically while engaging in other pursuits such as volunteering, environmentalism or music.

The Orléans Star received 36 nominations in total. Each submission was individually vetted by a panel of six judges who were each asked to select their top 10 candidates. The lists were then collated and the 20 nominees with the most judges’ selections were chosen to receive the award.

This year’s judges were retired Citizenship Court judge and children’s entertainer Suzanne Pinel, city councillors Matt Luloff and Laura Dudas, former French public school board principal Pierre Campeau, Orléans MP Marie-France Lalonde and Orléans Bengals president Qasim Khan.

This year’s recipients are...
- Breanna Sirois
- Jenna Lemay
- Yasmine Zemni
- Maya Howard
- Ava Butts
- Brooke Colman
- Adriana Suuronen
- Anita Suthakaran
- Mashkura Tabassum Tathoye
- Alice Yang
- Arden Beanblossom
- Karson Hulbert
- William Janus
- Caelan Monkman
- Kyle Leonard
- Sabia Irfan
- Adan Rizwan
- Sydney O’Donnell
- Bryson Moore and Owen Redmond

Jenna Lemay was the only nominee to be selected by all six judges. Five other recip-
ients received five votes – Yasmine Zemni, Arden Beanblossom, Kyle Leonard, Anita Suuronen and Mashkura Tabassum Tathoye.

Because of the ongoing pandemic, there will be no formal award ceremony this year. As a result, each recipient will receive their trophy along with several copies of the com-memorative program by special delivery.

The Orléans Outstanding Youth Awards would not have been made possible without the generous support of presenting sponsors Collège La Cité, Collége Boréal; Université St. Paul and gold level sponsors Marie-France Lalonde and Orléans MPP Stephen Blais; and more than a dozen individual award sponsors.