Local student named Easter Seals ambassador

Danielle MacLeod and her daughter, Keirra MacLeod at physiotherapy on Thursday, March 3. Photo by Nikolai Karpinski

By Nikolai Karpinski

BELLEVILLE — A 12-year-old student at St. Paul Secondary School in Trenton will be raising awareness throughout Ontario for students living with disabilities.

Keirra MacLeod was chosen as the 2016 Provincial Easter Seals Ambassador on Thursday, Feb. 18.

This means she will be representing the charity organization Easter Seals in schools and communities across the province.

Easter Seals Ontario provides programs and services to children with physical disabilities across Ontario. It offers financial assistance for things like: expensive mobility assistance equipment and helping to send youth involved with the organization to camp.

MacLeod was nominated after many performances at Easter Seals charity events. She sang a song she wrote when she was six. The song is called Limited Edition Me.

MacLeod says she looks forward to giving back to Easter Seals, “I feel like being a provincial ambassador and helping raise money is giving back to them.”

The charity has helped Keirra by sending her to their summer camp for disabled children called Merrywood Camp in Perth, Ont. They also provided her family with a wheelchair accessible van.

While attending summer camp, MacLeod turned her fear of swimming into a passion. Her mother, Danielle MacLeod says “her nickname at summer camp was ‘Nemo’.”