Rotary Great Student Awards

The Rotary Club's motto is "Service Above Self". The Rotary Club of North Bay instills this philosophy of unselfish volunteer service in both its members and the community at large through the implementation and promotion of various projects.

The Club wants to ensure the youth of North Bay become aware of the benefits of volunteerism. Although we promote youth leadership through International Youth exchanges, we have not specifically promoted the values inherent in our motto with the youth of North Bay.

As part of our promotion of volunteerism, each year the club honours a grade ten or eleven student from each secondary school in North Bay that best exemplifies "Service Above Self".

To accomplish this goal, we rely on the staff and students in selecting the appropriate student from their school. The simple selection process is based on warmth and caring exhibited by a student towards peers or other members of our society such as seniors, disabled or the disadvantaged. The selected student is not necessarily highly academic, active in sports, or popular in the peer group.
 
The call for nominations is sent out in the fall, with the students being awarded at a club meeting in February.
 
2026 Award Recipients

(left to right) Abigail Harris - F.J. McElligott Secondary School, Adelle Moon - École secondaire catholique Élisabeth-Bruyère, Anne Parkin - West Ferris Secondary School, Blake Daigle - Laurentian Learning Center, Corbin Reed - École secondaire publique Odyssée, Emmie Johnston - Almaguin Highlands Secondary School, Eve Beaudry - École secondaire catholique Algonquin, Jacie Martel - Nbissing Secondary School, Jacob Bigras - École secondaire Nipissing Ouest, Kloey Ayotte - École secondaire catholique Franco-Cité, Mataya Cronier - Northern Secondary School, and Maverick Paul - Chippewa Secondary School. Missing Noah Green - St. Joseph-Scollard Hall. STUDENT BIOS

2025 Award Recipients

(left to right) Connor Chémery - École secondaire publique Odyssée, Lily Gilbert - Chippewa Secondary, Addisyn Kelly - West Ferris Secondary, Nadia Shank - École secondaire catholique Algonquin, Riley Trudeau - Northern Secondary, Shayla Fader - École secondaire publique Nipissing Ouest, Mélodie Brais - Franco-Cité, Makenna Hamilton - Almaguin Highlands, Mathieu Matte - École secondaire catholique Élisabeth-Bruyère. Not pictured: Maeve Elsey - St. Joseph Scollard Hall Catholic Secondary School, Aiden Corbeil - Nbisiing Secondary.  STUDENT BIOS

(in no particular order) Alex Hebert, Northern Secondary School; Elijah Dunn, Chippewa Secondary School; Hannah Lyons, West Ferris Secondary School; Charlie Hall, Almaguin Highlands Secondary School;  Hannah Wunsch, F.J. McElligott Intermediate Secondary School; Ian McCallum, École secondaire publique Odyssée; Zoé Bigras, École secondaire publique Nipissing Ouest; Alexie Bélanger, École secondaire Franco-Cité; Randy Blackned, Nbisiing Secondary School; Arianne Savard, École secondaire catholique Algonquin; Sophie Bangs, École secondaire catholique Élisabeth-Bruyère; Ella Oschefski, St. Joseph Scollard Hall Catholic Secondary School. STUDENT BIOS / BayToday / North Bay Nugget
 
Click on the text for each year to read the student bios.