CORNER BROOK—Clare Coleman had a lot of time to do nothing during the COVID-19 pandemic quarantine.
“So, a lot of thinking time while I was staring at my bedroom wall,” she said.
The Corner Brook teen’s life is based around school sports and performing, but a return to school meant a lot of that wouldn’t happen this year.
“My schedule wouldn’t be as full as it normally is,” said Coleman.
While looking at YouTube recently she came across some videos for Team Broken Earth, a medical relief initiative that travels the world.
“When I picked who was going to be on this team, I picked lots of different varieties of people. I knew they had all different skills that they could bring to the table. And they’re people who I’ve worked well with before in the past and I knew who would bring a fun environment.”
Coleman has a slight connection to Team Broken Earth as she once collected 700 pairs of eyeglasses for the organization and one of her aunts volunteered on a TBE mission to Haiti.
That got her to thinking and she came up with the idea to form a group, Game Changers, made up of youth who want to make a difference by helping others.
“Since all of our schedules had changed drastically, I thought it would be a perfect year to start something new, not only to help Team Broken Earth, but it was going to be a great learning experience for all of us and why not do it this year,” she said.
She enlisted six of her friends — Max Pittman, Caylee Bowring, Jack Wareham, Jill Callahan, Trinity Brown and Amber Hann — to join. All are Level 1 students at Corner Brook Regional High.
“When I picked who was going to be on this team, I picked lots of different varieties of people," Coleman said. "I knew they had all different skills that they could bring to the table. And they’re people who I’ve worked well with before in the past and I knew who would bring a fun environment.”
Raising money for Team Broken Earth will be the group’s primary focus, but Coleman said they also plan to do some other things to support local causes, in particular for the elderly.
The group already held its first fundraiser for Team Broken Earth, a three-on-three basketball tournament with 17 teams.
The Game Changers
Clare Coleman, 15, Corner Brook
What does it mean to you to be a game changer?
“It makes me feel almost honoured that us as teenagers we are able to get together and make a difference. Makes you feel powerful that we don’t need adults' help. Obviously we have mentors helping with some stuff, but most of our ideas are our ideas, it’s us organizing it. It makes you feel like you’re making a difference.”
Why do you think it’s important for youth to be involved in their community and the greater community?
“Not only are we helping with a great cause, we’re also a great role model to other youth. Kind of guiding them in the right direction that us as youth we are capable of making a difference.”
How would you motivate or inspire other youth to become game changers in their community?
“Don’t be afraid to just speak out. You can even be a game changer if you see someone getting bullied, or someone being racist or sexist, just speaking out loud and saying that’s not right. So, just speak up and don’t be unheard.”
Max Pittman, 15, Corner Brook
What does it mean to you to be a game changer?
“We’re basically a group of teenagers but we are fundraising not for ourselves, but for other groups that need money to help other people.”
Why do you think it’s important for youth to be involved in their community and the greater community?
“I think it’s really important for anyone to be connected and involved in their community, because it does help you in life, the more connections you have. The more your name gets out there, the more things you can become involved in and the more things people reach out to you for. And some of them can be really amazing experiences.”
How would you motivate or inspire other youth to become game changers in their community?
“I’m really hoping people hearing about us doing it as kids can show other kids that it is possible and that we are making a difference. And that people won’t think what they’re doing isn’t important because of their age. I hope that people realize that it is possible and making change is always a good thing to do.”
Caylee Bowring, 15, Corner Brook
What does it mean to you to be a game changer?
“To me it means people around me will be very proud of what I’m doing. If I can look back in so many years I can say ‘Wow, we actually did that, and we made a difference and we helped other people make differences, too.’”
Why do you think it’s important for youth to be involved in their community and the greater community?
“It’s really important because it brings a lot of people together and it’s really good to have something where we can all bring together our different interests to help one big cause.”
How would you motivate or inspire other youth to become game changers in their community?
“I would basically tell them that you want to look back on your life and say that you’ve done the most and you’ve tried your hardest to help out others, not just yourself. And you’re going to be very proud of the things that you’ve done, instead of regretting not putting yourself out there and trying new things and trying to help other people.”
Jack Wareham, 15, Corner Brook
What does it mean to you to be a game changer?
“Stepping up to the plate, changing the world for the better and being changers. Kind of like turning around the table. If you look at other parts of the world, we look pretty lucky. When you look at Haiti, they have to teach people to be doctors so people down there can survive. I think we should give them our support and fundraise some money for them so they can progress as a country.”
Why do you think it’s important for youth to be involved in their community and the greater community?
“We’re only 15 and we’re showing our peers that you can come up here too and step up to the plate, make a difference. Anyone can do it, even someone as young as us.”
How would you motivate or inspire other youth to become game changers in their community?
“I’m not really big on social media, but I guess by using it — which is something a lot of people do — we’re able to spread the message.”
Jill Callahan, 15, Massey Drive
What does it mean to you to be a Game Changer?
“I’m very honoured to be a part of it. I think it’s going to get pretty far. I just wanted to make a difference, and I thought it would be a lot of fun and it has been so far. This is the first thing I’ve really done to raise money with a group of my friends.”
Why do you think it’s important for youth to be involved in their community and the greater community?
“I think because we can grow older and it can still be the same. We’re only young now and we can make a huge difference in a long period of time.”
How would you motivate or inspire other youth to become game changers in their community?
“I think if this goes well, which it has been, then I feel like people would want to do it. We could just tell everyone about it.”
Trinity Brown, 15, Mount Moriah
What does it mean to you to be a game changer?
“I’ve noticed around our community that there really isn’t anything out there really trying to make a change. And so, I think that doing this allows our community to grow and allows me to grow as a person and for our group to grow as a group.”
Why do you think it’s important for youth to be involved in their community and the greater community?
“Getting involved with these kind of groups kind of makes the youth realize that there’s a lot more going on in the world besides what’s going on here in Corner Brook.”
How would you motivate or inspire other youth to become game changers in their community?
“We do a lot of stuff on social media and teens are very much involved with social media. So, if they see these kinds of posts, and they see all the fun and all the cool things that we’re doing, that will sort of inspire them.”
Amber Hann, 15, Mount Moriah
What does it mean to you to be a game changer?
“It means a lot to me to be a game changer because I’m helping people around the world with things that have been out of their control. And it’s with people that I’ve known for a while, so, it’s been a fun experience to get it all together.”
Why do you think it’s important for youth to be involved in their community and the greater community?
“I think it’s important because I don’t see many people doing anything, especially with COVID anymore. So, I thought it was a good idea to do something within my community to bring everyone together in these hard times.”
How would you motivate or inspire other youth to become game changers in their community?
“Do fun events and social things that get them talking about it, interested in it, so they want to join and help out with the cause.”
Twitter: @WS_DianeCrocker
