Mr. Speaker, it gives me great pleasure today to rise on behalf of the District of Nipissing to congratulate Sunset Park public school principal Rick Ferron and vice-principal John Stephens for being named winners of the 1995 national Reader's Digest leadership in education award.
These gentlemen were selected from 197 nationwide nominations for their efforts in creating a living community where outside social agencies come into the school to counsel at risk students and their families in a warm, nurturing setting. Their approach is based on the old African proverb that "it takes a village to raise a child".
Each gentleman will receive a $5,000 award and the school will receive $10,000. This foundation award, initiated in 1989, is considered one of the top prizes from a non-educational or non-government body.
As word of the Sunset Park initiative spread, some of the province's top education researchers jumped in to support it and have held it up as a model for the rest of the country.