My niece, Paige and the Canadian Red Cross.

	Paige Black, 2011 Young Humanitarian, Nova Scotia

Paige Black enjoys using her musical talent, leadership ability as well as her love of athletics to make a difference and inspire other youth to do the same. She finds much of her learning comes from the world around her. Seeing the world beyond Oxford, Nova Scotia, helps her gain perspective and encourages her to learn about global humanitarian issues and take action and help others.

An 18-year-old student at Oxford Regional Education Centre, Paige enjoys learning from the different people she encounters at camps, conferences and workshops. After attending the weeklong “Encounters with Canada” youth forum in Ottawa, she took an interest in the global community and turned it into a full-fledged passion. In 2009, she was selected to attend the “Move Your World” Youth Symposium co-hosted by the Canadian Red Cross, GPI Atlantic, UNICEF and Atlantic Council for International Cooperation where participants gained valuable information about issues like poverty, food security, children in armed conflict and other vulnerable people around the world. She returned home and organized a benefit concert titled “Music for Haiti” to raise funds for Danita’s Children, an orphanage in Ouanaminthe, Haiti, which supports over 400 children. The devastating earthquake in January, 2010, turned this fundraiser into an ongoing project. In the spring of 2010, Paige attended the Red Cross conference on Children in Armed Conflict.

As well as working to help people in other parts of the world, Paige coaches basketball and soccer, organizes sports activities for the Vacation Bible School at her local church, and helps co-ordinate the local Terry Fox Run. She also canvasses for both the Kidney Foundation of Canada and the Canadian Cancer Society and is involved in fundraising for her sports teams, student council, 30 Hour Famine, Hoops for Heart and the LA Animal Shelter.

She received the Lieutenant Governor’s Award for best all around student in 2010. In athletics, she’s been awarded the Betty Rector Memorial Trophy as senior girls’ basketball MVP, as well as being honoured as Senior Female Athlete of the Year, Ron O'Flaherty Senior Female Scholar Athlete, Outstanding Contributions to OREC Athletics, and NSSAF Exemplary Participation (female).

This past July, after graduation, Paige travelled to Kenya with the KULE Foundation. The KULE Foundation operates in the village of Murang'a in Kenya and has completed such projects as a school library, orphanages as well as helping women through poultry farming. She worked as part of a team which continues to meet the needs of the village of Murang’a.

In the fall she plans to attend Dalhousie University and eventually obtain a degree in education so she can teach high school students with the hope of inspiring them to become global citizens.