{"id":78380,"date":"2022-05-27T12:10:07","date_gmt":"2022-05-27T16:10:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/?p=78380"},"modified":"2022-05-27T12:10:07","modified_gmt":"2022-05-27T16:10:07","slug":"brock-student-receives-provincial-honour-for-volunteer-efforts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/2022\/05\/brock-student-receives-provincial-honour-for-volunteer-efforts\/","title":{"rendered":"Brock student receives provincial honour for volunteer efforts"},"content":{"rendered":"

Giving back is woven into nearly every aspect of Lucia Marchionda\u2019s life.<\/p>\n

The Brock University Concurrent Teacher Education student\u2019s drive to make a difference saw her recently honoured with a prestigious provincial award that recognized her extensive community contributions.<\/p>\n

Marchionda, who will begin her fifth year at Brock in the fall, was presented with the Ontario Medal for Young Volunteers<\/a> \u2014 the highest honour a young person can receive for their contributions to the province.<\/p>\n

Though she was named a recipient in 2019, she was honoured alongside fellow 2019 and 2020 medallists during a recent virtual ceremony hosted by the Lieutenant Governor of Ontario, the Honourable Elizabeth Dowdeswell.<\/p>\n

\u201cI’m very grateful to have received this outstanding award,\u201d said Marchionda, who was nominated for the honour by a supervisor for one of her volunteer projects.<\/p>\n

Her message to young people in the community is simple: \u201cGo out and serve your community through the kindness of your heart.\u00a0Not because you have to, but because you want to.\u201d<\/p>\n

To help encourage that community engagement, Marchionda, who grew up in Stoney Creek, created a website<\/a> to connect Hamilton-Wentworth Catholic District School Board secondary students with local organizations and initiatives. The site has played an important role in helping high school students complete their mandatory volunteer hours, especially during the pandemic when volunteer opportunities were limited.<\/p>\n

When Marchionda graduated from high school, she had completed more than 3,000 hours of community service with many local organizations, far exceeding the 40 hours required at the time.<\/p>\n

\u201cI love to help people. I love to make a difference. Even if it\u2019s making someone smile, that gives me a lot of joy,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

She has continued to volunteer during her time at Brock despite challenges caused by the pandemic and health struggles in her family.<\/p>\n

Inspired by her parents to give back to her community, Marchionda\u2019s volunteerism began in elementary school.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy father\u2019s famous saying is \u2018kindness is free,\u2019\u201d she said. \u201cTo be kind doesn\u2019t cost anything. My mom instils that if you are able to help people, go and help people and make an impact on the world.\u201d<\/p>\n

While she\u2019s worked with a range of organizations, those related to cancer and education are particularly close to her heart.<\/p>\n

Both of her parents and several other relatives have faced cancer battles. In honour of their experiences, Marchionda co-ordinated a Smiles for Kids fundraiser that raised more than $8,500 for McMaster Children\u2019s Hospital. She has also helped to raise more than $150,000 for various hospitals through her work with the Federazione Abruzzese di Hamilton e Distretto, an Italian non-profit cultural organization in Hamilton.<\/p>\n

Seeing her mother\u2019s impact as a teacher encouraged Marchionda to volunteer as a camp counsellor, soccer coach, Ontario Physical Literacy Summit co-chair and classroom tutor.<\/p>\n

Growing up, Marchionda always knew she wanted to be an educator and administrator in the school system. She hopes to empower her future students to contribute to their communities and be role models to others.<\/p>\n

Despite the time she devotes to helping others, Marchionda has worked diligently toward achieving her academic goals. She is a recipient of the Brock Scholars award and has been named to the Dean’s Honour List throughout her time at Brock.<\/p>\n

She has also received numerous honours, including Junior Citizen of the Year from the Stoney Creek Chamber of Commerce and the Hamilton Spectator Youth Volunteer of the Year from the Hamilton Chamber of Commerce.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Giving back is woven into nearly every aspect of Lucia Marchionda\u2019s life.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":45,"featured_media":78381,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[9794,40,1,4],"tags":[6196,98,11602,11603],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78380"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/45"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=78380"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78380\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":78384,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78380\/revisions\/78384"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/78381"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=78380"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=78380"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=78380"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}