The list of major events postponed due to COVID-19 continues to grow, and the 2020 Canadian Student Leadership Conference has been added to it. The Yorkton Regional High School is still slated to host the next CSLC, but there will not be a conference in 2020, with CSLC being moved to September 21-25, 2021.
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YRHS Principal Mike Haczkewicz said that given the situation in the world right now, it was the only choice that could have been made.
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鈥淚t鈥檚 a common sense decision for the sake of the health and safety of everyone involved that we had to postpone it. We were lucky that we were working with a group of people who said yes to postponing it for a year, rather than cancel. That would have been devastating, it鈥檚 bad enough as it is.鈥�
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The hope is that Yorkton, the birthplace of CSLC, will be the place where it鈥檚 reborn next year, after the world pauses for 2020.
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鈥淚 am hopeful that by then we will have kicked this virus, everyone will be coming back out and into reality, and it will be the perfect time to get back together. It will be a huge celebration, a national celebration held in Yorkton,鈥� Haczkewicz said
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The challenge right now is keeping people involved in the conference in the loop. Haczkewicz said they have formed a task force which has been speaking to national and local sponsors, students, and billet families to let them know what is going on and why the conference has been postponed. There are fourteen subcommittees, and each chair is hard at work re-arranging things and moving things forward. He said that people understand the reasoning behind the postponement, and some things have been simple to shift forward one year such as hotel reservations.
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鈥淭he community has supported us from day one and continue to support us through this.鈥�
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Unfortunately, the delay means that some students will no longer be part of the conference, as they will have graduated by 2021.
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鈥淚t鈥檚 devastating for the kids. Especially the seven super student leaders who were going to be in Grade 12 next year and be the student co-chairs. They will be off to University and not here. We had over 100 spirit leaders, students who were going to be taking part next year as student leaders in the conference, and they will graduate and be gone. We鈥檙e basically starting from scratch again.鈥澨�
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While those student co-chairs will no longer be part of the conference, Haczkewicz said they were still an important part of arranging it, and will be invited to the banquet and recognized for their effort to put the conference together.
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鈥淲e are hoping to introduce them to 1,200 people at the closing ceremonies at the banquet. These are the kids who did the work initially, we want to recognize them and give them a seat at the table. But it鈥檚 pretty tough for them.鈥�
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Postponing the Yorkton event has knock on effects for the other upcoming conferences, as the planned 2021 and 2022 conferences - in New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island - also have to be postponed. Haczkewicz said that the support of the Canadian Student Leadership Association has been instrumental in keeping the Yorkton conference alive, and thanks the organizers behind future conferences for allowing a postponement.
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鈥淭hey understood the significance of it, and the reasoning behind it, and were 100 per cent in favour.鈥�
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Haczkewicz would like to thank the Good Spirit School Division as well for their support in re-arranging the school year in 2021 to allow the conference to go ahead. He said that three major players - Canadian Student Leadership Association, Good Spirit School Division and YRHS - had to be on board for the conference to still happen one year later.
