Ashley Robertson, a 14 year-old student at Wellington Secondary School, wrote today's column.

A talented poet, singer and writer, Ashley reviewed our Neighbourhood Heroes WebQuest program designed for students and then interviewed and wrote this column about Sally Norris, today's Neighbourhood Hero. I've never seen anyone do a better job on a first effort of this nature.

Here is Ashley's column.

When I first saw Sally Norris, the First Nations Elder in Residence at Dover Bay Secondary School, she was literally glowing.

Sally was raised in a residential school, where she was basically stripped of all she knew and raised in a new culture. Despite her sorrowful childhood, she has grown into an amazing woman.

You can see it in her eyes. She is a very, loving and giving person. She raised five children on her own and now dedicates her life to helping young people from all cultures.

After all of her children were out on their own, Sally decided to go back to school and take a ten-month Youth Works course. After that, she went to work for the East Vancouver Community Services Society.

When she moved back to Vancouver Island, she got a phone call asking if she wanted to work as an Outreach Youth Worker at night in downtown Nanaimo. She decided to take the job.

Sally told me the reason she feels it is so important to be out on the streets at night, "...Because usually," she said, "that's where we find youth that have no boundaries, they don't know how much trouble there is out there at night. They want to go out and have fun, experience fun with their friends, but there's also trouble right there. That's where I come in."

The trouble young people are getting into these days includes drugs, alcohol and sex, Sally says. This is what the youth are getting into these days and at a younger age each year.

After considering what Sally had to say, I think youth often get into trouble because they are trying to cover things up ... things like doubt ... doubt of what? Well, anything: Themselves, a religion they were brought up in, or their parents. They could also be doing this to hide abuse they have suffered in the past, abuse that can make them feel unworthy of anything better than a dime. They could also just want to fit in.

Sally and her partner go out at ten at night until three in the morning to talk to street kids, not to lecture them, just to talk.

"I don't get angry, I don't tell them that 'You shouldn't be doing this or that'," she says. "I'm not there to try to change what they're doing but to make sure they know that their safety is really important, that this is what could happen, that I'm there, visible."

There's no doubt that Sally Norris has found her true purpose in life - working with youth.

At the end of our enlightening conversation, Sally had a few words to say to me. She spoke them in her own language and then translated into English. I was very moved.

"We're all born for a reason," Sally told me as she looked deeply into my eyes. "We all have something to offer."

The power in her voice consumed my every thought. I won't ever forget her.

A note from Bill Robinson:

As Sally Norris would say, Ashley Robertson has much to offer as a poet, singer and writer. If she chooses to continue growing these talents, Ashley may well have found the reason she was born.