When the Dryden Leadership Class needed a project to undertake, they looked to the youth of the community for help. The leadership program is geared to looking at the strength and weaknesses of the community and capitalizing on opportunities. This year, they decided to see what the youth wanted out of Dryden.

“We wanted to know what the youth expect in our community so we thought why don’t we ask them,” says Grant Rowson of the Dryden Leadership Class, “Taking it further, we said why don’t we see what they would put together. Instead of us running around doing all of the work, let’s see what they would come up with. How would they tell their story?”

After approaching students at the Dryden High School, the group handed over the challenge and told the students to run with it.

The result, a 10-minute video interviewing dozens of students to find out what they think about Dryden and their ideas of what should be brought to the community.

The Dryden Leadership Class along with the students launched the video on Thursday, May 26 at the high school as well as The Centre to get the student’s and public’s feedback.

The outlook was much of the same from most students interviewed. Dryden is a land of little opportunity and many feel that in order to make it after school, coming home to Dryden is not an option.

The public asked a lot of questions of the students, including what they suggest the community do to advertise upcoming events, what types of events and businesses they would like to see in Dryden.

While many students like the small town feel, they recognize that there is little to do for kids their age and suggested to the Leadership Dryden Class that new businesses and more youth-friendly activities need to be brought into the community.

Grade nine student Kennedy Jones was in charge of the editing and says the group left them to their own devices for the project.

“They gave us what they wanted and told us to go do it. We saw them about three times throughout the making of the video. They were flexible and easy to work with.”

The video can be rented on DVD at the Dryden Public library or on YouTube for those who couldn’t make it to the Centre.

By Sarah Madussi