This year’s Miss School Miss Out final awards were presented to a pair of St. Martin de Porres students, Michael Harrison and Benjamin Niles.
The boys, both in Grade 11, had stellar attendance throughout the school year. Harrison is involved in athletics and played on the volleyball team, while Niles was heavily involved in the school’s photography club.
Harrison had perfect attendance six of nine months of the year with only three missed classes. Harrison won the grand prize of $1,000 and Niles did not miss one day of school all year and won the perfect attendance draw, earning $500 and a laptop worth $750.
“They’re both hard-working students,” said vice principal Peter Schill. “It certainly is reflected in the fact that they’re here everyday. They didn’t miss classes for appointments or anything.”
The boys were named the winners after being drawn from a pool of more than 7,000 entries. Names were allowed in multiple times, one entry per one month of perfect attendance.
“George McDougall (High School) has kind of had the strangle hold on the competition for a few years,” said Schill. “We’re ecstatic to have one winner and blown away we had two.”
For the boys, it was just doing what they loved, going to class.
“I could not think of any better representatives (to win),” said Schill.
Airdrie Rotary Club representative Don Thomas said the program is a success since people believe in it.
“This year, there were 45 kids with perfect attendance,” said Thomas, a former principal at George McDougall High School. “We’re seeing some obvious impacts as to why that’s working out. What that tells us is that there’s something going right.”
Schools that participate in the Miss School Miss Out program include George McDougall, Bert Church High School, W.G. Murdoch in Crossfield, St. Martin de Porres and Airdrie Koinonia Christian School. The program, organized by the Airdrie Rotary Club and sponsored by Zytech Building Systems, Century 21 Real Estate and Manor Real Estate, began in Airdrie in 1994.
