Joe Barkovich had a thought one day.
“Why is there no scholarship awarding young people working for social justice?”
High schoolers who hit the books hard and excel in history, math or languages have a wide range of options to be recognized for their efforts, but some choose to spend their evenings and weekends volunteering at soup kitchens, homeless- and women’s shelters or take action for the environment.
Barkovich decided something needed to be done to keep their flame alive.
Shortly thereafter, the first annual “Soup’s On” was held, gathering money through a big soup dinner to present as a scholarship to a grade 12 graduate going to post-secondary studies.
18 years later - on Friday - a laser-focused Joe Barkovich was once again coordinating volunteers, greeting guests and holding speeches in front from the podium while steaming bowls of soup and freshly cut loaves of bred travelled in a steady stream between tables.
Closer to 400 people came out to the sold out event, that was going on another year with not a ticket left to spare.
The food was prepared by local schools, including chefs from Niagara college.
To date the social justice scholarships awarded total closer to 50,000 dollars with between 1 and 4 recipients each year.
“These are not kids who envision a perfect world, but a better world. Perfection is impossible, and they can see all the negative things happening out there. But their passion and dedication rubs off on others. It’s positive peer pressure”, Barkovich said.
Apart from more sponsors coming on board, not much has changed over the years - not even the $10 ticket price to the volunteer-run event, backed by local schools and the St. Kevin’s church, who lend their Parish hall for the gathering.
Applications to the St Kevins social justice scholarship go out to local schools in March, and are handed out in June.
Barkovich says he will keep it going.
“We feel the need to recognize kids who are caring for others and bettering their lives”, he said.
