If you ask him, Larry Wilkins didn’t do anything to deserve such an accolade as the one he just received.
“It's pretty shocking, actually,” he said, just days before accepting the Sovereign's Medal for Volunteers at Government House.
The medal is given for exceptional volunteer achievement, according to the Governor General’s website. If you ask any of the 200 students at Mamawi Atosketan Native School, they would probably say Wilkins did more than earn the honour. He didn’t just make a major donation to fund the First Nations junior and high school located between Maskwacis and Ponoka, he was at the head of the bridge committee that spearheaded the project by spurring the building and fundraising efforts. He helped to design it, too.
He describes the work as not simply a years-long labour of love but also a labour of necessity: the kids needed this school, he said.
“Basically, from start to finish, it was six years from the time we knew that we needed to build a high school ... until we did the grand opening. At the time of the grand opening, it was fully funded.”
The $5.4-million project is a 26,000-square-foot school that contains a 7,000-square-foot professional industrial arts building complete with instructional welding booths. It opened last year.
To Wilkins, it’s a source of great pride, something that also means a great deal to him personally. He’s second generation off the Mohawk reservation, he said, though most people would know him as the successful entrepreneur behind External Affairs Medical Spas in Edmonton and St. Albert.
It was several years ago when he decided it was important for him to give back to the community in some substantial way. Those thoughts immediately took him to where help would be best utilized.
“Everyone recognizes the fact that First Nations children need a leg up, if you will. We need to level the playing field and give them a good education and get them through elementary school and then through high school and then hopefully off to schools of higher learning and what have you. We have this huge population of people in Alberta that we actually need – at least when the oil’s going and pipelines and all the rest – we need these guys. I guess the point is that every kid needs the same opportunity. This high school delivers that: it gives these kids opportunity.”
His father was actually the one who first invited him to watch the Maskwacis children sing and dance during an elementary school event. He went back again the next year and the connection between them was already palpable to him. He could see himself in them, he said, so he talked to the principal to get her thoughts on what the kids really needed.
“She said, ‘Larry, what we really need is a high school’,” he remembered. She started giving me the details of what's happening and what's going on. The K through 9 school is doing a great job with the students, but then they got to choose another school after that. Oftentimes the kids get lost. As the kids describe it themselves, when they're on the reserve, they are forced to join a gang for protection and then of course with that comes gang-related activities. It's hard to avoid. I understood these kids need a safe place to call their own that they continue their education.”
That was the moment that he decided to step up. Well, it was close to the moment – Wilkins had to go through the stages of self-debate first.
“I thought, ‘Wow ... OK. I am not qualified. I don't have the money. I don't know the people. I don't know the first thing about building a high school.’ I began arguing with myself and that probably lasted a month or two trying to defend my stupidity. Then it was Thanksgiving Day and I don't know the significance of the day or what it was, but I just knew: ‘All right. Now I'm going to do everything in my power to make sure that these kids have a high school.’ So I set to work.”
That was 2012. The new Mamawi Atosketan Native School had its grand opening in 2018 with the announcement that it was fully funded through private and corporate donations.
“It's an amazing state-of-the-art facility and it's 100 per cent designed and built for First Nations children. It's unmistakeably First Nations if you look at the architecture. You're entering under a giant teepee.”
Wilkins said it felt like a miracle for the dream to reach fruition, but really it sounds more like the result of a guy who had the tenacity to dig deep and make that dream a reality. He received the Sovereign's Medal for Volunteers for his passion, dedication and firm commitment to improving the lives of hundreds of First Nations children through better educational opportunities and building a safe place where they can find their own dreams to make real for themselves too.
Wilkins, for his part, remains humble, but you can still hear the passion in his voice about the importance of such a project. One anonymous person who was on the campaign wrote a supporting letter to his nomination for the medal, noting his vision, enthusiasm, charisma and leadership. "No one wants to let Larry down," that person wrote.
That person was apparently not alone in the company of people who Wilkins enlisted to the effort.
“There were thousands of people that got on board and donated cash and help and time. In other words, it is a representation of the will of the average Canadian. Here's this magnificent project dedicated exclusively to our First Nations children. That's what moves me more than anything: knowing that Canadians really do care. Canadians are willing to help and willing to sacrifice.”
