Shivani Ruparell, Mississauga, Ontario
Governor General's Caring Canadian Award
While still in her teens, Shivani Ruparell started volunteering in her school and her community. As a Calgary-area high school student, she participated in multicultural clubs and peer tutor groups, and served as a volunteer camp counsellor and a teen mentor. She also raised funds for an international organization seeking to ban landmines and, in 1998, collected 16,000 books for underfunded schools in Ndola, Zambia. In 2003, while a student of Wilfrid Laurier University, she single-handedly collected 18,000 books for the same cause and raised the funds necessary to ship them to their destination. Miss Shivani is a role model who selflessly puts the needs of others first, both in her community and beyond.
