Addressing issues in her community is important to Kootenay Branch Community Service Award recipient Amri Ouellette. Amri first took a leadership role in grade 6 when she wrote a letter to her school principal to get permission to fundraise and connect with a teacher to build a GaGa Ball fun game played within a hexagonal enclosure in order to have an outdoor activity at her school.

Struggling to get the required 30 hours of volunteer work in her small home town of Castlegar, Amri created opportunities by working with the Kootenay Native Plant Society to plan a day in a local park where grads planted Indigenous plants to support the local ecosystems. On request from her school Indigenous team, Amri created the orange shirt design for Truth and Reconciliation Day 2024.

She also used her leadership and planning skills to host and play in a fundraising concert for her grad class, raising over $1000 to overcome challenges of insurance, funding, equipment and publicity for the concert. Most importantly, she provided over 200 hours of volunteer opportunities for others with these endeavors.

Amri is an artist and for her capstone project, she created an art display and sale in a local bakery, highlighting art representing climate crisis and other global social justice and geopolitical issues.