2010 A.E. Blakeney SaskTel Bursary recipient

Congratulations to Marie Sanderson, University of Regina, Arts Education: Dance
Projected Graduation Date: June 2014

Dear Mr. Blakeney, I cannot express how truly grateful I am for your generosity in a letter; I can only hope you can feel my appreciation through my words. Your bursary has changed not only my life, but the lives of those close to me. I am now an inspiration to my peers, my family, and the people of La Ronge and Prince Albert. No one in my family had ever made it to graduation or post-secondary education. I showed them that I can be different and so can they with hard work and dedication. I had the motivation to push through all my school years with honour roll status, hoping that maybe one day; someone would notice my achievements and help me reach for my dreams. That is where you came in, Mr. Blakeney. My name is Marie Sanderson. I am seventeen years old and from the northern community of Lac La Ronge, Saskatchewan. I moved to Prince Albert when I was fourteen to further my education and grasp all the opportunities the city had to offer. I am of Cree descent. My family never really had much money, but they were willing to sacrifice what they had to make sure my sister and I had what we needed to reach our full potentials. They always knew that I wanted to go to university after completion of high school. I had begun to take up dancing and that’s where I found my heart wanted to be. I took ballet, jazz, musical theatre, lyrical, contemporary, and even hip-hop. Although dance classes are very expensive, I was able to get sponsored by local businesses and my dance teachers who saw potential. I decided I wanted to go to the University of Regina because I heard they had a new program called the Arts Education program, which had a major in dance. Being a very artistic person in all categories, I knew that’s exactly where I wanted to go. However, the journey to get there would not be easy. Recently, my father was diagnosed with several diseases (osteoporosis, osteochondritis dissecans, and sciatic neuritis to name a few), causing him not to be able to work. My mother had given birth to twin boys around the same time. She had to stay home and watch the boys and my father. Money became very tight, we soon had to budget everything. I had to accept that I would not be able to attend university for a couple of years. My school, St. Mary High School, encouraged that I try to earn a scholarship. I had the grades, the attitude, and the community involvement required to be a tough rival. Not only was I involved in dance, but I did musicals and plays with my school’s drama club, helped with church liturgies, worked whenever I could either as a waitress or cashier, and was once an award-winning air cadet and marksman with the Royal Canadian Air Cadets. I agreed and spent hours applying for as many scholarships as I could. I had no idea that I would win something as major and generous as your bursary. When I had received the phone call stating that I had been short-listed as a recipient, I could hardly breathe! You can only imagine how hard I cried when I heard from SaskTel a second time, hearing that I had been awarded it. It wasn’t just the fact that the bursary had such a substantial amount of money, but it was because I had received a bursary at all. I was finally being recognized for my years of hard work and dedication. Too many people I’ve seen with brains hit the ditch, too many people not grasping their dream, too many people giving up. I thank you for recognizing someone who won’t be one of those people. I promise you that I will use your bursary to brighten the future not only for myself, but for as many people as I can. As a teacher, I will use my education to touch the lives of children in Saskatchewan. Thank-you for a gift that will certainly last a lifetime, Marie Sanderson