Welland teen awarded time with the Super Locker

By Kris DubéTribune Reporter - Nov. 5, 2021

Mckenna Chase has plenty of room to store her belongings for the next month at Notre Dame College School.

The Grade 12 student is the Welland high school’s first tenant of a new “Super Locker,” standing about six feet high, five feet wide, in a prime location close to the cafeteria.

Principal Andrew Boon, new to Notre Dame in September, started the initiative with former Lakeshore Catholic High School principal Glenn Gifford about four years ago when they created the first over-sized locker for a deserving student.

When Boon moved on to Holy Cross and Gifford to St. Michael’s, they both kept the tradition alive, as Boon has also done at Notre Dame.

On Friday, Chase was handed the key to the Super Locker, crafted by construction students at Notre Dame.

She has the honour of being the first person to hang her coat in it, for her efforts helping a Welland family, the Ogunkoyas, who have faced deportation to Nigeria for more than two years.

Chase and some friends started an Instagram page to raise awareness about their situation, as well as a letter campaign that 400 students and staff joined in and which was sent to federal immigration officials.

The Ogunkoyas have been given permission to stay, and students Victor, Grade 12B, and Hephzibah, Grade 11, returned to school this week after a long hiatus from the classroom while their family kept a low profile waiting to hear about their status in Canada, said Boon.

“Everyone was really missing them,” said Chase, about her helping them out.

“We just wanted to show they still have our love and support,” she said, adding she became friends with them at school as well as at Rose City Kids.

Chase had no idea why she was being taken out of class when Boon came to bring her to her new digs.

“I’m very thankful for this,” she said, as friends and teachers applauded. “But I didn’t do it to get rewarded. I did it because they’re my friends.”

Boon said the criteria for students to be awarded time with the Super Locker isn’t based on academics or athletics.

It comes down to acts of kindness.

“This is a great example of that, and we’re lucky to have her as a student,” he said about Chase.

The locker also comes stocked with prizes — Under Armour clothing, a gift certificate to local restaurant Tailgates, a little junk food and other items.