Olympians surprise Truro students with personal video messages

Truro teacher Kyle Cormier has been putting Twitter to good use by reaching out to notable African Canadian athletes.

His students did biographies on the athletes and he asked them to send personalized messages.

So far he's two for two.

"I figured why not try and reach out to these athletes because I know it would definitely mean a lot to the kids," said Cormier, a Grade 6 teacher at Redcliff Middle School.

Cormier contactedprofessional hockey player Sarah Nurse and professional boxer Custio Clayton, who have both competed in the Olympics. To his surprise, they both answered within a few hours and were more than willing to help.

"The fact that two Olympians, two elite athletes, took the time to actually answer my tweets is insane," he said. "They took 30 seconds of their busy schedule to make lifelong memories for these students," he said.

Since February is African Heritage Month, Cormier asked his students to choose a notable African Canadian for a biography that they could present to the class.

But the class didn't knowthat two students would get a special surprise after their presentations.

Marlee McMillan, 11, did her project on Nurse, who plays for the Toronto Furies and will be competing for Canada in the World Women's Hockey Championship in Halifax this month.

Marlee said she was shocked when she saw the video pop up at the end of her presentation.

"It was really cool and I had no idea," she said. "[Mr. Cormier] did mention that hewas going to tweet her on Twitter but I didn't think that she would make a video for just me, so it felt really cool and good."

In the video, Nurse thankedMarlee for choosing her.

"I hope you had fun doing the assignment and learned a thing or two about me that you may not have knownbefore, and I'll make sure that I talk to Mr. Cormier about getting you an A on this assignment," Nurse said in the video.

Dallas Roode, a classmate of Marlee's, got a similar surprise this time from Clayton, a Nova Scotia native.

"Hi Dallas.Your teacher told me that you did a bio about me today. I'm sure it went well and I thank you for choosing me to do a bio on," Clayton said in the video.

"It shows me that I'm inspiring a lot of young kids in Nova Scotia and that's something I've always wanted to do."

Dallas chose Clayton because he's from Nova Scotia.

"I was really excited that he sent the video and I was just really shocked that he responded," Dallas said.

Dallas said Clayton even messaged himon Instagram and thanked him again.

Cormiersaid he doesn't want to push his luck so he won't be reaching out to anyone else just yet.

Buthe'sgrateful the two athletes were willing to do something for his students.

"I just really wanted to give my students a surprise.... 'What can I do to make them feel special?What can I do to give them a memory that they will have forever?'" he said.

"Being in the year 2020, they have access to this video for life now. It's something they can always keep and look back on."

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