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WATCH: Robotics Mentor gives prestigious personal award to LCHS

Warren Kreway won the Woody Flowers Award for mentorship last May

After winning the Woody Flowers Award for mentorship and representing United Robotics of Lacombe (URL) at the World Championships in Houston TX, Warren Kreway decided to give back his award to Lacombe Composite High School and the students that earned it.

“All summer it was in my house, but I realized it was more important to give it back to the students that created it,” he said.

Mentorship, for Kreway, has become immeasurably important in his life.

“The school has mentored me for 16 years and encouraged me to mentor the students. It is my honour to give something back that is at the world-class level,” he said.

“It is the students that need to be acknowledged and as their head mentor, I need to make sure they understand the depth of my commitment to them.”

Because of the students at Lacombe Composite and his role with URL, Kreway was inspired to finish a life-long dream in 2014.

“I went back to school and graduated high school at 65 years old. It was an awesome experience that I wasn’t sure I could handle, but with the encouragement of the students — they showed me the value,” he said.

“They inspired me by the commitment they have shown me, the caring they have shown me and when I walk into the school — it is like coming home every single time.”

Kreway said he is humbled by young people who have accepted him as he is and hopes to continue to inspire children and share technology throughout the world.

“I started a foundation called ‘Through the Eyes of the Children — the Africanian Project’,” Kreway said. “We started the project in the Ukraine and in Uganda. It helps our students understand what goes on in third-world countries and it gives children there an opportunity to understand technology a little bit.”

Lacombe Composite High School has contributed to the project by donating a 3-D camera, which Kreway will be bringing to children on his travels.

“They can talk with each other, mentor each other and build connections around the world,” he said. “It is humbling to see kids eyes come alive in a third world country when Canada acknowledges them.

“Our students sometimes live in a glass bubble and they need to understand 80 per cent of the world doesn’t have what we have.”

Kreway also wanted to thank the community of Lacombe as well.

“Lacombe has been a big part of my life for 50 years and a lot of people have seen the value of helping young students. I hope that it will inspire them,” he said.

todd.vaughan@lacombeexpress.com