Adam Prudhomme
Editor
Napanee District Secondary School’s School to Community student Quinn Doyle was recently recognized for both his kind heart and artistic abilities.
The 19-year-old was named as a finalist in the Ontario Secondary School Teachers Federation’s Student Achievement Awards, which called on students to submit material that showed kindness is a renewable resource.
Doyle was named the Region 5 winner for his submission of two paintings depicting his rescue of a snapping turtle last spring near his home in Tamworth. The region includes nine school boards in eastern Ontario.
“In the spring I found a big snapping turtle on the road by my house,” Doyle wrote with his submission to the contest. “I was worried about it getting hit by a car. I went back to my house to get gloves and a wagon and then went back to help the turtle across the road. I lifted the turtle carefully up by the back of the shell, put it in the wagon and pulled it across the road in the direction it was trying to go.”
Little did he know he wasn’t saving just one turtle, rather a soon to be family of turtles.
“I put the turtle in a safe pile of dirt in my garden,” he added. “The turtle started digging a hole and laid eggs. The turtle I discovered was a mother turtle. By the end of the summer the eggs hatched and I saw the baby turtles leave the garden and go to the creek on my property.”
His first painting shows him placing the turtle into the wagon while the other features the eggs hatching and the turtles crawling to the water.
Doyle, who has autism, is part of NDSS’ School to Community program, which is for students with developmental disabilities.
The achievement awards were open to all students across the province.