SooToday first spotted Audrey Vair at a community day parade at Hilton Beach on St. Joseph Island singing her heart out at the tender age of four years old.The Superior Heights graduate wowed audiences with her voice in roles in school productions of musical theatre including Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Beauty and the Beast and Mama Mia as well as a production of the Wizard of Oz when she was a student at Rosedale Public School.
Vair graduated from Superior Heights in 2021 on a positive note, despite the complications of the COVID pandemic. Also in her last year of high school, Vair created and executed a project to serve people in need in her community.So she found a grant program and applied for funding to design and have masks produced for children who might not otherwise be able to afford them. She created several gender-neutral designs to print on the masks with the goal of making them fun and attractive to students.
"We were all little kids once and we had a lot of exploring and learning about ourselves to do," Vair said. "That doesn't need to be made more difficult by being made to feel ostracized in any way." "Joining that and finding a voice in sustainability, finding ways to advocate for the future, has been very important to me," she added.
Vair's mother, Nadine Robinson, is, among other things, a columnist for the Sault Star and her father, Tom Vair, is the deputy CAO of the City of Sault Ste. Marie in community development and enterprise services. She said both her parents demonstrate the importance of using reliable sources and aiming for the betterment of their communities in their work and personal lives.
"It really is a fun way to give back because it's giving us practice in a field of interest plus a chance to give back as well," she said. "This chapter has done consulting projects in health care, police department youth programs, and Indigenous education group -- with all sorts of non-profits in all kinds of sectors. We were all really excited to help make the community better through our work.