THORNHILL RESIDENT Zachary Winkler is the youngest of 12 finalists recently recognized with a Junior Citizen of the Year Award. He will be honoured at a Queen’s Park ceremony at the end of this month, two days shy of his ninth birthday.

Every year, members of the Ontario Community Newspapers Association nominate young people who have made outstanding contributions to their community, for the award.

Special consideration is given to certain qualities, such as kids who have gone beyond what the average kids their age might be expected to do.

A volunteer panel then whittles down the field from around 130 nominees to up to 12 finalists. To date, Zachary has managed to collect nearly $6,000 on behalf of the SickKids Foundation.

His appropriately named Do Something Sweet campaign was inspired by his baby sister’s plight, due to illness, early in life.

When Zachary was six years old, he was saddened to hear about how, a few years earlier, little Maya had to be hospitalized after only a few weeks in the world.

“When my parents told me, I felt a shock for about three days. It felt really bad,” he says.

After the shock wore off, a thought popped into his head, Zachary says. He asked his dad if there was a hospital for kids, and his dad told him about the Hospital for Sick Children.

The youngster wondered what he could do, says his dad, Richard, so he explained some of the things other people do, such as fundraising.

It was from that conversation that Zachary’s own fundraiser came to be, the eight-year-old says.

Since then, he has sold cotton candy at a pay-what-you-can driveway sale every year on the first Sunday in November, with all proceeds going to benefit the SickKids Foundation.

In the first year,Zachary raised a little more than $500. Since then, the fundraiser has gotten substantially bigger, bringing in $1,900 in its second year and $3,300 this past year.

“He’s always saying he wants to raise enough money so kids don’t have to go to the hospital,” says proud dad, Richard.

It was the young fundraiser’s idea to let people donate whatever amount they wished to, he says.

Zachary is also constantly thinking of ways to make the fundraiser even better, he continues. His son saw that other fundraisers had T-shirts, so with the support of local businesses, they made up T-shirts to give to those who donated $20 or more. In preparation for the fundraiser, Zachary papers the neighbourhood with flyers and even goes to speak to a Grade 6 class about the event.

This year, Richard says they saw about 250 people stop by their driveway, located in the Bathurst and Clark area. It was so busy that cars were lined up for blocks.

Richard says he suspects that Zachary’s inclination to give back at such a young age is inspired by his late grandfather Charles Zaionz, who was an extremely active and giving member of the community. In fact, after Zaionz passed away, they decided to dedicate that year’s fundraiser to his grandfather’s memory.

“[Zachary] always says, ‘I wonder if that’s how he started, too, selling things on the driveway,’” says Richard.

On the day the Junior Citizen Award finalists were announced, Zachary got up extra early and went online to check the list, he says. His dad adds that he was also interested in reading about what the other young finalists had done.

The Grade 3 student says he has hopes of becoming a judge one day because he likes hearing stories.

For now, eight-year-old Zachary is looking forward to the March 29 awards ceremony and says he plans to continue on with his fundraiser.

Maya, now five, is doing just fine and has begun to help her big brother with his campaign, becoming a purveyor of stickers.

“She really enjoyed it this year because we got face painting and a balloon animal guy,” Zachary says.

Zachary and his sister Maya have a close relationship, their dad confirms.

“Sure they get into their scraps like any brother and sister, but he really looks out for her and cares for her.”