Latest news with #BernieCustisSecondarySchool
Hamilton Spectator
12-05-2025
- General
- Hamilton Spectator
Rubber ducks, real impact: Students champion mental health with scavenger hunt
There was a buzz among Bernie Custis students on Wednesday morning as they raced around the school opening doors and lockers, peering over ledges and rooting around in planters, searching for dozens of hidden rubber ducks. By 10 a.m., most of the 200 of the colourful plastic toys hidden around the school, each bearing a message of encouragement, had already been found. Occasional rubber-duck squeaks sounded in hallways and classrooms. Last week was Mental Health Week, and the King Street East school — and 27 others in the Hamilton-Wentworth District School Board — are working to create awareness and destigmatize psychological well-being with a rubber-duck scavenger hunt. It's meant to encourage, spark conversations and build community. Grade 11 student Nikole Silverman, 17, shows some of the locations the rubber ducks bearing positive messages were hidden in around Bernie Custis Secondary School. Ducks, said board manager David Hoy, are 'a playful yet powerful metaphor' that has resonated with students. 'Like ducks who appear calm on the surface while paddling hard underneath … many students relate to the hidden struggles behind a composed exterior,' he said. The idea originated at Bernie Custis in 2023, a take on the trend of leaving ducks on Jeeps as an act of kindness. Students hid 60 ducks, which they soon realized weren't enough. Grade 9 student Alina Hussaini, 14, holds one of the 200 rubber ducks hidden around Bernie Custis Secondary School. Alina is part of the Hamilton-Wentworth District School Board's mental health advocacy group. 'It was chaos, but in a good way,' said Grade 11 student Nikole Silverman, 17, adding there was chatter in the hallways as people compared ducks and shared messages. The idea took flight and, two years later, more than two dozen elementary and secondary schools have hidden hundreds of small, multicoloured rubber ducks as a way of promoting positive school climates. At Bernie Custis, ducks had names like Bob, Ying, Sirius Quack and Duck Vader. Some were named after people, pets and food, like 'Cheese,' students said. Grade 11 student Nikole Silverman, 17, shows the message on a blue duck named Saoirse at Bernie Custis Secondary School. Pieces of paper tied to their necks bore messages like: 'It's OK not to be OK.' Messages are written by students for students, and organizers hope it makes people feel 'that's something someone else has felt,' said Nikole, who was part of the team behind the idea. 'It just brings joy to people,' she said. Bernie Custis Secondary School principal Timothy Powell stands with two rubber ducks hidden in his office. A student advisory panel for mental health, which has membership from several schools, including Bernie Custis, created a tool kit with announcement scripts, posters and materials for a duck scavenger hunt, and promoted the initiative. 'Students have been the drivers of the campaign,' Hoy said. 'We really like how the students have embraced it and shared it across their networks, allowing it to grow,' he said. Grade 11 students Nikole Silverman and Maiya Six, both 17, show off two of the 200 rubber ducks hidden around Bernie Custis Secondary School on Wednesday morning. Nikole and Maiya were part of a team that came up with the idea for a schoolwide scavenger hunt using rubber ducks bearing positive messages as a way to create connections and spark conversations about mental health. Years ago, mental-health issues were something you either had or didn't, said principal Timothy Powell. But the conversation has shifted. 'We all have to be attentive to what's the state of our current mental health, and what do we need to address, what do we need to talk about,' he said. 'That's a powerful reframing in terms of how we think and talk about mental health.'
CBC
15-03-2025
- Business
- CBC
These Hamilton barbers started cutting hair as teens. Now, at 20, they own their own shops
Social Sharing Kassim Abdulraheem cut his first head of hair — his best friend's — when he was in grade nine. He said he "butchered" the haircut then, but still cuts his friend's hair to this day. "He lives in Ottawa... He doesn't get a haircut anywhere else," Abdulraheem told CBC Hamilton. When he was a kid, he used to watch barber videos on an iPad before he went to bed, he said. Now, at 20, Abdulraheem, also known as Kay, owns a barber shop in downtown Hamilton, Kay Cuts Studios. He's one of more than 60 stylists and barbers coming together Saturday to offer free styling and cuts to racialized youth. Hair stylists and barbers have not met like this in Hamilton before, something that Abdulraheem is very excited about. "This is probably like the best thing Hamilton has had in a while," he said. WATCH | Hamilton barber Kassim Abdulraheem on why he loves his job Hamilton barber Kassim Abdulraheem on why he loves his job 14 minutes ago Duration 0:48 Abdulraheem is the owner of Kay Cuts Studios in downtown Hamilton and will be one of the over 60 barbers and hair stylists giving out free haircuts and styling to racialized and at-risk youth at a Hamilton high school Saturday. Abdulraheem opened his barber shop at 483 King Street E. on Feb. 11, 2024, when he was 19 years old. For several years before then, he had been cutting hair in his garage and for other barbers. He says his work is more than "just cutting hair." "It's an art. It's also an opportunity to meet so many different people. [On] average, I would cut 15 heads a day. That's 15 different personalities," he said. "You actually get exposed to so many different types of people. It's one of the best things." Building community while barbering Abdulraheem said one unexpected aspect of owning a barber shop has been the community he's been able to build in just over a year. "Everyone just comes and chills here," he said. "It's just amazing. I love it." On Saturday, barbers and hair stylists around the city are getting together at Bernie Custis Secondary School, across from Tim Hortons Field, to give free services to racialized and at-risk youth for an event called Excel in Style. Abdulraheem was born in Iraq and came to Canada from Syria as a young child, he said his mom has instilled in him since he was young to "give and it will return." Growing up with a single mom and the youngest of eight siblings, he said he knows what it is like to struggle financially. "Being able to put kids that are in my position in a better position, even though it's just by giving them a nice cut, making them feel fresh for back to school. That makes me feel amazing," said Abdulraheem. Lohifa Pogoson Acker, who organized the event, said it's important that young people like Abdulraheem are able to follow lifelong dreams instead of following other education paths they might not be interested in. 'Hearing people's stories' best part says another young barber Another young business owner in Hamilton Sajjad Bazouni also started cutting hair as a teenager and opened his own place, Blend It Barbershop, when he was 18. He's now 20. He was joined by his lifelong friend, Hassen Al-Masoodi, now 18, shortly after as a business partner, and they both work out of the Stoney Creek barbershop. Bazouni was born and raised in Hamilton, but his family is also from Iraq. He said his little brother was the first to get a haircut from him as a young teen. "I messed his hair up, but he stuck through, so it came out good," he told CBC Hamilton. As someone who's always been an extrovert and enjoyed making people laugh, his favourite part of the job is hearing people's stories. "My favourite moments of this is when someone comes in and hasn't ever gotten a haircut in a barber shop," he said. "I get to give them that extra pop with the haircuts that we kind of do and seeing the reaction after and give that confidence boost that all the clients be getting after their haircut." Bazouni will also attend Saturday's event. He said he's looking forward to "seeing all the smiles and then the happiness that we're going to bring." Event a first of its kind in Hamilton Pogoson Acker, a hair stylist and owner of Lo Did That in Hamilton, organized the event after noticing fewer Black youth and others with textured hair have been getting it styled. She said with cost of living going up, getting their hair done is often not on people's priorities. "Hairstyling, especially in Black and racialized ... is an important part of their identity, their self confidence or their self perception," she told CBC Hamilton. "So when you put that to the wayside, you are really tampering with those three things." Pogoson Acker said a team of originally 40 hair stylists and barbers were aiming to cut and style 100 young people. But when over 400 youth registered for Saturday, she had to recruit a few more people, growing the list to 66 barbers and hair stylists and 90 volunteers.
