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Christian is the Genie Hero of the Year!

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Last fall we told you about Christian Legge, an 11-year-old Shaver who was nominated for the Newfoundland and Labrador Genie Hero of the Year award. We’re happy to say your voting paid off and Christian was named the winner at the gala held on January 19, 2012.
He recieved approximately 42,000 votes out of the 220,000 that were cast. There were nine other nominees.
Joshua Dawson (AKA The Genie) said, “We want to inspire other people to be like Christian; Christian was the biggest genie of them all!”
Christian and his parents came into YACC HQ to chat with us about the results.

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They didn’t know he was going to win before they went to the ceremony and Christian said he “felt like he was about to faint” when they called his name.
“If you saw the news–or if you were there–you have seen that I probably almost did faint,” he said.
“It was just a total surprise. Excitement, shock, anything you could ever imagine. It’s something you dream of and it actually came true,” said his step-mom, Joe-ann.
To which Christian responded, “Imagine how I felt!”
As the Hero of the Year, Christian was awarded a $10,000 prize which he plans to save most of for college after using some to make donations and to do something nice for his classmates.
“Once again, he’s doing good for others,” said Joe-ann.
Christian will also be participating in the 2012 Shave for the Brave and he’s hoping his hair will be long enough to make a donation to go toward a wig. He has also inspired other people to think about signing up, including people who were at the gala, his grandmother, and his dad.
In his state of shock, his acceptance speech was about a sentence that said, “I just can’t believe it,” said his mom, Lori. “I think he was a little bit in shock. He was wobbly.”
The family said The I Am Genie Foundation did a great job at organizing the gala. They unanimously agreed the best part were the tribute videos played about each nominee.
“It’s so heart-filling and so touching just to know what other people are doing for everybody else,” said Joe-ann.
Lori said, “We walked out and [Christian’s grandmother] said, ‘If they have this next year, I’m going.’ Know somebody there or not, there’s just so much good that they recognize. You sit down and listen to every tribute and you were crying, you were laughing. It’s amazing.”
Since he forgot to thank anyone, we offered to add the following ammendment to his speech:
“I’d like to thank the people who voted for me, and my parents. Geoff, and Josh and Ingrid [from the I Am Genie Foundation], and Liam for being a nutcase for me and helping me manage not to faint.”
We’re so proud of you, Christian, and we can’t wait to see all the good you continue to do!
The I Am Genie Foundation works to grant wishes to everyday heroes. If you are interested in nominating your own hero, please visit iamgenie.org.

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