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FeedFighting the powerful lure of gangs & guns one kid at a time
Local resident divides time between teaching and working with charity
Amanda Fingerhut, of Future Aces and a teacher at Earl Haig Secondary
AMANDA FINGERHUT’S GOAL is simple: to reach out to troubled youth in Toronto and help guide them in the right direction. Whether she’s working as a math instructor at Earl Haig Secondary School or working with the Herbert H. Carnegie Future Aces Foundation, she is always trying to improve the lives of youth.
“Future Aces works to increase the self-esteem and leadership skills of youth, particularly those who are at risk,” she says. “Basically we change their lives and we empower them to move in positive directions, to want to get back to society and to want to always strive to be the very best they can be.”
Tall task, but one in which she appears to be succeeding at. Fingerhut recently won the Me to We educator award for her work with the program. The award rewards educators who go above and beyond their call of duty and who think “we” before “me.”
“I love watching kids strive to be the very best they can be and prove to themselves that they can succeed,” the lifelong Toronto resident says. “And watching these success stories and seeing it happen in front of my eyes. It’s just amazing.”
It was a coincidence that Fingerhut got involved with Future Aces. She has many hobbies, including golfing and attending Blue Jays games, but it was her love of singing that brought her to the organization.
Fingerhut met Vivian Shapiro, the education director of Future Aces, at a Toronto District School Board Cabaret Singers rehearsal where a group of teachers get together to sing.
“Vivian was also my nominator for the award as well as my inspiration for working with youth,” Fingerhut says.
“I am a teacher as well, so I have always enjoyed helping students succeed. But when I found out about Future Aces and what she did with Future Aces, I just had to get involved.”
Fingerhut says the foundation helps all kinds of kids, from those who are a breath away from full- out gang involvement to those who attend school but don’t always show the drive to succeed.
“We’ve had kids come, to this day, who were being initiated into gangs, and instead, they didn’t become initiated and ended up in college years later,” she proudly says.
The 31-year-old studied at McGill University before returning to Toronto to continue her studies at York University. She says her family is very supportive of her cause, and sometimes her father even comes to the annual Future Aces fundraising gala to hand out prizes to youth who attend.
But there is still work that needs to be done, Fingerhut says.
“Our goal with the foundation is to turn everything we are doing national. We would love to do a national conference. But it is a matter of money. If we get a really nice donor, then we are not far away at all.”
Post City Magazines salutes Amanda Fingerhut and the Future Aces for helping Toronto’s youth achieve their dreams.
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