During the March break of his last year of high school, Alex and I took part in a 1-week humanitarian house build in Mexico with a student group from the Madawaska Valley District High School. This trip opened his eyes to the contrasts of daily life as he knew it in Canada to those of many people in Mexico. At the end of the week, a new home was ready for a family, and many new friendships and ideas had formed. Not long after being home in Canada, he had decided he needed to return to Mexico with the LiveDifferent “Academy” program and build more homes. His application was accepted and he dutifully saved his roofing wages to pay for this himself. There were those that questioned the sanity of working such a hard job to raise the funds for a program where you become part of a volunteer team building houses.

A text from Alex on ‘Shack Week’ (now known as 'Week in the Life' :

Okay so shack week was probably the best and worst week of my entire life. It was so tough, all

we ate was rice and tortillas so I had no energy for anything. We got up at 4 every morning, ate

breakfast and started work at 6, worked till noon and had lunch and then worked until 4. We

picked raspberries for 2 days, did rock picking at the beach for 2 days and worked for Andrew

and Heather for two days. We slept on plastic on the dirt, and got chewed on by ants the entire

time. Haha it was awful, we had like black widows everywhere (not in the shack) it was really

hard mentally and physically. I have so much more respect for the people down here now. It’s

amazing that they wake up and do this every single day of their life. I was working beside 80

year old women who never stopped and it was quite inspirational. I appreciate everything I have

so much more now. I couldn’t imagine another week like that, we had the blessing of being able

to go back to food and soft bed. “

After six months away from home with the LiveDifferent program, Alex returned to Stittsville — hungry for some “wheels.” His budget didn’t allow for anything new, so he began a progression of vehicles that were in pieces in the driveway as often as they were mobile. A variety of jobs were tested in this time, including office machine repair, restaurant dishwasher, automotive parts warehousing and electronic systems assembly. The essential background task of keeping his current car running was a common thread through all these job trials, and he found he enjoyed this work, and was good at it.

Formal automotive repair schooling required a high school diploma, so with the enthusiasm that comes with purpose, Alex entered Adult High School. He proudly completed this program on his 22nd birthday in 2016. For those of you who have never attended an adult high school graduation, you should. Shouts from the audience during Alex’s ceremony included “Way to go, Grandma!”

With a high school diploma under his belt, Alex could finally apply for his automotive repair training at Algonquin College. To his delight, he was accepted once he had an apprenticeship lined up with Jack Stance, a mechanic friend of his at Stance Auto-Werks. In the program - for the first time in his academic career - he attained perfectgrades and won scholarships for the remaining years of his training. His Mom, Dad and“the brothers” were beyond proud. He graduated at the top of his class and continuedhis apprenticeship with Hinton Automotive in Stittsville. We finally had a mechanic we knew we could trust!With apprenticeship complete and a Red Seal Licensed Mechanic designation, he moved to positions with Stoddard Automotive and then Scott Diesel, where he picked up the specialty skills of “truck and coach” mechanic. He started his newest job just after Christmas 2025 as lead mechanic with Truck Town in Richmond. Apparently, he hadbecome a master at diagnosing tricky problems.