Source: Metro
[metronews.ca/news_feature_detail.asp?id=10988]
On September 21, 2005 Metro reported, "Ryan Nutter, 17, was awarded the Discovering Diversity Award at Mississauga Council's chamber yesterday. Nutter taught himself to write, read and speak Arabic, Hindi, Latin and Punjabi... Nutter says he believes tolerance begins with studying and appreciating our differences — and then learning, as he has in spades, to embrace others. It was that devotion to promoting diversity that earned the Grade 12 student the 2005 Discovering Diversity Award, presented by the Canadian Council of Christians and Jews yesterday at Mississauga City Hall. With it came a $1,000 prize and a crystal sculpture by renowned artist Mark Raynes-Roberts, who initiated the award... Although Nutter, raised Protestant, is conversant with many cultures, he'd never been to non-Christian places of worship until he took a world religions class last fall. A field trip co-ordinated by the council took him to a Hindu temple, Sikh shrine, mosque and synagogue. The teen, who is of mixed Mi'kmaq, Scottish, English and Guyanese heritage, found it so fascinating he decided to share what he learned by organizing Interfaith Week last May at his Scarborough school, Cardinal Newman Catholic Secondary."