Lady of the Lake Contest Renamed and Made Gender Inclusive
By Kate Mooney
October 16th, 2023
Cowichan’s Lady of the Lake contest, running annually since 1948, is being renamed a Youth Ambassador Program, and is the only one on Vancouver Island as of 2020. The newly gender-inclusive mandate invites Grade 11 male, female, and non-binary candidates living in Lake Cowichan to apply.
The 2023-24 Ambassador team includes a man for the first time; Mason Macpherson, 17, is the town’s Friendship Ambassador. The Friendship Ambassador is tasked with providing extra support to the 3 core Ambassadors at local events.
The program was modernized to revitalize it following a number of years in which the program received few applications and struggled to run. It now offers all Lake Cowichan youth in their final years of high school experience in public speaking and interviewing through a variety of workshops. Those who complete the program receive a $500 bursary to be put toward their post-secondary education and four high school credits.
Jocelyn Lundberg, Program Coordinator of the Cowichan Lake Ambassador Program since 2018, says it is a “life-skills program” that can be a considerable investment for ambassadors over 12 months.
“The time commitment seems to overshadow the longer lasting benefits for some people…. We’re really trying to break down the stereotype and the stigma around that part of it.” Lundberg says the program requires ambassadors to be involved in 50-80 events on average throughout their senior year.
Brooklyn Kruk, a former Cowichan Lake Ambassador and current BC Ambassador, has volunteered with the program since 2017 and says each ambassador is sponsored financially by a business or organization in the community and “the sponsor pool is quite big.”
Candidate sponsors have included the Lake Cowichan Country Grocer, the Canadian Legion Branch #210, as well as other local businesses and community organizations. The program as a whole has been sponsored in the past by the Cowichan Lake District Chamber of Commerce as well as the Town of Lake Cowichan.
Since the program has opened its doors to youth of all genders, no one has cancelled their sponsorship, Kruk says, despite the renaming of the program initially being met with mixed reviews. “When we first announced it, there was a lot of discourse, especially on Facebook, that we were ruining the tradition and taking things away from young women, when that’s not the case at all.”
Macpherson says his experience so far has been a positive one and he “definitely felt welcomed.” He says, “There was no point [in the program] that I felt I was being treated differently.”
When asked how to get more youth interested in the new program, Macpherson said it needs a few more males to “step up and normalize” this for future candidates. “I would like to see everyone join who wants to join because I think that everything you get out of it is so beneficial.”
Macpherson notes the program rules also need to be updated to avoid gender-specific language, but he believes the program is a learning opportunity for Lake Cowichan youth and Kruk agrees. She has seen the program work for herself and others in improving confidence and public speaking skills, and continues to be involved for the satisfaction of seeing ambassadors mature over the course of the training and the reward of “watch[ing] them grow.”
