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Jane Roy (BComm’84) doesn’t much like getting her picture taken. She’d probably prefer to pass on an interview, too. In short, she’s not a spotlight seeker.

But she is willing to do a story if it supports Catapult Leadership Society, the organization she founded for youth who “have strong potential but few opportunities.”

It is also the cause selected by the Saint Mary's Alumni Association as the focus of its One World Alumni Dinner, slated for September 20, 6 p.m. in the Loyola Conference Hall. Tickets are available. Tickets are $45 each or $350 for a table of 8. Details and online registration 

The cornerstone of the society is its annual summer leadership camp for 50 students from across Nova Scotia who are entering Grade 10. The first camp was held in 2009. Plans are underway to expand the organization’s offerings so camp participants can continue to learn and grow with Catapult programming throughout their high school years.

 Roy, who chairs the society’s board and works at the camp, says Catapult has “probably been the most rewarding thing I’ve ever done.”

 It’s also been a family affair with her husband, John (BComm’82), cheering her on since Catapult’s inception and her son and daughter volunteering as camp counsellors.

 “I hope that we can make a real difference in 50 students every year and those 50 go on to affect other people, so that there’s this huge pay forward effect that we will never be able to measure, but we hope and dream that that’s what happens,” Roy says. “I can say I know it’s happened, just from some of the stories that the kids and the parents have told me already.”

 She has also influenced those who work with her, including camp director Julian Maynard. “I admire her effortless, energetic way of making something happen that she believes in. It’s very contagious and inspiring,” he says. “She’s a leader unlike any I’ve seen. She can see beyond the obstacles to the ultimate goal and then bring us to that goal.”

 Roy, a Fellow Chartered Accountant, received the 2009 Ross L. Towler CA of the Year Award from the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nova Scotia in recognition of her volunteerism. 

She was founding chair of the Provincial Autism Centre (now Autism Nova Scotia) and creator and founding chair of the then Maritime Medical Care Challenge, a special event involving war canoe races which, in its 15 years, raised over $1.5 million for the IWK and Ronald McDonald House.

She has given greatly to her community, but Roy says she has received much more.

“It just enriches your life in every way you can think of – through the people that you meet, through the experiences, what you learn about yourself, what you learn about other people, and how not to take all the good things in your life for granted.”