Rhyder Renner is a young boy in Weyburn that is hoping for enough votes on his video to win a trip to Ottawa.

"Last summer we went to ISTAR, which is a speach camp in Calgary, Alberta," said Rhyder's mother Tamara Renner. "Rhyder has a stutter, so he decided to do his board on that."

It all started with him doing a project for school on his struggle with a stutter. Then the judges picked him to move on to regionals in Regina, where he won the Young Citizens Award. He then had to make a video about his project and post it online. Anyone residing in Canada can view that video here and they can vote for Rhyder as well. His goal is to educate other people with speech impairments on how to work through them and live with them.

The online vote will close at midnight (Eastern Time) on July 7, 2017. The result of the popular vote will determine 50 per cent (13) of the finalists. A panel of judges will review the videos and select the remaining 50 per cent (13) finalists. These 26 students will receive a trip to Ottawa in the fall, where they will attent Canada's History Youth Forum.

"Rhyder's a pretty caring individual, he's a social butterfly and he loves to talk to everybody," said Renner. "Even with his stutter it hasn't effected his social skills, if you ever see Rhyder downtown he'll always run up and say hi to you and ask how you're doing. He's just a really friendly kid."

Rhyder loves to play many different sports. His favourites are baseball, hockey and lacrosse.

"I've learnt that being different is ok," said Rhyder. "Everyone is fighting their own battles and to never judge anyone for their differences. I also learnt that I will always have a stutter but ISTAR helped me work through the physical difficulties of having a speech impairment."

According to the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders, the prevalence of speech sound disorders in young children is eight to nine per cent. By the first grade, roughly five per cent of children have noticeable speech disorders; the majority of these speech disorders have no known cause.

 

RHYDER RENNER 2

Rhyder Renner. Photo courtesy of Tamara Renner.