The Dalton Camp Award: Winning Essay

2025 Winner – Suzie Dwyer

Real stories matter, says home educator Suzie Dwyer, informing us of social issues, teaching us empathy, and connecting us with political issues in a way that inspires engagement with democracy. That’s why we need to develop and support authentic local media outlets that provide news and stories and build a local information infrastructure. 

As a home-educating parent, one of my favourite parts of the school day was group time. My students (a.k.a. my two daughters and one son) and I would gather at our dinner table to consume copious amounts of tea, a Honeycrisp apple, and a simple treat that I would magically find time to create.  

I initially believed the caffeine and sweets were necessary incentives for my children to sit and listen to me read aloud for an hour each day. I later discovered that they were actually there for the stories. At the time, they could not have articulated why that was, but I came to believe it was because of the feelings evoked and the vicarious experiences the stories yielded. Whether it was the heights of excitement felt upon walking through a wardrobe into a wintry land created by a magnificent lion or the depths of despair and sadness known to those living life on the streets, the formation of their personal relations to characters, the stimulation of their curiosity and the creation of sticky mental pictures were addictive.  

At the same time, the stories were shaping their self-awareness and enabling them to make sense of their lives and their world by conveying complex ideas and fostering the empathy and understanding that lead to connecting with other people—key ingredients for a strong civil society, wouldn’t you agree? 

A STORY 

Though they believed group time was my way of giving them a break from their rigorous lesson plans, I believe it was the most educationally rich portion of their day. I remember a particular story that I read by Kenneth Porter, from his book Souls Harbour. It was about a man named David who was living on the streets. He was a regular at Souls Harbour Rescue Mission in Halifax, a drop-in centre where people can go to find a warm meal and community. Porter, co-founder of the Mission, shared that David loved to sit with him and discuss politics and theology over countless cups of coffee. He wrote that David had experienced a traumatic childhood and that he dealt with his pain by wandering the streets, looking for his next fix.  

Over those cups of coffee and deep philosophical conversations, David and Ken became good friends, so it was especially shocking for him to see David hobble into the Mission on crutches, his arm in a sling and his face all smashed up. He had been mugged and beaten beyond recognition. Though he had been taken to hospital and treated, David quickly found himself back on the streets, falling back into old habits.  

Still, despite the unfavourable odds, David’s attack was not the end for him, and the book describes how volunteers at the Mission worked alongside David, even welcoming him into their home in order to keep him alive.  

At its climax, David’s story was so unbelievably awful and wonderful all at once that it stirred in my children a deep longing to help others in his situation. A seemingly disastrous turn of events had David trapped in the compactor of a garbage truck and very seriously injured. As if that were not bad enough, while he was in hospital after the accident, David had bloodwork done that revealed severe heart issues and pneumonia, complicated by full-blown AIDS. Doctors were unsure whether he would last a week, and fairly certain he would not live beyond a month.  

Nevertheless, the story took a miraculous turn with the wonderful news that David actually went on to live for nearly three more years, not just surviving but thriving. Mission volunteers helped him to heal from his abuse, addiction, and loneliness, and he was even pictured on social media, being celebrated among friends on his 44th birthday—his first birthday party since he was eight years old. Porter wrote that when David passed away, his friends took comfort in knowing that his final years were filled with stability, peace, and love.  

The story connected my students to its characters, informed them about issues related to poverty and addiction, and inspired hope that they could help others the way the volunteers had helped David. If only more people could hear his story. 

WHY STORIES MATTER 

I remember that when I finished reading that book, there was a solemn silence around our dinner table. It’s not that my children had never heard of poverty, homelessness, or addiction before; it’s that they had almost always heard of it in terms of statistics, at a provincial or national level. Associating a familiar place (Halifax), a familiar organization (Souls Harbour Rescue Mission) and an actual person (David) with the social issue had connected them to it in a way they had never previously experienced.  

That connection became a catalyst for them to find a way to contribute to their community. It resulted in a view of poverty and addiction that was more hopeful and inspired them to volunteer and fundraise for the Rescue Mission in our own municipality. My eldest daughter even managed to raise the most funds at the Mission’s annual “Coldest Night of the Year” fundraising event. All that said, I am not suggesting that David’s story changed the world, but as the saying goes, it definitely changed the world for one person…or three. 

Charlotte Mason was an early 20^th-century British educator known for her philosophy that students learn best from engaging with living narratives. Her reasoning was that a real story would inform readers and listeners about people, events, and places more readily than a presentation of dry facts would.  

Having freshly graduated my first child, who is heading to university a year ahead of schedule, I can attest to this truth. And after binge-watching the Canadian and U.S. election processes, I am more convinced than ever that a healthy democracy and a strong civil society require a well-informed electorate. This can be accomplished, at least in part, by sharing stories. Not only can they serve to educate and inspire, as was our experience, but I believe that stories help people connect to political issues in a way that encourages them to take ownership of their democracy.  

Rather than being an abstract thing, stories make us consider what our democracy means for us personally, in our lives, and in the lives of fellow citizens. I believe that musician, writer, and video producer Sean Malone summed it up really well in his essay Why (and How) do Stories Matter? when he said: “The stories we tell each other shape our beliefs and values. Our beliefs shape our culture. And our culture shapes the societal outcomes we experience as a species.” 

Think back to your last important decision: which cause to support; which vehicle to buy; whom to vote for? Did you base your decision solely on statistics and pie charts? I bet somewhere in the process of deciding, facts surfaced that were gleaned from stories told. Perhaps the entirety of your decision was based on anecdotal evidence.  

In his essay, Malone also writes: “The fairy tales and fables we tell our children and the dramatic narratives we consume as adults have a lot of power over our thoughts, so it’s important to take responsibility—both as audience members and storytellers ourselves—for the messages and lessons these stories contain…. They can be used to provide a truthful framework for understanding factual information, or they can be used to obscure and mislead…. There are real dangers to uncritically accepting the stories we hear on a daily basis…but there’s also incredible opportunity for people who want to see a brighter future for mankind.” 

USING STORIES RESPONSIBLY 

Malone’s idea of taking responsibility for the narratives shared and consumed intrigues me, especially as it relates to the role of media in our democracy. A very obvious responsibility of media is to provide documentary storytelling, reporting, and access to information. Further, there seems to be a hyper-focus right now (and rightly so) on the responsibility of the media to provide factual information.  

On the other hand, there is the responsibility that we, as consumers, have to refrain from sharing and popularizing misinformation and disinformation posts, to think critically about what we consume before accepting it as fact, and to support and consume all levels of news networks and media platforms (international, national and local) that give accounts of the things the people in our communities need to hear.  

Never has the saying “if you don’t use it, you lose it” been more applicable than it is now to the state of our local news outlets. According to the Local News Research Project, there was a net loss of 252 radio, TV, print, and online news operations in 177 communities across Canada between 2008 and 2024. These are media platforms relied upon by organizations and the electorate to hold governments accountable on policy issues and fight against misleading information.  

In short, these outlets provide the foundation for a healthy democracy and a strong civil society, and with the closure of so many of them, citizens and organizations are turning to social media platforms to accomplish these things. Unfortunately, it is widely understood that false narratives run rampant on such platforms. Add to that the algorithmic effect, and I think it’s fair to say we have a serious issue that must be addressed, as well as a real opportunity for mainstream media outlets to fill the gap and give the electorate what social media has left them wanting—truthful information shared through real-life stories and content.  

FUTURE STORIES 

Despite the fact that social media has largely dropped the ball when it comes to providing reliable information, it never fails to entertain us and has therefore placed significant pressure on the mainstream media.  

I would suggest that media advisor Howard Homonoff of Grant and Thornton is on to something when he says: “Local media companies must redefine what they are: not just a broadcast station or a newspaper but a local media leader. It’s about delivering news, cultural information, healthcare information, and being a critical part of a local information infrastructure.” 

With my limited experience, I am not exactly sure what this looks like. Frank Albarella Jr. of KPMG suggests “a content company with a broadcasting channel, supplemented by a streaming service, a website or another online platform.”  

Another suggestion is that the marriage of content creators to local TV stations to produce local culture, history, and lifestyle shows for a livestreaming audience could be a match made in heaven. Doesn’t this sound like a slightly evolved version of CBC’s Land and Sea? I like it!  

Whatever the case, there are real stories that need telling, there is an electorate that needs informing, and there is a democracy that needs support, and the media has an essential role to play in all of the above. 

Franklin Roosevelt once said, “Democracy cannot succeed unless those who express their choices are prepared to choose wisely. The real safeguard of our democracy, therefore, is education.” And the truth of the matter is that stories educate. So, let’s liberate our culture from the falsehoods that have increasingly taken over our feeds and replace them with stories that are true and not algorithmically curated. Therein lies the power to enlighten and motivate, and while the stories shared may not provide all of the answers, or even change the world, they might just inspire someone who will.  

Perhaps it was the awareness of the power of stories in people’s lives that made me so willing to dole out the rambunctious-behaviour-inducing fare at our dinner table, in exchange for listening ears. Or maybe it was just because I love stories too.