A promise made; a promise kept. Eleven-year-old Sakshi Shenoy sat across from Calgary Mayor Jeromy Farkas on Thursday for a meeting first promised to her months ago. Sakshi was the youngest competitor in the final for this year’s Calgary Stampede Youth Agriculture Speaking Championships. She placed second. Sakshi’s dad, Sudhir Shenoy, told her if she placed, he’d get her a meeting with the mayor, someone she looks up to very much. Turns out, Farkas loved the idea and promised the meeting would happen. He called it “a top priority.” So, this week, Sakshi and her family joined Farkas at city hall, and she offered the very message that brought her to the Grandstand Stage. “My speech was all about how our growing ‘concrete jungle’ often sacrifices our environment for economic growth,” she previously told CTV News. “With rising food prices and climate instability, we need to bring agriculture into our urban communities. “It’s important to me because my generation is going to inherit this city, and I want to make sure Calgary grows into a place that is green, sustainable and healthy for everyone.” Following the meeting, Sakshi said she felt Farkas received her ideas “very well.” She said he also told her “to always persevere.” “When he lost his mayoral election the first time, he persevered and he came back stronger the next time,” she said. “That really inspired me, and I want to be just like him.”
