Third year B.PAPM student Layla Farhat — studying at American University in Washington, D.C. this term on a Killam Fellowship — was one of the organizers of Ottawa’s New Year’s Eve street celebration, which saw almost 20,000 people gather on the Sparks Street mall to ring in 2013. The Killam Fellowship asked her to write about the experience for their website. As well as helping to put together a monster bash for the nation’s capital, Layla was also a coordinator of the Daniel Johnson Community Food Drive and Dinner at Philemon Wright high school in Gatineau, Quebec – a tradition she founded in 2007 that sees teenagers organize a day of events to welcome new Canadians to the city.