Music students from the Sudbury Catholic District School Board’s secondary schools placed high in the recent Kiwanis Music Festival and the Northern Ontario Music Festival held in Sudbury recently. Congratulations to all honourees.

St. Charles College

Once again the St. Charles College Arts Department did exceptionally well at the 60th Annual Kiwanis Music Festival of Sudbury. The festival took place from February 21 – March 5 and this year St. Charles College was proud to be site coordinator for some of the various events. Both the Percussion and Instrumental Competitions were held at SCC where students from Cambrian College, Laurentian University and other surrounding high schools competed. The school was also fortunate to host the Speech Arts Competitions for local elementary students.

Over 190 students from St. Charles College participated in one of more of the Kiwanis Festival Competitions. We are pleased to announce that the Music Department captured 29 Gold Medals and 2 Silver Medals. Of those medals various students have also won 2005 Festival Scholarships. They are Kenneth Blacklock, Tavis Lesvesconte, Brennan Chislett, Jake Soucie, and Justin Desrochers. Congratulations goes out to Brennan Chislett who was selected to perform at the Hi-Lites Concert, where he displayed his superior talent on percussion. The 60th Annual Kiwanis Music Festival of Sudbury Hi-Lites Concert featured outstanding performers from the 2005 Music Festival and special alumnae guest performers. The concert was held on March 19th at the Fraser Auditorium, Laurentian University.

The Speech Arts category proved to be successful for our Drama students as they too captured 13 Gold Medals and 2 Silver Medals. The students who competed deserve much credit as they dedicated numerous hours outside the classroom to prepare for these events and achieve success! Many thanks goes out to Michelle McQuire, Retired Major Gino Falconi, Dr. Alvin Tung, Evelyne Reid, and Sandra Cannon-Walker who adjudicated our many entries and were encouraging throughout the whole process.

The Improv Club wowed the adjudicator with their interpretation of a famous quotation from Julius Caesar. Congratulations to Nathan Boivin, Pam Chenard, Devon Cox, Ryan Gervais, Pat Manning, Amy Rienguette and Jordan Thomas for a Gold medal.

As well a talented group of grade 9 actors earned Gold for their re-creation of Mindless Conformity – an excellent play by SCC’s prolific playwright Josh Labelle. Congratulations to Justin Debreuil, Becky Fabiilli, Alex Kennedy, Trista Lamothe, Kevin Reynen, Andrew Roach, Darcy Ross, Casey Martin, Cassy Pellerin, and Jordan Thomson.

Marymount Academy

Marymount Academy displayed an impressive five Gold Medal performance in total, in both competitions; four at the Kiwanis Festival, (the Senior Concert Band claimed two gold medals while the Jazz Band, and String Orchestra each one a Gold Medal; the Senior Concert Band also had a gold medal performance at the Northern Ontario Band Festival. In addition, the Jazz and Senior Concert Bands also received an invitation to compete at the Provincial Kiwanis Festival and the National Band Festival in British Columbia later this year.

In the scholarship category, the Marymount Concert Band, Jazz Band and String Orchestra were each awarded scholarships from the Kiwanis Festival. The Jazz Band was also invited to play at the “Hi-Lights” evening held at Laurentian University’s Fraser Auditorium on March 18.

The Marymount All-Star Band consists of 11 members chosen from Marymount Academy as follows; Kyla Corelli (trumpet), Chelsey Protulipac (alto sax), Alyson Spina (trombone), Rebecca James, (trombone), Sarah Clement (flute), Collen Keaney (flute), Amanda Murray (timpani), Marla Parker (clarinet), Allison Bruneau (clarinet), Amanda Richard (bass clarinet) and Brittany Goldsborough, (double base).

Grade seven students taking part in the Enrichment Program offered by the Sudbury Catholic District School Board put their creative and critical thinking skills to work when challenged to design and build a scale model of a bobsled recently.

The knowledge and understanding of friction, drag, mass, gravity, acceleration and velocity were a must in this exercise. Bobsleds were tested on a snow-packed track designed and built by the students. The challenge provided the students with hands-on experience with the process of design including the stages of investigation, creation, and reflection.

The students thoroughly enjoyed the opportunity to trade pencils and books for hats and mitts to enjoy a great outdoor experience.

Major Julia Atherley-Blight spoke to the Marymount Academy student body on “Challenges for Women in the Military,” today at the Marymount Academy Campus. Major Atherley-Blight was invited by the college to speak to the students in celebration of International Women’s Week, with a focus on alternate careers for women.

Major Julia Blight-Atherley was born in Toronto. She graduated from the University of Toronto with a degree in Civil Engineering in 1984 and joined the Canadian Armed Forces that same year. She was later posted to the Canadian Forces Base Trenton where she served as the Construction Engineering Planning Officer and subsequently the Requirements Officer. After serving as Training Systems Staff Officer, she completed her masters degree at Queen’s University and was posted to National Defence Headquarters as an Infrastructure Development Planner.

In 2001 Major Atherlry-Blight was deployed to the Arabian Gulf Region as the Site Activation Engineer leading the construction of Camp MIRAGE, (Operation APOLLO). Later, in 2003 she was deployed to Kabul, Afghanistan as the Theatre Activation Team Engineer for the activation of the Canadian contribution to the International Security Assistance Force mission. She is currently the Deputy Commanding Officer of the Canadian Forces Disaster Assistance Response Team based in Kingston, Ontario.

Joining Major Atherley-Blight at the presentation were Lieutenant Commander Wong from the Canadian Navy, Captain Cheryl Swarbreak from the Canadian Air force and Major General Herb Petras from the Canadian Army.