Five grade 5-8 classes in the city had the opportunity to win a Discovery Mining tour April 30-May 4 through a poster contest for this year’s Sudbury Mining Week – and one of the winners was Thomas Crowther. Crowther, a grade 6 student at St. Raphael Elementary Catholic School was excited to have been chosen as a winner. His teacher, Kevin Krystia said that it was a hard choice selecting one poster to submit for his class, but ultimately it was Crowther’s that he thought would be the best submission. “The poster truly reflected the theme of Mining Week – Mining and technology for the next generation,” Kristia stated. “Thomas’s poster depicted mining in the past, present and in the future – showing mining on Mars. This was great as it not only related to the theme of Mining Week, Thomas was also able to connect to space and space exploration which is part of the grade 6 curriculum. ” Crowther was happy that his classmates also got to enjoy in his prize – a trip to Dynamic Earth for the entire class which took place on Friday, March 4th.
Category: Arts
“Score!” – Sudbury Catholic Receives Significant Funding to Support Music Programming
The grade 8 students at St. Benedict donned their coats and waited by the door for the vehicle from St. John’s Music in Toronto to arrived jammed packed with goods. Getting ready to unload their order, their teacher, Leanne Urso, couldn’t stop herself from grinning – “Its like Christmas!” exclaimed Urso. Both Urso and St. Anne’s vice principal, Joanne Comisso applied for some funding back in June to support the board’s music programming. Successful in their grant application, both staff members received word that the Sudbury Catholic Board would be receiving $20,000 worth of musical instruments and other music paraphernalia from MusiCounts. MusiCounts is a music education charity associated with the Canadian Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences, working towards keeping music alive in schools across Canada. This specific grant, called the Band Aid grant, speaks to their mission of ensuring that children in Canada have access to comprehensive music programs through their schools, regardless of socio-economic circumstances. On Friday, September 30, MusiCounts held a press conference to announce this year’s recipients of these grants nationwide, with the help of Ed Robertson of the Barenaked Ladies, as well as Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield. A total of $600,000 was distributed to over 80 school communities across the country. Sudbury Catholic was the only recipient in Northeastern Ontario successful in their grant application.
Both Urso and Comisso conduct the elementary Sudbury Catholic concert band, which is comprised of grade 7 and 8 students from St. Anne, St. Raphael, Pius XII and St. Benedict. This band, which practices separately in their individual schools, come together on several occasions throughout the school year to perform as one. With the arrival of new instruments and music programming material, both Urso and Comisso were overjoyed with the success of their application. “We are both so passionate about music,” Comisso stated. “This arrival of instruments and materials is a huge, huge addition to our programming, and we are so fortunate.”
Barry MacDonald, Chair of the Board for Sudbury Catholic echoed Comisso’s comments. “ What an outstanding accomplishment for our Board. This substantial delivery of musical instruments etc., is a direct result of the hard work and dedication of our staff,” MacDonald stated. “The passion that drives our staff to offer our students more, directly impacts these students, and allows our staff to deliver above standard programming.”
Upcoming concert dates will be announced in the near future with the band performing in and around the city, with their brand new instruments.
Celebrating Poetry Month at St. Benedict
St. Benedict grade 7 students Lexis Costanzi and Kelsey Currie prepare by doing warm-up exercises before performing their poetry on stage for Toronto-based poet Tanya Neumeyer. Performance poetry is written especially for an audience. In this case, the students will be presenting their original creative writing pieces for their classmates. Recently, the students were inspired by Neumeyer’s spoken-word workshops in which she taught them performance skills such as stance, gesture and tone.
Another Golden Year at Kiwanis for St. Charles College
The music program at St. Charles College struck gold again this year in all three of its music categories. Concert choir, the concert band and the guitar ensemble all took home gold standings at the Kiwanis Music Festival. The guitar ensemble received a high gold – which places them in the 90% or above range in their musical abilities.
This is the second year in a row that the high school has taken gold standing in all divisions.
Choir and Concert band director Shannon Coyle says “I am very proud of my students and their achievements this season. This is a true testament to their hardwork and our music program at St. Charles College.”
St. Paul Captures Gold at Kiwanis
The St. Paul the Apostle primay choir under the direction of Ms. Kristine Shewchuk and accompanied by Ms. Christina Begin was awarded a Gold Award and a mark of 89 at the Kiwanis Music Festival on Tuesday April 3, 2012. This young group of children sang “A Song of Peace” by Teresa Jennings. The adjudicator wrote “I am thankful to have heard you today! Keep singing!” The staff, students and parents are very proud of their commitment and dedication to their school choir.
Cardinal Artists Participate in “Emergence” Art Exhibition
Each year, students from across the Sudbury district submit their best artwork to be chosen for the annual juried art exhibition known as “Emergence”.
This year, Ms. Stenabaugh and Mrs. Simpson, at St. Charles College would like to congratulate seven art students whose works were chosen for the show.
Congratulations goes out to:
Stephanie Mills
Renee Abate
Evette Marcolini
Kate Zanetti
Brittany Hayward
Abbie Trotheir
Claudia Lachance
The free show runs from 7-9 p.m at the Art Gallery on John Street. The display ends April 8th.
Sixth Place Finish for St. Charles College Improv Team
SCC’s Improv team competed at the 2012 Sudbury Regional Improv Games Thursday, February 8th and placed 3rd in the preliminary rounds. This qualified them for the Wild Card Round on Saturday, February 10th. After a very talented showing, the team placed 2nd and, unfortunately, missed the finals and placed 6th overall in the tournament. Team members are veterans ETHAN ROY, ALISON SMITH, and COLIN LAGACE and new this year are SHELDON DAOUST, BLAIRE MICHAUD, COLE THOMPSON, SEAN LYNOTT, MARC GREENE, and BEN CORTOLEZZIS. Most of these students have had roles in past SCC drama productions. Team Coaches Nancy Daoust and Angela Hodgins are extremely proud of the team performance and their dedication. We are already looking forward to next year’s Improv season.
Cardinal Takes on Lead Role in Popular Production
Dante Falcioni, a grade 9 student at St. Charles College will be taking centre stage next week. Dante is the lead role in Cambrian Theatre’s Kid’s Curtain production of Footloose which gets underway December 8th.
Dante will play main character Ren. The high school student must move from Chicago to a small farming town and re-adjust to life at a new school. Dante says he can relate in some ways to the character as he is just entering his first year of high school and had to transition to a new school himself.
Dante has been involved in Cambrian Theatre productions for a number of years. His good friend and school mate Jenna Daypuk will also be joining him on stage as Rusty. Jenna says the two get involved in local theatre because “they learn a lot and have fun while doing it.”
The Footloose production goes until December 17th.
St. Mark Students Earn Top Prizes in Royal Canadian Legion Remembrance Day Contest
Students at St. Mark Catholic Elementary School participated in this year’s Royal Canadian Legion Remembrance Day Literary and Poster Contest. This contest heightens student awareness of the sacrifices made by our veterans in various conflicts including our present day involvement in Afghanistan.
Two St. Mary students – Mathieu Sisk and Tyler Kotanko both won prizes in this year’s contest. Tyler placed first in the Junior Essay as well as second in the colour poster and second in the black and white poster contests. Mathieu placed first in the primary colour poster and third in the black and white poster contests. Both Tyler’s essay and Mathieu’s poster will advance to the Zone competition for further judging.