Motivational speaker, Matt John Evans captivated over 400 St. Benedict Catholic Secondary School students with his dynamic and highly interactive, “I-Drive Road Safety “ video presentation at the school recently. A boy from “small town Parry Sound, Ontario” as Matt likes to refer to himself, gave the students 70 minutes of straight talk about the consequences of drinking and driving and risky driving behaviour. “Impaired driving is the number one killer of teenagers,” stated Evans in his opening remarks to the students. “In 2002, 193 people aged 16-24 died on Ontario’s roads, 47% were driving 34% were passengers,” remarked Evans.

The one-hour presentation which included an “I-Drive” road safety video, talked students through the comical, creative and confusing world of meeting challenges. “To deal with the issues of impaired driving we have to look at the whole issue,” stated Evans. “Drinking, Driving, Decision Making, and Solutions are all part of the package that I include in my presentation to students,” concluded Evans.

The Ministry of Transportation Road Safety Office in conjunction with
Ontario Students Against Impaired Driving (OSAID), have targeted ten
communities across Ontario to launch this new road safety video. Only
two local schools in the City of Greater Sudbury have been scheduled to receive this presentation.

St. Charles Catholic School in Chelmsford is undergoing a major
renovation thanks to the dedication and commitment of the school’s
parents and student volunteers. Countless hours have been spent
painting and decorating the school’s library, including captions on the wall to help give it a bright new look. The new and improved library has become an inviting place to come and read or share a book with a peer.

In addition, repair work continues on the older section of the school with new windows and a classroom face lift. Students, parents, and staff are anxious to see the new look of the school which will be completed by this September.

Alyssa Jylha, a Grade 6 student from St. James Catholic School had a very special hair cut recently at Marymount Academy’s annual Kick Off For Cancer Campaign. Alyssa has been growing her hair for the past two years so that she could donate her locks to be made into a wig for a child with cancer. Her locks will be given to Angel Hair for Kids Organization,(a Canadian Cancer Society Organization). The community of Lively along with the staff and students at St. James Catholic School and the “INCO linemen” department showed their support for Alyssa by pledging $616.86 to the Canadian Cancer Society on Alyssa’s behalf.

Throughout the month of April, Marymount students will be canvassing door-to-door to raise money for the Canadian Cancer Society. Proceeds from the residential canvass will go towards cancer research and to provide services such as reliable information, emotional support, transportation, and support at treatment centres and lodges.

Special guests, Peter Williams, Ron Dupuis, Lyn Lebeau, Valerie Zuliani and three of the Sudbury Wolves more well known hockey players had an opportunity to address the student body. Each hockey player shared a personal life story of an individual in their family who has been affected by cancer. They also stressed how important it is for young people in the community to volunteer their time with the Canadian Cancer Society. The Marymount students have set a school target of $1,000 as their goal in this year’s campaign.

The Sudbury Catholic District School Board is proud to be a partner in the mysudbury.ca initiative and the City of Greater Sudbury’s Web portal. The official launch of the community based portal took place at Science North on Tuesday evening. A glass window into Greater Sudbury, this extensive Web portal aggregates local information and provides a way for individuals, organizations and corporations such as the Sudbury Catholic District School Board to become more involved in the community. Although this e-learning portal is widely used in Australia, a project of this magnitude has never been attempted in Canada. The Sudbury Catholic District School Board will play an integral role in the e-learning pilot project by utilizing portal technology to leverage advanced e-learning capability. The Education Portal allows all participants in the educational process to come together in an environment that fosters collaboration, communication and a community-wide interest in quality education.

Additional partners in the mysudbury.ca initiative include, Microsoft, Navantis, iPLAN Corp, and Municipal Software Corporation. The six key segments of the portal-the home page, SudburyTourism.ca, CRNet.ca, the Seniors’ Portal, The Kid’s Zone and the Youth Zone, will combine to form the complete community portal. “mysudbury.ca is a great step forward for this city,” stated Mayor David Courtemanche, who was also on hand for the official launch. “The SmartSudbury program encompasses technology related projects such Geographic Information Systems, virtual museums and e-learning pilot projects. This portal will encourage the use of technology and make Greater Sudbury a better place to live, work and raise a family by making community-based information and services more readily available,” concluded Mayor Courtemanche.

To learn more about the SmartSudbury Web portal please visit www.mysudbury.ca.

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.

Students from the Grade 12 Society class at St. Benedict Catholic Secondary School will be attending the P.A.R.T.Y. Program (Prevent Alcohol and Risk Related Trauma in Youth) at Hôpital Régional de Sudbury Regional Hospital on March 1, 2005 from 9:00 a.m. to 12:00 noon. The P.A.R.T.Y. Program is a nationally established one-day in hospital injury awareness and prevention program for youth. The program targets teens to educate them about the consequences of poor decision making in relation to risk-taking behaviours such as drinking and driving, lack of seatbelt use, not wearing a bike helmet, etc.

Students follow the course of injury from occurrence, through transport, treatment and community reintegration. During this day they interact with a team of health professionals directly involved in the care of trauma patients including paramedics, nurses, physicians and therapists.

For more information on the P.A.R.T.Y Program, please contact Lisa Veronese’s at St. Benedict Catholic Secondary School ph. 523-9235.

The 4th Annual Bears-Flames Elementary Boys Basketball Tournament was held recently at St. Benedict Catholic Secondary School. Eight teams, from both the Sudbury Catholic and Rainbow District School Boards were involved in the double elimination tournament. Wembley Public School edged out St. Francis B for the Consolation side while Notre Dame (Hanmer) defeated Jessie Hamilton (Lively) to capture the Bronze. The championship game was a nail biter; St. David had a 19-12 half-time lead but fell to a determined St. Francis A squad by a final score of 43-39. Top scorers for St. David’s were Kevin McCoshew with 14, Zack Szycliak and David Nanez with 8 while St. Francis was led by Chad MacNeil with 12, Micheal Fabris with 9 and Kersey Kalubs with 8.

MVP t-shirts were awarded to K. Boisvert of Notre Dame, Kevin McCoshew of St. David and Chad MacNeil of St. Francis for being instrumental to their teams’ success. This marks the fourth consecutive year that the Bears-Flames have played host to this prestigious tournament.. The organizers of the basket ball tournament would like to thank all participants, parents and volunteers for their support and special appreciation to the Sudbury Catholic District School Board for supplying the plaques and medals.