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.

Teams from all four of the City of Greater Sudbury’s school boards took part in the girl’s and boy’s Early Bird elementary basket ball tournament hosted by St. Francis Catholic School over two consecutive weekends recently.

In the girl’s division, first place honours went to Carl A. Nesbitt Public School, second place was awarded to MacLeod Public School while Marymount Academy finished third. In the boy’s division, Landsdowne Public School took first place honours while St. Francis Catholic School and St. David Catholic School teams finished second and third respectively.

This marks the seventh consecutive year that St. Francis Catholic School has hosted the tournament involving all four boards and 14 schools. The organizers of the basket ball tournament would like to thank the Sudbury Catholic District School Board, all participants, parents and volunteers for their support in helping to make both tournaments such a huge success.

The Sudbury Catholic District School Board in conjunction with the
Ontario Teachers Insurance Plan (OTIP) played host to a Smart Kids Child Safety presentation recently at Corpus Christi Catholic School. Robin MacDonald, Marketing Manager for OTIP (adjacent photo), illustrated a number of key safety tips that students should be aware of through the use a highly informative video which included a “talking dog.” The presentation was followed by a question and answer period which helped students to learn about such topics as;

• Home Smarts – How to stay safe when students are home alone
• Street Smarts – What to do when they are approached by a stranger
• School Smarts – What children should do if they are being bullied at
school
• Internet Smarts – How to keep safe in a virtual world

“As a result of this video program, thousands of elementary teachers and pupils will have access to this valuable learning resource,” stated Robin MacDonald, OTIP’s Marketing Manager. “In this latest session, students watched different scenarios followed by brief discussions to help them relate to potentially dangerous situations. The ultimate goal of the Smart Kids Child Safety Program is to allow the students to develop the awareness and confidence required to keep them safe, whether it be at home, school, on the street or on the internet.”

In addition to providing each school in Ontario with a free copy of the video, OTIP consulted with several elementary teachers to develop
primary and junior level Smart Kids lesson plans. The free videos have been made available thanks to the Sudbury Unit of the Ontario English Teacher’s Association (OECTA) and OTIP.

The Sudbury Catholic District School Board hosted a “BridgeAtSchool”
presentation at St. Andrew Catholic School recently. Chuck Crispin and Doug Foreman, the facilitators of the “BridgeAtSchool” program gave a short presentation to the Grade 5 students in the school’s library and introduced the children to the game of bridge. The objective of “BridgeAtSchool” is to create enthusiasm for learning with a variety of teaching approaches. According to the school’s principal, “Teaching bridge to the students helps improve their short-term memory retention. The game of bridge brings together logic, communication, social competence and decision making in a unique way.”

Rossella Bagnato, Superintendent of Education for the Sudbury Catholic District School Board noted that the additional benefits to the “BridgeAtSchool” program are tremendous. The game helps students increase scores in math, further develops critical thinking and social skills, allows children to learn at their own pace in the midst of a larger group, involves children with their local community and provides opportunities for school spirit through inter-school competitions. St. Andrew Catholic School is one of two schools in which the “BridgeAtSchool” program has been introduced. St. James Catholic School in Lively will be hosting the program for a second time later this year.

Students, parents, family, friends and staff of the Sudbury Catholic
District School Board’s elementary schools, secondary schools and
parishes helped to contribute more than $270,000 to Development and
Peace in support of the victims of the tsunamis in South East Asia in a major fundraising campaign. Bishop Jean-Louis Plouffe of the Diocese of Sault Ste. Marie called for a special collection to be taken up in all the parishes of the diocese this past weekend. All regions of the diocese demonstrated their generosity by collectively raising over $450,000 to aid victims of the earthquake and tsunamis.

In addition to the $270,000 raised by the districts of Sudbury-Manitoulin, the North Bay-Nipissing region contributed $88,000, while the Sault Ste. Marie Algoma region added a further $90,000. In similar fashion, the elementary and secondary schools of the Sudbury Catholic District School Board initiated their own fundraising events ranging from the donation of pizza money, bake sales, dress down days, special prayer services followed by silver collections and numerous other activities. Funds raised by the Sudbury Catholic Board totaled over $15,000. The funds collected by the schools and parishes have been donated to Development and Peace and will be matched dollar for dollar by the Federal Government.

Development and Peace has just recently opened its regional office in
Sudbury, located at 30 St. Anne Road. Fleur Hackett, a teacher on leave from the Sudbury Catholic Board has been selected as the facilitator for the Sudbury office to serve the dioceses of Hearst, Moosonee, Sault Ste. Marie, Thunder Bay and Timmins. “The office couldn’t have opened at a better time,” stated Hackett. “At the moment, people across North America are looking for the best way to offer assistance to those affected by the disaster in South East Asia. Our efforts will be coordinated with contributions from other countries, the United Nations, and from the Catholic Church’s social welfare network throughout Asia. All of these resources help to ensure that contributions for the Southeast Asian relief will be used intelligently and effectively,” said Hackett.Bishop Jean-Louis Plouffe celebrated mass at the Sudbury Catholic Board to pray for victims of tsunamis. Development and Peace as of late yesterday had received $9.5 million to date for the urgent appeal, according to Bishop Jean-Louis Plouffe of the Diocese of Sault Ste. Marie. “Channeling donations through the schools and parishes gave
people the opportunity to manifest their usual generosity,” stated the
Bishop. The Bishop also noted that Development and Peace as been
working in Asia for more than 30 years and for this reason, this unique organization can count on the support of an active network of partner groups, their staff and resources in each of the countries to assist victims of this terrible disaster.