Macdonald High School Alumni Association

Please take two minutes  — 90 years later.  http://www.terry-kelly.com/

WE WILL REMEMBER THEM 

In a new magazine called Zoomer, that hit the stands in September, our Dayle Haddon is featured on the cover of the November issue. 

“… model Dayle Haddon, 59-year-old wrinkles and all, is the November cover girl.” (Hey, wrinkles are proof of age and with age comes wisdom; or so we’re told!)

http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/news/arts/story.html?id=eb78ee63-bb53-4f7f-b874-7312575fadd6

We 65′ers remember Mac’s Christmas variety show in which she donned a cat costume and danced to the music of Alley Cat http://www.celestill.net/the_alley_cat_song.htm .  It was a very professional performance and we weren’t surprised to see her modelling for the Sears catalogue and later placing (5th) in the Miss Teen Canada Pagent. 

-Vivian Bruce

Graduation exercises for the 2007-08 year were held October 3rd in the high school auditorium and it is with great pleasure that we introduce you to the two recipients of the MHSAA Award for Student Leadership in School Volunteer Work. Each $500 award was made possible through YOUR alumni donations and the fund-raising activities held during the Centennial Celebrations of May 2007.  It is this committee’s aim to present a similar award to one deserving student for several years to come.

Mike Angrove (our awards committee lead) and I attended the function; Mike presenting and I photographing (with thanks to Wendy Ethier of Mac for securing a front-row-centre vantage point in the audience for me!).  We were bowled over by the number of students who were recognised for academic achievement and absolute commitment to betterment of the school.  We were so proud of our newest alumni.

In addition to the monetary awards, the MHSAA presented the school with a 10 foot flag pole with school flag, which will be mounted over the front door of the old building. We’ll post a photo when it is up and flying!

In line with MHSAA application standards, the teachers and principal, who knew the students best, selected the following two deserving students: 

Dear Awards Committee,
What a wonderful award! Thank you so much for giving our students this opportunity! The following young ladies are great examples of young people who achieve not only top quality academics but somehow find the time to help their school become a better place; all the while doing so with patience, compassion and a smile for their fellow students.

They are to be commended. The MHSAA Centennial Award does just that!

Kimberley Giroux

Kimberley Giroux is a perfect example of a great volunteer. She is reliant, giving, kind, smart and always willing to “jump on board”. Kimberley has been a member of our community service group Do Unto Others for her entire stay at Mac and has shown great dedication and commitment to our volunteer activities. These activities include the planning of our tea parties for Senior citizens, Christmas parties for mentally and physically challenged children, parades, open house evenings and just about every event that has taken place at our high school. When I say “jump on board”, Kimberley really does jump on board. She has taken part in our Christmas parade riding on our float in extreme weather conditions, always with great humour and a caring hand for the younger team members. Kimberley has been a constant on our Macdonald High School Honour Roll and a very active tutor in the Mac Tutoring Program. 

We are proud of Kimberley and know that she is very deserving of the MHSAA Centennial Award.

Katrina Shea

Katrina Shea is just about perfect! Katie has been an integral part of Mac’s student volunteer activities, co-chairing student council and being a leader in our community service group Do Unto Others. She has been a key player in every Do Unto Others event for five years and sometimes we wonder what we will do without her! Katie won Zonta’s Jean M. Coon Humanitarian Award, recognizing young women who have shown a significant contribution to the service of others in their school or community. She has done all of the above while maintaining an above average grade. Katie has a reputation at Mac…she is sweet, kind and just an all around nice girl! The commitment and dedication she has exhibited in so many of Macdonald High School’s activities, matched with a great personality, make her an ideal candidate for the MHSAA Centennial Award.

-Vivian Bruce

GO MAC! GO!! 

Earth Hour was a huge success in Canada. One household at a time, one business, one town…and so it goes.  As my dad used to say, “It’s the peanuts that feed the elephants”!

http://earthhour.org/take-action/business-supporters/Canada/

Word has it that if everyone turned off their lights for one hour, the year’s carbon footprint would be reduced by 22,290,910 pounds, which is equivalent to sparing 400,000 trees and reducing the amount of carbon dioxide released into the atmosohere by 8.4 million pounds. 

Visit http://www.wwf.ca/earthhour/ and join in on a positive initiative that will give old Mother Nature a hand.

May 16-18, 2008

THERE WILL BE A REUNION / GOLDEN ANNIVERSARY PARTY

AT DORSET ELEMENTARY SCHOOL, IN BAIE D’URFE. 

Please drop in for a visit, leave a footprint and take the virtual tour at

http://dorset.lbpsb.qc.ca/

Organizers are looking for elementary school photos to display at the reunion.

Do you have any?

Would you like to share them? 

If so, please scan them as jpegs and e-mail them to:

 http://dorset.lbpsb.qc.ca/

Sunday, May 20th, 2007, marked a turning point in Mac’s history.  We officially entered the second centennial of our existence.  To mark the occasion, MHSAA has produced a commemorative album with photos, anecdotes, speeches and sweet memories of the ceremony.  Anyone wishing to order a copy is welcome to contact me at vivian.bruce@gmail.com and we can proceed from there.  

Canadian orders will be honoured upon receipt of a $50 cheque; postage and packaging included. Costs to reprint have increased since first edition. 

International orders, please add $5 for postage. 

The Chronicle  BY ALBERT KRAMBERGER

editor@transcontinental.ca

Macdonald High School principal Jim Aitken has been chosen as one of the country’s top principals this year by The Learning Partnership and the Canadian Association of Principals.

Aitken, an educator since 1970 and Mac’s principal for seven years, was one of 33 named as Canada’s Outstanding Principals for 2008. The program, now in its fourth year, honours contributions promoting quality education in publicly-funded schools across the country.

“It’s very flattering,” Aitken, 61, said of the award.

Mac High’s governing board chairman has nothing but praise for the Ste. Anne de Bellevue school’s top administrator.

“He’s an outstanding administrator,” said Robert Hamel, a Pincourt resident. “He always has the welfare of students at heart.”

Hamel added Aitken has done everything from living up to the zero tolerance policy for violence to getting involved with students one-on-one. “You see him in the halls and at special activities and at teacher’s night,” he said. “The kids know him and they’re not afraid of him.”

Aitken is very transparent with governing board members and is open to answering queries from parents, Hamel said, adding he’s had nothing but “full co-operation from the school’s administration dealing with any issues.”

Meanwhile, Aitken said his main focus as principal has been on student success. He said he’s not looking for quick solutions but wants students to “learn how to learn.”

“I want them to take ownership of their education and to get their parents into it as well,” he said.

“I don’t want students to accept lower marks in Grade 7 or 8,” he added.

As part of the Outstanding Principals initiative, Aitken and the other winners will participate in a five-day leadership training program in late February in Toronto. They will be formally honoured at a gala on Feb. 26. For more information, check www.thelearningpartnership.ca.

… a happy healthy Holiday Season and the best of everything for the New Year.

The minutes from the November 17 General Meeting are now available HERE.