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HomeMy WebLinkAboutTimes-Advocate, 1996-05-08, Page 19comm t InvTv Times -Advocate, May 8, 1996 Page 19 Excellence in public education banquet honors students -and educators HOLMESVIIJ.E - Ten Exeter area students and educators were honored at the 11th annual Excellence in. Public Education Awards banquet held at Hormesville on Wednesday, May 1. The banquet, co-sponsored by the Huron County Board of Education and Huron District 45 of the Ontario Secondary School Teachers' Federation, recognizes the hard work and dedication of students, teachers, support staff, and community members as they work together to make our schools a better place to learn. A special recognition was held to honor the late Ralph G. Wareham, :Superintendent of School, who passed away this spring. Chuck Rowland paid tribute to his friend and colleague, noting the many contributions Wareham made as a teacher, principal and superintendent. Ralph Wareham left a legacy of excellence which will benefit the children of Huron County for many years to come. Mrs. Joanne Wareham, accompanied by her daughters, accepted the award on her husband's behalf, and shared some happy memories about Ralph and his love for teaching. Laura Cooper was the proud recipient of the 1996 Marion Drysdale Award in the Grade 9 category for her essay "What the World Needs Now". Laura's essay won at the local, district, and regional levels, competing against entries from 30 other school boards. Laura's parents are Anne and Curt Cooper of Exeter. ' Five students were honored for their contributions to excellence at South Huron. Heather Davies says that "you get out of school what you put into it", and she is detennined'to make the mosk,ofiterjsigbilehookereog. Now completing her OA year, and.,_, s. maintaining excellent marks,') eather is also involved with Student Council. She has participated in a number of sports, and has also volunteered her time with the elementary school basketball clinic, coaching Grade 7 and 8 girls at Usborne. Her proud parents are Rick and Anita Davies of Huron Park. Adam Jean has packed a lot of accomplishments into his five years at Squth Huron. An outstanding athlete, Adam has placed a variety of sports and has won numerous awards from the athletic department. He was selected to represent South Huron at the Ontario Educational Leadership Camp. Adam has proven himself to be equally outstanding in the academic field, making the Honor Roll every year. As president of the Student Council Adam has worked hard to improve the school atmosphere, to make South Huron an enjoyable place for the students and staff. Adams • is the son of Jim and Beth Jean of Grand Bend. Lindsay McKay moved to Exeter in Grade 9, and felt the bestway to adjust to her new surroundings was to get involved. In her five years at South Huron Lindsay has participated in school plays, band, the field hockey team, been a member of OSAID, worked on the year books; and this year is serving as the Treasurer for Student Council. Lindsay is also a Peer Mentor, helping students adjust to high school and actively encouraging them to get involved as a way of ` enhancing their school experience. Lindsay is very proud of her participation in the Exeter ecology garden, a community project which helps produce vegetables for the local food bank. Lindsay is the daughter of Rev. Fay Patterson and Don McKay. • Anita Wein is involved in many aspects of the school community. She has served on the Guidance Support team for two years, helping grade nine students make the transition to high school. Anita has attended a number of events with the Hugh O'Brien Youth Foundation, an organization which promotes leadership development in young people, and the school has benefited from her experience. She is the Vice President of the Student Council, and writes the Panther Pages colunur for the Times Advocate which helps to keep the community informed of the many positive events in our school. Barb and Larry Wein are Anita's proud parents. When talking to Amy Zwart's teachers two common themes keep coming up. First, none of her teachers were surprised, for Amy has consistently demonstrated excellence in all her work, making Honor Roll every year. She has won the award for top OAC physical education, and has played on the school volleyball team. Amy is also a talented musician, and has played clarinet for the past five years in the school band. Secondly, all her teachers were genuinely pleased that Amy has been selected for this honor, because she demonstrates those qualities which all teachers admire, intelligence, hard work, and perseverance in the face of adversity. Amy's proud parents are Pete and Irene Zwart. Teacher Jodie Baker was recognized for her contributions to South Huron. Jodie h. been teaching for five years. She embodies \the characteristics of the best young teachers - she is hard working, dedicated, and enthusiastic about making education meaningful and complete. Jodie has <' served as staff advisor to the school w S newspaper, and coached the Junior Girls volleyball team. For the past two years she has served as the secretary to the Parent Teacher Advisory Council. Jodie =f ... was the organizing force behind the staff "Dress Down" days, raising money for the United Way. Jodie enjoys working with her students and helping them to grow in a personal sense as well as academically. She is married to after businessman Bryan Baker. ponna,144LIwain, our library received ` award for support pport staff. Shr+ arrived at the South Huron library "B.C." (before computers) and played a major role in converting the library to the computer circulation system. Donna always has a friendly smile and greeting for all the library patrons. She has developed a special relationship with many of the regular readers, who often stop to visit, seek her advice, or just want a friendly adult to talk to. She is an expert at step dancing and clogging, and has performed in and assisted with the choreography of various school plays. She has also helped teach line dancing to physical education student§. Donna does her allotted tasks with a combination of skill and humor, and sets a good example to the students. Donna resides in Seaforth with her husband Jim McLlwain. The community award was presented to Ken Ogden from Charterways Bus Company. In a rural area, where so many of our students need transportation, busses are essential to the successful daily operation of the school. For 12 years Ken has been the Branch Manager at Charterways, overseeing the 18 busses carrying approximately 1200 students daily to the high school and elementary schools in Exeter. Ken also plays an important role in extra curricular activities, providing busses for sports teams, music, field trips and other events. He helped organize the transportation when South Huron hosted the OFSSA Field Hockey championships. Without his assistance many of these activities would be impossible. The teachers, staff and students appreciate Ken's friendly manner and commitment to a high standard of safety and service. Excelllence M Education Award winners were acknowledged at their banquet May 1, 1996. Left to right, Ken Ogden, Donna McLlwaln, Adam Jean, Jodie Baker, Lindsay McKay, Laura Cooper, Amy Zwart, Heather Davie and Anita Wein. a a What the world needs now The following essay was written by Laura Cooper, a grade 9 student of South Huron Dis- trict High School. Cooper was a OSSTF Mari- on Drysdale Writing/Arts Contest 1996 region- al winner. By Laura Cooper "Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin of Israel, assassinated." "50 killed as ceasefire is broken again in Sarajevo." "Tutsi's flee ethnic cleansing in Rwanda." "Death toll climbs in Okla- homa City bombing." These are some extreme cases of intolerance. If only these people were more tolerant, perhaps these situations would not have occurred. Tolerance begins at the very basic level, with friends and family. The next stage would be tolerance within society in general. Then, national and international tolerance. The definition of tolerance in Webster's dictionary is, "the readiness to allow others to believe or act as they judge best." I think that some- times people should not have tolerance. For instance, when someone makes racist or prejudiced remarks we should stand up against them and not just accept their views. To tolerate means, "to respect the con- duct and beliefs of others without sitting in judgement on them." People are often intolerant because things that are different and things that they don't understand, frighten them. Friends and family are the basic level of tolerance. They tolerate each other's annoying habits and differences because they know the good things about them. It has been said that if there are three or more differ- ences between two individuals, it is much harder for them to communi- cate and understand each other. Some differences could be their age, race, sex, and religion. My family has learned to tolerate my dad's disa- bility. He has severe arthritis, so we often help him with different things, and have to walk slowly. I think that this has made me a more tolerant person. Our society becomes more tolerant through education. Travelling and actually experiencing different places and cultures contribute to helping people become more tolerant of each other. When we read and listen to the media, it can increase our tolerance as well. Society is very intoler- ant of certain physical features, such as obesity, short males, handi- capped people, and looking old. In general, society does not seem to make the effort to get to know these people as much as we do with those who fit the general mold. This leads to a huge health industry of reshaping people. For example, they do things like tummy tucks and face lifts to look slimmer and more youthful. In the past, society was extremely intolerant of the mentally handicapped, over the last fifteen years though, great strides have been made by integrating them into the regular school system. Seeing and associating with these people from an early age helps them to know they are more like us than unlike, and helps people to tolerate the handicapped. Adults can be very intolerant of teenagers. They say things such as "Teenagers are lazy," "all they do is party," "they look disgusting," and "they do weird things with their hair." Thank goodness, people who work with teenagers, like teachers seem to realize that most of us are trying our hardest to succeed in difficult times. People are also intoler- ant of young children and babies crying in public. For instance, when a couple is out for dinner, they hate to have kids whining and babies cry- ing in the background. This intolerance can be overcome by realizing that the children/babies are not doing this to ruin the evening, but just because it is their nature to behave this way. I think that Canada is a very tolerant country. For instance, Canada's Official Opposition (Bloc Quebecois), is a party whose main purpose is to break up our country. In Canada we have multiculturalism, which recognizes different cultures found in Canada and educates Canadians about , ,I $ : le toleri}nce for th differences. lip ,• out the refe- r. a Que,-- ,, •s wishes. While the Quebec Government is intolerant of English in their province, one can find examples of tolerance in Quebec, too. When my brother was on a trip in Quebec with our grandparents, they found the people there more than willing to speak English, and incredibly helpful. Although there are many examples of intolerance internationally, there are also signs of increasing tolerance. The Internet, which allows universities and research scientists to communicate across the world, for the betterment of mankind is helping to find cures for diseases and other problems at a much faster rate than if they worked independently. International communications, such as satellites for television, are now able to show people around the world what other people and places are like. In Europe, they are planning an economic unity, with one currency and free movement of pebple and goods. Therefore, becoming a "super nation", and creating tolerance throughout the countries in Europe. A number of other parts of the world are joining into economic trading blocks with free trade agreements for the benefit of all the countries. Hopefully, this will lead to better understanding among them. Creating tolerance is a never ending project. There is much done, and much more to do. Whether we are talking to our brothers and sisters at home, our fellow Canadians in Quebec, or someone on the World Wide Web, tolerance begins with you and me. Live history with a futuristic twist LUCAN - Rain or shine, the May 11 production of A, Ride Back in Time will highlight aspects of the area's history and fture from the 1830's to 2015, featuring 40 to 50 local performers. The audience will be transported on wagons along the village race- track to witness five-minute theatrical reenactments based on scripts written by organizers John Leverton, Linda Thompson and Mike Anderson. "It's almost like a merry-go-round," said Anderson of the event that involves nearly 100 volunteers including Lucan and Area Her- itage Committee members as well as Scouts and Guides. "It's a ma- jor production." Originally the committee, which is hosting the performance, had hoped to use hay wagons in keeping with the historical theme. With wagons needed for planting season however, trucks became a more practical means of towing audience members and wagon conductors/ commentators. The 11 historical skits include The Railroad Question, The Sport of Kings, The Morning After, A Night at the Opera House, a bare knuckle fight, a tribute to veterans and A Wilberforce Conversation, which features a direct descendent of the era. The audience then moves to Market Street Park where a futuristic skit is followed by music and refreshments. "That will give the audience an opportunity to meet with the ac- tors," said Anderson, adding "There will be copious amounts of ad- libbing" in this form of "highly organized spontaneous entertain- ment." "It was very much a community effort...People are doing things they never thought they'd do," said Leverton, adding most of the performers are beginners. Leverton became chair of A Rade Back In Time through writing a book about the Wilberforce Settlement, the history of black es- tablishment in the Lucan area in the 1830's. Advance tickets are available in Lucan at Clarke'/ Food Mart at $5 for adults and $3 for children aged six to 12. Preschoolers are free. For more information call 227-4204 or 660-4062.