The North Toronto Foundation has launched the Norse Club, a new monthly giving program. Whether it’s $50, $25 or $10, your monthly monetary gift that will help the Foundation continue its mandate of supporting current students at NT by providing scholarships and grants. Click here to learn more!
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1989 reunion
A 1989 reunion will be held on Saturday June 22 at 5pm at the Rose and Crown . More details to follow.
Reunion Announcement: Calling All Members of the Class of ’69…
To celebrate “50 Years Later”, exciting plans are in the works to hold a Class of ’69 reunion this coming October. At this point the exact timing and location of the event is TBD although the tentative plan is to hold a dinner event at a Toronto venue and include a visit to the new school.
To make sure you don’t miss out, watch the NTCI Foundation website for more information and/or contact any of the organizing committee:
- Michael Tzekas: mtzekas@gmail.com
- Liz Driver: liz.driver@sympatico.ca OR liz@campbellhousemuseum.ca
- John Gillies: john.s.gillies@gmail.com
- Dana Taylor: danamooret@gmail.com
- Glen Jones:glenjonesdesu@gmail.com
NTAC Spikeball Tournament
Cancelled for 2019
- Only $25 and YOU Too can Be Part of the Action!
- Tickets on sale NOW! Get YOURS TODAY!
- https://opensports.ca/posts/ntci-spikeball
- Questions, please email: NTSPORTS@gmail.com
Looking for NT’s Entrepreneurs
Are you an artist, writer, musician or inventor? Have you established your own business specializing in a unique product or service? If so, we would love to hear from YOU!
To further support NT alumni and share the many different career paths NT grads take, the Foundation is initiating a new feature highlighting entrepreneurial alumni. If you have started a venture that you would like to share with fellow alumni, please send a note to entrepreneurs@ntcifoundation.ca. We will get in touch with you and do a short Q&A to post on the website along with a brief bio, photo, and your business contact information.
Our first featured entrepreneur is Bernice Lum (‘82)
Bernice Lum (’82): An NT Entrepreneur
After graduating from North Toronto, Bernice studied graphic design at Sheridan College. Following her graduation from Sheridan, she freelanced at several Toronto design companies as well as CityTV. In 1988, she relocated to London, England where she continued to freelance for design consultants. With more design work being done by computer, Bernice decided to do the other thing she loved to do…draw! In recent years, her career as an illustrator has taken her in many directions. She has published over 50 books and has clients in North America and abroad. In addition to illustration, her unique “bowling pin” characters are adding to her success story. Foundation vice-chair Lisa Cain recently spoke to Bernice about her creations.
You have a great body of work behind you but most recently you have been having great success with your bowling pins. Tell us a little bit about how that started?
The shape of the bowling pins emulate the human form in a fun caricature way so I decided to use the pins as my diary of sorts. The inspiration to use bowling pins came from the story of when my oldest brother, Charles, was born. On that day, my mother was at Women’s College Hospital and on that very same day, my father had a Bowling Tournament Final, so he went to play while my mother was at the hospital. When Charles was born, the hospital called the bowling alley to tell my dad the news and celebratory cigars were bought for everyone at the bowling alley. The idea to work with the pins was to pay homage to my brother who passed away seven years ago and my father who passed away just three years ago.
Your bowling pins were featured at PULSE Contemporary Art Fair in Miami in December. Congratulations on a SOLD OUT show. How has this new notoriety changed your life?
Thank you and it was so very unexpected to have all the pins sell out. As for the notoriety… I wouldn’t say there has been notoriety, but I will say that it has definitely helped my trajectory, my confidence and [provided] a lovely confirmation that the work I am doing is connecting with people.
Thanks to Bernice for sharing her story; to contact Bernice or find out more about her work, point your browser to: www.bernicelum.com and https://galerieyoun.com/en/artists/bernice-lum.
Internship Request
Recently, the Foundation was contacted by a 2018 NT grad seeking a summer internship opportunity (May to August). She is currently completing her first year at the University of Western Ontario in engineering and is specializing in mechatronics, which is a combination of software, mechanical and electrical engineering. She stated that she would be content to be involved with something directly related to her field of study or in any professional workforce that would help her gain experience and diversify her skills. If you are able to provide such an opportunity or know of someone who could, please contact Foundation chair Ron Wakelin (rwakelin@utschools.ca); he will put you in contact with this very promising grad.
Editor’s Note: At the Foundation’s last meeting, the receipt of the above request sparked a discussion of how the Foundation might be a platform for connecting established alumni with current students/recent grads. If you are interested in providing mentorship, internship or other career enhancing opportunities to other alumni, please contact Ron Wakelin at the above address.
Saving Our Heritage – The Scholarship Winners’ Photographs
Editor’s note: For the past number of years, the NTCI Foundation’s archivist, Nancy Baines, has been working on a labour of love – the cataloguing and digitizing of the University Scholarship Winners’ photographs. In the following article, Nancy shares this journey.
If you attended NT any time prior to the 1990s, you will probably remember the rows of scholarship photos that lined the main wall of the foyer. Discretely framed, with five faces to a frame, these photos of former NT university scholarship winners, displayed our bragging rights to academic excellence from 1919 to 1986 when this practice was discontinued. Sometime in the 1990s, these photos were taken down and carelessly stored anywhere that space could be found for them. Some were piled in the back of the auditorium under the stairs, others in the former “kitchen-cum- archives room” in the basement and still others were placed in the boiler room and caretakers’ room. There they languished until it was decided to build the new school.
When I took over the care of the archives, I did not realize that the photos were so unloved. But eventually, realizing that something had to be done to preserve them, I appealed to the TDSB’s conservationist for advice on how to take better care of them. Needless to say, 348 framed photographs took up too much space to properly store them in their frames. So, several months before the big move, I had the caretakers comb the school to locate all the photos. Then I removed them from their frames, carefully noting the information about them. Fortunately, I also had a typed list that a former secretary had kept of the winners. After destroying the frames, I got some pleasure in smashing the glass to little pieces, wrapping it and putting the whole mess out for the garbage. But no more could be done until well after the move. Then I took on the chore of scanning the photos and placing the pictures themselves into binders, recording each name and scholarships won. All this has been done to the best of my ability and now four large binders are available for anyone who would like to see them. We also have a USB key with the scanned photos.
However, much to my dismay, some of the framed photos never resurfaced when we went looking for them in 2010. The following photos / scholarship information are missing:
- 1964: Susan Lederman, Douglas Long, Warren Milne, Glen Patterson, Peteris Zvilna
- 1965: Francis Aboud, Jacqueline Constam, Georg Gunther, Lorraine Koffman, Sheldon Larry
- 1969: Wendy Wayling (although listed as having no photograph)
- 1971: Paul Eprille, Ingid Jarvis, Jan Shapiro, Dianne Short, Martin Snelgrove, Marilyn Thomson
- 1981: Peter Chan, Helen Ferrigan, Stephen Ko, Christopher McLeod, Paul Quinn
- 1982: Michael Armstrong, Peter Wan
- 1983: Jill MacDonald
I have scanned and enlarged the yearbook photos for the students listed above. They are fuzzy but better than nothing. If anyone has information about the scholarships these alumni won and/or a copy of their scholarship photos, I would appreciate hearing from you. Please contact me at: ntcifoundation@ntci.on.ca.
Your Dollars at Work!
Each fall and spring for the past few years, the NTCI Foundation has held a “Dragons’ Den” where current student groups present their requests for funding. This event allows for a direct connection between alumni and current students, ensuring that the Foundation is supporting the proposals that contribute to a vibrant experience for all NT students. This year, the 2019 spring edition of the Foundation Dragons’ Den was a spirited affair with several groups important to NT student life, Graffiti and PALS, stepping up to make their respective cases.
With the current Graffiti editorial computer now 10 years old, the newspaper’s energetic business team made a compelling presentation about the need for a replacement. Their argument was strong and full funding was allocated. The grant will allow the editorial team to continue the tradition of producing an award-winning student newspaper for their fellow NT students.
The Peer Assistance Leaders, or PALs as they are known in the school, were the second group to make their funding appeal to the Foundation Dragons. The organization of 131 members, which helps transition Grade 9 students to high school life, was looking for financial support for a variety of initiatives. These included mentorship workshops, holding pizza “breaking-the-ice” lunches with the Grade 9s and buying additional vests/t-shirts to identify members of PALS as approachable and friendly faces to whom young students can reach out to. The PALS reps made a convincing case and secured their requested financial support, thus ensuring that the students in the 2019/20 NTCI Grade 9 class will be welcomed and supported.
To show your “graditude” to NT and support student groups of today, please donate to the NTCI Foundation: https://www.canadahelps.org/en/charities/north-toronto-collegiate-institute-foundation/.
Ralph Halbert (’48) (1930-2018)
On December 4, 2018, Canada lost a noted visionary and philanthropist, Ralph Halbert. Born in Toronto in 1930, Ralph graduated from NTCI in 1948 having been both a strong student and athlete. He went on to attend the University of Toronto, graduating in 1954 with a degree in dentistry, and continued his studies at the University of Chicago in Illinois, specializing in orthodontics. He practiced in Toronto for about ten years but gradually reduced his practice to focus on real estate developments. He and his partners established Glen Corporation, which developed residential communities, business parks and commercial developments throughout the GTA, including Bayview Hill in Richmond Hill and, in conjunction with Cadillac Fairview, the Promenade shopping centre in Vaughan.
With the success of his business dealings, Dr. Halbert began to giveback, as he made sizable contributions to educational and innovation programs in Canada and Israel. Deeply committed to the value of higher education, he believed in the importance of innovation and how that could be achieved through collaboration between universities across national boundaries. According to Janice Stein, founding director of the Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy at the University of Toronto, “It has taken the world 25 years to catch up with Ralph Halbert’s vision… His great achievement was to bring together networks of scholars.”
Ralph was a board member of Fulbright Canada, an educational exchange between Canada and the U.S. but was best known for his work fostering connections between Canada and Israel. In 1977, as the President of the Canadian Friends of the Hebrew University, Ralph and his wife Rosyln established the Programme of Canadian Studies at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Renamed The Halbert Centre for Canadian Studies in 1995, the centre “fosters research and promotes the understanding and knowledge of Canadian civilization in all its aspects among Israeli academics and the public at large.” (Dr. Halbert discussed his work with the Centre for Canadian Studies in an interview posted on YouTube, http://www.cfhu.org/video/the-halbert-centre-for-canadian-studies-at-the-hebrew-university-of-jerusalem-building-bridges).
At the University of Toronto’s Munk School, Dr. Halbert sponsored the Halbert Exchange Program, promoting collaborative research between the University of Toronto and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem through the Halbert Network Fellowship for young faculty, the Halbert Postdoctoral Fellowship and the Exchange Program for graduate students. He and his wife also supported scholars through the Roz and Ralph Halbert Professorship of Innovation at the Munk School’s Innovation Policy Lab.
In 2012, Ralph Halbert demonstrated his support of Jewish Studies by establishing the Ralph & Roslyn Halbert Fund for the Centre for Jewish Studies to support the exchange of ideas in the areas of classical Judaism, Jewish thought and philosophy, Jewish history and modern Jewish culture. However, his philanthropy was not confined to areas of scholarship as he was a co-founder of Ramat Hasharon Israel Tennis Centre in Israel that encouraged both Israeli and Arab children to learn respect for one another through playing tennis.
In Canada, Dr. Halbert was one of the early backers of the Canadian Open tennis tournament (now known as the Rogers Cup) at York University. He and his wife were also supportive of filmmaking and were early financial supporters of the Festival of Festivals (now known as the Toronto International Film Festival). Also interested in the visual arts, the Halberts were both benefactors of the Art Gallery of Ontario as well as the Canadian Museum of History in Ottawa. Ralph lived a rich and full life for 88 years and leaves behind an everlasting legacy as an exemplary family man and philanthropist who truly made an impact.
Save the Date: An NT Athletics Fundraiser
In an effort to “Connect the Past with the Present to Build Towards the Future” in support of North Toronto Athletics, an event is being held on April 25th 2019 at Safari Bar and Grill to connect alumni, staff and current NT parents. The event promises great food, good friends, celebrity alumni and a Silent Auction as well as a memorable gift for every ticket holder!
Help us maintain and further the legacy of sports success stories at North Toronto–tickets are only $30.00. Get your ticket and you too can be part of the action!
For more information and tickets:
https://northtoronto.snapd.com/events/view/1138475
