Hail North Toronto! was a key feature of this year’s Red & Grey Day, NT’s annual celebration of athletics and school spirit. This year, each home form picked a theme to celebrate, then decorated their classroom and dressed up according to that theme. Each class sang the school song, and the different versions were then pulled together into two (mostly) spirited videos. Follow along with students in grades 9 and 12 and grades 10 and 11.
October 10 also featured assemblies, a hot dog BBQ lunch, and a performance from the school band. Of course, the day’s main attraction was a packed sports schedule, with students being dismissed early to watch different teams play throughout the day. A great day for NT sports, as the school won or tied every game: two field hockey, two boys volleyball, girls ultimate, girls basketball, boys soccer, and a football game.
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!
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:
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.
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.
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/.
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!
A Toronto City
Councillor for Ward 10 (Spadina-Fort York) since 2014, NT alumnus Joe Cressy was
re-elected in the 2018 municipal election by one of the widest victory margins
of any Councillor in the city. Although he is one of the youngest City
Councillors, he has already held various appointments, including to the Toronto
Board of Health, the Toronto Community Housing Corporation Board of Directors,
the Sub-committee on Climate Change and Adaptation, and the Parks and
Environment Committee, as well as being Toronto’s Youth Equity Advocate.
The son of former
Toronto City Councillors, Gordon Cressy and Joanne Campbell, Joe was born and raised in downtown Toronto as part of
a family whose defining values focussed on community building and public
service – values that continue to drive and define him. NT Foundation board member
Lisa Cain recently asked Joe about his time at NTCI.
As with so many others, my years at NT were a formative experience. As I think back on them a flood of memories return. Teachers, who were more like mentors, like Ms McConnachie and Ms Whelan, who instilled an interest in politics and social justice in me. Years of playing football, rugby and soccer with wonderful coaches like Mr Smith taught me the importance of teamwork. I remember the moments of student activism where I joined with fellow students to host forums and demonstrations against the war in Iraq. We were kids at North Toronto, but even then we believed we could change the world for the better. I grew-up at North Toronto. As with every teenager, it was a time of personal discovery, and not without its challenge. But as I think back, I can’t express how grateful I am to North Toronto (the teachers, coaches, students and administrators) for setting me on the path that I continue to walk down today.
