Parent Engagement Team Celebration

Last evening we had the privilege of celebrating our year-end with members of our Parent Engagement Team (PET). Many members were in attendance and many recognized for their contributions to our students, staff, school and community. Sara Severin has been our PET Chair for the past two years and has worked diligently and faithfully to sustain the excellent work that is still being done with our parents and caregivers. Celine Steeves, our School Chair has also worked very hard to ensure that members of our parent community have a voice and has ensured that many special events and speaking engagements have been offered to members of our school community over the past two years. Shannon McDonald has led our Tuesday at 10/7 Program, which still continues to thrive and provides an excellent network and helpful resources for our parents. Bonita Kent has been a very important leader with our Ridge Cares Program and her role has been an integral one in support of our students. Our Public Health Nurse, Nicholle Russell has spent the past year with us and has been another vital  member of our team. These five amazing individuals will be graduating and moving on to other endeavours next year but have sought out others to step into their place. This sustaining and building of capacity for our PET bodes well for our future as our team continues to promote and support our work at Iroquois Ridge High School. At this time I would like to pay tribute to all of the members of this year's Parent Leadership Team and thank them for their committment and dedication on behalf of all of us: Celine Steeves, Sara Severin, Fozia Rehman, Shannon McDonald, Penny Smith, Kathy Cancilla and  Bonita Kent. Your caring manner and investment of heart and soul is greatly appreciated.We will soon be announcing members of our new Leadership Team and know that they too have the enthusiasm, skills and abilities to carry on  the continued support of our students, staff, school and community. We are very fortunate at "The Ridge" to have such an amazing school community and the involvement of our parents and caregivers makes us a stronger school community of which we are fondly grateful.

Torch of Life

Today we had a unique opportunity during the lunch hour to welcome Khaled Khatib and the "Torch of Life" to our school. Many members of our school community were present to greet him as he continues on a 75 city/town tour of Ontario to bring awareness about organ/tissue donations. Joining Khaled via Skype was Helene Campbell, a 21 year old recipient of a double lung transplant. Helene had a chance to speak with our students, staff, parents and program leaders about her experience from the perspective of being a recipient of this "gift of life". This interaction was very special for us as we truly marvelled about Helene's courage and her enthusiasm in speaking candidly about her story. Khaled's 110 day journey will  culminate in Toronto on June 19th, where the "Torch" will be brought to Helene at the Toronto General Hospital at 12:30pm for the final journey to Queen's Park at 1pm, where Helene will cross the finish line.Helene will be passing the "Torch" off to Nancy Salvalaggio, who is still waiting and in need of a double lung transplant. We were proud to meet with Helene and Khaled today and will watch closely on the 19th. The "Torch of Life" is an initiative founded by George Marcello, who is also a transplant survivor. George has made his life's mission one of bringing awareness to organ/tissue donation over a 16 year campaign. His goal, as is Khaled's and Helene's for us all to consider registering as organ and tissue donors so that others will receive the same chance to enjoy a healthy future with friends, family and loved ones. The "Torch of Life"  journey has also inspired many transplant recipients and those who are waiting and in need of donations. It was a pleasure to host this event today at "The Ridge" and we thank all who participated.

Banquet of Champions!

This year has been a phenomenal one for Ridge Athletics. Right from the "get-go" our teams and student athletes have been successful at the highest level of competition in HSSAA (Halton Secondary Schools' Athletic Association) action, regional and provincial competition. Tonight we celebrate the achievements of our athletes and coaches at the annual Athletic Banquet sponsored by our Healthy Active Living Team. Having an excellent final week of student athletics, our athletes came fresh from both Halton and OFSSAA (Ontario Federation of School's Athletic Association) finals. Matt Vivolo and Jeremy Lee played on Centre Court at the Rexall Centre/York University where they finished 4th in OFSSAA competition. Both our boys' and girls' baseball teams won silver medals in the Halton Championships. Our Junior Boys' soccer team lost a heartbreaker to Loyola Secondary School 1-0 in Halton Finals competition.To perform so successfully for the full year and to finish so strong is an amazing accomplishment for our school. Special thanks to all of our coaches in 2011/12, congratulations to our talented student/athletes and special thanks to all of our students, staff and parent community who came out to support and cheer on our Trailblazers. When we look to 2012/13, the future remains bright for continued success for Ridge Athletics! Way to go everyone....you have represented our school with stellar athleticism, class, determination and pride!

Athletic Update!

We are heading into the home stretch for our student athletes and coaches for 2011/12. Recently, we have had tremendous success on the track, on the field, on the diamond and on the courts. Our Track & Field Team had their best showing in years with 57 athletes participating in regionals and pre-OFSAA competition. Many personal bests and medals resulted from the excellent efforts of our students representing Grades 9 - 12. Our soccer teams have had excellent seasons with our Junior Boys heading into the Halton championship today against Loyola, while our girls finished up their stellar play in the Halton semi-finals, losing to Notre Dame. Our Senior Boys also represented our school in fine fashion and gave it all they had in each and every game. Playing on the tennis courts right now at OFSAA are Matt Vivolo and Jeremy Lee. The boys won their first two matches yesterday and are heading into the championship round today at York University.On the baseball diamond, both our boys and girls are headed into the Halton Championship Finals. Our boys play today against
Corpus Christie and our girls play in the finals this upcoming Thursday versus Christ the King. This is an absolutely fantastic showing by our athletes who have played at the highest level in their sports, achieving phenomenal results.We wish all of them and their coaches the best of luck in championship competition.Go Ridge Go!!!!