SHOWCASE - Fall 2014

SHOWCASEFALL 2014
F.U.E.L.
Igniting Girls
to Succeed
Hollo Maple
Farms
Working
Together for a
Better Niagara
MATT VINC
The Making
of a Champion
Amy Ball
A Journey of
Discovery
Fr. Jim Mulligan, CSC
Great Strides From
Humble First Steps
A Caring
Canadian
Grade 8 Student
Receives National
Award

6 |
Film
Cover Story
Educating for Justice Fr. Jim
Reflects on the Meaning of Pilgrimage
4 | The Girl on the
Screen
Emily Stranges a
Familiar Face
Social Justice
8 | Cross-Cultural
Professional
Development
Dominican Teacher
Learns About Life in
Canadian Schools
9 | From Portsmouth
to Port Colborne
Dominican Students
Experience Life in the
Great White North
10 | In Their Words
Students Share Why
Pilgrimage is a Don’t-
Miss Event
12 | Funds Raised
Pilgrimage 2014
Students Share Why
Pilgrimage is a Don’t-
Miss Event
Sports
14 | One on One with
Matt Vinc
Teacher, Coach,
Professional Athlete
16 | F.U.E.L.-ing
Success
All-Girls’ Club
Supports Physical and
Mental Health
19 | One on One with
Makia Hunt
On Track for Success
Interest
20 | The Desire to
Make a Difference
A Chance Meeting
Changed Amy Ball’s
Life
24 | Being the Change
Stephanie Kennedy
is a Caring Canadian.
She Has the Certificate
to Prove It
25 | Local Woman
Student of
Global Health
Kaitlin Saxton Works
Toward a Career in
Global Health
Cover and inset
photos: Father
Jim Mulligan, CSC,
founder of the Notre
Dame Pilgrimage,
poses in the chapel at
Notre Dame College
School in Welland.
Father Mulligan
remains involved
in Notre Dame's
Pilgrimage nearly 40
years later.
Photos: Kevin Grant
and Jonathan Lau,
Notre Dame College
School
27 | Chemsabe: Cancer
Warrior
Cancer Changed Alana
Sommerville. But it
Didn’t Stop Her
Community
31 | Local Love
Garden Project
Schoolyard Garden
a Labour of Love for
Lydia Tomek
34 | Building
Communities
Sam Iftody’s Farm is
an Outdoor Classroom
SHOWCASE
Last spring, the communications
team at Niagara Catholic came
up with a daring idea. Why
not create our own magazine
to share good news articles
and uplifting stories with the
community?
We’re pleased to say the first
issue of Showcase was a
resounding success. We received
many phone calls, emails and
comments from people in our
school communities – and
across Niagara at large – saying
how much they enjoyed reading
about our students, staff and
alumni and that they eagerly
awaited the next issue.
The wait is over.
We are proud to share with you
the second issue of Showcase,
which once again features
inspiring stories about our
students, staff and alumni. In
this issue of Showcase, you will
read about individuals testing
their limits and overcoming
adversity, sharing their unique
gifts and talents with others,
and doing good at home and
around the world.
As we pledged in our first issue,
this edition of Showcase will
entertain, enlighten and inspire
you. We hope the stories you
read will linger with you and
will serve as a reminder that
Catholic education is alive and
well in Niagara and is a positive
force within our community.
The communications
team
© 2014 Showcase is
a publication of the
Corporate Services
and Communications
Department of the Niagara
Catholic District School
Board. Visit us at
www.niagaracatholic.ca
2

One on One with
Emily
Stranges
The Girl
On-Screen
By Julianna Garofalo
For Emily
Stranges, a
Grade 12 student
at Saint Michael
Catholic High
School, life is just
like the movies.
At only 17, her
filmography
includes
approximately
10 short films,
six Public Service
Announcements,
five commercials,
four music videos
and one feature
film, including a
cameo in Disney’s
Camp Rock and
a starring role
alongside My
Big Fat Greek
Wedding’s Louis
Mandylor. Meet
Emily, and get the
buzz on this up and
coming actress.
When did you get started
in acting?
When I was three years old, I
would make up little plays at
home, re-enact movies, and
sing songs from the Disney
musicals. I nagged my parents
until they finally started to
take me seriously. Eventually,
when I was 10, I got my first
agent.
What are you best known
for?
I think most people would
recognize me from the
commercials I did for the
Family Channel.
I remember those! They
were on in-between
shows.
Yeah! People would ask me
“Emily, is that you?” and I
would say “Nope! I have a
twin.” Before those aired, no
one knew I was an actress. I
felt like Hannah Montana (the
fictional character played by
Miley Cyrus on the Disneyproduced
tween program)
taking off her wig for the first
time.
What other projects have
you been a part of?
I have gotten to work on a lot
of amazing sets. I especially
loved shooting a campaign
for Mother’s Against Drunk
Driving (MADD,) a movie
called Tension(s), and a short
film named Damian.
The MADD project, Shattered,
was shot in a flipped-over car
that was held up by a crane.
I was able to meet and talk
with people who have been
affected by drunk driving.
It was such an eye-opening
experience. It was shown
in high schools all over the
country, so I was very proud
to be a part of it.
Tension(s) was my first
feature film. I played Louis
Mandylor’s daughter and
went through basic combat
training, which was really
cool. A few months ago, it was
shown at Festival De Cannes
in France. It was really well
received. In fact, it was picked
up and sold to a production
company that wants to release
it.
And Damian was a thriller
about a family of four who
move into a new house. To
explain the scratching sounds
we hear at night, I tell my
little brother that a boy named
Damian lives in the walls.
Then... actually, I shouldn’t
give it away! For that role,
I won an award at MIFF
(Mississauga Independent
Emily Stranges is
an aspiring actress
who has already
performed in a
number of TV shows
and movies.
Film Festival) for Best Female
Actress.
What have you been
working on recently?
I just finished another short
film about two sisters and the
impact depression and suicide
has on a family.
Also, not too long ago, I
booked voice work for the
first time. I recorded PSAs
for the Canadian Women’s
Foundation about human
trafficking, child prostitution,
and sex trade. They can be
heard on television, radio
and in theaters nationwide. I
am glad to have helped raise
awareness.
Do you enjoy watching
yourself act? How does
your family react when
they see you on-screen?
I am my harshest critic. It took
me a really long time to learn
how to watch as an actress
watching another actress
instead of me watching
myself.
My family is extremely
4

Emily Stranges
confers with Director
Martin Bennett on the
set of The Ray-Gun: A
Love Story, in 2013
Photos supplied by
Emily Stranges
supportive. Earlier this year
my entire family was in the
audience for the filming of
The Ray-Gun: A Love Story. I
had my first on-screen kiss in
the film and I could see my
dad with his hands over his
eyes for the scene.
What is the best part
about being an actress?
What is the worst part?
I love escaping into a
character. I didn’t feel like
I belonged anywhere until
I became an actress. Acting
is something that I love and
something that loves me.
But, it is a really tough
business. It has definitely
made my skin a lot thicker.
Depending on the time of
year, in a week, I memorize
up to five scripts and go to
three or four auditions. Once,
I wore a loose-fitting shirt to
an audition and afterward
the casting director emailed
my agent saying I was “a little
thick around the middle” and
that she couldn’t even pay
attention to my acting.
How do you deal with
such cruel rejection?
I learned at a very young age
that if [someone is] trying to
bring me down to my lowest
point, it’s really going to
bring me to my highest point
because it only makes me
want to prove them wrong.
Where did you learn that
lesson?
In elementary school, I tried
to keep my acting a secret
because I knew the other kids
would tease me. One time,
I did a music video for the
song, Little Bird by Hexes and
Ohs and some girls found
the video on YouTube. They
paused it and took screen
shots. At times my face looked
funny and set them as their
profile pictures on Facebook.
Stupid things like that!
But now I know how to make
the best out of hate. For
example, I used to struggle
with crying on camera. I
couldn’t open up until I learned
to let the torment count for
something and channel it in a
way that made me stronger.
What is next for you?
I want to continue to grow
and improve. I am now a
member of the Alliance of
Canadian Cinema, Television
and Radio Artists (ACTRA)
and I was accepted to the
prestigious acting school,
Pro Actors Lab in Toronto. I
attend weekly classes. David
Rotenberg, the same teacher
who coached stars like
Rachel McAdams and Scott
Speedman, mentors me.
I would also love to study
producing, directing,
cinematography and screen
writing after high school. I am
very passionate about music
as well.
Wow! What instruments
do you play?
I sing and play the ukulele,
guitar, piano and saxophone...
and the spoons. [Laughs] Just
kidding!
What advice can you
offer to aspiring actors/
actresses?
Be yourself, be committed and
work hard. Acting requires
a lot of sacrifice. I can’t hang
out with friends or go to
parties because I have to run
lines or be on set. I spend my
money on new headshots,
dialect classes, and workshops
instead of shopping sprees.
But, I don’t feel like I am
missing out because I am
doing what I love.
What do you hope to
accomplish in your acting
career? What is your
main goal?
I know it sounds cheesy, but
my main goal is to be happy
and make other people happy.
Do you want to be
famous?
It honestly doesn’t matter. I
just want to enjoy my career.
Nothing compares to the
feeling of the director calling
“... Sound, Speed, Lights,
Camera, Action!” It’s my
favourite thing. I love it. ■
5

Educating
for Justice
By Father Jim Mulligan, CSC
My first assignment as
a Holy Cross Father
in 1969 was to teach
religion and French at
Notre Dame College School
in Welland
In 1976, after a sabbatical
in France to advance
my studies, I returned
to Notre Dame to teach
religion. I proposed to
the principal and several
key teachers at the school
the idea of a pilgrimage
– a holy walk. The idea
had been percolating
in my mind since my
studies in Paris, where
I had participated in a
pilgrimage, walking with
university students from
Paris to the magnificent
cathedral of Chartres.
was very taken with the notion of
I a pilgrimage as metaphor for faith
and life. I imagined three pillars that
would serve as a foundation for such
an endeavour: Fundraising to support
projects in a developing country,
witnessing to faith and educating for
justice.
The fundraising effort of Miles for
Millions, a Canadian campaign
launched in 1967 to raise funds to
alleviate world hunger, had ended,
creating the opportunity for a similar
initiative to assist the developing world
from here in Niagara. The idea was
simple: Pilgrims would raise money
for each kilometre they walked, with
the money raised divided between
supporting a Holy Cross mission
in Bangladesh, India or Peru, and
The Canadian Catholic Organization
for Development and Peace.
The faith experience is the second
pillar of the pilgrimage.
pilgrimage is a faith experience, a
A walk to a holy place. As Niagara
does not have a shrine for Pilgrims to
walk to, another location is designated
as the holy site. Once there, pilgrims
participate in Mass. In most instances,
this is the school gym, although pilgrims
from Denis Morris Catholic High School,
Holy Cross Catholic Secondary School
and Saint Francis Catholic Secondary
School in St. Catharines each walk
from their individual schools to the
Market Square in downtown, where
they share the Eucharist and walk in
solidarity, before returning to their
own schools after lunch. In Niagara
Falls, Saint Michael Catholic High
School and Saint Paul Catholic High
School take turns hosting the event.
At Notre Dame College School, where
the Pilgrimage originated, a candlelight
service is held at the end of each walk.
One flame becomes many, as light
is spread throughout the assembly.
Educating for justice is a vital piece of
the pilgrimage experience.
The preparation for the walk that
takes place in the school and across
the curriculum in the weeks leading
up to Pilgrimage Sunday is the third
pillar to the pilgrimage experience.
Over the past 39 years, a different
question of justice and peace has
been presented, giving students the
opportunity to reflect on Catholic
social teachings. By pondering these
questions, students develop critical
thinking skills that encourage them to
think beyond what they see or read.
It is important to show people how
modern society often makes it easy
to stray from gospel teachings; and
equally important to impress upon
students the way in which we are all
interconnected and interdependent,
making us responsible for one another.
Nearly four decades have passed
since the first Pilgrimage took place
in Welland. Thousands of miles have
been walked in support of people in
developing nations around the world.
That it has withstood the changing
times, and grown to become one of
the most anticipated dates on the
school year calendar proves it is a very
important part of life in our Catholic
high schools. It is also very important
to the communities that have benefitted
from some of the $2.6 million raised ■
6

Fr. James T.
Mulligan, CSC
...
Education
University of Notre Dame, Indiana
(Philosophy)
Gregorian University, Rome
(Theology)
Institut Catholique, Paris
(Matrîse in Catechetics)
University of Toronto, Toronto
(Doctor of Ministry)
...
Ministry
Religious Education Teacher
25 years
Faith formation for educators
Ontario
Catholic education and evangelization
Lectured Canada-wide
Education and social justice portfolios
Congregation of Holy Cross, Rome
Pastor of St. Kevin’s Parish,
Welland, ON. 9 years
Associate Pastor, St. Kevin’s
January 2014
...
Author
Evangelization and the
Catholic High School – 1990
Formation for Evangelization – 1994
Catholic Education:
The Future Is Now - 1999
Catholic Education:
Ensuring a Future - 2005
Catholic Parishes and Schools
Working Together - in progress
...
Recognitions
Niagara Catholic District School
Board Catholic Educator Award of
Distinction
Fellow of St. Mary’s University
College in Calgary, Alberta
7

Cross-
Cultural
Professional
Develpment
By Gregory Daniel, Teacher
at the St. John’s Academy,
Portsmouth, Dominica
Our trip to Canada
earlier this year was
a dream come true, not
only for the teachers and
students who participated,
but for St. John’s Academy
and its administration,
whose vision it was to
commence a robust school
exchange program shortly
after the school opened in
September 2012.
Canada came as a natural choice
since we already had a relationship
with the Niagara Catholic District School
Board; particularly with Lakeshore
Catholic High School in Port Colborne.
Jason Benoit, a teacher at Lakeshore
Catholic, and his wife Amber, who
teaches at Saint Michael Catholic High
School in Niagara Falls, lead students on
a three-month co-operative experience
to Dominica every other year, and have
become very close and trusted friends
to all of us at St. John’s Academy.
Our close relationship with the Benoit’s
made preparations on the Canadian
side seamless. After taking care of
arrangements back home in Dominica,
it was time to embark on what would
turn out to be a tremendous experience
we will all remember for a lifetime.
There was so much excitement
from our parents, students and
school community when our principal,
Dr. Juliana Magloire, announced
that everything was in place for our
exchange trip to Lakeshore Catholic.
On April 22, my colleague, Kathleen
Frederick, and students Aaranthi
Joseph, Daisy Charra, Kyra Ettiene,
Chari Peter and Denzel Alfred and I
arrived in Toronto and made our way
to our “home” community in Niagara.
8
Members of the school community at the St. John's Academy in Portsmouth, Dominica,
travelled to Niagara in April, to visit Lakeshore Catholic High School. Lakeshore
Catholic has a strong tie with the school, walking for many programs in the community
during the annual Pilgrimage.
It took us some time to get used
to the cold – in Dominica, it seldom
drops below 80 degrees. When
we arrived in Canada, it was barely
above freezing. But the warmth of our
new friends and colleagues at Lakeshore
Catholic kept our spirits high,
even if the temperature was low.
Our stay in Canada was filled with so
many uplifting educational, spiritual
and recreational activities. Our students
attended class from Monday to Friday
for three weeks, and were delighted
and excited by the opportunity to learn
in a different educational system. The
science students in particular were elated
that they were able to use high-tech
equipment which they are otherwise
not exposed to back home in Dominica.
The experience was made even better
by the kindness of Lakeshore’s principal
Mr. Glenn Gifford, Mr. Jason Benoit
and the rest of the staff. We are grateful
to them, and to the students at Lakeshore
Catholic, who welcomed us so warmly
and made us feel like we were at home.
Of course no visit to this part of Canada
would be complete without a
visit to the world-famous Niagara Falls,
and all of the fun attractions in that city.
We also visited the St. Catharines
Museum and Welland Canal Centre,
which was a great experience as we were
able to learn a bit about Canada’s history.
We just wish we had seen one of those
big ships go through the Welland Canal.
As the saying goes, “All good things
must come to an end,” and all too
soon it was time to return home. We
are so grateful to the students at Lakeshore
Catholic who raise money for our
community during their annual Pilgrimage,
and for the strong tie we have to
the school through the International
Co-operative Experience Program.
We hope that others from the
St. John’s Academy will share
in this wonderful learning experience
in the future. Thank you to everyone
from Niagara Catholic, who
worked so hard to make this trip such
an incredible experience for us. ■

Dominica
Dominica is a lush, tropical island in
the Caribbean. It is approximately
751 square kilometres in size,
or less than half of the size of
the Niagara Region. Its capital
is Roseau. It is a Parliamentary
Democracy, and laws are based on
English law.
Dominica has a population of
approximately 73,450 (as of
July, 2014), with an average life
expectancy of approximately 76.5
years.
Public school education in Dominica
is free and education is mandatory
between the ages of 5 and 15
years. Ninety-four per cent
of the population is literate.
Education is based on both the
British and North American school
systems.
English is the primary language
spoken in Dominica. The majority
of residents – about 61 per cent –
are Roman Catholic.
The average income in Dominica
is $14,600.
Dominica’s economy is based
largely on agriculture, in
particular, on bananas. The
government has sought to diversify
the economy in recent years, and
has sought to make Dominica
a destination for ecotourism. It
has also developed a successful
offshore medical education sector,
and is attempting to develop a
similar program for the financial
sector. In addition, the government
has plans to sign an agreement with
the private sector to harness the
island’s volcanic base to develop
geothermal energy resources.
Sources: The CIA World Factbook,
The United Nations Development
Program and the Education
Encyclopedia.
From
Portsmouth
to Port
Colborne
By Aarathi Joseph, Student
at the St. John Academy,
Portsmouth, Dominica
In October 2013, the
students of Lakeshore
Catholic High School
visited our beautiful
Caribbean island. Besides
volunteering throughout
the community of
Portsmouth, the 20
students and Mr. and Mrs.
Benoit visited our school
to make a connection
between my school,
the St. John’s Academy
and Lakeshore Catholic
High School, which has
supported our community
for many years. Our class
planned social activities
with the exchange
students and decided to
have a moonlight picnic
on the Purple Turtle
Beach, in Portsmouth.
Now, it was our turn to
visit Canada!
From the time the principal of our
school, Dr. Juliana Magloire, stepped
into our classroom to announce that
an invitation had been extended to the
students of Form 4 to visit Lakeshore
Catholic High School in Ontario,
Canada, the room immediately became
filled with excitement and enthusiasm.
Could that be really happening? Was
this really an invitation to visit a school
in Canada? WOW! We are going to have
an experience of a lifetime.
Travelling from such a small
Caribbean island to a much larger,
more developed country was quite
overwhelming. We had already
anticipated that life in Canada would be
drastically different than our life on the
island, and we were anxious to begin
our new adventure.
From our arrival at the airport in
Toronto, to the end of our three-week
visit, we were treated with nothing but
care, kindness and warmth by everyone
we met. The students, teachers and
staff of Lakeshore Catholic High School
never allowed us to feel like outsiders,
or that we did not belong. They took any
and every step possible to make us feel
comfortable. We made new friends and
adapted to the new school environment
and learning methods easily.
We were amazed by the differences
between our school day and
a school day in Canada. We were
also surprised by how much bigger
Lakeshore Catholic High School is than
the St. John’s Academy. There are many
more students at Lakeshore Catholic,
and also more facilities (an auditorium,
gymnasium, laboratories and library),
along with more advanced technology
available for use by the students. We
also had to adapt to attending fewer
classes during the day than we are used
to, and having classes that last much
longer.
Exchange programs may be common
in other parts of the world, but not
in Dominica. My classmates and I,
along with the teachers who sacrificed
their time to accompany us, were
truly blessed to be graced with this
opportunity, as we were one of the first
on the island to engage in a program of
this sort. We are very privileged to have
had this advantage. ■
9

in their
words
Students speak out about what
the pilgrimage means to them
“To me, Pilgrimage represents our
school as a team; working together
for the good of our global community.
We combine our talents, skills, and
faith to create something meaningful.
Pilgrimage represents unity; our
world as one family.”
daniela lozano,
Grade 9, Blessed Trinity
Catholic Secondary School
...
“Pilgrimage means helping people
who are unable to stand up for
themselves, and making sacrifices
for the benefit of others who are less
fortunate.”
anthonie korstanje,
Grade 10, Blessed Trinity
Catholic Secondary School
...
“To me, Pilgrimage is an opportunity
to be the answer to another person’s
prayers. We all have hardships
and struggles in our lives, some
much worse than others. For us, it
is so simple to wake up and walk
the Pilgrimage, yet it means so
much to those who live in Haiti and
Guatemala. Pilgrimage is my chance
to make a change that has minimal
sacrifice for me but maximum
reward for others. That is the goal of
a life lived in service of others.”
“Pilgrimage to me is coming together
as a community to make a significant
change in the world around us. It
is sacrificing a morning of rest to
participate in a walk that is nothing
compared to the distance people
in many places around the world
have to travel for school, fresh water
or medical care. Pilgrimage is a
humbling experience that leaves us
endlessly thankful for the blessings
we have in life.”
sarah solorzano,
Grade 12, Denis Morris
Catholic High School
...
“The Pilgrimage means so much
to me; more than getting five
community service hours or talking
and walking with friends; it is
an opportunity for personal and
spiritual growth, as well as inner
change. This is truly one time a year
where I feel personally fulfilled, like
I have done God’s work. Nothing else
gives me this feeling of happiness
and pride like walking in the
Pilgrimage because I am making a
difference as a young person, and
showing others that young people
can make a difference.”
miriam gohar, Grade 10,
Holy Cross Catholic
Secondary School
...
“For me, Pilgrimage is the coming
together of my friends - all of them,
old and new, from all grades - coming
together for a common cause.”
jennifer torres
velasquez, Grade 10,
Holy Cross Catholic Secondary School
...
“I think that participating in the
(Pilgrimage) is a great opportunity
for students to give to those in need,
and participate in an activity that
contributes to a better tomorrow.
As the youngest of three kids, I grew
up hearing about the walk and the
impact it left on my older siblings.
Having met students from Dominica
last year, I really believe that our
direct connection with the people in
Dominica have impacted their lives
in a positive way.”
michaela bodis,
Grade 11, Lakeshore
Catholic High School
...
“(The Pilgrimage) is a chance for all
of us to come together as a family, not
just as a school community, but even
with our brothers and sisters from
Dominica. (Pilgrimage) is a chance to
connect and embrace the things we
can accomplish as a whole.”
taya sorge, Grade 12,
Lakeshore Catholic
High School
...
“It is not so much what the
Pilgrimage means to me, but what
it means to the people it supports.
To them it means food, water,
education. To them it means hope
and opportunity. It means a small
amount of effort for me, but it can
mean the world for someone in need,
and that is what the walk means to
me. That is why I walk.”
shirley andrews,
Grade 11, Notre Dame
College School
...
meagan flus, Grade 12,
Denis Morris Catholic High School
...
10

“Pilgrimage is a tradition that I
am proud to be a part of. To me,
Pilgrimage is a way to show our
solidarity with those in need in our
world. By walking we are promoting
justice and making a change in
the lives of others and we are also
creating a tighter community here
at home. It makes me feel good to
know that I am helping to make a
difference.”
alex diPaola,
Grade 11, Notre Dame
College School
...
“Pilgrimage brings the Saint Francis
community closer together every
year. We join together to raise
money and awareness for people in
need. It gives us a chance as Catholic
students to help other kids in need
around the world.”
leah d’aloisio,
Grade 11, Saint Francis
Catholic Secondary School
...
“Pilgrimage means raising money for
families in need and putting a smile
on their faces. It means bringing our
schools together as one to accomplish
miracles. Pilgrimage means giving
kids around the world the same
opportunities as us.”
gavino oresta, Grade 12,
Saint Francis Catholic
Secondary School
...
“Every year I walk the Pilgrimage
because it gives me a chance to be
with my friends while bringing
awareness to our community about
people in Rwanda. It is important to
me to be a part of something that is
bigger than myself and my friends.
By participating, we are showing that
we truly care about the world around
us.
Our small walk represents the steps
that our brothers and sisters in other
parts of the world have to take just to
get access to resources that we take
for granted, like water, healthcare
and education. My participation
in Pilgrimage and on Pilgrimage
Committee is a way to connect me to
others, even those living on the other
side of the world.”
megan lee,
Grade 11, Saint Michael
Catholic High School
...
“Being a part of the Pilgrimage
means seeing beyond the borders
which divide us, and connecting with
people in another part of our world
in order to help them overcome
their difficulties. Personally, my
experiences on the pilgrimage
committee over the past three
years have allowed me to expand
my sensitivity to the struggles of
the Rwandan people. In turn, I
can now educate others to carry
on this movement in the context
of our Catholic Faith. As a result
of my involvement, I have grown
intellectually, emotionally and most
importantly, spiritually.”
austin ferguson,
Grade 12, Saint Michael
Catholic High School
...
To me, Pilgrimage isn’t just an
opportunity for community service
hours or a chance for free pizza. It’s
about having the opportunity to help
my school’s sister school in Haiti.
A chance to give back to those less
fortunate, to help make a difference.
Sure it’s on an early Sunday morning
and there’s a 10-kilometre walk, but
it’s worth it because the walk we do
isn’t as bad as the walk for the kids
in Haiti attending school. I’ve walked
Pilgrimage since my Grade 9 year
and I’m always excited for the next
one. I can’t believe this year will be
my last Pilgrimage in high school. It’s
only one early Sunday morning that
can make a difference for a number
of children.”
janella tutanes, Grade 12,
Saint Paul Catholic High School
...
“For me, Pilgrimage is a journey
to help the kids in Haiti with their
education and a better life. It is an
opportunity to make a change in
the world, but most importantly
an opportunity to put my faith into
action.”
angelo calanog,
Grade 10, Saint Paul
Catholic High School ■
11

funds
raised
pilgrimage
2014
blessed trinity
Catholic High School
Amount raised: $18,000
Number of Participants: 500
denis morris
catholic high school
Amount raised: $13,000
Number of participants: 480+
holy cross catholic
secondary school
Amount raised: $15,000
Number of participants: 350
lakeshore catholic
high school
Amount raised: $13,000
Number of participants: 400+
notre dame
college school
Amount raised: $35,000
Number of participants: 650
saint francis
catholic secondary
Amount raised: $40,000
Number of participants: 480+
saint michael
catholic high school
Amount raised: $16,500
Number of participants: 350+
saint paul catholic
high school
Amount raised: $18,600
Number of participants: 500+

One on One with
Matt Vinc
Teacher, Coach,
Professional Athlete
Matt Vinc, a Niagara
Catholic alumnus
and current teacher,
stands with the
World Championshipwinning
Team Canada
Lacrosse team. Vinc
was one of four
captains of the team.
Photo supplied by the
Canadian Lacrosse
Association
14

Meet Matt Vinc.
He’s a Niagara
Catholic Alumni
Physical Education
and Food and
Nutrition teacher
at Denis Morris
Catholic High
School, member
of Canada’s Men’s
National Field
Lacrosse Team
and Rochester
Knighthawks
Lacrosse Team
in the National
Lacrosse League
(NLL).
Matt shares with
us why he loves
Canada’s National
Summer Sport
(declared so by
Parliament with
the passage of the
National Sports
of Canada Act in
1994) and what
it brings to his
experience in the
classroom.
What made you get into
it?
I am the youngest of three
boys. My brothers’ friends
were playing in the Canadian
championship and I went to
watch and got hooked.
What teams have you
played for?
I grew up playing for the St.
Catharines Athletics. Then I
got a lacrosse scholarship at
Canisius College in Buffalo
and from there, I was picked
up by the San Jose Stealth
in the first round of the
NLL draft. I have played for
the New York Titans and
Rochester Knighthawks in the
National Lacrosse League.
I have also played for team
Canada’s field lacrosse team
in 2006, 2010, and 2014. I also
play lacrosse in the summer
league in Ontario for the
Peterborough Lakers.
Tell us a bit about some
of the high points of your
career.
There are a few, but
winning the Minto Cup
for the Canadian Junior
Championships twice, in 2001
and 2003, is definitely up
there. I was also a member
of Team Canada in 2006
and 2014 – years we won
the World Field Lacrosse
Championships. I was also a
member of the silver medalwinning
team in 2010. I also
played on the team that won
the World Indoor Lacrosse
Championship in Prague,
Czech Republic, in 2011.
It’s also exciting to have been
a part of the Knighthaws
for the past few seasons,
as we have won the NLL
Championships in 2012, 2013
and 2014.
What are some of the
lessons you have learned
from playing lacrosse?
Playing lacrosse has taught
valuable life lessons, such
as the importance of time
management, hard work
and dedication, and the
importance of being part of a
team.
When I was in high school
at Holy Cross I played Junior
B hockey, ran cross country,
played senior basketball,
played travel field lacrosse,
and Junior A lacrosse.
During this time several of
the teams overlapped and I
had a busy schedule. It was
during this time that my mom
said I would only be able to
continue to do this if I stayed
on the Honour Roll. She
taught me that if I wanted to
be a student athlete, I had to
be a student first.
How has it enriched your
life? Have any of those
lessons spilled over into
your teaching career?
Playing lacrosse has taught
me to work hard in all aspects
of life. I feel that growing
up in sport prepares you to
succeed in the workplace
as all the qualities of a good
teammate go hand in hand
with that of being a good
colleague. I always wanted to
be successful in the classroom
and on the playing field. Now
as a teacher, my students
are my number one priority.
It may lead to marking
assignment in airports, or
on the road but it is just like
when I was younger, and did
homework on the road. As
a teacher and coach, I feel it
is my responsibility to pass
on that message about the
importance of having a strong
work ethic to my student and
athletes.
How many more seasons
do you expect to play? Do
you foresee coaching as
part of your future?
I think every athlete will
continue to play as long as
they can positively contribute
to their team. It may be 2,
3 or 5 years but I definitely
think sports will continue
to be a big part of my life
after I have finished playing.
Because of sports, I have
travelled all over the world,
made many friends and have
lasting memories. It has
introduced me to my fiancé
and has opened my eyes to my
vocation of a job in education.
When I was in university I got
into coaching. I instantly saw
how much I enjoyed working
with the kids and seeing them
improve throughout the year.
Then I made connections
with some of my favourite
teachers I had at Holy Cross
and I wanted to become the
positive role models that I had
growing up. ■
15

F.U.E.L.-ing
Success
It’s a tricky business,
being a teenage girl.
There’s peer pressure to
look the right way, have
the right friends and
be involved in the right
activities.
Saint Michael Catholic
High School acquired
new spin bikes
through a grant
obtained by the
Females Using Energy
for Life (F.U.E.L.)
Club.
There’s school pressure;
the expectation that
you will be the perfect
student or, if you can’t
be the perfect student, at
least not cause trouble
for your teachers and
administration.
And there’s pressure from
families, who expect their
daughters to have good
manners, good marks
and a good attitude, while
trying to balance it all.
Some days, it’s more than
a girl can bear.
That’s why the F.U.E.L. (Females Using
Energy for Life) program, which began
at Holy Cross Catholic Secondary School
in St. Catharines under the leadership
of Regional Public Health Nurse Kendra
Harle, is so successful. It is now available
in four Niagara Catholic secondary
schools.
Harle’s experience working with teenage
girls made her certain of one thing:
When girls had an outlet for stress and
pressure, in a safe environment where
physical activity was encouraged, they
made much better choices.
“The idea was to empower girls to
participate in physical activity, and to
give them an environment that’s noncompetitive
and all-inclusive,” Harle
said in mid-October, at a F.U.E.L. event
at Saint Michael Catholic High School
in Niagara Falls, where the program is
also active. “The reason I wanted to
16
develop this program is because it’s allencompassing.”
The F.U.E.L. program is simple: Once a
week, female students in Grades 9-12
join together to participate in a fitness
activity. One week it could be yoga or
pilates. Another week it could be Zumba
or boxercise.
On this day, Harle had just joined about
a dozen female students and a few staff
in a spin class, led by Saint Michael
teacher Jennifer Guglielmi. Guglielmi
teaches spin classes at the Niagara Falls
YMCA and is the leader of the F.U.E.L.
program at Saint Michael. She recently
helped the school secure a $20,000
grant from the Ministry of Education to
expand the F.U.E.L. program. Part of
that money was used to purchase 16
new spin bikes.
The class was followed by a blessing
for the new bikes and the special room,
which was a part of Saint Michael’s recently
completed $6.1-million expansion.
Harle was joined by Sara Argiropoulos,
the current school nurse at Saint Michael,
who said she’s astounded by the
change she’s seen in students since the
program came to Saint Michael in 2009.
“You know what? In all honesty, I’ve
seen their confidence grow from doing
things they wouldn’t normally try,” she
said.
That’s because the Females Using Energy
for Life program is about more than
just physical fitness. It’s about mental
health, too.
The young women form bonds with the
female leaders of F.U.E.L., whether it’s

The spin classes are
one of many girlsonly
fitness activities
organized by the
club. It is open to all
girls at the school,
regardless of their
fitness level, and
allows members
to work out in a
non-judgmental
environment.
the teacher at their school, or a community
volunteer (there are volunteers
from the local YMCA or other fitness
clubs, Regional Public Health and other
organizations – about 30 in all, across
Niagara – each of whom brings an area
of expertise to the program), and they
begin to see these women as role models
and mentors. They also form strong
bonds with each other, often meeting
girls they would not otherwise meet
without the club.
“Schools talk a lot about literacy,
and I like to call this ‘physical
literacy,” Harle says. “It’s very
important, and they take these
skills with them when they
graduate.”
Argiropoulos agrees.
“This teaches them coping skills,” she
says, noting she’s heard from girls who
have gone through the program and
then left for post-secondary education
that they have transferred the lessons
they learned in F.U.E.L. into various
parts of their lives.
To bring that point home, some of that
$20,000 Ministry of Education grant
was used in early September to invite
Dr. Karyn Gordon, an internationally
known motivational speaker, relationship
expert and life coach, to speak at
the school. More than 500 adolescent
girls from Saint Michael, and its family
of schools, attended the presentation,
which was aimed at helping young girls
make healthy choices when it comes to
lifestyle and relationships. The presentation
also focused on friendships, the
safe use of social media, self-esteem
and respecting their bodies.
“It’s a program that really started from
nothing – it was just several girls doing
some exercises,” said Guglielmi. “And
then girls caught on to the fact that it’s
a safe place where they can go and they
can share their stories and they can find
support networks with teachers and administrators.
It’s funny, because now
you go into the local gyms and you see
them, you see them exercising; you see
them with positive self-esteem and it’s
rewarding for us to see that.”
Taya LaFontaine, a Grade 9 student
at Saint Michael Catholic High School,
found out about the F.U.E.L. program
during a visit while still in elementary
school, and couldn’t wait to join.
She and friend Mariah Colosimo joined
F.U.E.L. when they started at Saint Michael
in September because they wanted
to stay fit but didn’t want to feel the
pressure of working out with boys.
17

“It was appealing to me, because it
meant we could work out together, and
there was no competition,” says LaFontaine.
“It’s very encouraging.”
“It’s a closed environment, so everyone
can work out at their own personal level,”
says Colosimo. “For me, it’s confidence-boosting.”
Despite being the youngest members of
the group, the girls say they have never
been made to feel less important than
the seniors. Quite the opposite, in fact,
says LaFontaine.
“A lot of them have been
through F.U.E.L. (since
starting high school),” she
says. “They are really inclusive.” She
notes that the older students act as
mentors for the younger ones, providing
encouragement along the way.
“They really (emphasize) that heavily,”
she says. “When we meet, they have
you say something good about yourself.”
Cutting the ribbon on the new fitness room at Saint Michael Catholic High School, where the
new bikes are housed.
She and Colosimo look forward to continuing
with F.U.E.L. throughout high
school, confident they will become leaders
one day.
“It really is a community,” says
Colosimo. ■
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One on One with
Makiah
Hunt
On Track
for Success
Makiah Hunt
is a Grade 11
student at Saint
Michael Catholic
High School in
Niagara Falls. She’s
a powerful athlete,
excelling in both
gymnastics, and
in track and field,
and aspires to
study Kinesiology
at the University of
Southern California
on a scholarship.
She comes from a family of
athletes (her brother, J.T.
Hunt, is an accomplished
high jumper currently
studying Music at the
University of Guelph, where
he is a member of the Track
and Field Team.)
Makiah is making waves
on her own these days,
tearing up the track in
her sophomore effort as a
Mustang.
Meet Makiah, and learn a
little about what motivates
her at school and on the
track.
Before you got into track
and field, you were a
competitive gymnast. Tell
us a little bit about that
experience.
I followed in my older
sister’s footsteps and began
gymnastics about a year
after she started. I was four
years old at the time. I started
competing the following
year. I trained at Gymnastics
Energy, in St. Catharines and
got to level eight. My favourite
apparatus has always been
bars, even though I was often
challenged because of my
height (she’s a little over fivefeet,
10-inches tall).
You had to make a
difficult choice between
track and field and
gymnastics. Why did you
choose track and field?
Choosing which sport to
pursue was one of the hardest
decisions I have been faced
with so far in my life. In the
end, I chose the sport that
would ultimately give me
the most opportunity. The
track and field season (in
Spring 2015) will be my third
year competing for Saint
Michael. I will also compete
throughout the summer with
my competitive club, Bolton
Pole Vault.
I stopped gymnastics just
this past spring, after my
provincial championships.
I was heading into my track
and field season when I made
the decision to focus more on
pole vaulting. I do still train
once a week in gymnastics,
because it is beneficial to my
pole vaulting. A lot of skills in
gymnastics translate over in
my vaulting; there are just not
enough days in the week – or
enough stamina in a body – to
withstand doing both sports
competitively.
I miss gymnastics and being in
the gym with my teammates
and coaches. My club was and
will always be a family to me.
Spending that many hours in
the gym with my coach, she is
like a second mom to me and
my teammates are like sisters.
Were you always
interested in track and
field when you were in
elementary school?
I excelled at track and field in
elementary school (Makiah
attended Our Lady of Mount
Carmel Catholic Elementary
School in Niagara Falls), so I
continued with it as I went on
to high school. Before I started
competing myself, I went to all
of my brother’s meets and was
always interested in the sport.
Personally, I enjoy individual
sports because the effort I
put in will be directly related
to my results on the track. It
interests me how track and
field athletes perform when
there’s stiff competition and
that one race, jump or throw
means first or second place
for them. Getting personal
bests keep me motivated and
focused on my goals. Any
track and field athlete will
tell you that there is no better
feeling than smashing a PB
(personal best).
Do you have a specific
sport you enjoy most?
In Grade 9 I started off
competing in High Jump and
Pole Vault, but going into
grade 10, I decided to only
continue with Pole Vault
and try out Hurdles. Pole
Vault is my favourite and
most competitive event,
although for my Grade
11 school season I will
continue to compete in
Hurdles.
Tell us a bit about
your academic plans.
What do you enjoy
studying, and where
would you like to go?
I am most interested in math
and the sciences at school.
As far as a future career I’m
not sure yet, but I am looking
to go into Kinesiology at
university. My dream school
is the University of Southern
California. I would love to
attend and compete in the
Track and Field program
there! ■

The Desire
to make a
Difference
Consider this: You are in
mid-career. Your job keeps
you away from home more
than you’d like, but it’s
in line with what you’ve
always wanted to do, and
has good benefits and great
opportunities for growth.
On the personal side, you have a couple
of small kids who keep you busy, and
health challenges that have thrown you
a curveball or two along the way.
Then, by chance, you meet someone
who offers you the opportunity of a
lifetime, a chance to travel overseas.
But it’s no pleasure trip to the hotspots
in Europe. Instead, it’s an invitation
to check out a hotspot of a different
type, the chance to travel to a beautiful
exotic, mountainous land where armies
have fought for millennia and terrorists
threaten to infiltrate its security today.
Your safety can’t be guarantee and
you have no idea what changes and
challenges await you.
What would you do?
For Amy Ball, the answer was a nobrainer.
In January 2009, she boarded
her first flight to Kurdistan.
Ball was working as a Communications
Officer with the Ontario government
when she had a chance meeting with a
Kurdish diplomat. As they chatted, the
diplomat told Ball she should travel to
Kurdistan to see his country first-hand.
What she didn’t realize when she
accepted the invitation is that she was
on a date with destiny.
“My family raised me in such a
way that they never let me think
for a minute that I couldn’t do
something,” says Ball.
“I was also given the chance to voice
my opinion. Some parents believed that
children should be seen and not heard,
and should stay out of the room when
grown-ups were talking, but it never
occurred to me that I couldn’t enter that
room. I had a chance to say no to this
opportunity. I had two small children,
20
and I could have said no. But it’s about
identifying a chance to help people and
following through.”
Ball has had a desire to help people since
she was a student at Notre Dame College
School in Welland. Under the guidance
of Father Jim Mulligan, Ball learned
quickly the power of compassion.
“He taught us that we are absolutely
capable of changing the world,” Ball told
an audience during Niagara Catholic’s
inaugural Distinguished Alumni Awards
in 2013. During her acceptance speech,
she spoke about the need to do more
for others and what drives her to spend
long stretches away from home to help
others thousands of miles away. “We
feel empowered, as representatives not
just of the Catholic faith, but really our
own individuality, to take accountability
and step up when we see a need. I was
grateful that I saw that need, my family
supported me.”
Kurdistan is 9,500 kilometres from
Niagara. But it isn’t just the physical
distance that divides us. The difference
when it comes to way of life and
standard of living is even greater.
The reality of what she was about to do
hit home when Ball was about to begin
the final leg of her journey to Kurdistan
on that first trip.
“I very clearly remember my first flight,
and the feeling of seeing the landscape
rising up to meet me as we landed,” she
says. “It is difficult to explain. I was
fine on my first solo trip from Toronto
to Vienna. As I entered the boarding
hall in Vienna as the only Western
woman heading to Kurdistan, I realized
the magnitude of what this experience
would be for me.”
Ball’s story begins in the city of Erbil,
believed to be among the oldest
continually inhabited cities in the world.
Erbil is a mix of the ancient and modern
worlds, a place where tribal and urban
cultures come together.
Ball noticed a distinctive scent when she
stepped off the plane.
“The smell is difficult to describe,” she
says. “It is not unpleasant, but it is
unique. Just like everyone’s home has
a scent, Iraq has its own scent, a mix
of fuel oil (kerosene is used for cooking
and heating), dust and the unique smell
of their laundry soap combined. My
children smell the laundry soap on me
now when I come home and say I smell
like Iraq.”
Her first hours in the country were
overwhelming.
“I was in a trance until I got to the hotel.
I was left alone to rest and freshen up
before dinner. I began to panic – no
phone, Internet was spotty – and then
I walked out onto the balcony that
overlooked traditional homes. The call
to prayer came over the loudspeaker at
the local mosque. It was twilight. And
for some reason, it calmed me. I felt
instantly peaceful and knew in my heart
that everything was going to be okay.”
Ball says she was given the “dog and
pony” tour of Kurdistan by her hosts,
including a trip to the parliament.
While there, she was invited by the
Kurdish Regional Government (KRG)
to participate as a neutral western
observer for upcoming elections,
another opportunity she couldn’t refuse.
Reflecting on that first visit, Ball recalls
being surprised to discover the tolerance
within Kurdish society. Churches and
mosques are built side-by-side, she
says. Christmas parties are as common
as Islamic celebrations.
Ball was also encouraged by the value
placed on women in Kurdish society.
By law, women are required to comprise
a minimum of 25 per cent of seats in
the legislature, women are educated
(50 per cent of students enrolled in
university are women) and women are
welcomed into the military.
“There are misconceptions
in the West (about life in
Kurdistan) and a lack of
understanding. This is
an extremely forwardthinking
government and
it has been all along,” Ball
says of the KRG. “There are
laws protecting women
from domestic violence,
and women’s rights in
general.”
Still, the remnants of centuries – maybe
even millennia – of instability in the
region are unmistakable. Some parts of
the trip, including seeing mass graves
along the roadside near Iraq’s capital of
Baghdad, were “traumatizing.”
It was the Kurdish people’s ability
to overcome adversity; to continue
to rebuild after years of bombs and
invasions, which touched Ball the most
on that first visit. One man she met has
had his home bombed 17 times since
1940. He has rebuilt every single time.
She also speaks fondly about one
city in Kurdistan that had seen many

It is a challenging part of the world
to work in right now. Ball is aware
of the dangers and goes nowhere
unaccompanied.
Her security detail is led by a former
member of the British Armed Forces,
who guards her with his life.
Amy Ball sits
alongside a young
girl during one of her
many trips to Iraqi
Kurdistan. The health
of girls and women
is a priority for Ball
and her Friends of
Kurdistan Foundation.
“I am picked up at my hotel room door
and returned there,” she says. “That is
true for the gym, social outings, meals
– anything. My bodyguards have a duty
of care whenever I leave that room.
We are a male/female team, so we
look like a couple in the streets. So to
some degree, yes, we walk freely. As a
Western woman, the precautions and
restrictions required for me are greater
than what is required for local women.
“I am largely protected from the danger
of being kidnapped,” Ball continues.
“However, you cannot assume safety.
You need to plan for every possible
eventuality when the threat is elevated
as it is now.”
of its citizens, mostly men, killed by
insurgents.
“The remarkable thing is that there isn’t
an orphanage and there isn’t a women’s
home in the city of Barzan, because the
remaining citizens took in the women
and the orphans as best they could,”
Ball says.
While we in the western world believe
we can teach people in places like
Kurdistan a lesson or two about how to
live, she believes we can take a lesson
or two from them.
It is the sense of community of the
Kurdish people that led Ball to create
the Friends of Kurdistan Foundation,
after her first visit to the country. The
Foundation has funded a clinic in Erbil’s
Havalan district to serve the poor.
For a couple of years Ball tried to
balance her job at Queen’s Park with
her foundation work, travelling to
Kurdistan every three months with her
foundation, but eventually she had to
make a choice. The government job had
to go.
“I stayed about two years trying to
juggle both, then one had to give,” Ball
says. “I was writing speeches about
plastic surgery legislation then travelling
to a place where people just wanted to
be safe and secure. The dynamic was
irreconcilable.”
Amy Ball spends six months each year in
Kurdistan – roughly every other month,
for about a month at a time. She works
as a business development consultant,
like an economic development officer
might do in the West. Ball brings her
knowledge of Kurdistan – its geography,
economy and political landscape
– to the North American business
community, and encourages them to set
up subsidiaries in Kurdistan.
Ball says. “In order to be
successful in the Middle
East, you need to maintain
a presence. Transactions
do not take place via
electronic methods. Face
to face is the only way to
conduct business there,
quite frankly, as it should
be.”
Ball believes foreign investment in
Kurdistan is critical for its emerging
economy. It creates jobs for Kurdish
workers, and opportunities for Kurdish
entrepreneurs to start businesses of
their own.
Currently, she is involved in building
one of the first helicopter operations
in Iraq, and also works in oil sales and
equipment services.
So why would a mother leave her
children (now 11 and 15) and spend six
months out of the year working in a part
of the world where terrorists can easily
take hold?
The simple answer to the question is
that if Ball wants to make a connection
between the Kurdish government and
North American businesses, she needs
to be there.
But such decisions are never simple.
In 2013, Ball was feeling run down. It
could have been the lingering effects
of another illness, or the pace she was
keeping with work, or the after-effects
of the Christmas holidays. But it wasn’t.
Early that year, she was diagnosed with
relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis,
“the good kind,” she quips.
Another life-changing moment. Another
decision. Should she continue her work,
or hand it over to someone else? Despite
the internal risks from her illness, and
the external threats of violence, she
opted to forge on.
“I don’t have, and I might not have, the
luxury to retire when I choose to, so I
have to work now,” she says.
But it doesn’t mean it’s easy for her
to be away from home for prolonged
stretches.
During the interview for this article,
from her compound in Erbil, Ball
explained that she ensures she’s home
for milestones in her children’s lives,
including birthdays and holidays. She
speaks to them when she can while
21

Amy Ball, one of
Niagara Catholic's
inaugural
Distinguished Alumni
Award recipients,
at a camp run by
the United Nations
Human Rights Council
in Iraqi Kurdistan.
Photos provided by
Amy Ball
she’s away, but the unrest in the Middle
East means communication isn’t always
as easy as she’d like it to be. There’s
also the time zone issue: By the time
the working day winds down in Erbil,
Ball’s children have just started school.
It’s nearly midnight in Iraq by the time
they come home. In such a case, you
would imagine Ball has her apartment
peppered with photos of her children.
But she doesn’t.
“You can’t understand how hard it is
to work away,” she says. “I have to
compartmentalize. I can’t have pictures
of them strewn about the room, because
it’s extremely traumatic for me.”
By the same token, Ball doesn’t talk
about life in Iraq when she’s at home.
“(My family) is not privy to the issues
I’ve dealt in Iraq,” she says. It also takes
her a little bit of time to re-adjust to
her life in Canada. She has to get used
to the role of mom again, and of doing
everyday tasks like getting groceries or
driving her car.
Both at home and abroad, Ball focuses
on ways to keep herself as strong as
she can for as long as she can. There’s
no time stamp on when the “relapsing”
part of her illness will rear its head. It
could be months or years before she is
affected again.
But she doesn’t dwell on that any more
than she dwells on the dangers she
faces doing her job overseas. It’s a part
of her life as surely as her eye colour,
and she goes on about her day without
thinking about the “what-ifs.”
“Your mental role, your physical role, is
to keep your body as strong as possible
for as long as possible, and that’s what
I’m going to do.”
One way Ball is facing the MS diagnosis
is to fight it head-on, literally. Last year,
she attended the Pearl Gloves boxing
event in St. Catharines, which supports
the local chapter of the MS Society. She
knew at the time that she had MS, but
only a select few people were aware of
her diagnosis until she spoke openly
about it as she promoted the event.
This year, Ball went a step further. In
addition to promoting the 2014 Pearl
Gloves event in St. Catharines, she was
also a participant.
Ball believed that as an MS fighter it was
important for her to be on that card.
Ball trained for the event at the St.
Catharines Boxing Club with the other
participants. While overseas her
security team put her through her paces,
ensuring her health stayed strong and
her fitness level didn’t suffer.
She runs every morning, and works out
with her trainers at the end of her (often
14 to 16-hour) workday, to ensure she
is ready when she steps into the ring.
“I’m giving it all I’ve got,” Ball says.
The same rings true for her work in Iraq.
“While you have youth on
your side, to some degree
anyway,” she says, “you have to do
what you want to do.” ■
22

Being the
Change
Stephanie Kennedy was
not supposed to attend
We Day in Toronto this
year.
Those plans changed at
the last minute, when
the 13-year-old Grade 8
student at Mother Teresa
Catholic Elementary
School in St. Catharines
learned she would receive
a Governor General’s
Caring Canadian Award
during the celebration.
Mother Teresa
Caatholic Elementary
School student
Stephanie Kennedy,
left, stands alongside
Free the Children and
We Day founder Craig
Kielburger during
the We Day event in
Toronto in October.
Kielburger presented
Stephanie with a
Governor General
Caring Canadian
Award as part of the
celebration.
Photo provided by
Free the Children.
Copyright 2014,
Lyn Photography
The Award is presented throughout the
year to individuals who volunteer their
time to help others and build a more
caring nation.
Stephanie was nominated by Ann Marie
Maloney, a teacher at the school. Maloney
leads the school’s Me to We Club,
which runs through Free the Children.
The Canadian charitable organization
was started by Craig Kielburger when
he was 12 years old to promote the
rights of children in developing nations
around the world. Maloney was invited
by Free the Children to nominate a
student to receive a Governor General’s
Caring Canadian Award, which would be
presented during the We Day celebration
in Toronto in early October.
Maloney immediately thought of Stephanie.
In nominating Stephanie, Maloney credited
the teen with a long list of good
deeds which caught the attention of the
selection committee.
“Stephanie is always willing to assist
those who are marginalized in our community
and overseas,” Maloney said.
Stephanie has been actively involved in
Mother Teresa’s annual We Scare Hunger
Halloween food drive. Outside of
that, Stephanie collected 113 pounds of
non-perishable food while making her
rounds on her paper route, which was
then donated to the local food bank in
St. Catharines.
Stephanie has also been a leader in the
school’s campaign to help build a school
in Kenya through Free the Children’s
Brick by Brick campaign, involved with
fundraising and volunteering in support
of Gillian’s Place Women’s Shelter in St.
Catharines, and an active participant in
the Terry Fox Run and Rankin Cancer
Run in St. Catharines.
Asked why she commits so much of her
time to helping others, Stephanie said
it’s just something she likes to do.
“It makes me feel good to
know that I have helped
people in need,” she says.
Stephanie said receiving the Award
from Craig Kielburger, founder of Free
the Children, Me to We and the annual
We Day events, was a huge honour.
“He’s a huge role model for me,” she
said. “I think it’s great how he started
helping others when he was just 12,
and how much of a mark he’s made on
the world.”
This year, Stephanie is running for Student
Prime Minister at Mother Teresa,
eager to find ways to continue to keep
the school involved in social justice activities
at the local, national and global
level.
Looking ahead at Grade 9, Stephanie
says she’s excited about continuing to
be involved in social justice activities.
“It’s definitely a goal for me
to continue to help others
and not just focus on myself,”
she says. ■
24

Local Woman Student of
Global Health
The introduction to
anatomy books piled on
Kaitlin Saxton’s desk in her
childhood home have been
there for as long as she
can remember. They were
given to her when she was
seven years old, and first
expressed an interest in
science.
Fast-forward 14 years, and Kaitlin’s interest
in all things science has turned
from a hobby into a career pathway for
the 21-year-old graduate of Lakeshore
Catholic High School in Port Colborne.
She completed her Honours Bachelor
of Science Degree from the University
of Western Ontario with a double major
in Medical Science and Biology, and recently
accepted a research scholarship
with Duke University in Durham, North
Carolina, to complete her Masters of
Science in Global Health.
It’s an interesting time to be a student
of global health crises, to be sure. The
rapid spread of the Ebola virus in West
Africa has dominated much of the news
cycle; in particular, since the disease
has made its way to North America in
recent weeks.
Days before leaving, Kaitlin talked
about her excitement at the opportunity
to learn about global health issues from
leaders around the world.
“The Ebola crisis – that’s pretty much
exactly what I am going for,” says Kaitlin,
who expects she will eventually
spend time in Africa, but plans to stay
away from the Ebola hotspots “for the
time being.”
Kaitlin, who was once Port Colborne’s
Youth Citizen of the Year, is among the
youngest students to be accepted into
the innovative program at the Duke
Global Health Institute, which opened in
2008. The goal of the school is to “make
significant contributions to the prevention
and treatment of health problems
around the world, and be the leading
academic global health institute in the
world.”
Kaitlin Saxton looks through some of her favourite medical books. She is currently
studying Global Health at Duke University in North Carolina.
Kaitlin calls her new learning opportunity
the “perfect fit” for her, as she
has been interested in helping people
considered underserviced or marginalized
in the community since she began
volunteering at Port Cares with her
aunt in Grade 8. Kaitlin says her family
has always been very service-oriented,
whether it was through a community organization
or their parish, and she was
always encouraged to join them when
they went to volunteer.
“I really enjoy working with
the underserviced population,”
she says, noting her community
involvement has led to a number of
connections and relationships through
the years. “I think sometimes that I really
got more out of (volunteering) than
the people I was helping, and I didn’t
want to lose this service-learning connection,
so this is really a perfect fit for
me.”
While spending hours volunteering with
people in need in her community, Kaitlin
also learned about people in need
overseas, through her school’s annual
pilgrimage, which raises funds for a variety
of programs in Portsmouth, Dominica.
She even travelled there for a
short stay in high school, learning firsthand
how money raised in Canada can
help those living in developing nations.
“It was a really incredible
experience to go there,
and see what the money
we raised in the Pilgrimage
could do,” she says.
While Kaitlin always knew she would become
a doctor, it was seeing the disparity
between the way health problems are
dealt with here and in the developing
world that really caught her attention.
Travelling to Dominica and to Peru solidified
her knowledge that while there
is a need for family doctors in Niagara
(she doesn’t discount the possibility
of becoming a General Practitioner one
day) she wanted to do what she could
to help promote healing and wellness
in other parts of the world, particularly
while she’s young and free to travel.
“Developing nations often have inequalities
in their health care,” says Kaitlin,
25

citing economic, social, environmental
and political factors all play a role in the
way a patient receives care. “The focus
of Duke’s Global Health program is
to recognize the many different health
problems around the world, and identify
the different factors that are hindering
the progress of health care.”
If Kaitlin had any reservations about being
the youngest student from a group
of medical professionals around the
world taking part in the program, they
have disappeared.
“The program is wonderful
and my peers are very impressive
and established
students and professionals.
I’m over half way through
the semester and I’ve really
enjoyed my courses. So
far, my marks are actually
the highest they have ever
been, which was definitely a
welcomed surprise.”
Saxton is partnered with Dr. Truls Ostbye,
as her thesis advisor. Dr. Ostbye is
an MD, and holds (among other degrees)
a Master’s Degree in Public Health and
a Master’s in Business Administration.
Originally from Norway, Dr. Ostbye has
studied and taught epidemiology (defined
by the World Health Organization
as “the study of the distribution and determinants
of health-related states or
events, and the application of this study
to control of diseases and other health
problems”), genetics, human rights,
health policy, maternal and reproductive
health and mental health in Scotland
and in Canada, including tenures
at the University of Western Ontario
in London, and Dalhousie University in
Halifax.
Under his guidance, Kaitlin has had her
name attached to a research paper and
is currently editing a second. She has
learned about a broad range of topics
associated with global health.
“Our classes often have presenters who
are specialists and at the top of the field
in areas such as vaccinations, influenza,
HIV/AIDS, global cancer and mental
health,” she says. “A very comprehensive
and wide scope is covered, which is
great to find out what my interests are.”
And what Kaitlin has discovered (no
doubt to her family’s relief), is that
while she is still interested in infectious
diseases, there are other global health
issues that capture her interest more.
“I had come here with an interest in infectious
disease, and although I still find
them fascinating, I now think I would
like to get into non-communicable diseases,
such as cardiovascular disease,
diabetes, cancer, and respiratory illness,”
she says. ■
About the program:
http://globalhealth.duke.edu
Kaitlin’s thesis advisor:
http://globalhealth.duke.edu/people/faculty/ostbye-truls
Duke University’s Global Health
Institute:
https://globalhealth.duke.edu/
glance
26

Chemosabe:
Cancer
Warrior
By Alana Somerville
My name is Alana Somerville,
and I am a cancer survivor. My
story begins on August 29th, 2010, at
approximately three o’clock in the
morning.
My six-month-old son Rudy was wide awake and ready for a
feeding. I was breastfeeding, and had actually started to
wean him a few weeks earlier, because it was tough keeping
up with his schedule and the demands of my three-year-old
daughter. But on that particular night, when he cried for me
to nurse him, something happened that changed my life.
was half asleep, sitting in the rocking chair in his room,
I when for whatever reason I decided to feel my breasts. My
world immediately stopped. I felt a lump. It didn’t hurt, but
it was definitely there. It was maybe the size of a marble and
hard like a marble, and it kind of moved when I touched it.
I wasn’t dreaming though. It was there and I was terrified.
When was the last time I checked? I couldn’t remember. I
immediately tried not to think of the worst-case scenario, but
it was difficult to put my mind at ease.
talked to some friends about it the next day, and they did
I what all friends do – tried to reassure me that it couldn’t
possibly be what I was thinking. Mastitis was the most
obvious answer, since I was breastfeeding. After all, I was
33, I had no family history of breast cancer or of any type of
cancer for that matter. I decided to make an appointment
the next day.
Two years earlier, I decided to have a full physical done and
had requested a mammogram as well. I was about to go
back to work after having a year off following the birth of my
daughter Charley. I just wanted to know that I had a clean
bill of health. It took me awhile to convince my doctor that
a 31-year-old with no risk factors for breast cancer should
have one, but he eventually relented and I had the test done.
At that time, I was given the all-clear.
On Monday morning, I called my new doctor to find out
about the lump I had discovered on the weekend. I was
immediately given an appointment for 3 p.m. that day.
My doctor was concerned enough by the lump to request
another mammogram, and an ultrasound. On Friday,
the doctor called me at home and said he was concerned
about the results. He wanted me to have a biopsy “to rule
out anything sinister.” I was in shock. How could this be
happening to me?
week later, I had a biopsy which confirmed my worst
A fears. That was the day I had to hear the three most
terrifying words from a doctor: “You have cancer.”
Alana Somerville, a
Grade 8 teacher at
Our Lady of Victory
Catholic Elementary
School in Fort Erie
and a cancer survivor,
with her daughter,
Charley.
27

Alana Somerville poses
with British actress
and model Elizabeth
Hurley at a breast
health event. After
their meeting, Hurley
tweeted about reading
Somerville's book,
Chemosabe: Cancer
Warrior, describing
it as "excellent" and
"harrowing."
remember the elevator ride up to his
I office that day to find out the results.
I think I just knew. And I knew that
the elevator ride down could quite
possibly be the beginning of the second
half of my life; my life with cancer.
In the same sentence when he told
me I had cancer, he also told me that
this was “one of those things where
we needed to hurry up and wait.”
Getting rid of the cancer was a priority,
but there would be a five-week wait.
was in a state of shock. So many things
I were going through my mind, but the
thought that came back to me again
and again was that I had just received
a death sentence. I was going to die. I
had two babies. And I was going to die.
I didn’t know how to deal with it. I went
home, still in shock, and I cried. I cried
all night long. I finally fell asleep and
then woke up crying in the middle of the
night. I just didn’t know how to handle it.
Breast cancer had not touched
my circle of friends. Statistics
say one woman in seven will be
diagnosed with breast cancer. I guess
I am the one in my seven who was
selected to be part of this crazy club.
My first instinct was to hide the news
– keep it to myself. But I realized
that would be impossible. So I sent my
family and friends an email, explaining
to them that I was about to embark on a
journey and that no matter how alone I
felt, I didn’t want to go through it alone.
28
soon found out I was not alone, and
I with this came strength. It took me a
few days to change my way of thinking,
but I ultimately realized that I had to
think positively, I had to believe that I
was going to be fine, and I had to connect
with people who felt the same way.
started talking to other women who
I had just gone through the experience
of having breast cancer. I started
fighting back, and the more that I looked
at my children the more I realized that I
needed to do everything in my power to
survive. Essentially, I went into warrior
mode. My mother was right by my side.
She essentially quit her job, moved
in with us and took care of whatever
needed to be done for the next four
months! If I ever doubted where I got
my strength, that was erased when I saw
how strong my mother was for all of us.
The first step was to get my surgery
moved up. How could I live with this
thing inside of me? I called everyone I
knew. I called the family doctor that
I had when I was 13, I called friends
who had friends who were nurses,
and I ended up calling a woman who
I had met while taking my daughter
to gymnastics. She was a doctor, we
had gotten together for a play date
once with the kids, and I thought that
maybe she could help. The day that
I called her, she sent in a referral to
Juravinski Cancer Centre, and I had
an appointment that very same day.
Whether or not I was right or
wrong in what I did, at that
time in my life it didn’t matter. All I
knew was I had something growing
inside me, and it would keep
growing, until someone took it out.
From the moment that I walked into
the hospital, I knew that I was where
I needed to be. In that moment,
I think I knew that I would be OK.
My surgery took place the following
week. That’s when I found out
the really scary news. That “sinister”
lump was nearly three centimetres
in size, and was a Grade 3, Stage
2B, Triple Negative cancer. It was
aggressive, and it had spread into my
lymph nodes. A decision was made:
I would undergo chemotherapy,
then a double mastectomy.
The ritual of Tuesday morning
chemotherapy treatments began.
A 16-week cycle of chemo, getting
sick, feeling better, cleaning my
house and shopping in a frenzy,
spending time with my kids, then
starting the whole cycle again.
Through this, I learned I have
some amazing friends. A group
of seven friends started a dinner club
for me. They brought dinner to my
house every other day on a rotating
basis for the entire duration of my
chemo and surgeries. I wasn’t always
hungry, nor did I feel like cooking,
but everyone else still needed to eat.
Two of my other close friends decided
to throw a hair cutting party for me

Alana Somerville with
her children, daughter
Charley and son
Rudy.
just before my second round of chemo
was about to begin. Doctors have it
down to a science. Hair loss happens
between 17 and 21 days after the first
chemotherapy treatment, which would
mean that about a week after my
second chemo appointment, it would
all be gone. So, a few days before my
second infusion about 150 of my closest
friends and family gathered around to
support my new haircut. My friends sold
tickets, had raffle prizes donated, and
most of the proceeds went to Wellspring
Niagara, to support cancer patients
and their families in our community.
Lots of people stepped up to the plate
to get their hair shaved, ultimately
to show their support to me. In only
a few short days, the rest of what
was left of my hair would fall out.
Up until my hair loss, I have to say
that I was pretty strong. I remained
positive, smiling, and fairly upbeat.
When you wake up one morning and
your hair is all over your pillow, things
change. That’s when you realize that
you are very, very sick. You can deny
it as much as you want, but sitting
there on your pillow is a very harsh
reminder of what’s going on. I vividly
remember sobbing in the shower that
morning, as the drain clogged and I
looked down to see my hair on the
shower floor. Things suddenly became
very real. I had to bring the garbage
pail into the shower to pick up my hair
from the floor. That was probably the
most horrible moment of the journey.
Apart from the diagnosis, I think I was
in denial. I knew I had cancer, but
up until this point I didn’t look like it.
Unfortunately, my hair didn’t even
all fall out at once. It took three
excruciating days, until finally I called
my friend to bring over her clippers and
buzz the rest of it. In hindsight, it was
probably an extremely difficult thing
for her to do, but she kept it together
really well. It only took about five
minutes for her to shave the rest of it
off, but this too was a turning point. I
felt extremely liberated. I felt that at
this point I had taken charge of this
cancer. Rather than let it torture me
with hair loss, I would give it nothing
to take. So, in essence, at this point,
I felt like I had another new beginning.
told my kids that mommy was really,
I really sick, but that I had to take some
really awesome medicine that was
going to make me all better. However,
the medicine was going to make my
hair fall out…but this was a good thing.
This way we knew it was working. My
kids adapted very quickly. Charley
told me that I looked like Caillou (a
character in children’s books and on
TV), and that was it. She really didn’t
care. She would kiss my bald head,
and tell me that I looked beautiful.
The 16-week chemotherapy treatment
gave me time to come to terms with
the next stage: Surgery to remove my
breasts.
felt like this part of my body which
I had nurtured my children in their
early days had betrayed me. I didn’t
want to look at them again. I didn’t
want them on me anymore. I also
didn’t want it to loom over my head that
I might have a recurrence on the other
side. A double mastectomy meant no
more mammograms and less radiation.
It is also much easier to reconstruct two
breasts to look the same, rather than
create one new one to look like the other.
The final surgery for me happened in
July, and I went back to work teaching
full time in September. The thought of
a recurrence still loomed over me every
day though. It still does. It has gotten
better, but I still think about it all the
time. So, because I didn’t know what
life had in store for me, I decided to go
back to all of those emails that I had
sent out to people and expand on them
a little bit, with the intention of saving
them for my children to read one day.
People had said to me “you should
write a book,” and I would say “like
I have time.” But the more I started
writing, I found there was just so much
I wanted to say. Soon I had 50, pages,
then 100, and 150 and that’s when I
thought to myself, “maybe I’ve written
a book.” I thought “if I can share what
I’ve learned with someone else who is
going through this, and if it can help
them in any way, then it’s all worth it.”
When I was first diagnosed, I looked for
a book that was written by someone
who had gone through this same
thing. All I knew was what I was told
29

.........................
Get to
know your
SCHOOL
Alana Somerville
speaking about her
experiences with
breast cancer.
by the doctors, and although they gave great information,
they ultimately had not done the same tour of duty.
It’s nearly impossible for a first-time author to have a book
published without an agent through a publishing company.
So I did it on my own. Writing Chemosabe: Cancer Warrior,
gave me the opportunity to connect with other women who
are travelling down the same road I travelled not so long ago.
am an activist about the importance of self-examination.
I I am an activist about advocating for yourself with
doctors, whether it’s your family physician, oncologist
or other specialist, or a surgeon. I am an activist about
staying positive and doing what you have to do to
reclaim your life. I speak at seminars and rallies. And I
recently just had actress Elizabeth Hurley tweet to me
that she read my book while on a plane. How cool is that?
No matter how optimistic I try to be that cancer is no
longer a part of my life, there is still a lingering fear.
Although I have tested negative for the BRCA 1 and 2 gene,
I am sure that my daughter is at higher risk than her friends
whose mothers are without breast cancer will be. That
terrifies me. Recently, my sister had to go for a follow-up
mammogram and ultrasound because her last mammogram
showed some abnormalities. It turned out to be nothing,
but they want to see her in six months to be sure. That
terrifies me, too. Because I got sick, I worry that my sister,
my daughter and my two nieces may get sick one day, too.
On the positive side, my experience has shown me that you
can fight cancer and win. My sister, brother and I will all
be very proactive with our daughters about the importance
of taking responsibility for their own health. It’s gratifying
to know that friends and family say that my experience with
breast cancer has given them hope that if they were ever
diagnosed that they could come through to the other side, too.
In the midst of my diagnosis and treatment, I would
ask myself “why me?” Now I know why. I am one of
the lucky ones. Lucky to have survived cancer. Lucky to
have a new outlook on life, and lucky to be able to pay
it forward to others living through those difficult days
by offering them hope that they, too, will survive. ■
N RSE
.........................
We can help with:
Drug and alcohol use
Quitting smoking
Healthy eating
Sexual health questions
Achieving a healthy weight
www.niagararegion.ca/health
30

Local
Love
Garden
Project
By Lydia Tomek, Notre Dame
College School alumnus and
Winemaker at Hernder Estate
Wines
Lydia Tomek peeks over growing plants at St. Andrew Catholic Elementary School in Welland.
have always dreamed
I of having my very own
vineyard and a large
community farm where
I could make wine and
have children visit to
teach them about the
importance of food,
ecosystems, the soil, the
environment, and most
importantly survival. I
grew up in Welland and
come from a family made
up of three daughters, and
when we were younger
us Tomek girls attended
St. Joseph and St. Andrew
Catholic Elementary
Schools.
often go back and visit the neighbourhood
frequently as my parent
I
still live in the home we grew up in.
Early this year I made a decision to
stop dreaming, and made a choice that
I was going to build a school garden. I
decided to call it the LocaLove Garden
Project and picked St. Andrew as my
school of choice.
So why the name LocaLove? Simple, I
wanted a name that represented me
and my vision. Loca is my nickname,
and Love the key ingredient to any success
story. Put the two together and
you make LocaLove , love from within
the community.
After meeting with the Principal of
St. Andrew School, Carla Bianco, I
emphasized why I thought it was important
for her school to receive a gift
of a garden. I wasn’t going through all
this work and trouble because it was the
trendy thing to do, I was doing it because
it was necessary.
Having a school garden is showing
kids a different type of classroom
that they may have never seen before.
Food is life, and food must be cared for,
grown and harvested. This simple project
not only exposes them to what is
necessary for life, it encourages them
to respect the earth, understand hard
work, get their hands dirty, and be part
of that love which goes into our food. It
also gives an opportunity for the children
to be exposed and learn about
healthy food, seed preparation, planting
and building.
Our special garden was to be made
up of four sections and built from
recycled material I was able to source
at work and through some of my colleagues.
Each section had its own
meaning and purpose. A vegetable garden,
a pumpkin patch, a prayer garden,
and a flower garden. During the winter
I managed to collect many egg cartons
and yogurt containers that I used
as mini planters each week in spring
with the children. I also cut back on my
31

Lydia Tomek and one of her many enthusiastic student helpers in the garden at St. Andrew Catholic Elementary School.
Starbucks consumption and used that
money I saved to buy mini shovels, soil
fabric, seeds, potting soil and T-shirts
for the kids.
Each Friday I would meet with a class
and we would plant, plan out the size
of the garden, paint, shovel, and transplant
our seedlings. Our goal was to
have our special seeds flourish into edibles
we could use for lunches and flowers
to attract butterflies and pollinating
bees.
sourced some old wooden pallets
I from (Hernder Estates) winery, and
cut them up to size so that the students
and I could assemble them into our
large planter boxes. A few vegetable
seeds came from my family’s heirloom
collection of tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers,
string bean and squash seeds,
and the giant pumpkin seeds were generously
donated by the people at Stokes
Seeds. I required approximately 8 metric
tonnes of topsoil and I was blessed
by some friends from Cotton Inc. who
delivered it to the school for me.
In late spring, our seedlings were
flourishing. I guess the students were
really paying attention when I taught
them the secret behind having a “green
thumb.” We had a room full of healthy
little plants from each class. They
ranged from daisies and beans to cucumbers,
squash, lettuce, broccoli, giant
pumpkins, peppers, and tomatoes.
Our beautiful garden was becoming a
reality!
Once the boxes were lined, filled and
reinforced, it was time for the students
to transplant the seedlings we
sowed. I made sure that for this day
the prayer garden had a special gift in it
too and planted the school memory tree
for a loved staff member who passed
away a few years ago. The idea was for
each class to pick a perennial and plant
around the tree so that each classroom
was represented and there was something
familiar for the students to reflect
on when going to the prayer garden.
Throughout the summer, St. Andrew’s
great custodian Teresa Paonessa
tended the garden during the week and
I checked up on it occasionally. This
year, we were blessed with just the right
amount of rain to help our garden grow.
When I look back now it’s amazing how
many vegetables the school was able to
enjoy from it. Maybe it was the rain,
maybe it was the good soil...I think it
was the love that went into it. ■
33

Building
Communities
Sam Iftody’s family
has worked the land
in Fenwick for longer
than his 77 years. He is
the fourth generation
farmer at Hollo Maple
Farms. His sons are
fifth. It is uncertain if his
grandchildren, regular
visitors, will be the sixth.
Sam Iftody, owner
of Hollo Maple Farms
in Pelham, believes
it's important to
give back to the
community. He
welcomes groups of
students from several
Niagara Catholic's
Specialist High Skills
Major Programs to
his farm, giving them
the opportunity to
experience life on a
family farm.
“I tell you right now, it’s over,” Iftody
says of the tradition of the family
farm. “In Pelham, there are only a few
vegetable farms left. It’s a 24-hour job.
It’s your whole life.”
Still, he knows that the small farms that
dot the Ontario landscape are integral
to the community. And he knows that
it’s important to continue sharing that
culture of community with people
who might not otherwise have the
opportunity to experience life on a farm.
Iftody has been a regular supporter
of Niagara Catholic schools for years.
He’s welcomed youngsters to come and
visit the farm, pick a pumpkin and see
how vegetables grow. Several years
ago, he expanded his connection with
schools to include bringing Niagara
Catholic Culinary Arts students onto the
farm to pick produce which they then
use to create fresh sauces and salsas
that are donated to Niagara’s local food
banks. It’s a connection created by
Iftody and Marco Magazzeni, Niagara
Catholic’s Student Success Co-ordinator
and a longtime friend of the family.
Magazzeni connected Iftody with
technology teachers across Niagara
Catholic, including Darren Schmahl,
the Horticulture and Landscaping
teacher whose students germinated the
vegetables from seeds then planted the
two-acre plot at Hollo Maple Farms in the
spring, and Joe Sciarra, who teaches the
Board’s Raise Me Up Homebuilding class.
Schmahl’s students primarily focus
on ornamental horticulture, out of
their classroom at the Niagara Parks
34

Students from
the Homebuilding
Specialist High Skills
Major Program use
some downtime
to pick remaining
vegetables for Sam
Iftody at Hollo Maple
Farms in Pelham.
3535

Commission’s School of Horticulture.
He said agricultural horticulture
offers them a whole new perspective.
“If it wasn’t for Sam and
his son George caring for
the plants this summer,
this could never really
have happened,” said Schmahl.
“It was a good experience for my kids
to be able to do something like this.
There is such an important connection
between the food we grow and the
food we eat.”
That message was echoed by Nick
Beauregard, a Grade 11 student at
Denis Morris Catholic High School in St.
Catharines.
“I learned (about) many different types
of plants that are used to help feed our
community,” he said. “Working on the
farm showed me that the things we
need to survive do not come easy to us.
I learned about the amount of work that
goes into harvesting all of the vegetables
so that they can be processed and sold.
(By learning these things) I have gained
a greater respect for farmers and what
they do to help feed our community.”
When the food is grown and picked, it is
handed over to Culinary Arts students
to work their magic.
Students prepare to
go to the fields at
Sam Iftody's farm,
to collect the few
vegetables remaining
in late October.
Vincenza Smith, the Culinary Arts teacher
at Saint Paul Catholic High School, had
students working in the school’s kitchen
to prepare fresh pasta sauce and salsa
verde from the produce picked on the
farm. That food was then donated to
local soup kitchens and food banks,
such as The Hope Centre in Welland
and Project SHARE in Niagara Falls.
“The definition of family has changed
dramatically and importance of
community has increased,” says
Smith. “This farm to table (project)
has exposed the students of the
importance of community working
together to help those less fortunate,
the importance of family and traditions
and values. The importance of faith
and giving thanks for what we have!”
This year, a new crop of students is
working the land at Hollo Maple Farms,
albeit in a different way.
36

Sam Iftody (back
right) surveys the last
of the tomato crop,
while students from
the Homebuilding
Specialist High
Skills Major pick the
remaining ones from
the vines.
37

The students in Joe Sciarra’s Raise Me Up
Homebuilding class first began working
at Hollo Maple Farms in September. They
expected their work would be limited to
building a permanent vegetable stand.
They soon learned that a big part of
working on a farm means rolling up their
sleeves and pitching in – even if it’s doing
something you wouldn’t expect to do.
A perfect example of that happened in
mid-October. When the construction
project got a little bit ahead of schedule
and the students found themselves
with time on their hands, Iftody
soon gave them something to do.
“I put them to work,” says Iftody from
his perch on the golf cart he uses to get
around the property.
“Work” meant heading out into the fields,
picking pumpkins and washing squash
which would be sold on the farm and
trucked to farmers markets in Niagara
and the Ontario Food Terminal in Toronto.
Iftody is impressed by the commitment
the students put in to everything they
do on the farm, whether it’s related
to their program or giving farm staff a
helping hand.
“The kids out here – they
really get into it,” Iftody
says, watching one group building
the cinderblock foundation of the
stand and another making their way
into the fields. “They are very
disciplined. They have to
be.”
Madison Raymond, a Grade 12 student at
Notre Dame College School in Welland,
has grown up in a construction family.
But she’d never tried her hand at the
work involved in building until this class.
“I took the course to see what I like
and what I don’t like,” says Raymond,
who isn’t yet certain if she’ll get into the
bricks-and-mortar side of construction.
“It’s been very interesting.”
Connor Forster, a Grade 12 student at
Denis Morris said learning in an off-site
classroom, such as a construction site,
gives students a great advantage over
those whose knowledge only comes
from reading about something in a book.
Sam Iftody has
opened his farm
to three different
Specialist High Skills
Major Programs:
Horticulture students
planted the seeds and
some crops, Culinary
Arts students picked
vegetables and made
farm-fresh sauces and
salsa for local food
banks and agencies
and the Homebuilding
students are creating
a permanent
vegetable stand for
Iftody.
38

In addition to gaining
practical work
experience, students
are learning about the
challenges that face
small farms. They
are also giving back,
providing labour to
Iftody in a variety of
different ways.
39

Students picked,
washed and stored
pumpkins for Sam
Iftody to sell at Hollo
Maple Farms, and at
farmer's markets.
“We’re learning practical skills in a
trade, and this is a way better way to do
it than learning it in some construction
class in high school,” Forster says.
According to Magazzeni,
“That’s the reward. This
partnership enhances
the opportunities for
students within their
classes and builds
community, Students learn
about supporting their
local farmer and in turn
supporting their local
community. Working with
the Iftody’s embodies a
real ‘family’ relationship
with our students and over
four generations of family
members maintaining
vegetable fields. This is
what Niagara Catholic is
about.” ■
40