O•S•C•A•R© - Old Ottawa South

Page 8 The OSCAR - OUR 37 th YEAR July 2010
By Christine Leong,
Sydney Martin & Sara
Raahemi
(Hopewell PS Newspaper
Club)
From May 17th to the 21st,
Hopewell Avenue Public
School celebrated its muchwaited
100th anniversary. Our
centennial celebrations were marked
by an opening ceremony featuring
dignitaries and alumni, the primary
choir under the direction of Mrs.
Legris and Mrs. Boileau, and the
unveiling of a carving crafted by
Fred Aitken, custodian at the school,
depicting our school in 1910.
There were many other celebratory
events to commemorate the occasion
including a
Wine and Cheese, the creation
of a mural entitled “The Faces of
Hopewell”, school tours, a musical,
a Sock-Hop, a perennial planting, a
classroom door contest and a cake
party. With so much going on, it
was hard not to get caught up in the
excitement!
Attending the Hopewell
Hopewell’s One Hundredth Anniversary
Vice-Principal Kim MacDonald speaking at the assembly Photo by John MacKinnon
celebrations were various alumni
and dignitaries. Among them were:
Principal Nicole Turpin and Viceprincipals
Kim MacDonald and
Donna Boyle, Superintendent of
Instruction Walter Piovesan, trustee
Rob Campbell, MP Paul Dewar, MPP
Yasir Naqvi, Councillor of City of
Ottawa Clive Doucet, Minister of
Municipal Affairs and Housing Jim
Watson and President of the Parents
Council Neil Hill.
Dignitaries, alumni, visitors,
parents and staff were all invited to
attend the elegant and sophisticated
Wine and Cheese event organized with
joint effort between Parents Council,
more then 70 parent volunteers and
the administration.
The Wine and Cheese was held
from 4:00 to 7:00 pm on Monday May
17th. Archival materials organized
by teacher Elizabell Bonell were
on display to reminiscence parts
of Hopewell’s past. A guest book
created by teacher Nevine Robertson
brings together past and present
memories frozen in time. Through
all of the excitement, what was most
memorable of all was the chance to
meet and interview alumni at the Wine
and Cheese and during school tours.
Since we are part of the
Newspaper Club, we were able to
attend the “grown up” event and
rub shoulders with alumni and
dignitaries. Curious to capture some
of our alumni’s fondest memories, we
mingled through lively crowds and
chatted with Jean Switzer, a student
here at Hopewell from 1928 to 1935.
To this day, she remembers vividly
her favourite teacher, Mrs. Higginson.
As we pursued our conversation
with Mrs. Switzer, we learned that
sewing and cooking classes were part
of the curriculum at the time! Mrs.
Switzer still plays bridge with former
Hopewell alumni. We then stumbled
upon retired principal Doug Beamon.
Mr. Beamon was principal here at
Hopewell from 1979 to 1982 and
commented on the physical changes of
Hopewell since he had last been here.
We were surprised to learn that our
Atrium was a “boys only” playground
and that our grassyard was an ice
rink during the winter season! As we
continued our interviews, some of the
fondest memories shared by many
alumni such as Lilly Maase and Emma
Goyer-Morley were the annual events
such as the band trip to Toronto.
To represent the colorful
population of Hopewell during the
2009-2010 school year, our Visual
Art teacher Mr. Christos Pantieras
envisioned a jewel of art where each
student created a representation of
themselves. The mural is now hung
permanently in the school’s Atrium
and has become a visual mosaic of us.
Under the direction of Allison
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Woyiwada, past teacher and writer
of the musical One Hundred Years,
Junior and Intermediate students put
on a spectacular theatrical display
on May 19th. This creative singalong
presented Hopewell through
the decades, with each class being
assigned a decade and each decade
being assigned a particular theme.
On that evening, two plays were
performed: one at 6:15pm and the other
at 8:00pm. For both performances, the
gymnasium was packed with parents
and friends.
On Thursday May 20th, we had
a school wide Sock Hop day. In the
40’s, Sock Hop was a dance where
students danced without shoes so
they wouldn’t mark the floors but
nowadays, we just do it for fun! All
staff and students also dressed up as
their favorite decade for the dance.
On Friday May 21st, the winners
for the Classroom Door contest
were announced. More then thirty
homeroom classes participated to
the contest based on the criteria of
historical depiction, originality and
presentation. Winning classes were
Mme St. Amant’s grade 2 class,
Mrs. Lapner grade 5/6 class and
M. Gosselin’s grade 8 class. Each
homeroom was treated to a pizza
lunch for their creative and collective
effort! On this day, we also marked
off the end of the celebrations with a
scrumptious cake party in each class.
Savoring delicious masterpieces of
pastry provided by class parents,
while celebrating our school’s past,
present and future was a great way to
end the week!