S T .MICHAELS U NIVERSITY S CHOOL Community Fall 2001 Spring Fair 2002 is Happening!!!! Mark Your Calendars! April 20, 2002 10:00 am-4:00 pm A Day Full of Enjoyment for all Ages Silent Auction - Used Goods - Arts and Crafts Children’s Corner – International Foods – Plants Midway - Entertainment - and much, much More Those of you who attended Spring Fair 2000 will remember the tremendous sense of school spirit and community pride that developed. It is our hope to re-capture that spirit and channel it into Spring Fair 2002. An event such as this is a huge undertaking and to be successful requires the support of the entire school community. The interest and support we have received so far is very encouraging, however many volunteers are still needed. We invite parents, staff, students and alumni to come on board and support this tremendous fair. If you are able to help or if you wish to make a financial contribution, please give any of the conveners listed below a call. With your support, we are confident that Spring Fair 2002 will be an event that the SMUS community can again be proud of. Fair Conveners: Kathy Jawl - 592-9377 Debbie Couvelier - 595-6540 Alison Mabee - 477-6463 Darlene Bailey - 389-0699 Photo: Friesen Jenus school ties — fall 2001 1 Calendar 2001/2002 For the updated sports calendar, check the school web site. OCTOBER Tuesday, October 16 Parents Auxiliary regular monthly meeting Boarding students congregate at 7:30 p.m., Wenman Pavillion on the steps of Symons and Thursday, October 25 Annual General Meeting of the SMUS Society Harvey House. Top row: at 7:30 p.m., Old Gym Owen Parrot (Tokyo) and Friday, October 26 Junior School Open House – 820 Victoria Ave. Akinori Kokubun (Japan). NOVEMBER Middle row: Morgan Price Thursday, November 8 Remembrance Day Service, 11:00 a.m., New Gym (Saudi Arabia), Yori Hagi (Edmonton, Alberta), Wendy Friday, November 30 Parents Auxiliary Christmas Bazaar Yang (Taiwan) and Chelsea (details posted on web site calendar) Combest-Friedman (Camano DECEMBER Island, Washington). Front: Thursday, December 6 Senior School Musical Night at UVic Centre Sumeet Leekha (Burnaby, BC), Auditorium Chantal Leonard (Ontario), Friday, December 14 & Parents Auxiliary Christmas Dinners in evening, Marcia Davidson (Whitehorse, Saturday, December 15 Brown Hall Yukon Territory), and Whitney Sunday, December 16 Senior School Carol Service Dorin (Edmonton, Alberta). The 210 students who comprise the Monday, December 17 Middle School Carol Service boarding community at SMUS Tuesday, December 18 Junior School Carol Service, 5:30 p.m., Chapel hail from 20 countries from Wednesday, December 19 Christmas Final Assembly around the world. Photo: Friesen Jenus School closed for Christmas Break. Classes resume January 8, 2002 JANUARY 2002 Tuesday, January 22 Vancouver Alumni Reception Wednesday, January 23 Seattle Alumni Reception Community... Thursday, January 24 Portland Alumni Reception MARCH 2002 ...it’s what makes us special. Each of us: teachers, students, families, staff, UBC Alumni Reception alumni and friends of the school, form part of this remarkable nurturing, Calgary, Edmonton Alumni Receptions growing place. It is the people within who inspire, create and build this Hong Kong, Taiwan, Korea, Japan meaningful world. Alumni Receptions The school is alive! Life enters the circulatory system of the school If you are interested in attending these or any other school with resounding results through the ideas, inspiration and energy of events, call (250) 592-2411 for further details, or visit the community members. Vital links and connections build a society akin to school’s website Calendar of Events for further details. www.smus.bc.ca family. The Parents Auxiliary introduces new families to the school. These SCHOOL TIES is distributed to more than 6,000 members of the newcomers, in turn, build on and contribute to our existing community. SMUS community, including current families, friends, alumni, and current and This resilient group does so many things to nurture and support the past staff. The goal of the publication is to communicate current school activities school, inspiring events that bring us all closer together. and initiatives along with articles and reports on the alumni community. If you have any comments or suggestions regarding this publication, please contact All segments of the school: Junior, Middle and Senior, form pockets, Jenus Friesen at (250) 370-6169 or e-mail: [email protected] but in the greater scheme of things, kinetically, they are integrally linked. A child growing up in the SMUS community has the opportunity to Published by: develop lifelong friendships – their immediate families also have the The Development Office at St. Michaels University School 3400 Richmond Road, Victoria, British Columbia Canada V8P 4P5 opportunity to become part of this vibrant community. Telephone: (250) 592-2411 Admissions: 1-800-661-5199 Our internet community is growing by leaps and bounds. Hundreds e-mail: [email protected] web site: http://www.smus.bc.ca of alumni are connecting with school classmates and teachers. Everyday, Editors: visitors log onto our site to explore. (Visit our web site at: Jenus Friesen, Christopher Spicer www.smus.bc.ca) Information about the school is being viewed virtually Contributors: (in no particular order) all over the world! Robert Snowden, Larry Devlin, Peter Bousfield, Melanie Hadfield, Boarding students from diverse ethnic and cultural backgrounds Robert Wilson, Donna Ray, Anna Forbes, Iain Forbes, Ian Hyde-Lay, integrate and form our international living community. Associations with Brenda Waksel, Louise Winter, Kathy Roth, Jake Humphries, alumni who live in all four corners of the world cultivate the synergy that Donna Johnson, Archie Ives, John Reid, Sandra Moore, Liz Falco, Tom Matthews, Sally Blyth, June Maffin, Bob Richards, Tom Rigos, is integral to the life of the school. Hugh Young, Chris Collins, Keith Walker, Derek Todd, Henry Frew. Teachers, staff, and students, with the support of their families, form Photography: the backbone. Each individual brings their love of learning, skills, values, Jenus Friesen, Craig White, Jeff Banks, Chris Spicer, Alumni insights, talents and creativity, and together they create this special sense Production & Printing: of family that is so evident. Reber Creative Hillside Printing Ltd., Victoria, BC Vivat! J.F. Lithographed in Canada 2 myrrh Myrrh by Robert Snowden, Headmaster, SMUS VERY CHRISTMAS, I am myrrh. The tradition the public face of some schools I read about is, I find, E is not yet so established that it is taken for a strange badge, especially when I see what they are granted. Every year, Mary Humphreys, the so completely intolerant of. A family does not choir director, does come and make sure I can sing practice zero-tolerance with children, and neither my verse of We Three Kings in the Carol Service, and should a school, unless the school is desperately I, for my part, put the event in my calendar before struggling against violence. she asks. We are fortunate in the size of our school. Many If there were a choice, one would probably choose schools are so big that the traditions of the gold or frankincense – happier images. In the community, and the adults in the community that try Robert Snowden, Headmaster symbolism of the occasion – the coming of Magi to to sustain those traditions and values, have no chance bring gifts to Jesus – gold acknowledged the royal against the numbers of students who ride wave after nature of Jesus, that he was King; frankincense wave of their own culture. The inclusion of families – “ Where we have students from 20 signified the prayers of the faithful rising to heaven diverse families – and teachers, and coaches, and different countries, and at least as and thus the divine nature of Jesus; myrrh alumni in the culture of the school provides so much many faiths, we understand that symbolized his mortality and suffering, his humanity reinforcement for the values our mission, for this richness makes us stronger. and ultimate crucifixion. Myrrh was used at funerals; instance, identifies: excellence, passion, compassion, It isn’t at all that the presence of it had embalming qualities. In the Christmas carol, community, truth and goodness. In a school of a its associations are of bitterness, gloom, sorrow and thousand or two thousand, the momentum of international or diverse students death. student culture is overwhelming. When you have dilutes our traditional school Certainly, at a school, one doesn’t choose to dwell large numbers of students together who are trying to culture; rather we realize that our on such themes long. Our life is full of energy, the learn values, the odds are that they are going to learn school culture is transformed, promise of the future, the brightness of the present, the values of their peers, often without adult and made stronger, more the warmth of the past. Inescapably, there are sad influence or support. The many families who work international, more thoughtful.” occasions, but our purpose is so wrapped up in the hard and do a good job in spite of this tide, worry world of the future and the way our students will legitimately that they can stem it. We see some of influence it that sadness doesn’t stand much of a them in our Admissions Office. chance. Nor does it in the lives of many people who This year is the 40th anniversary of the building lead a healthy existence. of the Chapel by the boys and teachers of the school. A wish one sometimes hears from students, or It is one of the important stories of the school’s parents, or teachers – and a criticism that is history. We are far from invasive in chapel: there is no sometimes made of a school like ours – is that it is attempt to unsettle the foundations of other faiths.