Jared Salmond, a Grade 12 student at North Addington Education Centre, won the OFSAA Character Athlete Award on December 10. The award is sponsored by the Ontario Federation of School Athletic Associations and is given to a male and female high school athlete each semester. Over the past two years, Jared has been a member of NAEC Senior Boys’ Volleyball team. This year the team had its most successful year in recent memory, finishing fourth in Bay of Quinte and third in COSSA, narrowly missing out on an OFSAA chance. Jared was selected as a winner for the award because of his demonstration of OFSAA’s values of leadership, commitment, respect, equity, growth, and development.

Jared, selected by his peers for the past two seasons to serve as team captain, has always acted in a positive manner both on and off the court. On top of volleyball, last year Jared help start an intramural program for NAEC elementary students and helped with secondary intramurals as well. In the past, Jared has helped with the North Addington Basketball Association and with the North Addington SPIKES program. Outside of school Jared is an instructor with the Mazinaw Lake Swim Program. In all of Jared’s endeavours, he positively demonstrates the core character values outlined by OFSAA.

On December 6, "Frosty Friday" was held at North Addington Education Centre. The secondary students participated in a fun-filled day of activities, like tug-of-war, "Minute to win it," and NAEC’s "Next Top Model." The high school was divided into four house groups; N, A, E, and C, and competed against each other for the honour of winning the title of best house.

The day started off with a pancake breakfast provided by the school to the elementary and secondary students. After eating, the houses split up to work on their house cheer until going off to one of four different activities. The activities were short competitions for each house individually. They competed in "Minute to win it," "Molding minds", three-legged race, and six-person skiing. After a break for lunch, the houses cheered themselves on in a cheer off, and then had a tug-of-war tournament. A sled race after that, finished the physical activities. Then, the most anticipated activity of the day, NAEC’s top model! Four lovely guys showed their confident sides and competed in a fierce beauty pageant.

At the end of the day, and a long battle, N house was declared the winner! All students had an exciting day and enjoyed the formal that evening. The day was organized by the NAEC Students Council.

On November 12, NAEC students attended breakdancing workshops with professional dancers Melly Mel and Rahime. The Grade 5/6, 6/7, 7/8, and Restart classes, as well as nearly 30 Secondary students, took to the floor in a high energy dance workout. Melly Mel and Rahime took students through a series of moves, slowly at first, and then at an increased pace. They then put the moves together, so that students were performing a full dance sequence.

The workshops were geared to the ages of the students, so Rahime and Melly Mel had students doing different moves and routines.The students really enjoyed the high energy workshop, and felt they had really worked hard. The next day student Josie Chaisson remarked on how much work it had been. “It was really fun, but my legs are really stiff today,” she said. “Imagine how they must have felt after doing a whole day of dancing!” The workshop was one of the many offered by MASC, an arts organization based in Ottawa.

The workshop was subsidized by a generous donation from The Crabtree Foundation, which made it possible for NAEC to afford a full-day workshop. It was also subsidized by The North Addington Guild, which helps NAEC students experience arts opportunities they would otherwise not be able to. Readers interested in learning more are directed to www.masconline.ca and www.bboyizm.ca

Back Row: Domynick McKenzie, Darian Flieler, Jordon Freeburn Front Row: 3rd Place, Brandon Lloyd (Hunting safety) ,  2nd Place: Courtney Johnson (History of Barbie) , 1st place: Emma Benn (Allergies) Photo: Darlene Dacuk

North Addington Education Centre spent the week of February 25-29 showcasing its fabulous public speakers again this year. After the students all presented their speeches at the classroom level, a few were chosen from each grade to continue on to the division level competition in the library at the school. Our new Vice Principal Mr. John Mooney was very impressed with the quality of the speeches and the ability of the students to memorize their material. The following students represented their grades in the library: Riley Kay, Rowan Lemke, Amanda Clancy, Darian Tryon, Rachel Cumming, Kaden Snider, Madi Lessard, Mackenzie Wilson, Kaitlyn Wilson, Madison Lloyd, Max Bumstead, BreTryon, Tim Shire, Madi Lemke, Brittany Wood, Andre Tryon, Emma Benn, Courtney Johnson, Jordon Freeburn, Brandon Lloyd, Darian Flieler and Domenyk McKenzie. The following students received third place medals: Rachel Cumming, Bre Tryon and Brandon Lloyd. The following students received second place medals: Rowan Lemke, Andre Tryon and Courtney Johnson. The following students received first place medals: Riley Kay, Max Bumstead and Emma Benn. Congratulations to all the speakers on a job well done!

King Max Bumstead and Queen Brianna TryonT

On Tuesday March 9, Mr. Rewbotham's Grade 4/5 class spent their morning preparing for a medieval feast. They held their feast that afternoon with help from the Elementary French teacher, Mme. Bumstead, and six parent volunteers cooking and serving food, as well as doing dishes. The meal includes two different kinds of "ale" along with turkey, potatoes, carrots, turnips, stuffing, homemade bread, and gravy. Many of the students dressed in costumes to fit their position in the feast. Max Bumstead and Brianna Tryon took on the parts of King and Queen, where in which they were dressed in royalty costumes and waited on by others at the feast.  

 "All together the medieval feast was a fantastic learning experience, it was very authentic." said Mr. Rewbotham.

NAEC Elementary Girls’ Basketball Team

On Friday, March 5, the elementary girls’ basketball team traveled to Napanee District Secondary School to compete in a basketball tournament. The Vikings dominated in their first two games against Enterprise and Selby and also in the semi-finals against Sharbot Lake. However they had a close victory against Selby in the finals.

The final score was 17 to 16 for N.A.E.C. The team showed awesome teamwork and sportsmanship. Even though the games were back to back the girls pushed through and got the results that they were hoping for. After the final game the girls received gold medals, which meant that the Vikings were the Limestone District School Board basketball champions!

The players that went to NDSS were Deanna Allen, Taylor Salmond, Emma Benn, Danielle Drysdale, Kendra Wilson, Chantal Smith, Abby Tryon, Cayley Wilson, Brittany Wood, Kassandra James, their amazing coach Madame Bumstead, and Mr. Rewbotham, who was not able to attend the event, but still showed great support for the team.

In the month of April, on the 22nd day, a very special thing is celebrated every year, Earth Day. Earth Day is a day to inspire awareness and appreciation for the Earth's environment. It's celebrated in multiple countries each year and everyone participates in the appreciation of our planet.

On the morning of Thursday April 22, 2010 Grades 9-12 at North Addington Education Center participated in a scavenger hunt, organized by the Environmental Science teacher, Ms. Melissa Randle and a few of the students.

"I'm really impressed with the Musical Theater class, the Grade 10 Gym class, and the Fashion class for sorting their scavenger hunt items. The event was definitely a success; not only was it fun, the school is even looking cleaner," says Ms. Randle.

Later that day, secondary students were shown a brief video about recycling, made by the high school's very own Environmental Science class. Afterward, students celebrated Earth Day by spending part of their afternoon outside, with blue gloves and garbage bags picking up any garbage and recycling they saw around the school yard, the football field, the track, the front lawn, and even across the street around the library and the museum.

"It's great to see everyone working together for such a great cause, I'm very proud of our students," stated Mrs. Salmond.  

Overall, the participants in the school clean up did a wonderful job, had fun and did their part for the planet.

On May 18, one of North Addington Education Centre’s students represented “Team Limestone” at the Ontario Skills Competition at the R.I.M. Park in Kitchener/Waterloo. Eighteen hundred students from around Ontario competed, and 30,000 visitors attended this showcase of student skills. Charles James, a Grade 9 student, participated in the Prepared Speech competition.  He had previously competed in the Limestone Board of Education Skills Competition for the honour of representing “Team Limestone” at the provincial level.  

Charles joined a busload of students and teachers from the Limestone Board of Education on a trip that included two nights away. Students competed in a variety of events, from landscaping and other traditional technological subjects to new high-tech subjects such as robotics, photography and web-site design.  

Charles mirrored the high-tech portion of the competition by speaking on the subject of Artificial Intelligence, or A.I. He traced the development of A.I. and speculated on the future application of this technology, including medical applications such as implants to help the blind see.     

Charles’s mother, Bev, and sister, Cassandra joined with his grandmother, Veronica, to cheer Charles on and give him support. The family toured the other competitions, after the Prepared Speech competition, and was particularly interested in the robotics competitions, which featured some suspenseful “races” to complete tasks.

Charles placed 8th in a field of 17 speakers, who were mostly in Grade 11 or 12. The M.C. in the Closing Ceremonies noted that everyone who attended was a winner, as they had already had to compete in one or two competitions to make it to the provincial level.  

Charles, however, expressed a determination to return next year and improve his standing.

“We are all very proud of Charles,” remarked NAEC Principal Angela Salmond. “To take on so many students, most older than he, was a great challenge.  We feel he represented NAEC, as well as ‘Team Limestone’, with great poise.”

Riley Kay, Grade 2 student at NAEC, represented her school at the annual Royal Canadian Legion Public Speaking competitions in the Grades 1--3 category.  Riley first traveled to Northbrook then on to Sharbot Lake, Eganville and Brighton placing first at three of these four competitions.  The final competition would have qualified Riley for the provincial competition held in Kirkland Lake.  Although Riley made a strong presentation, she did not move on to this level.  This is an amazing accomplishment for Riley and everyone at NAEC is very proud of her.  Riley is looking forward to participating in next year's speeches.  Congratulations Riley!!

NAEC Elects a New Students’ Council By Victoria Peeling

NAEC’s 2010/11 Students’ Council. Back row:  Social Convener Nick Smart, Vice President Connor Gaylord, Treasurer Tanner Hinchey, front row:  Cave Manager Gordie Grewal, Secretary Mike Deshane and President J.R. Lee.  Photo: Morgan Wilson

As the 2009/10 school year comes to an end, next year’s Students’ Council at North Addington Education Center has been elected. On Monday morning, students from grade 8 to 12, as well as staff, were called down to hear candidate speeches and voting followed at lunch. 

Photographer Melissa Randle.

The 38th Annual Cloyne Showcase was held last weekend at North Addington Education Centre, highlighting many local and regional talented artisans. The show covers many artistic mediums including chainsaw carving, stained glass, fabric, jewellery, photography, painting, spa products and more.  Photographer Melissa Randle, who teaches science at North Addington, has been participating in the show for the last 3 years. “This is a great opportunity to display art, interact with the community and support our school. It’s also nice to have so many of the local Ambient Woods Creative Collective [Artisans from Plevna and Area] exhibiting at this show.”

Ten percent of artist sales are collected by the North Addington Guild, from which a donation is made to the Arts Programs at North Addington. Also participating at Showcase was the Mazinaw Swim Program, who ran the bake table and canteen. This year’s Showcase was organised by Ted and Nancy Sparling with a core group of volunteers.  Events like Showcase are invaluable to the youth programs in our community, thank you to everyone who attended.

For more information about the Ambient Woods Creative Collective visit www.ambientwoods.webs.com