by Sandi Kuntsi
There are many great opportunities for everyone to get involved in at Manitoulin Secondary School (MSS), whether it is practicing for upcoming competitions or contributing to important campaigns.
On Monday, September 18, Roberta Bondar, the first female Canadian astronaut and the first neurologist in space, came to MSS to talk to the student body, staff, elementary schools, and community members about how the Earth matters. All in attendance were greeted by Mr. Mohammed, before Kathy Wachnuk welcomed Nicole Shoshone to the stage. Ms. Shoshone is the director of education at Science North. She explained how she had been working with Dr. Bondar to educate students across Northern Ontario. Dr. Roberta Bondar is globally recognized for her fine art photography, neurology, and her several university degrees. Dr. Bondar shared her inspiration for becoming an astronaut. She showed the impact of climate change in different areas of the world recorded by satellite photography: Las Vegas, Dubai, Amazon Rainforest, Columbia Glacier, Aral Sea. Dr. Bondar also shared a video of her life in the space station and pictures of Earth from space. At the end of her presentation she introduced the Ontario150 Bondar Challenge. The challenge is to take a picture of nature and describe why it is a piece of natural beauty. The presentation ended with a question and answer period. Most asked questions about the impact of space travel on the human body and what Dr. Bondar learned from her research in the space shuttle.
On Friday, the new First Robotics Team met. First Robotics is a combination of the sport and technology, the ultimate sport for the mind. For this competition, teams are challenged to raise money, design a team ‘brand,’ and design and build a robot to compete against other teams. The team will only have six weeks from the reveal date in January to construct and code a competition robot to meet the challenges. The group decided on a team name: Manitoulin Metal. Manitoulin Metal is still looking for more coders, carpenters, engineers, designers, and a business manager. The group plans to compete in North Bay and Barrie in 2018 and are looking for community sponsors.
On Friday, September 22, the Students’ Council held the Magazine Drive kick-off assembly. To start off Co-Prime Ministers Jacob Maxwell and April Torkopoulos introduced the Students’ Council for this school year: Josh Noble as vice-prime minister; Alicia Williamson as fundraising manager; Victoria MacDonald as secretary and treasurer; Delaney Madore as spirit rep; Isaac Gosse as AV technician; myself as public relations; Marshall Maciuk, Lauren Goddard, and Kaitlyn Keatley as Grade 11 representatives; Zachary Carr as Grade 10 representatives; Malia Leighton and Maggie Chapman as Grade 9 representatives. Steve Bailey from QSP then launched the magazine drive. The magazine drive is the biggest fundraiser for the school and the money raised goes towards special events for the school. To encourage students to sell magazine, the Students’ Council added incentives for reaching various goals: $3,000, sundae bar; $6,000, half-movie day; $9,000 teacher pie-throw; $12,000, teacher makeover; $15,000, afternoon sports/ games; $18,000, hypnotist. In order to participate in these events, students must sell at least one magazine subscription. To get the students motivated to sell, Students’ Council created a Friends-themed video that had the student body laughing. Students will be selling magazines until October 10.
On Wednesday, September 27, SHARE/ Go Green has members leaving for Toronto to participate in WE Day Toronto. WE Day is a day full of performances and motivational speakers, meant to reward and inspire young leaders and world changers. WE Day tickets are not bought, they are instead earned through local and global contributions. SHARE/ Go Green has done lots of work raising money for emergency relief, collecting canned goods for the local food bank, and raising money for WE.Org projects in Kenya. WE Day is on September 28. Participants always come back with lots of inspiration to make the world a better place.
The entire school is busy, between fundraising, creating new inspirations, and keeping up their school work. ‘Til next time, stay golden, Mustangs.
