Fleming College Students' Anti-Stigma School Project Earns Partnership With Alzheimer Society To Be Used Throughout Peterborough

Fleming College’s Graphic Design – Visual Communication (GDV) students have partnered in an anti-stigma campaign developed from a class project with the Alzheimer Society of Peterborough, Kawartha Lakes, Northumberland and Haliburton in an announcement on Tuesday.

GDV Fleming Students Adam Keizer (left) Mark Dizon (middle) and James Levesque (right) gave presentations to the media and affiliated organizations of their campaigns. Dizon is an international student from the Phillipines and came to Peterborough for school two years ago. Photo by Samantha Bianco.

The ‘Missing Piece,’ campaign was created and designed by Fleming students including international student Mark Dizon. His project was declared the winner and the lead project from six different groups. It will be used throughout the Peterborough region to draw attention to the stigma and bias that can affect those with dementia.

“I just feel honoured and very happy that it’s my first time to be chosen for this,” said Dizon. “It was a contest and I was chosen. I won and I feel like a champion.”

Each year, fifth-semester GDV students were assigned to aid an organization with a design project. Organizations are often from the non-profit sector and the project gives students a chance to experience working with a real-world client from concept to completion.

The Alzheimer Society are using the designs and concepts in a campaign that will stretch across the Peterborough region.

“We were tremendously impressed with the quality of the work produced by the Fleming College students. Dementia in our region is rising exponentially, and unfortunately stigmatizing language is still commonly used around the disease,” said Jen Johnstone, Alzheimer Society executive director. “We are thrilled that our collaboration with Fleming will enable us to launch our anti-stigma campaign Be the Missing Piece in August of this year.”  

“This is a fantastic example of the hands-on, experiential learning that takes place at Fleming College and comes to life in our community,” said Maureen Adamson, Fleming president. “This project has led to a partnership that benefits not only our students but the people that we love and support. We are honoured to be a part of this collaboration.” 

Dizon has been hired by the Alzheimer Society of Peterborough, Northumberland, etc. in an internship capacity to help oversee the campaign. He is in his fourth week of six of an internship with the organization at the publication of this article.

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SPSS Student Amelia Williams Takes Her Next Hockey Step By Committing To Sault College

The hockey life continues for 17-year-old St. Peter’s Secondary School (SPSS) student Amelia Williams has committed to the Sault College Cougars in Sault Ste. Marie to play hockey in September in a contract signing on Tuesday morning.

(from left to right) Mike WIlliams, father; Rocco Williams, brother; Amelia Williams, Clara Williams, sister and Rebecca WIlliams, mother at the signing held at the SPSS gym. Photo by David Tuan Bui.

The defenceman says Sault College was one of the few schools that offered a hockey program in the province and she jumped at the opportunity when she found out she was recruited.

“If I wanted to continue to play hockey, this was my only opportunity to,” explained Williams.

She is graduating from SPSS this summer and will move to Sault Ste. Marie around August. Williams says she’s excited but is surreal that she’ll be going through a major lifestyle change over the summer.

“It's crazy that I'm graduating and moving away,” she explained. “I wasn't expecting to go away but this opportunity just came and I'm really excited.”

Williams has been playing hockey since she was in grade two. She’s won a Kawartha AAA High School Girls hockey championship and COSSA championship with SPSS in 2019.

She’s also been a member of the Peterborough Ice Kats AA U18 team for the last two seasons. She finished this season with two goals and seven assists in 52 games as the team’s top-scoring defenseman.

Williams will take electrical engineering at Sault College and either wants to play professional hockey or become an electrician after graduation from post-secondary education.

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Sisters-In-Law Found New Private School Evergreen Education Beginning this September

Teachers and sister-in-laws Kayley Dunn and Sarah Dunn are opening a new private school Evergreen Education located at the Edmison Heights Baptist Church basement and are accepting enrollments for September.

Teachers Kayley Dunn (left) and Sarah Dunn (right) prepping for the next school year as they will open their private school Evergreen Education this September. Both of their husbands are brothers. Photo by David Tuan Bui.

The school is accepting children from kindergarten to grade three and looking to get around 22 students total with classes of no more than 15 students, enrolled for the upcoming school year.

Kayley and Sarah focus on self-paced and ‘mastery-based’ learning rather than every child learning at the same rate.

“Teachers are teaching students at their level and so if you have a big class of 26, the idea is that that teacher is meeting all those 26 students' needs because they're not all necessarily at the same academic level,” explained Sarah. “That's really hard to do and it's not the teacher's fault, there's so many things at play. Each student in our class will have their own tracking system, their own goals each day and so they know where they are in their learning.”

Both teachers want to teach self-awareness, others-awareness, social skills and empathy to the children in ‘emotional intelligence.’

“We have a whole curriculum we're following, exercises and a chunk of time every morning designated for emotional learning for students,” said Sarah. That's also unique to our school and our program and outdoor education.”

"It won't just be outdoor play, we will be teaching our subjects outside and integrating outdoors throughout,” said Kayley.

The idea of the school stemmed from both women spending time together since both their husbands are brothers. Two duo had their children and maternity leave around the same time and collaborated on the idea. It was inspired from the COVID-19 pandemic as several children had alternate learning conditions and restrictions placed for a few years that could not give students the full school experience.

“We also saw a lot of gaps in the learning as we went back from the pandemic, seeing so many kids grade levels behind or above because home life was different for everyone,” explained Kayley. “We looked at the system right now and how everything's being taught and were, 'we could close those gaps so easily with a different model of teaching.’”

Sarah and Kayley wanted to deliver quality education at Evergreen to Peterborough in the same respect as they would want their own children to receive.

“I wanted to give my kids a quality education and felt like Sarah and I could give them that,” explained Kayley. “We felt like we could actually do a wonderful job at providing a quality education to everyone.”

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American Zoologists The Kratt Brothers Come to Peterborough to Film ‘Wild Kratts’ Episode Featuring Riverview Park and Zoo Camels

Martin and Chris Kratt stopped by the Riverview Park and Zoo on Tuesday to film for their PBS Kids show ‘Wild Kratts,’ which aims to educate young viewers on zoology and ecology.

photo courtesy of riverview park and zoo, facebook.

Martin and Chris Kratt are zoologists and actors who host the educational series. They have produced five TV series including ‘Kratts’ Creatures’ and ‘Zoboomafoo’ which educate children on different species through live-action and cartoon segments.

The brother’s filmed with Riverview’s Bactrian Camels for the upcoming episode.

Wild Kratts is in its seventh season on PBS, which can be streamed in Canada on TVOKids.

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Stephen O’Sullivan Becomes New PVNC Director of Education

The Peterborough Victoria Northumberland and Clarington Catholic District School Board has appointed Stephen O’Sullivan as the new Director of Education and Secretary/Treasurer to the Board announced on Tuesday.

Photo courtesy of PVNC.

O’Sullivan assumes the role in August. He has been a Catholic educator for 23 years and held the role of Superintendent of Human Resources since 2021. He also served as the Superintendent of Faith and Equity and Clarington Family of Schools.

He started his teaching career with Hamilton-Wentworth Catholic District School Board and joined PVNC Catholic as a vice-principal in 2010. O’Sullivan has served as a vice-principal at St. Mother Teresa CES, St. Elizabeth CES and St. Thomas Aquinas CSS and as principal at St. Luke CES and St. Anthony CES.

“I feel very privileged and blessed to be chosen to lead Peterborough Victoria Northumberland and Clarington Catholic District School Board,” said O’Sullivan. “I want to build on the vision and strategic priorities that are already in place and continue to move the Board forward with a focus on student and staff well-being and achievement. We will continue to accompany our students as we fulfill the promise of Catholic education together.”

O’Sullivan holds a Masters of Religious Education from the University of St. Michael’s College. He has earned an Osgoode Certificate in Education Law and in 2021 he completed the Learning Partnership Leadership Program from the Ivey Business School.

He is a chair of the Ontario Catholic Supervisory Officers’ Association Region One, a member of the Ontario Catholic School Business Officials Association and he sits on the Board of Directors for the Eastern Ontario Staff Development Network. Previously, O’Sullivan was on the executive council of the Catholic Principals’ Council of Ontario.

“We are excited to work with Steve as our new director. Steve spoke from the heart to the Board of Trustees about his vision, and the sharing of our Catholic faith,” said Kevin MacKenzie, board chairperson. “Through the many leadership roles he has taken on, he understands our system deeply and that was what truly stood out in the selection process.”

O’Sullivan and his wife Jennifer live in Peterborough with their two children, Jack and Taylor. He is a member of the Immaculate Conception parish and is a member of the Knights of Columbus.

“In this leadership role I look forward to working collaboratively with our talented superintendents and all leaders at the Board office, our dedicated and passionate school administrators, educators and support staff, students, families, parish communities and the Diocese of Peterborough as we grow our capacity to nurture the faith of students and staff together,” said O’Sullivan.

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Hometown PTBO: Valedictorian Frankie Moore Diagnosed With Autism Leading the Charge For Fleming College's Convocation With the CICE Program

This week on Hometown PTBO, Pete Dalliday talks to Fleming College valedictorian Frankie Moore about being the first Community Integration Co-operation Education (CICE) student to receive the honour despite being diagnosed with autism and about the program itself.

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Hometown PTBO: Traill College Principal Dr. Michael Eamon On the New Jalynn Bennett Amphitheatre As a Hub

This week on Hometown PTBO, Pete Dalliday talks with Traill College principal Dr. Michael Eamon on how he assumed the position of the Trent University downtown location and the new Jalynn Bennett Amphitheatre as a new hub for arts, culture, heritage and learning.

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Kids Get An Aquatic Lesson From the Peterborough Children's Water Festival

Over 650 students from over 20 schools in grades 2 to 5 got educated about the element of life as they attended the Peterborough Children’s Water Festival (PCWF) at Riverview Park and Zoo on Wednesday morning.

Julius the turtle and Peterborough Green up’s Karen O’Krafka are presenting to over 300 children at the return of the Peterborough Children’s Water Festival. Photo by David Tuan bui.

The festival returned to an in-person event after going for the last three years in a digital format.

“We are excited to once again offer a live, in-person Water Festival this year after three years of virtual programming,” says Patricia Skopelianos, PCWF chair.

The two-day event saw students from 45 classes from the Kawartha Pine Ridge District and Peterborough, Victoria, Northumberland and Clarington Catholic School Boards learn about water at over 20 learning stations ranging from water consumption, leaks to conservation.

“Once again, we are pleased to offer several activity centres in the French language with the involvement of students from St. Peter Catholic Secondary School,” said Skopelianos. “We are also welcoming back Elder Dorothy Taylor for a midday Sacred Water teaching, Adventures in Understanding by The Paddling Puppeteer Glen Caradus, Stepping Stone by The Ontario Turtle Conservation Centre, and The Great Fish Migration by OFAH’s Bring Back the Salmon, who will all be returning to the Festival this year.”

During the event, a ceremony was held to commemorate and thank all who supported and sponsored the event.

“We are very fortunate to have tremendous community support for the Peterborough Children's Water Festival,” said Skopelianos. “For 22 years, local businesses and agencies have made generous financial contributions. We also have many volunteers who give their time and expertise and several more who provide in-kind contributions. Our community helps make this Festival a reality for the children.”

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Students Display Their Art Skills In the 10th Annual Paint a Peterborough County Snow Plow

Teachers and students of Peterborough County got to put their creative side on display as they got to participate in the 10th Annual Paint a Peterborough County Snow Plow.

Photo courtesy of the County of Peterborough.

Snowplow blades were delivered the schools in early May where they were painted with their custom designs. Chemong Public School, St. Martin Catholic School, Millbrook Public School, Norwood District Public School, Rhema Christian School and Buckhorn Public School participated in the painting event.

“This is our 10-year anniversary engaging with our local schools to paint our plows,” said Bill Linnen, General Manager Public Works Division “They have fun and get to share their creativity with us and we enjoy displaying them along Hwy 28 and sharing them with the greater community.” 

They are being displayed at the Douro Public Works Depot at the corner of Hwy 28 and County Road 4 upon completion. They will remain there until they are needed next winter for plowing operations.  

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Photos: Holy Cross Students Celebrate Asian Heritage Month With Cooking Demo In 'Cook Eat Love' Culinary Program

Susan Tung, Hanoi House and NAKA Japanese owner (left) and Morgan Bell, general manager (right) showing HCSS students how to make Vietnamese spring rolls. All photos by Samantha Bianco.

Roughly 20 students from grades 9-12 at Holy Cross Secondary School received a cooking demonstration from Susan Tung and Morgan Bell, owner and general manager of Hanoi House (Vietnamese) and NAKA Japanese Food & Drink restaurants.

The demo is part of the school’s Cook Eat Love culinary program offered to the Peterborough Victoria Northumberland and Clarington Catholic District School Board’s six secondary schools throughout May to learn about the many achievements and contributions of Canadians of Asian heritage.

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