Press and Other Media Releases
June 17, 2010 - CBC Manitoba news item
St. John's High School hits 100
A Winnipeg high school is celebrating its 100th anniversary with a reunion that will bring back some internationally famous alumni.
A gala at the Winnipeg Convention Centre Saturday night will feature former St. John's High School students Burton Cummings, Monty Hall, Ken Kostick, Colleen Savage and Ron Romanowski.
Cummings, 62, is a musician and former Guess Who front man.
Hall, 88, is best known as host of the television game show Let's Make a Deal.
Kostick, 57, is a host of several cooking shows on TV and has written several best-selling cookbooks.
Savage is a Vancouver-based jazz vocalist who has appeared in venues all across North America.
Romanowski has published three books of poetry, including his latest, Insurrection, about the 1919 Winnipeg General Strike.
Classrooms at the North End school will also be set up with memorabilia from the last 100 years, said former student and co-chair of the reunion Brian Burdy.
"It's a hundred years. That in itself is a unique thing for a high school in Winnipeg. It's the first high school in Winnipeg to have a hundred years," he said.
About 1,600 former students have registered for the event, coming across Canada and as far away as the Cayman Islands and New Zealand.
The oldest former student to attend is 101 and graduated in 1926, said Burdy.
As well, 50 former students who live in Jerusalem and couldn't make it to Winnipeg will hold their own reunion this weekend.
St. John's is the city's first first high school to hit the 100-year milestone.(www.manitobahomecoming2010.com)
May 28, 2010 - Winnipeg Free Press Article
St. John's High School celebrates its centennial
By Geoff Kirbyson
ST. JOHN'S High School is about to boldly go where no Winnipeg high school has gone before.
The North End institution is about to become the first high school in the city to celebrate its centennial. And in keeping with an event that's 100 years in the making, St. John's is doing it in style.
The festivities will take place over four days, beginning June 17, highlighted by a gala dinner on the 19th, where alumni Burton Cummings, lead singer of the Guess Who, and jazz singer Colleen Savage, will perform. Brian Burdy, co-chair of the centennial reunion, said St. John's was one of two high schools built shortly after the turn of the 20th century in Winnipeg -- Kelvin High School was erected two years later -- to accommodate the growing number of young people in the burgeoning metropolis.
Its focus over the first few decades was developing the technical skills of its students and that was reflected in its original name, St. John's Technical High School.
As the technical component was eclipsed by a greater desire to promote academics, the school dropped "Technical" from its name about a half-century ago.
In addition to Cummings and Savage, St. John's has more than its fair share of accomplished alumni. They include Monty Hall, 88, the longtime host of Let's Make A Deal, Harry Walsh, 96, selected as one of Manitoba's top 10 lawyers for the 20th century, Brian Postl, dean of the faculty of medicine at the University of Manitoba and Ken Kostick, one of Canada's best-known celebrity chefs who will be the master of ceremonies at the gala. Hall, who attended St. John's 75th reunion, said there was no question he would attend the 100th.
"Why wouldn't I? I'm coming back because it's my high school. I still have a great affinity for the school and Winnipeg," he said.
Hall, who graduated in 1935, said one of his most vivid memories is being the second-smallest kid in the school when he arrived at age 13.
"I was about five-foot-three and weighed about 90 pounds. I was very happy to find out that there was another boy who was 14 or 15 who was smaller than me. I wanted to stand next to him when we took pictures. I still remember his name, Sidney Bell," Hall said, noting he "shot up" beyond six feet tall after graduating from St. John's.
Burdy said more than 1,500 former students are expected to attend the centennial reunion. While many are still in Winnipeg, others are flying in from across Canada and the United States and from as far away as the Cayman Islands, England and Israel. "That shows how much meaning (the former students) attach to their high school experience. It's very special for a lot of people," he said. Chief among them will be the school's "poster child," Katherine Weber, who graduated in 1926 and recently turned 101 years old.
She will be tasked with cutting a ceremonial cake at the reunion's closing ceremonies.
Registration information about the reunion is available online (www.stjohnshigh100.mb.ca).
geoff.kirbyson@freepress.mb.ca
March 24, 2010 - Jewish Post and News Article
Anticipation Building For St. John's Reunion
By Myron Love
For the first half of the 20th century, St. John's High School was the high school of record for most Jewish teens growing up here. On the weekend of June 17-20, many of those former students will be returning to the north end high school to celebrate St. John's 100th anniversary.
The anniversary activities include a golf tournament on the 16th (Wednesday), a coffee house at the school on the 17th, a social at Canad Inns Polo Park on Friday evening, a volleyball tournament on Saturday and a gala dinner in the evening featuring guest speaker alumnus Monty Hall, the alumni choir, conducted by Richard Yaffe, and a Pancake Breakfast Sunday morning hosted by Ken Kostick and catered by the current and previous principals of St. John's High. Also on Sunday, there will be a Memorial Parade and dedication of the Centennial Alumni Wall.
"St. John's was a school that always saw its mission as helping immigrant children to become Canadians and get ahead in life," says Sheldon Mindell who served as a guidance councillor at the school for 19 years (1972-1991).
In the first half of the 20th century, those immigrant kids were largely Jewish. "When I went to school at St. John's on the 1950s, it was a mix of Jewish, Ukrainian, German and Polish kids," recalls Barry Plosker. "I wasn't much of a student though. I was more interested in sports and the social aspects of high school."
(Plosker also taught at the school - Grade 7 Language Arts - for five years from 1999 to 2004 and continued working as a substitute teacher there for three years after he retired..
As late as 1967 when this writer graduated from St. John's, the student population was still almost 50% Jewish. By the early 1970s though, the school population's ethnic mix had changed considerably. But the school's high educational standards have remained.
"I worked with a dynamic group of dedicated teachers," Mindell says. "There were many long time teachers on staff (which has also been a recurrent feature of St. John's history). And the school never closed. There were always evening programs and summer school classes."
Mindell notes that one measure of the school's high standards and success was that the school has never needed a "Safe Grad" designation. "The students have always been well behaved," he says.
Barry Plosker says that he is looking forward to seeing a lot of old friends at the reunion. And both he and Mindell are looking forward to renewing acquaintances with former students.
The deadline for registration is June 5. Interested alumni can call 480-8790 or email stj100regchair@gmail.com.
March 6, 2010 - Winnipeg Free Press Article
Former students to gather for St. John's high reunion
It was one of her final projects as a student at St. John's High School -- sewing her 1931 graduation dress by hand. Sophie Shinewald and about 15 other students in the sewing class weren't allowed to use sewing machines and, because of an accident with a pot of boiling water, she had to sew the dress from a hospital bed.
Now 96 years old, Shinewald still has the graduation photo of herself and her classmates in their white dresses.
Shinewald said she has fond memories of her high school, known then as St. John's Technical High School. St. John's celebrates its centennial this spring, the first high school to reach this milestone in Winnipeg.
She is coming to the reunion because of these fond memories, just like 600 other alumni who are so far attending the event from June 17 to 20.
"I just loved St. John's Tech," she said.
"I really enjoyed every moment of it."
St. John's High School first opened its doors in 1912 in the North End of Winnipeg on Salter Street, but the first students were enrolled in 1910, where they were sent to Luxton School until the building was completed.
The only other high school in Winnipeg at the time was Central Collegiate, which was too far from the rapid development happening in Winnipeg's North End.
Shinewald grew up on Selkirk Avenue, where she said she walked to St. John's every day from 1928 to 1931.
"I walked to school in the morning, took the streetcar home for lunch," she said.
St. John's High School, which started off grades 9 to 12 with 28 students, is now home to more 1,100 students from grades 7 to 12.
The old school was demolished in 1967 because it was too expensive to repair, but the new one still stands with a few more classrooms and many more students.
"St. John's turned out a lot of prominent people that really developed Winnipeg over the decades," said Brian Burdy, a student at the school who graduated in 1965 and then taught there for 13 years.
Burdy is also the co-chair of the reunion committee and said it was his dream to come back and teach at the school that inspired his love for education.
"The high school was the hub of the community. There weren't as many things to do that occupied people's interest," he said.
"The school was the common place for people's lives."
Burdy and Shinewald both said it was the teachers that made the school.
"They wanted to instill the importance of education in everyone," Shinewald said.
St. John's High School has been home to many prominent Canadians over the years, including Burton Cummings, who is scheduled to perform at the reunion in June.
Tickets for the reunion start at $40 with tickets for a social and a gala dinner, featuring music from Cummings and Ken Kostick as the master of ceremonies, for an additional price.
Other activities over the five-day event include golf and volleyball tournaments, coffee house and a pancake breakfast.
Alumni can visit stjohnshigh100.mb.ca for more information and registration.
Famous faces from St. John's past
Recognize these St. John's High School alumni?
Burton Cummings, singer and songwriter
Ken Kostick, celebrity chef
Arnold Sphor, Royal Winnipeg Ballet dancer artistic director
Monty Hall, actor, sportscaster and host of Let's Make a Deal
Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition March 6, 2010
June 22, 2008 - Centennial Alumni Wall Press Release and Ribbon Cutting Ceremony
Press Release - June 22nd, 2008
St. John's High School cuts the Ribbon on the Centennial Wall
Winnipeg, MB. . . .Today with a crowd present, 3 students cut the ribbon on the St. John's High Centennial Wall just 2 years from the 100th Birthday Celebration/Anniversary of the school. The grand opening of the Centennial Wall drew alumni, students, staff and some of the community as this school has become an icon. The enthusiasm associated with the 100th anniversary was alive and vibrant at the celebration.
St. John's school first opened its doors to educate the community in 1910. The wall features the school's history through the years, and offers opportunities for families and individuals to purchase commemorative plaques to mark their Tiger Pride. Sue Gibb, the wall's Chief Organizer and valued member of the St. John's staff was noticeably moved as she said, "The hundreds of people that led the way will now always be remembered by this wall. The history is alive and well and now will be an ongoing part of the school. I am honoured to say I have been a part of it all."
Richard, this year's torch recipient on behalf of the grade 11 class said, "Knowing I am a part of this means more than I thought it would. Receiving the torch is a tradition that few have had an opportunity to be part of and seeing the wall helps me better understand the importance of my school. My Tiger Pride is bubbling over today."
Wendy, who is an active participant in the alumni committee and a grad from almost 30 years ago said, "The reunion weekend is going to be a true representation of our Tiger Pride and our school's history. The weekend will encompass local businesses that share in the St. John's history and offer events that demonstrate all of the schools facets. Sporting events, soc hops, theatre, lots of great food and fun, there will be something that will appeal to everyone!"
Kayla, the school's class President, who was excited and saddened at the same time said, "I am excited to be going out into the world prepared and I know that St. John's has played a key role in that. It is sad to leave this place as it has become a foundation in my life and I have had some of my fondest memories here. My Tiger Pride will continue and I am so excited to know that in just 2 years I will be celebrating along with thousands of people who walked these halls prior to me."
The 100th Anniversary celebration kicks off in June 2010. If you are interested in learning more or joining the committee please contact the committee at http://www.stjohnshigh100.mb.ca/. St. John's High School is located at 401 Church Avenue.
View/download a pdf copy of this press release.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|||
