Four years ago, a group of friends who remember their days at Sydenham High School fondly, started up a fundraising campaign in honour of Mike Woodcox and Andy Green, former SHS footballers who both died of cancer when they were young men.

The first Sydenham Tackles Cancer dance was a success and the organizers, Matt Rennie, Stephanie Lauren and Karl Hammer decided to run the event for four years, with each year representing a quarter in a football game. This year will be the final event in the series.

Each year about $5,000 has been raised for the University Hospital Foundation – Kingston, and organizers are hoping to go out with another success.

This year’s event will take place on Friday, September, 28 at the SHS gym. Doors open at 8:45 and the music will be provided by The Stares (starting at 10 pm). As has been the custom, the licensed event will include a silent auction and a number of extra fundraising activities in addition to music and dancing. Tickets are $20 and are available at the door. There will be a free bus back to Kingston after the event. For information contact SHS at 613-376-3612 or email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

It came as no great surprise to see the Sydenham Junior Golden Eagles leading the Bayridge Blazers 41 to 0 with just four minutes left in the final quarter of the opening game at the Bubba Bowl last week. It has for years been the tradition of Sydenham's junior and senior teams to reign supreme at their hugely popular home football double header, which is played under the bright lights of the Point Park on Sydenham Lake. The annual event continues to draw thousands of fans, many of whom are former students and players at Sydenham.

The event was named for former grade 12 Sydenham high school student and football player Alex (Bubba) Turcotte, who passed away in his sleep 12 years ago. Bubba Bowl demonstrates how football players at Sydenham High School have flourished under the direction of a host of dedicated coaches.

I spoke with Jeff Ryan, educational assistant at SHS, now in his eleventh year of coaching football at the school. This year Ryan stepped in as the head coach of the Sydenham Junior Golden Eagles following an absence due to illness by long-time juniors' head coach Jim Latimer.

Following the juniors' win Ryan said that the final outcome of the game is one that is never completely predictable.

“We knew that our players had more experience playing the game because of the minor system that happens in this area through the Bulldog teams. Unfortunately for Bayridge, they don't have that feeder.” Ryan continued on to say that he “noticed that the Bayridge team has improved a lot this year and have become very physical.”

Following the game Ryan said that Latimer would be pleased to hear about the win, and that he would be sending him a text momentarily.

The heat and humidity were getting to the audience at the springtime Sydenham High School graduation last week (Thursday, June 27)

With over 200 graduates, and dozens of special awards to hand out, the audience had to struggle to maintain their enthusiasm at times.

Not so when Tyler MacComish took the stage to receive awards from the Kingston Community Credit Union and the Sydenham High School Staff Association, when the audience erupted in sustained applause, the loudest cheer for any of the deserving award winners all evening.

Because he has been a student in the School to Community Class, Tyler is now 20 and has been at the school longer than almost all of the graduating class, and his impact has been felt by the entire Sydenham High School community.

One of his teachers, Karl Hammer, met Tyler in September of 2006.

“Tyler began as a very quiet and shy young man, but slowly began to show his true personality over the course of the year. Tyler is one of the most well-mannered and positive people I have ever met.”

Over the past 7 years Tyler has been a manager for soccer, football, basketball, volleyball... he also played junior boys basketball, football and dressed and took the final snaps in the annual Bubba Bowl game in SR football this year. He has twice won manager of the year, and won a special award at this year's athletic banquet for his commitment and service to the athletic program at the school.

He has done co-op programs in the school and at the local Foodland store, where he has become an integral member of the Foodland family.

At SHS he has been the student council representative from the school to community classroom.

“Tyler is Mr. Sydenham,” said Karl Hammer. "He is known by all and highly respected for the joy he brings to people's lives. He is here with me helping me get my classroom ready for next year. Although he has moved on as a student and will leave my program... he will now become one of my close friends.”

If they were ever called down to the office at Sydenham High School this year, you can bet that it wasn't for bad behavior. Both Jacob Sharpe and Jesse Bell returned for their 5th victory lap at SHS this year, primarily for a chance to be a part of the school’s 2013 drama production. Little did they know that due to Bill C-115, it would be they alone producing, directing, and designing the sets. They acted as well in the 14-member cast of the drama production, which ran from May 23-25.

The show was Norm Foster's ribald comedy “Office Hour's”, whose six separate and cleverly connected office scenes tell of the wild, irreverent and highly comedic lives of 4 memorable characters, each caught in their own stormy, controversial and very funny family, romantic, business and professional relationships at the office. Sharpe and Browne had much more work than they should have had to do, and so they do have the official bragging rights for this production, which was a highly entertaining, visually attractive and downright professional piece of high school theatre.

The two were met more than halfway by a very talented cast, many of whom were younger students and newbies to the stage, but who (as I found out later) found their voices and stage legs through the leadership and unbridled enthusiasm of Sharpe and Bell.

Every single member of the cast not only nailed their lines but also delivered them with highly believable comedic mastery. In scene one it was Fleet Brown who set the bar as the disillusioned, down and out, and very soon to fall further TV news reporter Warren Kimble, who was threatened with firing by his sexy but showing-no-mercy producer Pam (Taylor Drake), who ruled the stage and Warren with her firm voice and red-heeled stomp of disapproval.

Owen Orser was convincing and physically hilarious as the small time, lovable, well-meaning but easily swayed and misdirected film producer Gordon Blaine, who took the side of the increasingly tipsy and highly derivative Hollywood director (Connor Beyers), who made a comedic splash with his apish and addled ideas for the next big cinematic hit.

Bryar Vuyk shone as the lying, never faithful but still charismatic and charming husband of the deservedly frustrated and furious Ellie (Leah Gurrl), who wants so much to believe his lies and alibis but cannot due to explicit photos of his philandering shenanigans.

Sharpe and Bell played to great comic effect side by side in Scene four, a very funny family drama with Bell as the cartoonishly overbearing Rhonda, mother of Richard (Sharpe) her soon-to-be-out gay son. The two were joined in the scene by stellar straight man Eric Gordon as Lloyd, the reserved and severely hen-pecked hubby of Rhonda, who in the end has his own little hidden secret to reveal.

In Scene five, race track owner Stan Thurber, played to perfection by Kody Thomson, who definitely knows a thing or two about how to deliver a comedic line, is forced to fire family friend, the overweight jockey Arthur Barnes, who was played with gusto by Gavin Colman and whose highly comedic last-ditch groveling for his job was a memorable highlight.

Bell and Sharpe both were pleased with the Friday night show that I attended. Both students discovered their love of theatre while at SHS and have worked together in many productions there. “Since we've been working together for the past five years we really understand our individual strengths and weaknesses,” Bell said when I spoke with them after the show.

Sharpe said Bell’s strengths are “his ability to work hands on with the actors and his incredible way of getting everyone pumped up and enthused about their roles on stage. He is especially great with the younger actors and made them feel very comfortable and confident.”

Of Sharpe's strengths Bell said, “No one understands the mind of a character like Jacob Sharpe. I may be able to motivate but he is the person that truly understood everything in this script-the jokes and all of the characters. He truly shaped and cultivated all of the actors on stage and his role was that of the traditional director.”

Each one agreed that they could not have done the job without the help of the other.

Where are these two talented students heading next September? Sharpe will be attending a special comedic writing course at Humber College and then plans to study theatre at Ryerson, while Bell plans to become a teacher and will be studying Concurrent Education at Queen's University. They both hope to meet up again sometime in the near future and to do more stage work together. If their production of Office Hours is any indication, it looks as though they both have very bright futures ahead of them, whether on and off the stage.

In May 2011, Drew Cumpson, a Sydenham High School graduate and current student at the University of Guelph, became a quadriplegic after a freak body surfing mishap while he was volunteering in Lima, Peru.

This Saturday May 4, Drew, along with his family and friends will be hosting a fundraiser at the Frontenac Community Arena near Godfrey from 7pm 2am. Three local bands: Bauder Road, Still Standing and Killing Time will be performing and the event will include a silent and live auction offering up to bidders a plethora of top-notch items donated by local businesses and individuals. These include a signed Sydney Crosby jersey, tickets to a Taylor Swift concert, an ice fishing hut, a brand new chainsaw plus a wide range of gift certificates and themed baskets and much, much more. Tickets, which cost $20, will include a buffet at 11pm.

Proceeds from the event will go towards funding the accessibility features in what will soon be Drew and his family’s new home in Westbrooke. The Cumpson family will be moving into the new home, which is being built especially to accommodate Drew, who now uses a wheel chair and head apparatus to maneuver through his everyday life. The special features of the house will allow Drew to access special controls for lights, television, doors, an elevator, audio visual equipment, his computer and phone.

Drew’s parents, Heather and Jim, hope to move into the new home on May 10 and Drew will be moving in soon after once he gets his home care in place.

In addition to the upcoming fundraiser Drew is also taking part in the current National Mobility Awareness event, which is offering up three brand new accessible vans to the individuals that acquire the most on-line votes. Drew is six feet tall and he hopes to acquire one of the new vans, which have larger door openings.

“Right now I am having major issues with getting in and out of the van that I use and the new van will definitely solve those problems,” Drew said when I spoke to him by phone earlier this week. He said he plans to donate his old van should he win a new one.

Currently Drew has amassed 13,000 on-line votes but hopes to see that number increase to 20,000 before the deadline, which is fast approaching on Friday May 10. Drew's supporters can vote for him once a day up until the May 10 deadline by visiting the website at www.mobilityawarenessmonth.com/localheroes and typing in Drew's name in the local heroes search bar. Supporters will find on Drew's on line page a video of him speaking of his accident and his life since. Answer the skill testing question and Drew will receive an extra vote from you.