SHS 150th bash: The party of the decade in Sydenham

Jeff Green | Aug 16, 2023

Members of the Sydenham High School 150th anniversary Committee began talking and planning for the celebration weekend a couple of years ago. That led to a formal committee being established, many, many small group meetings and 16 full scale organising meetings; hundreds of emails and direct messages, all with one goal in mind.

It was all done with the goal of creating a weekend that provides the entire Sydenham High School Community with a chance to remember their favourite aspect of their time at the school, whether it was team sports, theatre, the annual fashion show, or a favourite teacher.

Now that the weekend is within sight, Marie Wilkins, co-chair of the committee with Chris Hammer, said that it is now all about making sure all of the small things are in place for the many events that will make up the reunion weekend.

And with between 50 and 100 official volunteers to coordinate, there are a lot of details to nail down. 

And what a weekend it is slated to be, both at the school and at the Point Park. It all starts on Friday morning, at 6am, and on the hour until 9am, with a group walk along the Cat Trail from the Point Park.

Online registration is over, but phone registration, at 1-844-386-2835, is still open. And starting at 10am on Friday, August 25, people can register on site at SHS. The cost of registration, which covers entry to all of the displays and events, except the Saturday night dance, is $35.

Near the registration table, there will be 7 decade rooms set up on the 1st  floor of the school. The rooms will be chock full of photos, documents and other memorabilia, going back over 100 years. The rooms will be open on both Saturday and Sunday. Tours of the school will be available throughout the two days as well, an opportunity for many alumni to see how far the school has come.  A visual art show featuring alumni works, a fashion show reunion, Shop Talk under the tent, a family swim at the Point.

At 4pm on Friday, the opening ceremonies take place in the gym, followed by wine and cheese, and the day ends with a Variety Show in the gym.

On Saturday, there will be Golden Eagles Games at the Point Field, and a kids zone as well, in addition to all of the displays.

On Saturday Night, the 150th party is set to rock. This is a separate ticketed event for $30. The bands are all connected to the school, and they include Reckless and Banded (8pm -8:45pm), Hellhound Trail (9pm-10pm) SHS Reunion Alumni Band (10:15 pm – 11:15 pm) and finally Texas Tuxedo, from 11:30 pm. The dance ends at 1am.

On Sunday morning there will be a community breakfast in the tent next to the school ($10) followed by the closing ceremony with Glenn Foster.

Money will be raised all weekend and every dollar earned beyond what is required to cover costs, will go to a reunion fund to cover costs for students who cannot afford athletic fees or other fees for extra-curricular activities.

Of the 700 people who have already registered for the reunion, some are coming from quite far away, including British Columbia, Czechia and Wales. There are also a number of alumni in their 80s and 90s who have already committed to coming, and organisers are curious to find out who the oldest person to attend will be.

“The weekend will be an opportunity for many of us to see people for the first time in 20 or 25 years, and we are all looking forward to that,” said Marie Wilkins.

The process of pulling much of the history of SHS together and using digital technology to do so, has already resulted in a vast improvement in the access to archived materials for people who want to celebrate future anniversaries.

One of the events scheduled for the weekend is the release of digital versions of school year books. The committee received a grant from the Community Foundation for Kingston and Area (CFKA) which enabled them to digitise all the yearbooks so they will be freely available for anyone who wants to have a look.

But more than anything, the reunion weekend promises to be a celebration of the strength and resilience of rural education.

“Rural education is very important,” said Wilkins, “keeping that vision alive. The original school was a house, and 150 years later it keeps growing. I'm looking forward to the tour because, even I haven't seen all that has been added since I graduated.”

The committee members are proud of the  work they have done so far, and will be working non-stop over the next week to make sure the 1,000 plus people who attend the reunion will be able to enjoy themselves and celebrate a piece of local history. But after that, they will let someone else take on the next big anniversary.

“Someone else can work on the 175th,” said Marie Wilkins, “I think we have done our bit.”