Sydenham High School 150th Celebration Weekend

Kelli McRobert and Jeff Green | Aug 30, 2023

Almost a year and half before the first few phone calls were made, followed by monthly meetings, a step by step approach putting the elements together and an intense final few weeks dealing with all of the details, the Sydenham Reunion weekend came and went in a flash for the organising committee.

Registration started on Friday, and a crowd of over 1,000 showed up to attend the weekend events. Participants were able to pick up a few souvenirs, and meet the reunion committee and co-chairs, before heading off to explore the Decades Rooms (60s, 70s, 80s, 90s, 00s).

The “Decade Rooms” were a core element to the reunion, and were the spot where many alumni met with each other - some for the first time in decades. They were also a quiet central location amidst all of the swirling activity elsewhere in the school, the grounds and the Point Park.

Marie Wilkins, co-chair of the reunion with Chris Hammer, said that it took a tremendous amount of research, scavenging, and organising to put those rooms together.

“Each decade room had a leader who was responsible for the way the rooms were laid out and decorated, how the material was collected and presented, everything. And each of the leaders put their own team together, up to 10. So, a lot of work went into them, and it paid off when alumni from those decades arrived in the rooms, because there was so much to look at, so much to help them remember how much fun they had back then,” she said.

Lots of other stuff was happening on Friday as well. Some alumni headed off to enjoy a round of golf at 3 local clubs, the replica of Ma Helmes store was open, there was an alumni art display in the cafeteria. Between 4pm and 6pm there was a fashion show reunion.

A silent auction, featuring lots of donated items from local business, started on Friday and ran until Saturday night.

The big event on Friday evening, along with a gathering over wine and cheese, was the Variety Show in the gym.

Deb Corcoran (nee Davison), went to the show. She said that her nephew, Curtis Davison, (graduated in the 80s) “was the creator of the famous chant “Bubbaloo”. The chant was featured during the variety show, just as it is still chanted to this day, during Golden Eagles football games.

“He is a legend in his own right.” Deb Corcoran said of her nephew

“It was such a great turnout, and it was pretty cool to see some of our past teachers,” she said.

The recreation of Ma (Myrtle) Helmes Store was also a big hit! Jeff Peters (former student (1965) and past teacher (1975) said that this was “where students would go and get jellybeans, cigarettes, or a pop for .10 cents, and peanuts for .05 cents…he went on to say that “students would often spend their days there playing euchre (himself included) and learning valuable life lessons from Ma.”

(For more details on the legacy of Ma Helmes see Wilma Kenny’s Frontenac News article from July 29, 2020.)

Jeff and his wife Sue spent the weekend exploring the historical displays and touring the school, while capturing precious moments on film. Jeff expressed how full the weekend was and that the “sense of belonging, and deep pride overflowed as you experienced the well-planned activities. People brought their families back and it was truly touching to say the least, to see them hugging…. people’s arms are worn out from shaking hands.”

He went on to say that the committee did a “superb job of keeping everyone busy and wanting to come back and not miss one thing ...”

He attended everything, and particularly enjoyed the variety show, with “fun entertainment and musical talent” and said the opening ceremonies on Friday afternoon were top notch.

Saturday was an extremely busy day in Sydenham, when just about all the 1000 plus people who were at the reunion, were buzzing in and out of the school, hugging long lost school mates, and checking out the kids area and the Shop Talk under the big tent.

The day culminated in a dance with live bands in the gym as well as a DJ in the tent.

The weekend also included Golden Eagles Athletic Games, football, field hockey & soccer. That was where the “Lucky Spike Fund” was launched in honour of long-time SHS icon Ken Dearborn (1946-2020). The fund will support student-athletes financially so the cost of equipment or other fees will not stop student athlete from being able to compete as Golden Eagles.

Ken Dearborn was well known as the starter at local, regional and provincial track meets for many years.

He would arrive early, and stay late, and would walk the track, looking for cast-off spikes, which he would later give to a runner during his pre-race pep talk of encouragement. While coaches train young athletes to be their best for any game, race, or match, sometimes a little “magic” is needed. The Lucky Spike was that magic that helped many athletes believe they could risk reaching to be their best because someone supported them.

Leslie Lawlor (former SHS runner and current teacher) continues the tradition of passing on lucky spikes to many athletes when needed. The most famous of those spikes ended up in the possession of Jay Dearborn (SHS 2010-2013) Ken’s son. He received a spike that he carried with him throughout high school and onto the field with the Saskatchewan Rough Riders. That spike then hurtled with him down the bobsleigh track at the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing, China. Ken dies in 2020 and the new fund is a tribute to his memory.

The Lucky Spike fund will be sued to do something that students, teacher’s and parents at SHS have done for decades: discreetly pay for equipment and fees that some families cannot cover, so all students at the school have an equal opportunity to participate in sports.

The Lucky Spike Fund is one of two funds that will keep the spirit of the reunion alive. The other fund is called the SHS 150 Reunion Legacy fund.

“It will fund all extracurricular activities, including arts and other class trips, much in the same way the Lucky Spike fund will do for sports,” said Marie Wilkins. “Once our treasurer has counted all the money and paid all the bills, all the money that is left will be used to start up those two funds,” said Marie Wilkins.

Another legacy of the reunion is all of the archival material that was dug up from the school and the community. Some of the material will go to the South Frontenac Museum in Hartington, the Queen’s archive will store official documents, and one of the last jobs that the reunion committee will do is to find a way to catalogue and store the rest of the material. Along with some restored videos posted on YouTube and the digitising of all of the SHS yearbooks, and the two new funds, creating an archive is another one of the lasting impacts of the reunion.

For Marie Wilkins and the core group of 20, who began meeting in April of 2022, the 150 reunion was at first a leap of faith, because at the time it was not clear what the impact of COVID would be 16 months later, and eventually it became a more and more involved set of projects and tasks.

“We took the attitude that we will run it, and they will come. Early this summer, registration was a bit slower, but it began to pick up and by early August we knew a lot of people would come, but we did not expect as many as we got. It was a great group to work with, and we all pulled together. I knew some people from before, and met some through the committee. What a great group to work with,” she said.

“I have no regrets. I don’t think any of us do. And in 25 years, if there is a 175th reunion, we will help, with advice. Someone else will have to do all the heavy work however. We did our part this time.”

One of the new people that Marie Wilkins met through the committee was Principal Roxanne Saunders, who is retiring as Principal of the school.

“She is an SHS grad as well, and has been a great asset for the school as Principal and with the committee. And it is fitting, I think, that the new Principal who is coming on, Mollie Slate, is also an SHS grad. She is a Groenewegen.

“Everyone is connected here in Sydenham.”