Westdale Secondary School

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Westdale Secondary School
Alius Alia Via Ad Astra Ascendit Each Reach For The Stars In Their Own Way
Address
700 Main Street West Hamilton, Ontario, L8S 1A5, Canada
Information
Principal	Stella Green-Gibson
School type	High school
Grades	9-12
Mascot	The Westdale Warrior
Founded	1931
Enrollment	1470
Homepage	http://www.hwdsb.on.ca/westdale/index.html

Westdale Secondary School is a high school founded in 1931 in Hamilton, Ontario. It is the second oldest high school in the city of Hamilton (after Delta Secondary^[1]) and is located in Westdale Village, a middle class suburb in the west-end of the city. It is administered by the Hamilton-Wentworth District School Board. Westdale offers the most university-bound courses in the city, including: Drama, Music, Visual Arts, Media Arts, Economics, GIS, Philosophy, Latin, German, and more. It also has many special programs for students including French Immersion, Hockey Focus, Court Sports, Strings (music), Video Production, and Writer's Craft. Westdale celebrated its 75th Anniversary in 2006 and a reunion, along with many other festivities ran from May 17 to May 20.

1 History
2 Charity Activities
3 Extracurricular activities
4 Notable alumni
5 External links
6 References

[edit] History

Westdale was founded as a collegiate school—housing three collegiates under one roof—and was, at the time, the largest school in the British Commonwealth. The original building was referred to as "Westdale Composite School", or "Westdale Tripartite School", due to the fact that it housed three separate schools. The collegiate, technical and commercial schools were housed on the left, middle, and right side of the school, with the cafeteria on the fourth floor (this was changed later, the cafeteria now being on the first floor). The architects Prack and Prack designed the building with arched doorways and pseudo-buttresses of the "school gothic" architectural style. The building was constructed by J.M. Piggott Construction Company at an initial cost of $1,306,521.00 (including 4.7 hectares of land). The school has undergone three major renovations, which occurred in 1959, 1974/75 respectively, and just recently had new doors, lockers and windows installed.

Westdale Secondary School, front view

[edit] Charity Activities

The ideas of selflessness and community are at the foundation of Westdale's learning system. Westdale regularly participates in and plays host to numerous fundraisers and awareness rallies. Each year the students organise such events as Keep the Beat, Coffee House, and the 30 Hour Famine. Westdale makes annual contributions to the Stephen Lewis Foundation through crêpe sales and other fund raiser activities. In 2005, Westdale students were part of the effort to keep the Victoria Cross of Frederick George Topham in Canada, as it was being auctioned off by his family. Westdale also runs an annual food drive for the food banks in Hamilton. It is estimated that Westdale students contribute close to 40% of the canned items and goods the food bank hands out at Christmas.

[edit] Haiti Run

Westdale annually hosts the Haiti Run, a charity event that is held on a Saturday in the fall as a funraiser aimed at raising money to build schools and nurseries and raising awareness about the desperate situation in Haiti. During the event, participants walk, run or jog through Westdale Village having secured pledges in the weeks leading up to the run. This event is widely publicized and while hosted by Westdale, is considered an annual Hamilton event.

[edit] War Child

Westdale regularly raises money for War Child Canada through an event called "Keep the Beat". In the period of 2003-2006, Westdale raised $34,000 for War Child Canada. As a show of their appreciation, War Child asked Sum 41 members Cone and Dave to visit Westdale to kick off the '05-06 Keep the Beat, at the Coffee House event. As a direct result of Westdale's effort, a school in the village of Makobola, Democratic Republic of the Congo, is being rebuilt after being destroyed in war.^[2] During the 2006-2007 Keep The Beat on Dec. 7th to 8th, Westdale's Coffee House and Keep the Beat event brought in an additional $24,000 for War Child Canada.

[edit] Terry Fox Run

Westdale Secondary also raises money for cancer research every year in the Terry Fox Run. Westdale students collect pledges in the weeks before the run, then they may choose to walk, jog, or run through Westdale Village. Over 2 million people around the world participate in the Terry Fox Run every year in an astounding 6,600 sites including Westdale Secondary School.

[edit] Extracurricular activities

[edit] Music

Westdale is renowned throughout Hamilton (along with Westmount) as one of the premier schools for music students. Students come from all over the city for the wind and string classes, as well as the myriad of extracurricular ensembles including the Jr. Band, Sr. Band, Orchestra, Chamber Orchestra, Jr. Jazz, Sr. Jazz, and Women's Choir. Other ensembles that have existed at one point in time includes the Brass Choir, the Sax Ensemble (also known as the Sax Pistols), a Grease pit band, and many solo/small group acts. The Orchestra, Sr. Band, Sr. Jazz Band and Choir compete abroad every year. In 2003 they went to Montreal, 2004 Boston, 2005 to the Heritage Festival in New York, and in 2006 to Montreal again. The current destination for 2007 is set as Chicago.

[edit] Sports

"The Destiny of a Warrior Is To Fight" and the Warriors with their plethora of sports teams fight hard. Westdale has won at least one OFSAA championship in every sport. As of the 2006-2007 season, Westdale has strong Track & Field, Cross-country, Girls Basketball, Badminton, Waterpolo and Soccer teams. The Westdale Rowing Team is a consistent powerhouse within the city and one of the top teams in the region. In 2005, the Warriors varsity baseball team captured the City Championship versus Barton Secondary School. During the 2005-2006 season, the Warriors hockey team finished second in the city, losing a hard fought final to the Westmount Wildcats. Recent grad Shona Thorburn is now the all-time assist leader at the University of Utah for women's basketball and was drafted 7th overall by the Minnesota Lynx in the 2006 WNBA draft. During the 2006-2007 season, the Westdale Warriors Sr. Girls basketball team finnished second in the SOSI Super 12 Senior Girls' Basketball Tournament, losing to St. Mary's Crusaders. The Westdale Warriors Sr. Football team won 2006 Division I Football championship, Westdale's first championship since 1969.

[edit] Drama & Theatre

Theatre Westdale has had numerous strong showings at the Sears Drama Festival in the past few years. In addition to the drama festival plays, Westdale's drama department has made a habit of performing a yearly musical, such as West Side Story (2004-2005) and Grease (2005-2006). Drama students performed the Greek tragedy Antigone at the Sears Festival in 2006 and won much critical acclaim, as well as several awards. Theatre Westdale also runs an annual Improvathon, 24 hours of straight improv.

[edit] Mathematics

Westdale has always been one of the foremost schools in the city for mathematics contests. Westdale, for the past few years, was consistently ranked first in the region for the mathematics contests held by the University of Waterloo. In 2006, Westdale ranked 25th nationally ^[3] and 13th provincially in the Fermat Math Contest. In the Hypatia written contest, Westdale had two students scoring a Gold standing, as well as two Silver finishes and three Bronze finishes.

[edit] Notable alumni

Partial listing of notable alumni: ^[4]

Shona Thorburn
Eugene Levy^[5]
Martin Short^[6]
Lincoln Alexander
John Munro
Brian Williams
Jim Young
Russ Jackson
Steve Staios, member of the Edmonton Oilers
Harry Howell
Gord Lewis, member of the band Teenage Head
Len Blum, a Hollywood writer and husband of Heather Munroe-Blum^[7]
Mickey DeSadist, member of the band Forgotten Rebels^[8]
David Braley, CFL powerman.
Daniel Goldberg, Producer of Hollywood hits Twins and Space Jam

[edit] External links

[edit] References

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Categories: Educational institutions established in 1931 | High schools in Hamilton