Lakeshore Collegiate Institute

Lakeshore Collegiate Institute (originally built and operated as New Toronto Secondary School ) beginning in 1950, is a high school located in New Toronto that serves the New Toronto, Long Branch, and Mimico working class neighbourhoods (formerly the independent 'Lakeshore Municipalities' after which the school is named) in Toronto's west end community of Etobicoke. It is situated at the intersection of Kipling Avenue and Birmingham Street. It is in Ward 3 of the Toronto District School Board.

New Toronto Secondary School was originally established to serve the Town of New Toronto with its emphasis on education in the technical trades, sciences, and mathematics. During the 1980s enrollment at Etobicoke Public schools plummeted as many catholic immigrants who arrived in the area transferred their children to the separate school system when full separate funding was started, leading to the closure of many schools including Kingsmill Collegiate Institute, Alderwood Collegiate Institute, and Mimico High School whose students were combined into the New Toronto High School (renamed Lakeshore). Situated in the centre of southern Etobicoke the school suffered from the economic decline in the Lakeshore communities (former municipalities) of Mimico, New Toronto and Long Branch.

Due mostly to its staff, Lakeshore Collegiate boasts several leading programs in the Toronto District School Board, including that of the Social Sciences, Mathematics, Business, English and recently Media departments.

Sports

LCI has several very accomplished sports teams including: Hockey, Baseball, Badminton, Volleyball, Golf, Tennis, Soccer. The football team was resurrected in the fall of 2005 after many years of absence. The hockey team won the TDSSAA West Championships and qualified for OFSSAA in 2004 (Peterborough), 2006 (Timmons) and 2009 (Peterborough). The baseball team won the TDSSAA West Championships in 2006. The soccer team also won the TDSSAA West Region championship for the first time in Lakeshore CI's history in 2008.

In late 2009 LCI got access to the Master Card Center of Hockey Excellence, a $34-million four-pad arena complex adjacent to the school.

In 2009, LCI's Varsity girls soccer team won the TDSAA "AA" West Championship and qualified for OFSAA (Kenora). Also, earlier that year, the Boy's Varsity hockey team won the TDSAA "AA" Championships and qualified for OFSAA (Peterborough) as well.

Extracurricular activities

Lakeshore Collegiate offers a wide range of extracurricular programs for students whose interests run the gamut. Among these are the Student Activity Council (or SAC), Leadership, Dance Club, Drama club, The Announcements Committee, The Yearbook Commitee, and a wide range of sports teams and various mathematics and science competitions. These programs allow students to participate in regional sporting events, practice their business skills (via the student-run "Lakestore"), and attend camps, as well as fostering both school spirit and co-operation within the student body.

The Food Drive

It has been an annual event at LCI that every December students collect food, clothes, and even toys for Daily Bread Food Bank the local food banks. Every year students become increasingly generous and the donation of items reaches several thousands. It has become a "competition" to see which teacher's homeroom class would collect the most items. Now even known for its recent contribution of over 1,000 pounds of fresh produce donated to the Daily Bread Food Bank harvested from L.C.I's Community Garden.

"Drama Lives At LCI"

One of Lakeshore Collegiate's highlights is its Drama Department. Headed by Gregory Danakas, the Drama department offers courses for grades nine through twelve. LCI has annual stage production in which students are selected via audition. Past stage productions have featured performances of Bram Stoker's Dracula, William Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew, Euripides' The Bacchae, Ann-Marie MacDonald's Good Night Desdemona (Good Morning Juliet), Charles Dickens's Oliver Twist, Edmond Rostand's Cyrano de Bergerac, and John Kirkpatrick's Vacancy in Paradise. Drama at LCI offers other extracurricular opportunities, such as the Play By the Lake/Sears Drama Festival, where student directed, student acted, and often student written plays are performed, as well as the Young Company, which offers Grade 9 and 10 students the chance to perform and star in a major play before they can be apart of the Mainstage Production. As of March 9, 2007, Lakeshore has won the Best Host School Award for its district.

Reputation

Lakeshore has a strong reputation, owing in part to active involvement with the community.

One such example of this spirit has taken the form of fundraisers for the local community health centre, LAMP. Another community-oriented initiative, the Clean-Up-the-Parkathon (CUTPAT), involves the cleaning of local parks and recreational spaces by the student body.

Refusing to stop at local involvement, recent efforts within the school have resulted in programs such as the TEEN project, which has taken on two sponsor children and supports their endeavours.

Guidance

LCI's Guidance office is an important facet utilized by many students within the school. The guidance office operates as a resource for the student body. Students can make schedule changes, discuss career options, examine job postings and apply for or research about post-secondary education programs and scholarships, among other things.

Music

Lakeshore has a well-staffed, well-supported musical department which has, in recent years, put on concerts both for the student body and the public. Several meaningful bands have come out of LCI, including In between Breathing featuring Mattii Galazka and The White featuring Michael White.

Notable Graduates

• Adam Copeland, Former WWE Wrestler known as Edge
• Trish Stratus, Former WWE Diva
• Dan Bilicki, Toronto Sun columnist
• Dennis Marciniak, Photographer
• Emmanuel Fernandez, NHL player