Food Drive Update

Food Drive Update

You Did It!

After a slow start, we reached the top of the trackers, which is amazing. The lunchtime dance parties are being organized!!!

We had triple the amount of donations come in Friday than the previous 4 days together.

Food as tall as Mr Dave

Junior Campus – as tall as Mr Dave

Food as tall as Ms Vivien

Senior Campus – as tall as Mrs Vivien

2023 food drive donations covering wall

Previous Food Drive Total

Pumpkin Parade

Pumpkin Parade

Get ready for a gourd-geous time at Willingdon’s spooktacular Pumpkin Parade this Halloween!

Everyone’s invited to carve or paint a pumpkin and bring it in on Halloween day. Students will have a blast checking out all the boo-tiful designs and voting for their top pumpkin picks. It’s a fang-tastic celebration of creativity and Halloween spirit—let’s make this a pumpkin party to remember!

Thursday 31st October.

Drop-off at the Royal side cafeteria during morning BASE, or between 8.55-9.05am.

Please LABEL them with the kids name/family name and a contact phone number.

If you’d like to take them home at the end of the day, please come in and pick them up.

First Pizza Lunch Recap

First Pizza Lunch Recap

A Message From Your Co-Chairs:

Hello Willingdon Families!

A big THANK-YOU to our Pizza Day volunteers for making this year’s first pizza day a great success using our new vendor Pizza Welat and a new distribution system – both appreciated by students and volunteers alike! General feedback we received from the students is that Pizza Welat is much tastier (and less spicy) and the bingo stamp was a little thrill.

We have a few things to tweak to knock next pizza day out of the park, but most importantly, Kristy and I appreciated the flexibility and general awesomeness of our parent volunteers. In no particular order: Kristin Taylor, Pam Bernstein, Andrea Taylor, Leetal Cuperman, Ghazel, Lisa Robicheau, Sophia Otoni, Amanda Scullion, Angela Yu, Amelia Pang, Alison N, Sandy Sidhu, Carolyn Bouchard, Margo Stewart, Anna Calvert, Roxanne Ross.

As we did last year, we will re-open the Pizza and Froyo ordering in January for families still wishing to participate!
– Daniela & Kristy

Building the Halloween Haunted House

Building the Halloween Haunted House

Calling All Grade 6 Students!

Get Involved in Our Halloween Haunted House!

Are you ready to unleash your creativity and have some fun? Join us for an exciting opportunity to help set up a spooktacular Halloween haunted house for our younger grades! We’ll be transforming Junior Campus into a mad science laboratory and many more eerie scenes.

Commitment: Just 5 1/2 hours spread over 3 days:

  • 30 minutes intro and brainstorming meeting (Monday, October 21st, lunchtime at Senior Campus)
  • 2.5 hours building props (Friday, October 25th, 4-6:30 at Junior Campus, a parent or guardian must accompany you – snacks and beverages will be provided)
  • 2.5 hours haunted house set up (Wednesday, October 30th 4-6:30 at Junior Campus, a parent or guardian must accompany you – snacks and beverages will be provided)

Your participation will make this event unforgettable!

Don’t miss out on the chance to be part of something thrilling.

Calling All Parents!

Help Us Create a Spooktacular Halloween Haunted House!

We need your creative talents to bring our Halloween haunted house to life! If you have artistic flair, we’d love your help in designing cardboard props and signs. Additionally, we are looking for volunteers to set up on the day of the event.

Volunteer Opportunities:

  • 6 for prop building, sign making and decoration organization (Friday, October 25th, 4-6:30 at Junior Campus  – snacks and beverages will be provided)
  • 10 for building the haunted house (Wednesday, October 30th 4-8 at Junior Campus – snacks and beverages will be provided)
  • 15 for day-of volunteering (9 AM to 12 PM and 12 PM to 3 PM)
  • 10 for clean-up crew (Friday, Nov. 1st – 10 AM to 2 PM)

An initial volunteer introduction zoom call will take place on Monday, October 21st at 7pm.

It takes a village to create the magic our kids look forward to every year. Any time you can offer will make a difference!

Please share your ideas and join us in making this Halloween a memorable one!

Lit up skeleton
Gym decorated for Halloween with spider
Gym decorated for Halloween with crows and webs

Grade 6 families, Grad Committee needs you!

Grade 6 families, Grad Committee needs you!

Before we know it, Grad will be here…and there are also LOTS of pieces that need planning, coordinating and implementing. And that means as many parents contributing some time and talents as possible to help make 2025 a year for the books!

First off, I am looking for a Co-Chair (or two) to join me, Andrea, in pulling everything off. If you want to help lead the Grad Committee’s activities this year, please send me an email.

And if you have a talent for design and have some inspiration for the official 2025 logo or the yearbook, please let me know ASAP at the same email!

Is there another area that you’re interested in coordinating? Not sure where to start, but want to contribute in some way? Just looking to learn more?

Looking forward to working with all of you!
Andrea Archibald
(Hayden H.’s mom)

Please Vote – EMSB School Commissioner Elections

Please Vote – EMSB School Commissioner Elections

November 3rd, 2024 (advance polls October 27th)

Advance polls for the election for School Commissioners of the English Montreal School Board will take place on Sunday October 27th (noon – 8pm) at Willingdon Senior Campus (4850 Avenue Coronation).

Election day is Sunday November 3 (10am – 8pm), at St. Monica’s School (6440 Rue de Terrebonne).

You will have the opportunity to vote for two different positions. One ballot is for the Commissioner in Ward 5. The other ballot is for the Chair.

As a parent with a child in a EMSB school, you are already registered to vote. You will receive a registration notice in the mail in the coming weeks, confirming dates, times and polling stations.

Why Should I Care?

School boards are the last body of governance that belongs to the English community. Together, we must ensure that they remain vibrant and representative for the benefit of the next generation of English-speaking Quebecers. The school system faces significant challenges both inside and outside the classroom, and this is an opportunity for the community to make its voice heard and help define priorities.

Our Ward 5 commissioner was instrumental in helping to secure the $6,729,000 investment needed for the Willingdon Junior Campus Renovations, which took place over the last 2 years (school yard, floor replacement, electrical and next summer’s interior paining).

In recent years, the EMSB has played a prominent role in legal battles against the Legault government on issues ranging from a ban on religious symbols for new teachers to regulations on the language that board officials are allowed to use in communication. The EMSB has been one of the only entities standing up to protect our rights, by fighting against Law 21, and Bills 40 and 96!

French School Boards have already been dismantled, and we’re fighting to maintain the English School Boards.

A strong voter turnout is needed on November 3 to show the Government how important our school boards are to us.

To check if you are registered to vote, use the EMSB tool:

  1. Enter your postcode and civic number and click the search button.
  2. Below, click the ‘Am I registered?’ tab, enter your birthdate, then click that search button.

You do not have to currently have a child at school in order to vote. Anyone can vote, so long as you are registered and fulfill the elegibility criteria on the elections website.

‘A Bit of History’, courtesy of the QFSHA Fall ’24 newsletter, pg 7.

'A Bit of History', courtesy of the QFSHA Fall '24 newsletter.