BA students visit CTV, a successful Christmas concert, and Riverview Bingo

Recently, it was the turn of the Sec 4 digital media students to take in what has now become an annual field trip/visit to the studios of CTV Montreal which we always have the pleasure to arrange with our good friends in the newsroom and in this case take in the new blue based digital digs of the new Studio 12 and watch live the 12 noon news package. Tarah Schwartz was anchoring on that particular day and of course, Montreal’s favorite weather girl, Lori Graham was in her usual post in front of that now famous green screen an letting us in on what’s happening outside.

The students started their visit in the spacious newsroom and got to see where the reporters put together reports for the various newscasts. We also had the chance to meet Entertainment reporter Christine Long and gave us the insides of the cultural world and showed us a clip of an upcoming story she was doing.

The students then split up into two groups and took turns watching the newscast and also go to the control room where the show is actually put together between commercials, live segments and the live scenes.. At the end of the newscast, the group got to stand on the set with Lori and Tarah for the group shot and student Krysti Skoda also lucked out as her name got drawn to get a shot at a solo photo op on set. We would like to take this opportunity to thank Tarah and Lori for taking time to talk to the students and taking pictures, to Melanie Porco of the research dept. for guiding us around and, needless to say, News Director Jed Kahane for his usual wonderful cooperation.

The annual Christmas concert also took place during the same as a result of the postponement from December due to an injury to our friendly music teacher and some inclement weather on that night. So the show must go on and so it did and the show was under the excellent direction of Dennis Lee standing in for Gary Lindner, who we’re hoping for a return very soon.

Also not available to play the show was Canada’s leading male rocker, none other than Montreal’s Sam Roberts. Regrettably with the change of dates, and Sam being on vacation, it was not to be, but we will all be working towards having Sam in the spring concert.

The sec 5 band started things off with Aretha’s Respect with some lead singing from Tishawna Callendar, then the band followed with Spring’s Awakening and a smoking version of Gershwin’s Summertime. The Sec 2 band showed their amazing progress from last year with those perennial classics, Stand by Me and Louie Louie.

The Grade 10 students were also equal to the task on Phil Collins’ Inside Out. The grade 9 band shone on Beauty and the Beast and the rookie Sec 1 students played for the first time in public and sounded good with a medley selected melodies. We now look forward to the spring show in May.

We also received just before the Christmas break some good news regarding one of the honored grads of the class of 2011. The Canada Millennium Scholarship Foundation which issues merit-based scholarships through its Millennium Excellence Awards Program, this year awarded scholarships to deserving youths entering post-secondary studies for the first time.

Laureates of these awards all exhibited excellence in community involvement, innovation, leadership and academic achievement. Laura Bustamente, a member of the class of 2011, was flown out to Halifax for her final interview, and just before the Christmas holidays, Laura was told she had won a scholarship. So a big congrats goes out to Laura.

BA Sports

The GMAA winter season has just about finished its season. The juvie boys’ wrestling team finished their season with a 5 and 4 record and we wish them luck for tournament and finals championship action. The juvenile boys’ indoor soccer team’s record stands at 3 and 2 and by the time you read this, they will have hosted against Kells Academy the last regular game of the season.

The basketball season has finished for all teams. The Bantam girls’ team won their final game of the season by defeating Maimonides 31-16 and ended the season with a 2 and 9 record. The juvie girls’ squad ended their season with a 6 and 4 record losing to Bialik in a heartbreaker 34-30 last Wednesday with a victory here would have seen them move to playoff action.

The midget boys’ team, though, are playoff-bound after defeating Selwyn House 43-26 last Tuesday and are in quarter-final action against Lakeside Academy, and the juvenile boys’ team in what was promising to be an exciting season with a packed team with holdovers from last year lost to Howard S. Billings last Tuesday 66-40 and finished the season with a disappointing 3 and 9 record.

Riverview

It’s been awhile, but the fundraiser bingo is back and it’s happening this Saturday at 7 pm. Cost is $10.00 in advance and $12.00 at the door and the two grand prizes are an Xbox 360 and an acoustic guitar from the folks at Jam Industries There will many other prizes, including door prizes and a half and half raffle will also be held to win yourself some cold cash. So see ya at the bingo.