Anne Ziegler introduced our Students:
From Patrick Fogarty Peter Quigley teacher Billy Bazinett
Mr. Bazinet said that it was an honour to be here (we have great meals…lol) and lots of laughs. He teaches philosophy to the senior students and he has just gotten to know Peter. Peter is very insightful, focused, disciplined, he isn’t someone who likes to be in the limelight. He is active in the school community on the student council, an Athlete - a great runner, swimmer and coach. Peter is humble, witty and has kind jokes to share. He is big on Civic Awareness and a Great Ambassador for Patrick Fogarty School. (personally I would like to add that I know Peter as well, and his is a very driven, exceptional student and a well rounded boy with a super outlook- can’t wait to see where you fly to Peter! - Megan Bondy)
From Twin Lakes Secondary School Lora Solaimani teacher Valerie Schell
Ms. Schell is a biology/science teacher who is in awe of the help Lora brings to her school. She is an active student council member, minister of environment at school on the Green Team, member of Interact, is involved in the city community garden club in Orillia, on the Free the Children initiative and has won an award from the Eco Schools Lake Simcoe Conservation Authority. Her interest are in linguistics and she would like to learn ‘to sign’ at Universtity. But most recently, she stayed behind to help Ms. Schell sort garbage to determine what wastes were there, truly an awful task, but she stayed behind to do it.
From OD/P Sarah Pickard teacher Tom Johnson
Sarah is an aspiring Novelist. She wrote her first novel in November of last year, and is currently on her second novel. Sarah quoted one of the pages from her recent pages of her second novel and although I didn’t capture that quote, I’m an avid reader and I was blown away at her quote, for a person who is under 20 years, WOW!!! I want to read it. You can just tell that this student has an exceptional talent for expressing her thoughts, so well read and spoken, she belted out her quote with confidence and enthusiasm! LOVED IT! Sarah is also on member of the gay/straight alliance and looks forward to taking a creative writing program at University! Yay!
Speaker Liz P
Kevin Vennard introduced his previous host student of some 16 years ago who left on her 19th birthday to go back to Austrailia.
She is here because she was running the New York City marathon and they thought because she was on this continent she should come back and visit us! There was a lot of tattoo talk…more on this later…
Liz life has changed since then, she now has two kids ages 5 and 3 and a husband who is NOT an Information Technology computer guy.
Liz has become an ambassador for Miracles for Babies Foundation for babies born prematurely. She has been supporting this foundation for the past 3 years. Liz told us of a life changing event that occurred for her when her friend had twins that were born at 6 months of age. Sadly one of the babies passed away. This trauma drove her to support this charity and she was running the marathon as a fundraiser for this foundation. It was her goal to raise $10 000, and just two short weeks before the marathon she realized this goal.
Liz’s dad and brother have both been past presidents in Rotary. Being in Canada with her host families was a life changing event for her ( she got a tattoo with Dale…lol!!!! and wouldn’t show it - fair enough). A side note, she likes men in uniforms…her husband told her that he was a computer nerd at first, which of course was off putting for a woman who likes uniforms…Good thing he was really an army guy!
