An Evening with Chef Emma

On Friday, March 11th, Sacred Heart School and the Sacred Heart Alumnae/i sponsored an evening Chef Emma.  Emma Adamski, '09, did a cooking demonstration of Spanish Tapas. Chef Dale Nichols held this event for many years for the Alumnae/i Association but last year, he handed over the wooden spoon to Emma.

  

Our THANKS and GRATITUDE to Chef Dale Nichols for all the years of supporting the Sacred Heart School Alumnae/i Association with these food demonstrations over the years. 

We had a sold out event on Friday night.  We are very grateful to Emma for the delicious tapas and for all her preparation in advance.  We are grateful to her mother, Ruth, for being the head Sous Chef and for Tua for being an assistant Sous Chef.

YPI Presentations Today and the Winner is...

Bryony House!

Sacred Heart School of Halifax girls’ division held its final presentation for the Youth and Philanthropy Initiative (YPI) this afternoon.  Five teams of students have been engaged in learning and researching about a charitable organization. They created engaging and persuasive presentations on a local charity they believe is best placed to tackle an issue they are passionate about.  At the YPI Presentation, the winning teams from each class presented in front of a large audience and a panel of high-profile judges, in support of their chosen charities. This event was a moving, inspiring, exciting and a dramatic occasion as one team was awarded a cheque of $5,000, to grant towards their chosen charity. Sacred Heart School is one of the few institutions across Canada and the only school in Nova Scotia to have received this opportunity to collaborate with The Toskan Casale Foundation to implement this program.

CBC News sent a camera crew to cover the event today.  They got to see valuable work and research which went into preparing these engaging presentations. They heard about charities and local social issues which students at our school have become passionate about.  Presentations were made on the following local charities.

1. Open Door Women’s Care Centre in Halifax

2. Bryony House

3. Phoenix House

4. Feed Nova Scotia

5. St John Ambulance Therapy Dogs

Michaela, Gwyneth and Brenna presented the Byrony House as their charity.

Congratulations to all the students who researched their charities.  What a tremendous learning experience for everyone.  Thank you also to Dr. DaSilva for directing this program with the girls and to all the judges.

CBC News website coverage

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What is the Youth and PhilanthropyInitiative (YPI)?  It is an active citizenship program that aims to raise awareness of philanthropy, charitable organizations and social issues affecting local communities.  In Canada, the program is targeted towards high school students in grades 9 and 10.  Canadian students taking part in YPI work in small teams, considering the needs of their community and identifying a local social service charity they believe can make a positive contribution.  Receiving guidance on how to analyze impact, management and strategy, they are encouraged to build relationships with the charity, visit their offices or facilities, and develop a strategy for advocating to their peers on the charity’s behalf.  The students work towards developing a presentation that is shared with their class, and the most impactful teams will go on to participate in the YPI Final School Presentation Assembly and be given the chance to win a $5,000 grant for their charity.

YPI started in one school in Canada in 2002, and has continued to develop and gain momentum.  Since then, YPI has positively engaged secondary school students across Canada and awarded millions of dollars to small, local, service charities.  In 2010, the program was described in the UK’s The Times as “something every teacher should eagerly find out about and think of introducing to their school.”

Toskan Casele Foundation:  Principal Funder & Operational Manager of YPI Canada

YPI is a program of the Toskan Casale Foundation

Marking International Women's Day - March 8, 2016

Follow up!  Rebekah and Razan were interviewed on CBC Information Morning today March 24, 2016,  Simply an amazing job, girls!  

click here for the CBC Information Morning audio link

Our Sacred Heart High School Global Citizens students have marked International Women’s Day (Tuesday, March 8) in a unique way. Their week-long drive for feminine hygiene products has received extremely positive reactions from the girls’ high school.

In their planning this year, the Global Citizens students all agreed they wanted to address a real need within the community.  They discussed the best way to raise awareness among the students about this year’s the theme for International Women’s Day: “Pledge for Parity.” One of the pledges is “to help women and girls achieve their ambitions.”

In the group’s discussion, Rebekah Howlett (Grade 12), suggested a drive for feminine hygiene products as this need is not always given attention.  We often hear about food drives.  What about girls and young women who can’t afford products we take for granted as necessities?  Anisha Rajaselvam (Grade 7) pointed out that in some places girls’ education is affected because they can’t even attend school when they are having their period.  The website for International Women’s Day says: “Each of us can be a leader within our own spheres of influence and commit to take pragmatic action to accelerate gender parity.”  The results of this drive for these products for girls and women have been impressive. 

All of the items collected will be distributed to some women’s shelters in Halifax and to ISANS where there is also a genuine need to support refugees.  Thank you to everyone for your generous support!  

This is just a very small sampling of the numerous boxes of 

feminine hygiene items collected.

Way to go, Ladies!

Alex Gillis Interviewed on Global News

Alex Gillis, Gr. 12, was interviewed on Global New this morning. He is a remarkable young man. 

Click here for the link to the video.

Entertaining at Parkland at the Gardens

Sacred Heart boys and girls rock at Parkland at the Gardens this week under the direction of Mr. Charles Follini.  Great job!

Thank you for the pictures Mr. Follini.

Wind Turbines & Sustainable Energy in Elementary School

On Wednesday, March 2^nd all classes in the Elementary School were part of special presentations on Wind Turbines and Sustainable Energy. The presentations were geared to each grade level.  Mr. Jim Roycroft from the RMSenergy Dalhousie Mountain Wind Farm joined us for the entire day delivering information on Wind Turbines. He shared that 34 turbines generate over 175,000 megawatt hours of clean, renewable energy: enough to power 20,000 residences. That's more electricity than is needed to provide light, heat and hot water to all the homes in Pictou County, where the wind farm is located.

His presentations included a time lapse video on the construction of a wind turbine, photos of the inside of a turbine, a scale model of a wind turbine especially built for our school, photos and facts on the benefits of wind energy. Along with this was a demonstration showing how the energy in the wind turns the three propeller-like blades around a rotor. The children watched as the wind blew the rotor connection that turned a generator and created electricity. The lights in a mini house lit up with the electricity generated by the wind!  Many questions were also asked and all were answered. 

Did you know that the longer the wind turbine blade, the more electricity produced?  A wind turbine blade can be up to 78 metres long and a turbine tower can be over 99.9 metres tall!

Thank you for the pictures, Mr. Kane.

Friday Afternoon at Fountain!

What's happening at Fountain on Friday afternoon?