Renfrew-Collingwood Community News

News stories from the Renfrew-Collingwood community in East Vancouver

Tag Archives: Windermere Secondary


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Indigenous art project at Windermere high school: Reconciliation from the ground up

BY JULIE CHENG

Windermere-aboriginal-art-Jerry-Whitehead

Aboriginal artist Jerry Whitehead demonstrates the art of spray painting. Photos taken and edited by Olivia Lee-Chun, Harkarn Kaler and Tiffany Tu

This spring, look for a new mural at Windermere Secondary School that brings together nature and Indigenous culture. Windermere has received a $20,000 grant from the Betty Wellborn Artistic Legacies Foundation for an art project that features local Indigenous artists running workshops and working with students to paint this mural.

Fine arts teacher Alyssa Reid’s project proposal was inspired from reading Wab Kinew’s The Reason You Walk, a memoir about reconciliation and healing between father and son that may ultimately spark conversation about Canada’s own reconciliation with Indigenous peoples.

Coincidentally, Windermere’s former vice-principal, Alison Ogden, had once posted outside her office a quote from the same book that Reid “really took to heart.”

The quote reads: “Reconciliation is not something realized on a grand level, something that happens when a prime minister and a national chief shake hands. It takes place at a much more individual level. Reconciliation is realized when two people come together and understand that what they share unites them and that what is different between them needs to be respected.”

Windermere-aboriginal-art

Two students spray painting the stencil design they created.

Windermere’s aboriginal support teacher, Davita Marsden, suggested to Reid that local contemporary Indigenous artists Sharifah Marsden, Corey Bulpitt and Jerry Whitehead might be interested in working on the project.

“After speaking with the artists we decided on three workshops for staff and students that would give them some grounding and knowledge in Indigenous art that would lead to a large (1,000 square foot) mural on the front of the school,” Reid explains in an email.

“Our basis for the mural is a rooting in Mother Nature that links everyone to the earth and stresses the importance of nature and the earth to our Indigenous people done in the three very unique styles of each artist.”

The workshops started late April, with Sharifah Marsden teaching a beading workshop, Corey Bulpitt doing a stencilling and spray painting workshop, and Jerry Whitehead leading a design question/answer workshop. The painting begins in May.

Julie Cheng is the editor of the Renfrew-Collingwood Community News.

Copyright (c) 2017 Renfrew-Collingwood Community News


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Windermere student-athlete to play for @SFUClan softball team

Kate Fergusson signs with SFU softball

Kate Fergusson has signed on to play for the SFU Clan softball team. Photo whiterockrenegades.com

Early 2017, the Simon Fraser University Clan softball team announced the signing of five recruits who will start playing in the 2018 season. Simon Fraser University (SFU) is Canada’s only NCAA softball team competing in the Division II Great Northwest Athletic Conference.

All of these new SFU recruits currently play for the White Rock Renegades 99 team. Local residents might know one of these players: Kate Fergusson, a Grade 12 student at Windermere Secondary.

SFU softball coach Mike Renney first saw Kate Fergusson a few years ago. “I watched her continue to develop into the premier first baseman in her age category,” he said.

“As a lead-off batter of one of the top teams in Canada, she is a triple threat with the ability to slap, drag or hit for average.”

Kate Fergusson Trout Lake

Windermere student Kate Fergusson first learned the game playing baseball at Trout Lake Little League. Photo by Ken Shymka

Fergusson started playing baseball at age 6 with Trout Lake Little League in Vancouver, where she played on the all-star team three years in a row and won a bronze in the district championships. At age 10, she moved over to the Richmond Islanders to play girls softball. In 2012, playing for the Richmond Islanders 98 team, she won bronze at the Canadian National Championships. She moved to the White Rock Renegades for the 2013 season.

As part of White Rock Renegades 99, Fergusson was named a tournament all-star en route to winning a silver medal at the 2016 Canadian National softball championships held in Charlottetown, PEI. She was also named an all-star at the 2014 Nationals and was a key part of the team that won gold at the 2015 National and Provincial championships.

Aside from her softball accomplishments, the multi-sport star represented Windermere Secondary in cross country, basketball and volleyball. She also played soccer in the BC Soccer Premier League.

In addition to Fergusson, SFU signed her Renegades teammates Megan Smith, Alex Ogg, Maria Seminario and Hannah Boulanger.

“I am excited about the talent and winning attitude each of our new recruits will be bringing to our program,” said Renney.

Copyright (c) 2017 Renfrew-Collingwood Community News


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Windermere Organic Garden Team grows fruit, veggies and community

Windermere Organic Garden market stall

The Windermere Garden Organic Team had just put out their produce when a cook from Collingwood Neighbourhood House offered up herbs. Photo by Jenny Lu

BY JANETTE AND CINDY CHEN

The Leadership program in Windermere Secondary has transformed an empty weed-filled area in the school’s grass field into a beautiful, edible food garden. There are now two parts to the garden at the school: the courtyard located at the heart of Windermere and the orchard located on the upper right of the Windermere field.

A team of devoted youth arrive every day after school to keep the garden in top condition. The students range from Grades 8 to 12 and make up the Windermere Organic Garden Team (WOGT). This year, the garden leaders are Gaelan Emo and Kobie Gingras-Fox, and included in the team is a student from the University of B.C. Fresh Roots, Jenny Lu.

Summer market

During summer 2016, the Windermere Organic Garden Team held a market stand for seven weeks every Tuesday outside the Collingwood Neighbourhood House (CNH), at Joyce and Euclid. All the profit has gone back to help improve the Windermere garden.

The day before or on the day of the market, students would hand pick and wash the organically grown fruits and vegetables before transporting them to Collingwood Neighbourhood House by bicycle.

The crops included varieties of cucumbers, apples, kale, squash, cabbages and tomatoes. Every week, new and previous customers came to the stand, and whether they bought some produce or not, they all left with encouraging words that continue to push the students to keep up their work in the garden.

Windermere Garden market stall

Just a few of Windermere’s fruits and vegetables of the week. Photo by Jenny Lu

Growing community

Along with the summer market, the WOGT plans to work on greater projects involving the garden and members of the community. One such project is a giant mural located on a side wall in the orchard.

In collaboration with Collingwood Neighbourhood House, WOGT hopes to bring in students, such as students in the Windermere Athena Arts program, as well as youth from the community to all work on it.

Right now, one of the garden leaders is working with Crecien Bencio, a youth from CNH, to plan the mural. Watch for a swarm of students to start on it as soon as warmer weather returns.

Janette and Cindy Chen are Grade 10 and 11 students in of the Leadership program at Windermere Secondary. Both are involved in the community through various programs and organizations. They have been regular members of the Windermere Organic Garden Team since Grade 8 and 9.

Copyright (c) 2016 Renfrew-Collingwood Community News