College grows from kitchen to spacious campus.
Jan Fisher reflects on early Georgian College days in Parry Sound.
Charlene Peck photo
Jan Fisher smiles when she eyes the classrooms at Parry Sound’s newly-constructed Canadore College campus.
“I sure would have loved those classrooms,” says Fisher, who was the first Georgian College program supervisor for the District of Parry Sound. “I remember going from pillar to post, looking for classrooms for Georgian College.”
Fisher was contacted by Georgian in 1973, when the college was looking for someone to supervise programs in this area. By summer of that year, she’d arranged several courses while running a makeshift local Georgian College satellite office from her kitchen.
“We did things on location,” she recalls. “For example Lois Cuttance offered classes in a lovely spot on McDougall Road. She loved to paint and there she’d be, with her group of students around her with their easels.”
In 1973, six courses were offer in the area.
Fisher remembers the first Georgian College office outside of her home was in the auditorium at the Parry Sound Public Library, where Julie Lea was her secretary. Courses were held in that space, as the college branched out into high school classrooms and shops; church basements, Bert and Elena Weir’s art and pottery studio, swimming lessons at the Jolly Roger pool and on-location motorcycle training at the Parry Sound Mall parking lot.
“It was a constant problem finding room,” she recalls.
By the spring of 1985, Georgian’s programming in the Parry Sound District had become a going concern with more than 3,000 students participating yearly in 180 courses.
“The response was exceptional,” recalls Fisher.
By then, the Parry Sound District office was located on Seguin Street in the current location of the Town office parking lot, and Fisher had plenty of assistance from office manager Pauline Mason. The busy office served a 6,000-square mile area, where the college offered career-related, general interest and part-time credit courses on a variety of topics.
Parry Sound was considered unique among the Georgian satellite offices, because programming not only brought people into the college, but it also brought Georgian out into the community.
Among two of their more ambitious programs were the credit courses at Project DARE (Development through Adventure, Responsibility and Education) near South River and French Immersion at Rosseau Lake College. Georgian worked with DARE to provide training weekends for adults who worked with troubled and difficult youth. At Rosseau Lake College, a one-week French Immersion course was offered in two sessions by Georgian in co-operation with the Ontario Council for Leadership in Educational Administration. The intensive course, which included swimming, tennis and French cuisine, offered secondary level French teachers a credit in French language and culture. Life drawing by Bert Weir was another credit course offered locally.
Parry Sound programming frequently linked with professional associations to provide certification courses. These included real estate courses and propane certification instruction. Georgian also helped students obtain their hunting license and motorcycle license. Just before Fisher retired in 1987 Georgian got a nursing program started locally.
“I think that was a big plus and I think it started a lot of these health credits that have now been expanded, which is great,” she says.
The Ontario Management Development Program, available through Georgian in Parry Sound, also offered credits towards a college certificate that was useful in obtaining employment.
Particularly popular courses included CPR, calligraphy, carpentry and upholstery, tourism and hospitality, and introduction to computers with Commodore PETs.
“If people wanted something, I found someone to do it and put the two together,” says Fisher, who organized dog obedience classes in Parry Sound and Almaguin, white water rafting at Ahmic Harbour, and cross country skiing classes with Gord Cardwell in South River.
Whether it was swimming lessons to train lifeguards, cardio-vascular exercise classes or a welding course, Fisher says the intent was always to incorporate an education component into each course.
A variety of equestrian clinics – from dressage and jumping to western and cross-country riding – were offered between 1975 and 1980 at a centre on Hoddy’s Side Road. The most well-know instructor was Canadian equestrian champion Jim Elder. Equestrian courses were also offered in Powassan.
Sometimes courses had spin-offs, like Victoria Yip’s wildly popular Chinese cooking class, that led to a China Town educational/cross cultural tour run through Georgian College’s Parry Sound office.
A native leatherwork course was among the most interesting, attracting numerous tourists as well as local students. Among the most unusual, a course on Ahmic Lake called “Finding the Right Spots to Fish” attracted some participants who arrived in their floatplanes. Another course in Sundridge taught meat cutting to farmers and hunters.
And if there weren’t enough people for a course to run at a break-even point, Fisher would sign herself up.
“That’s how I made all this stuff,” she says, pointing to decorative stained glasswork in her home.
She even signed up for the motorcycle course, although she’s more reluctant to talk about that.
Looking back, finding classrooms on the west side of the district was always the biggest challenge.
“That’s why I’m so happy about the Canadore campus being here – finally,” she says. “It was something I had always hoped the community would have.”
A whirlwind of changes followed Jan Fisher’s years with Georgian College. The campus was briefly located on May Street, then moved to the Beatty Building downtown for three years. On September 11, 2001, campus officer Jocelyn Shipman remembers moving into the Taylor building.
In 2004, an agreement was made with Georgian College that Canadore College would assume the campus in Parry Sound.
Classes began in September 2011 at the new 14,000 square foot Canadore College campus at One College Drive, near the intersection of Parry Sound Drive and Joseph Street. It features six teaching areas: four of these are classrooms; another is a computer lab and one is a flexible shop area. It also includes a spacious student lounge, administrative offices, as well as the Contact North office and rooms for hospitality training.
The three main programs currently ongoing are Practical Nursing, Personal Support Worker and academic upgrading. A small engine course was held in the fall and eight-weeks of pre-construction training starts in February, with funding available for qualified unemployed youth between 15 and 30.
Canadore is linking with the Parry Sound High School in 2012 to provide a dual-credit hospitality course. Students will simultaneously receive a hospitality program credit at the secondary school and college level for this course.
An official opening of Parry Sound’s Canadore College campus is being planned for January 27, when the community is invited to tour the new facilities.