Local students step up to the challenge.
GOLDEN EFFORTS: Grade 11 students Nick Laning (left) and Nathan Quan assemble an Ontario Winter Games medal podium during their construction/engineering class at Huntsville High School. Part of their end of term culminating activities, the podiums, when finished, will be painted and used during the winter games.
Carli Whitwell
HUNTSVILLE — When the bronze, silver and gold medal winners take to their podiums during the Ontario Winter Games, Huntsville High School students will have special reason to cheer.
“Our Grade 11 construction/engineering students have worked really hard designing and creating those podiums,” said John Cecile, head of business and technological studies at HHS.
The community involvement project was initiated by Myke Malone, general manager of the organizing committee for the 2010 Ontario Winter Games.
“The games are a project about youth in sport,” said Malone. “To engage area youth we wanted to go back to the high schools and see where they could contribute. John Cecile’s class was a great starting point for the podiums and Gunnar (Christensen’s) class took on crafting some hockey boards to be used to create an indoor field hockey rink inside St. Dominic’s gymnasium.”
Cecile jumped at the chance to get his students involved with the games.
“In our curriculum, we assess a portion of the kids’ marks on community involvement,” he explained. “Ever since the renovations happened at Huntsville High School, it has been my philosophy that the tech department should be involved in local efforts. The community has given to the school through tax dollars and volunteers and we have a lot of people, stores and retailers who donate materials to help us out. We should give back whenever we can.”
Cecile estimates about 80 hours have gone into creating the five sets of podiums, a project that involved 35-40 teens. Six podium sets actually exist, with the first crafted by Malone and his team as a template for the students.
“The students designed the podiums on the computer, estimated the materials for creating them and then costed out the project and took the price back to the customer,” said Cecile.
The OWG committee gave their final go-ahead to the students’ estimate and put down a deposit on the materials.
Cecile points out that Jeff Brady’s Grade 11 custom woodworking class has also been heavily involved in creating the podiums.
The project showcases what Cecile calls “our top-notch tech program. We’ve had Ministry of Education people up here visiting us to check us out. We offer eight, almost 10 shops here and our last renovation was a wonderful boost to our resources.”
Not all sports being played at the 2010 games will use podiums for medal presentations. For sports such as hockey and speed skating, medals are usually presented via a carpet on the ice.
“But there will be one podium in each community for awards ceremonies as needed,” said Malone. “The podiums will be moved throughout the region.”
“They’re portable and designed for easy carrying,” notes Cecile. “The first set was used at Arrowhead Park during the OWG cross-country ski events.”
Those events were held Jan. 16 and 17. The students expect to have all the podiums completed by the end of this week.
The rest of the 2010 Ontario Winter Games will be held March 4 to 7, with opening ceremonies at Muskoka Wharf in Gravenhurst. Approximately 3,500 participants will be taking part in 26 sports during the games.
For more information or to volunteer go to www.2010ontariowintergames.ca or call the games office at 646-5646.