COMMUNITY CONCERT | One of Canada’s top piano trios performs in Vernon Wednesday [B5]
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Sunday, Nov. 18, 2012
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HORSE PLAY
JENNIFER SMITH Morning Star Staff JENNIFER SMITH/ MORNING STAR
One-year-old Niah Langley and her mom Ashleigh Compton get a kick out of a horse overly eager to take a bite of their carrot during a frosty morning visit to a Coldstream farm Thursday.
VSS hosts 45 years of history ROGER KNOX Morning Star Staff
There’s old yearbooks to be had. Grad photos. School uniforms. Pieces of the gym floor. And then there’s the bricks. Vernon Secondary School is saying goodbye to the structure on 18th Avenue that has been its home for the past 45 years with a special open house Thursday, Nov. 22, from 4:30 to 7:30 p.m. The school is, of course, making way for the new Vernon Secondary, being built on the current site, which will open after the Christmas holidays in January. “VSS is celebrating the closing of the old school, 45 years of history, of memories, and opening the new school,” said current VSS principal Morris Vardabasso of the open house. “It will be the last time you get to see the bricks intact, the pictures and the memorabilia. “Come share some time with fellow grads, former teachers and parents, and celebrate what we have had here for 45 years before it gets torn down.”
The school opened in 1968, with the first graduating class celebrating in June 1969. Vernon Senior Secondary, as it was known then, featured Grades 11 and 12 and stayed that way until 1984. The school structure changed in September 1984, with the school becoming Vernon Secondary with students from Grades 8 to 12, as it is now. Since it opened, Vardabasso estimates tens of thousands of people have gone through the hallowed hallways. Perhaps what the school is best known for is its bricks, and specially manufactured bricks will be available for sale at the open house as well as online. “They will be manicured bricks, nicely cut, that you can put on your mantle or your desk,” said Vardabasso. “You can order a brick with a plaque on it that will have your name and the year you graduated or the years you taught at the school.” Former Vernon Secondary Panther athletes will have a chance to order pieces of the gym
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floor. Again, you’ll be able to get a plaque with your name, the teams you played on and the years you played. Athletes will also have a chance to become part of a new Wall of Fame that will be housed in the new school, but to be inducted, you must come to the open house or by ordering a piece of the floor online. Funds raised from the sale of bricks, gym floor pieces and silent auction items, which include old uniforms, trophies, and black-andwhite photos, will go to the VSS scholarship and legacy programs. A barbecue will also be held featuring hamburgers and hot dogs, and commemorative T-shirts – old style and funky – will be on sale for $10. Former students who didn’t get a yearbook for whatever reason will be excited to learn that there are lots of leftover yearbooks, and they will be available during the open house, as well as grad year photos.
See STUDENTS on A2
A perceived rise in public doubt has left some area politicians with their own uncertainty over the success of the spring sports facility borrowing referendum. Questions have been circulating over the $8.5 million referendum gaining enough support to see a sports facility constructed at Okanagan College. Therefore Coldstream Maria Besso politicians are demanding more answers from the Greater Vernon Advisory Committee. “I’m not really satisfied with the procedure that is happening with the track facility,” said Coun. Maria Besso. Coun. Richard Enns adds: “I really think we do need to be getting more information.” Besso has suggested that an ad hoc committee be established to get to the bottom of unanswered questions such as cost breakdowns. She also suggests some Coldstream staff be involved in the process. Mayor Jim Garlick has agreed to bring the request to GVAC. “We would like to involve our engineer and planner in this process because they’re the ones we have to go to,” said Garlick, after hearing his colleague’s uncertainty over the referendum. “There’s concerns about the success of the referendum,” he said. “And I’ve heard those concerns elsewhere.” Coldstream is eager to look at the details of the sports facility, including a break-down of the $8.5 million.
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•Based on 2010 closed transations. Source CREA and RE/MAX internal data.