SU 2025 Connections

A HAMILTON DISTRICT CHRISTIAN HIGH PUBLICATION SUMMER 2025

Vol. 18 Issue 3

HDCH Spring Market: Thank You For Helping Us To Grow Together!

Submitted by Leanne Wrench, Events Co-ordinator

This past spring, the HDCH community came alive with joy, creativity, and generosity at our Spring Market: Growing Together fundraiser. Thanks to the incredible support of our sponsors, donors, parents, staff, students, alumni, board, volunteers, supporters, and extended community, we’re thrilled to share that over $15,000 was raised in support of Christ-centred learning at Hamilton District Christian High.

From start to finish, the day was a vibrant expression of our school theme this year: Serving the Lord with Gladness. It was more than just a fundraiser - it was a celebration of community, connection, and student creativity, with nearly 300 attendees joining in on the fun.

A Day Full of Fun and Communit y Spirit

The front entrance featured a beautiful selection of planters graciously donated by Vos Floral, K&K Greenhouses, and Foxwood Greenhouses.

Just beyond, the band Deservedly So performed, keeping the energy high and setting the tone for a festive and welcoming atmosphere that reflected the heart of our school community.

Throughout the campus, there was a buzz of liveliness and laughter as families, friends, and neighbours explored the market, supported student efforts, and enjoyed time together.

Inside, the foyer was filled with excitement, featuring a stunning Deservedly So performs well-loved classics in the HDCH lobby array of raffle prizes generously donated by our diverse vendors and local retailers. One of the crowd favourites was the “Guess the Grocery Total” contest, sponsored by Cayuga Displays, which drew plenty of guesses and big smiles - the correct total? $203.35!

Meanwhile, the Kids’ Space was a hub of activity, packed with family-friendly games with fun prizes. Children delighted in face painting, VR gaming, Jumbo Connect Four, the all-new Tetris Tumble and classic favourites like Plinko, Tic Tac Toe Toss, and a guess-the-number-of-candies contest (the correct answer was 238!)

Serve the Lord with gladness; come before him with joyful songs.

Psalm 100:2

Delicious donuts and hot coffee were generously provided by Tim Hortons (Salverda Enterprises), while the Knights Eatery served up hot breakfast sandwiches made with ingredients kindly donated by Country Meat Packers and Aspire Bakeries/Oakrun Farm Bakery.

For lunch, guests enjoyed juicy hamburgers and sausages. These menu items were donated by VG Meats and Fenwood Farms.

HDCH Supporters also had the opportunity to shop from 23 vendors in the gym who offered an array of art, crafts & services.

A special thanks to our vendors: J Hart Ceramics Waterdown Chiro Silver Pigeon Rings Art Collective (by Sofia) Beaded Creations by CJ Carrie’s Cuddles

Dam & Associates Doing it All Creations GEMS Generations Woodworking Gerry’s Roofing & Siding IG Wealth

Staff members volunteered at the Market Coffee Shop

It’s a Small World Global Lily Blossom Jewels MoZaic DeZigns Nama’s Nook Oxiglam

Premium Health & Safety Right at Home Realty Selah Vie Doula Care Sewing and Stuffing The Artists Lair Three Sisters

Showcasing Student Talent and Innovation

The entrepreneur class designed interior signage and prepared the layout for the vendor market floor.

One of the standout features of the Spring Market was the HDCH Marketplace, where student-crafted items including charcuterie boards handcrafted by students in our HDCH Shop Class and Pea soup prepared with care by our talented Foods Class were on display along with bagels, one-of-a-kind finds and deals from local retailers.These items weren’t just a hit with shoppers - they were a powerful showcase of student learning.

Students also participated in the fundraiser by volunteering in all areas.

“Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God’s grace in its various forms.” 1 Peter 4:10

Looking Ahead: Spring Market 2026 We’re already looking forward to doing it all again in April 2026!

With even more community spirit, student showcases, and familyfriendly fun planned, we can’t wait to welcome everyone back.

Thank you for helping us shine as a light in our community - a school where student gifts are nurtured, where we serve with gladness, and grow together in faith and fellowship.

Let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.”

Leanne Wrench, Events Coordinator, joined the HDCH Service and Support Team Feb ‘25

Matthew 5:16 continued...

Deep Gratitude for our Spring Market Sponsors

YOU ThankTHANK you for caring TO OUR EVENT SPONSOR

We are especially thankful for the generous support of our event sponsors: Finn Pools, Dam & Associates, and P.V. & V. Insurance.

Your partnership helped make this day a true success, and your investment in HDCH helps us continue to provide Christ-Centred learning for our students.

The annual Golf Tournamenthdch.org is our next fundraising event ~ Sept 27, 2025 at Century Pines Golf Club.

NOTE the new location, new date and new time!

Hamilton District Christian High

Registration will open at 12:30 with a 1:30pm shotgun start, contests, hospitality, great prizes and fellowship with the HDCH community. A BBQ dinner and awards follow.

www.hdch.org/events/golf

You can support the HDCH CARE Campaign through sponsorship, donation of raffle and auction items and by registering to golf.

Creating to Serve . .Remembering in Europe ~ submitted by Nate VanKampen, Dean of Students

This past March, I had the privilege of chaperoning the HDCH Europe trip. The tour took students through Western Europe with stops in Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, and France, focusing on key historical locations from World War I, World War II, and the Cold War era. It was an incredible opportunity for students and staff to bond over a shared experience, immersing themselves in new cultures and standing in places they had only read about in class.

Each person on the trip had the chance to grow, learn, and form emotional connections to God’s world in meaningful ways. One such student is Andrew Keep in Gr. 11. After we returned, I sat down with Andrew to reflect on his experience, particularly one moment that left a deep impact. Andrew, who is also an air cadet, had the honour of presenting a wreath at the daily Last Post Ceremony at the Menin Gate in Ypres, Belgium, alongside another HDCH student.

You had the honour of presenting a wreath at the Last Post Ceremony in Ypres.

What was that moment like for you?

It was very melancholy. Being surrounded by names of people who gave their lives in service, fighting for the rights and freedoms we have today, made you feel small, like a grain of sand. It was a great honour and a privilege to lay it for HDCH. It was also a stark reminder to never forget what happened and the price we had to pay for where we are today. continued...

You’re an air cadet. What is that?

Air Cadets is a government-funded program focused on introducing youth to the armed forces, as well as raising and teaching the leaders of tomorrow. Air Cadets is just one of three branches (Air, Army, and Navy). We learn skills specific to our element, such as meteorology, physics of airplanes, drill, teaching techniques, and much more. It also gives young people the chance to lead and see how leadership is not just about “me,” but about the bigger picture. What I do can affect others, positively or negatively.

As an air cadet, how did this experience shape your understanding of remembrance and service?

As a cadet, we focus on service and remembrance quite a lot. Service is one of the most important values we promote. Being a participating member of the community, helping out when needed, and representing cadets are all key parts of who we are. We also highly value remembrance, because if we forget, history will be doomed to repeat itself. Don’t just remember why things happened, but who they happened to.

Andrew Keep & Megan Zantingh represented HDCH at the Menin Gate ceremony in Ypres, Belgium, laying a wreath in honor of Common-wealth soldiers who served and lost their lives in the First World War. Their participation was a solemn act of remembrance of the sacrifice at this historic site. March 2025.

Standing in the same place where soldiers once stood, did it change how you see Canada’s role in these wars?

Standing where Canadians stood almost 100 years ago was very eye-opening. I’ve read about this, studied it, and even presented it, but being there was completely different. It’s a humbling experience, standing where the soldiers stood, ready to give their lives for a better future. It didn’t change how I viewed Canada’s role, but I do have a deeper understanding and appreciation for what was sacrificed.

How has this trip influenced the way you think about serving others today?

It made me realize how small each of us is, and how, despite the vast distance separating us, we all live in the same world with the same needs. It’s helped me take a step back and not only think about what’s good for me, or for us as a community, but for the whole world. Seeing the Holocaust memorial beside the gate in Berlin—seeing and acknowledging what happened—reminded me of the importance of striving to avoid these tragedies again.

Andrew’s reflections are a powerful reminder of how deeply experiential learning can shape a young person’s heart and mind. This year at HDCH, we focused on Creating to Serve. Andrew’s story is one example of what that looks like in practice. He stepped into history with humility, represented his school with gratitude, and returned with a greater sense of purpose.

In forming students who are faithful, discerning, and responsive, HDCH aims to help each one understand that service is not just something we do. It is a way of being present in the world, paying attention to others, and acting with compassion and courage.

As Andrew says,

“It made me realize how small we are—and how much we can do.”

Serving the Lord in Athletics .

~ submitted by Brad Heidbuurt ‘95, HDCH Director of Athletics

A student joined our senior boys volleyball team in his Gr. 12 year.

While he had not played varsity volleyball before, his athleticism earned him a berth on the team. He played a middle position, requiring both speed and strength. He listened carefully to coaching, learned the position quickly and played well.

At our first tournament, he raced off the court, full of excitement, saying, “I have never given so many high fives in such a short period of time!” His commitment to both the team and the game helped us on our journey to an OFSAA bronze medal that year. This was HD’s first OFSAA volleyball medal.

This is just one example of how we work to develop Christ-like character, through sport, at HD. In athletics there are many life-skills we hope athletes will learn.

One Body but Many Parts There is one body, but it has many parts.

But all its many parts make up one body.

It is the same with Christ.

We were all baptized by one Holy Spirit.

And so we are formed into one body.

It didn’t matter whether we were Jews or Gentiles, slaves or free people.

We were all given the same Spirit to drink.

So the body is not made up of just one part.

It has many parts.

1 Corinthians 12:14

Commitment to a group of people and making personal sacrifices for the sake of the group.

This is such an important Christian principle. We are called to be a part of God’s Kingdom, recognizing that we all bring different gifts, and that each of these gifts is crucial for the Kingdom to grow. We fully commit our lives to God, and often this takes sacrifice. In athletics, we all bring different gifts, and each of those gifts is crucial for the team to grow together.

When we discipline ourselves to commit to a team, and consistently show up even when it is inconvenient, it builds a bond of loyalty. That bond leads to achieving great things as a team.

The team comes first.

We need to put the team’s needs first, and our needs second. So it is with God’s Kingdom, being part of a family, a group of friends, a committee, group, or work team. It’s not about you and your needs. In athletics, we often refer to 1 Corinthians 12:14 that talks about “one body, many parts”.

Why Student-Athlete?

This means “students first and athletes second”.

Our primary purpose here is to be a student and work at the curriculum that is being presented to us by our teachers.

It is the student’s responsibility to proactively connect with teachers to find out what they will miss if they are away with their team and to check in upon their return, to ensure that they are caught up.

It’s an important message about responsibility.

Emotional regulation There are many opportunities to practice healthy emotional regulation while playing sports. Student-athletes are asked to consider: • When I make a mistake, how do I respond?

• What is my inner voice saying?

• How does that affect the next play?

• When a ref makes a bad decision, how do we respond?

• When we don’t win a game, how do we respond?

• How do we ensure that we are accountable to ourselves, our team and to God? Resilience When we pick student-athletes for sports, we look for resilience. We want student-athletes to take risks and try something that they may not be good at, so they can learn about being humble through trying and failing as they grow in their mastery of the sport. If we only do things we are good at, we might win, but we will not grow. We encourage our student-athletes to adopt a growth mindset. continued...

Time management Student-athletes must manage their time well. They need to plan ahead to spot scheduling conflicts and problem solve to find the best solution. We support our student-athletes to help them make wise decisions about how they use their time.

The process is more important than the results Our society often judges athletes by how many wins they have or how far they progress in a competition. Winning is nice, and yet, it is dependent on the strength of our opponents. We can control our own process and the gains we are able to make as a team. As coaches, we work to help our student-athletes find joy in the process. There are super fun moments in practice when we have been working at something for a long time and it finally starts to click.

You need people to be successful The people around you who are coaching you, cheering you on, lifting you up when you feel down, are important for both individual and team success.

Celebrating the successes of others Can we be just as excited for a teammate when they do something great, as we are about ourselves, when we do something great? This type of selflessness is so important in a world where it is so tempting to focus on our own progress.

Dependance on God Oftentimes in sports we are presented with hurdles that seem impossible to overcome. When we focus on God in these moments and ask Him to provide us with the confidence we need to overcome these obstacles, it reinforces our need for Him in our lives and the reality that God is in control of all of our lives.

In tense moments, we can pray God gives us the calm we need to do our very best and have confidence that we did indeed do our best. We can pray God takes away anything that hinders us from doing our best, like nerves, feelings of inadequacy, negative thoughts about our abilities, thoughts that the competition is too good for us, etc.

We do our very best, lay it at God’s feet as a sacrifice to Him, and submit the results to Him. Sometimes we will overcome the hurdle, and sometimes we won’t! The key is to try with all of our might and give it all we have.

Hearing God’s Call on my Life When I think back to when I was an HD student, I remember a teacher encouraging me by identifying strengths that would be helpful in serving God through teaching and working with student-athletes. I also remember coaches working hard to help us learn and improve in the game, while also focussing on cooperation, respect and a desire to honour God through these things. I suppose God helped me see that I could bring all this together to be a teacher.

A Student Hears God’s Call When Kyle Grootenboer ‘05 was an HD student, he played as many sports as he could. I had the privilege of coaching him in basketball and teaching him in Gr. 11 Phys Ed. A gifted student-athlete, Kyle made major contributions to every sport he played. The character he showed, along with his drive for excellence, was infectious.

Following his experiences here as a student, God called Kyle to serve his community by joining HD’s Athletics department. Since joining the staff, Kyle has coached hundreds of student-athletes, consistently earning respect Kyle Grootenboer ‘05 & Brad Heidbuurt ‘95 are through his commitment to making them both better student-athletes and both alumni and HD Athletics Department Staff.

Christ-followers.

Called & Crafted ~ Gr. 10 Careers Curriculum

Careers is a required course in the Gr. 10 curriculum. At HD, we do more than just explore the many careers available today. Through the course work, students consider our school’s mission: “cultivating character for lives of service to God,” with an emphasis on how a “life of service” connects with their employment and vocational direction.

In Careers, we have three theme verses that inform everything we do.

• Ephesians 2:10 asks us to think about how we are uniquely called and crafted for a plan and a purpose • Colossians 3:17 informs our idea of why we work and who we serve • Micah 6:8 shapes the idea of how we are to live out our call to serve in God’s kingdom Ephesians 2:10 -

P lan&Purpose

“For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

We are called and crafted with a plan and a purpose.”

Each one of us is uniquely created and equipped to live out our calling; however, discovering our vocation isn’t just a single decision - it is a lifelong process. Part of understanding our calling means first understanding who we are created to be - what are the gifts, talents, influence, experiences, communities and people at work in shaping who we become.

Colossians 3:17 -

Who we Serve

Micah 6:8 -

“And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.”

We “work” for lots of different reasons: provision, self-discovery, enjoyment, satisfaction, serving and worshipping. While we might have different vocational directions for different seasons of our lives, God claims sovereignty over every aspect of our lives - including our work. So, “what will you do” is inseparable from “who are you going to be.” Our ultimate “boss” is God, and our task is to serve Him in “whatever we do” In this, “work” and “worship” are synonymous.

Living out our Call

“He has shown you, O mortal, what is good.

And what does the Lord require of you?

To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.” This call to be missional is embedded in the everyday execution of our tasks. Sometimes we think about being missional as something we do only as intentional service, volunteer, or church activity. We are called to demonstrate the fruit of the Spirit and to live out of a desire to “act justly, love mercy, and walk humbly” in every part of our lives.

Careers and Motivation To start the semester, we ask students to think about career pathways and motivation, exploring these questions: • • • • •

If you could do anything for a career, and didn’t have to worry about money, ability, skill, training or anything, what would you do?

Why would you pick that career?

Why do we work?

What frames our decision making around career pathways?

How will you serve and glorify God through your career? continued...

HD Students in careers class explore questions related to career pathways and motivation.

How Faith Shapes our Work

First Careers Assignment:

For their first Careers assignment, students interview an adult to find out how their faith shapes the way they understand and perform their tasks. The final assignment is an exploration of a specific career. Students are asked to share what it might mean to be a Christian in that career, both in terms of explicit or formalized opportunities for service and in the daily execution of roles and performance of their tasks.

In other words, what does it mean to be a Christian plumber, a Christian lawyer, or a Christian physiotherapist, in the daily execution of our tasks?

Everything we do in the course unpacks the key ideas in Ephesians 2:10: who we are in Christ; how God’s creation in us is intentional; what our purpose is; and, that it is His ultimate plan that He chooses to work in and through us.

“For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.”

Ephesians 2:10

Interviewing a Pastor

“I believe that any occupation can be worshipful when we realize that our real boss is God and not any other person. We need to remember that God looks at our heart and not our outward appearance like the world does. As believers,we are called to do our best so that others will take notice that we live differently and with the purpose of bringing God glory. If we are obedient to His commands and attempt to live out our faith through our actions and attitudes, we then are being worshipful. This is not dependent on the fact that your job is in the spiritual/religious field. I can be a pastor who is not “worshipful” and just treat it like another job. I can attempt to fake it, but in the end we can’t fool God. We need to seek God’s wisdom for how we can bring worship to Him in our current job, even if we think that our job is not a suitable avenue to do so. I truly believe that God can use anyone powerfully.”

Connect With Us Duncan Todd Principal principal@hdch.org | 905.648.6655 x 105

Sara Whetstone Vice Principal swhetstone@hdch.org | 905.648.6655 x 103

Nate VanKampen Dean of Students nvankampen@hdch.org | 905.648.6655 x 109

Sandra Baker Director of Advancement & Admissions sbaker@hdch.org | 905.648.6655 x 122

Tina VanDyk Marketing & Engagement tvandyk@hdch.org | 905.648.6655 x 110

Leanne Wrench Events Co-ordinator lwrench@hdch.org | 905.648.6655 x 104

HDCH:info

whyHDCH

www.hdch.org

Mark Your Calendar

June 27 ~ Report Cards on Edsby July 1 ~ Office closed for Canada Day July 15-Aug 8 ~ Office closed Aug 26 ~ Orientation Day 4-7pm Sept 2 ~ 1st Day of 25-26 School Year Sept 5 ~ Gr 9 Day (BBQ for Gr. 9 families) Sept 27 ~ Golf Tournament NEW venue, NEW date, NEW time!

SUMMER OFFICE HOURS The office will be open June 24-July 14 & Aug 11-29 (Mon-Fri, 10am-2pm)

HDCH Mission: Cultivating character through learning for lives of service to God.