There Was A Buzz Around Here Today

Posted on October 25, 2013 by Derek Logan

Today was an amazing day at KCS. Five of our teachers, including myself, had their heads shaved in support of The Terry Fox Foundation. You can see the before and after photos below and on our KCS Facebook page and through our KCS Twitter feed.

We set a goal at the beginning of the school year to raise $25 000, and if we reached the goal, the six of us had agreed to have our hair cut by Cos and Jackie from Cos on the Kingsway Salon/Spa. To see the excitement in the school leading up to today was tremendous. The students would come up to the each of us and say things like:

“Are you looking forward to having some taken off the top?”
“I can’t wait to see you bald!”
“Bzzzzzzzz.”
“Can ‘I’ cut your hair?”
“It’s going to get cold soon.”
“Hope you are enjoying your hair as its going to be gone soon.”
And my favourite, “Isn’t this great that we are helping people and their families who have cancer?”

Achieving a goal such as raising over $25K takes a little effort from a lot of people. We realize how our the parents, staff and faculty helped us raise the $25 000. A special thanks to our students who opened up their piggy banks, who asked for money for their September or October birthdays in order to donate it, and who went out into their neighbourhoods and asked for donations. It just goes to show that when many people contribute to a cause by doing what they can, it is possible to accomplish wonderful things.

Derek Logan
Head of School

Hair Today, Gone Tomorrow?

Posted on October 18, 2013 by Derek Logan

Each year KCS holds school wide fundraising activities for three designated charities: The Terry Fox Foundation, The Get Ahead Project, and Camp Oochigeas. As well, individual students help to support many other worthwhile charities through various other service learning projects. As part of our 25^th anniversary celebration, our school decided to set a goal of raising $25K for The Terry Fox Foundation. And as an incentive, a number of teachers and I agreed that we would have our heads shaved if we met our goal by October 25^th. This goal was a bit of a stretch for our school, as all worthy goals should be, but in the first nine years of holding a Terry Fox Run at KCS, we have raised over $170 000, so the goal we set back in the summer is certainly attainable. As of the writing of this blog, we have raised $24,747.

I am looking forward to having my hair shaved off for a number of reasons:

No more hat head. I can’t wait to start wearing toques in the winter and baseball caps at the gym without wondering whether it looks like I just got out of bed once I take the hat off.
Having less hair should help my gazelle-like running speed.
I won’t have to be checked for lice when The Lice Squad comes into the school. And they will come as they do every year.
“Be Like Mark” (he’s our new Senior Kindergarten teacher)
Savings on shampoo, conditioner and hair spray during the month of November can be converted into paying the grocery costs for one of my 15 year old son’s five “snacks” a day
I will be able to sleep in two minutes longer as I won’t have to “do” my hair in the morning
A bald head will be perfect for my Halloween costume
Finally, we will have met our goal of raising at least $25K for the Terry Fox Foundation. All of our families have been impacted by cancer; every dollar counts to finding better treatments for this disease.

Stay tuned to see if we met our goal on October 25^th. Knowing our students and our community, the five teachers and I are confident we will surpass this goal.

Derek Logan
Head of School

Volunteers

Posted on September 30, 2013 by Derek Logan

Last week was a rather busy week at KCS. We held our 10th annual Terry Fox Run on Wednesday, our 5th Annual Grandparents Day on Friday, and our Welcome Back BBQ on Saturday for about 800-1000 of our closest friends, families and alumni. In addition to those events, we held a couple of grade parties, a number of committee meetings, and various activities throughout the school. And that was just last week. All of these events were successful due to our staff working with our many amazing volunteers.

Cheering on the Terry Fox runners.

Welcome table at Grandparents & Grandfriends Day.

Making snow cones at the Welcome Back BBQ.

Extra tickets sales at the Welcome Back BBQ.

Our school has been a success for 25 years because of the outstanding commitment by many to give of their time for the current and future students of KCS. As I said to many of the alumni families who returned on Saturday for a visit, KCS has always been a great school. Throughout our history we did not always have the first class facility that we have now, but one thing we have always had in abundance at KCS were passionate and committed people, both staff and volunteers. For those of you who have volunteered to help us out in so many ways over the first month of the school year, you have my sincere thanks. Your time and efforts ensured we had a very successful first month of September.

Derek Logan
Head of School