{"id":8338,"date":"2014-10-01T14:18:09","date_gmt":"2014-10-01T18:18:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=8338"},"modified":"2014-10-18T22:54:21","modified_gmt":"2014-10-19T02:54:21","slug":"aurora-school-puts-french-spin-on-terry-fox-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/aurora-school-puts-french-spin-on-terry-fox-day\/","title":{"rendered":"Aurora school puts French spin on Terry Fox Day"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Jake Courtepatte<\/strong><\/p>\n

It was a cause for celebration at Ecole secondaire catholique Renaissance last Thursday, as staff and students came together to commemorate both their Franco-Ontarian heritage and the accomplishments of Manitoban Terry Fox.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe really wanted to bring it all together into one big day,\u201d said Martyne Laurin, Principal of the French Catholic school located in Aurora.<\/p>\n

The day began with a relay to commemorate Terry Fox, as the school was split into four \u201chouses\u201d. A splash of colour was added to the day as each house wore different brightly-coloured t-shirts, grouped as one of the four suits in a deck of cards.<\/p>\n

For a more personal effect, each student wore a tag bearing the name of those they were running for.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe wanted everyone to run for a person they knew, who had been affected by cancer or had passed away,\u201d said Laurin. \u201cEveryone knows somebody.\u201d
\nThursday also marked Franco-Ontarian Day, an annual tradition marked each September 25.<\/p>\n

Adopted by the Legislature in 2010, the day officially \u201crecognizes the contribution of Ontario\u2019s Francophone community to the cultural, historical, social, economic and political life of the province.\u201d<\/p>\n

Staff at ESC Renaissance saw the opportunity to celebrate the school\u2019s French culture through fun and entertainment, rather than simply in the classroom.<\/p>\n

Friendly competition was had between the four houses on the athletic field, as groups cycled between different activities such as a three-legged race, tug-of-war, and beach ball volleyball.<\/p>\n

\u201cEverybody with a French background will celebrate it differently,\u201d said Laurin. \u201cBut we are all proud of our culture, and our heritage, and we wanted to do activities related to our own backgrounds.\u201d<\/p>\n

With Franco-Canadian music playing in the background, students could bring points to their house by speaking French, winning activities, and embracing the school\u2019s French culture.<\/p>\n

And spirits were high on the beautiful September afternoon.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s good for them to be outside of the classroom like this,\u201d said Laurin. \u201cIt\u2019s still a learning experience.\u201d<\/p>\n

The school planted its roots six years ago with only 115 students, and has since grown to a population of 650. Laurin says the school continues to grow.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur students come in from everywhere\u2026Newmarket, Markham, Woodbridge, Maple, Richmond Hill. We\u2019re a unique school.\u201d<\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It was a cause for celebration at Ecole secondaire catholique Renaissance last Thursday, as staff and students came together to commemorate both their Franco-Ontarian heritage and the accomplishments of Manitoban Terry Fox.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":8304,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[26],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8338","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-archive"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-2au","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-09-15 19:34:23","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/2014-10-02-14.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8338","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8338"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8338\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8304"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8338"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8338"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8338"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}