Intermediate student, Saige Dosman; Primary student, Dylan Becker and Junior student, Arielle Brouwer ceremonially cut the ribbon to officially open the new outdoor classroom at École Port Elgin Saugeen Central, June 3.

Hub Staff

It was an exciting day at École Port Elgin Saugeen Central (ÉPESC) Friday afternoon, June 3, as the school celebrated the grand opening of its new outdoor classroom.

Students, teachers and guests gathered outside for the ceremonies, including service clubs, organizations and sponsors who donated to the building of the new classroom and helped in bringing the structure to life.

ÉPESC's award winning Senior Concert Band filled the classroom and provided the soundtrack with the help of the school's music teacher, Matthew Patterson. The band recently brought silver home from the MusicFest Canada national competition in Ottawa.

Related: ÉPESC's brings home silver

“This is a very exciting day, it feels like it's been a long awaited moment,” said ÉPESC Principal, Deborah Raynor, who explained that discussions around building a gazebo at the school had been going on for 14 years. “It was very rewarding to come back and make this dream a reality,” she said.

Raynor gave thanks to those in the community who had contributed to the outdoor classroom including the Chantry Island Cham-bettes, Port Elgin and Southampton Rotary Clubs, Bruce Power, the Port Elgin Lion’s Club, the Royal Canadian Legion Branch #340 Port Elgin and the Saugeen Shores Kin Club. “We reached out to the community, the organizations and the service clubs and said we had this dream. We want to build an outdoor classroom but we need your support and they gave us that support,” said Raynor.

The outdoor classroom was part of a vision of the School Community Council (SSC) and in particular the Wildcats Outside Pride (WOP) Committee, a sub committee of the SSC.

Dr. Tara Somerville, WOP Chair, brought a sign that said, “FUN” and got the students to shout out the word every time she held the sign up. “We started to develop this project about three years ago,” she said. “Our goal was to help to bring about some change to a worn and tired playground that's about 40 years old at this stage. We wanted to bring it back to life.”

Somerville explained that they did a survey of the students and staff and the dominating theme from the survey was that people wanted some shade, swings and fun. Last spring the school got new saucer swings and students and staff had decorated fences around the school with fish they had painted.

“Most impressively we have managed to put together this new structure that we're looking at today and we hope that it will become a centre for outdoor education and music performance and just a lot of good times during break and after school,” said Somerville, adding that over the next couple of years they will be raising more money and developing plans to hopefully put games on the asphalt and bring in some naturalized seating.

Saugeen District Secondary School (SDSS) teacher, Bud Halpin brought some of his high school students who helped to build the outdoor classroom. “It's a really good learning opportunity for the students and building a structure like this provides everything that we really hope to get out of education in the construction field,” said Halpin, adding that they started construction on November 3 and giving praise to the SDSS students for their dedication to the project.

Raynor added that the next stage will be to look at having benches made so the outdoor classroom can be used for class work or outdoor concerts. “I think it's going to unfold, we'll learn how to use it but I think it will have many purposes.”

To end the ceremony, three students, one from each of the primary, junior and intermediate divisions, ceremonially cut the ribbon to officially open the new classroom.

Students and guests gathered in front of the new outdoor classroom at École Port Elgin Saugeen Central School as the Senior Concert Band played to kick off the opening ceremony.

Saugeen District Secondary School (SDSS) teacher, Bud Halpin, fourth from the right, with SDSS students who helped to build the new outdoor classroom at École Port Elgin Saugeen Central School.

Dr. Tara Somerville, Wildcats Outside Pride Committee Chair held up a sign that said, “FUN” as she spoke about the improvement project that included the outdoor classroom.

Principal Deborah Raynor, left, stands with Andrew Reinhart and Elizabeth Eby, representing the Royal Canadian Legion Branch #340 Port Elgin, who donated money towards the outdoor classroom.