Hub Staff

Dan Russell, principal at G.C. Huston Public School, paid a visit to the Southampton Rotary Club at their weekly meeting on Wednesday, June 1 to ask for the Rotary’s help in building the school a new race track.

“I’m going to take an opportunity to thank you for all of your support of G.C. Huston, what a wonderful partnership we have and the generosity the Rotary has always shown,” said Russell, adding that he was hesitant to ask for additional favours.

For years, G.C. Huston has held their Track and Field events at Saugeen District Secondary School, “but we’ve been trying to create a culture of fitness at G.C.,” said Russell. “We try to get our children outside spending as much time in the natural environment as possible involved in fitness activities, involved in sports, competing, learning how to win gracefully and learning how to lose gracefully.” Russell stressed the added importance of combatting childhood obesity.

“Having our own track [would allow] us not to just focus on Track and Field type events for one week during the school year but [would allow] us to extend that in a very safe way.” Russell said that when they explored options, one was to run their hundred meter dash in front of the school, which would mean blocking off traffic and that came with challenges. Fairy Lake has been used in the past but that too is less than ideal due to injuries that have been sustained.

“So our plan is to build a 200-meter track and we’ve already marked it out and we know that we have the space,” said Russell. They’ve looked at area schools including École Port Elgin Saugeen Central School as well as Keppel-Sarawak Elementary School, not only for pattern ideas but for pricing as well.

“We’re looking at about $25,000.” Russell added that the track has been approved by the school board and they are currently in the middle of a tendering process, with three different companies to come back with pricing. The surface would be crushed gravel.

“We have approximately $6,000 [currently] set aside," said Russel. To generate additional funds, the school has teamed up with Councillor Don Matheson and Saugeen Shores Council to run a Color Dash event later this summer.

“The idea [with this event] is to promote fitness for the whole family and you can walk it, you can run it, we encourage people to have fun with it and get silly and wear whatever colours you want to wear,” said Russell, adding that non toxic environmentally friendly colour packages will be splashed on people as they cross the finish line.

Russell hopes to earn between $10,000 and $15,000 with the Color Dash, which will coincide with the upcoming Shindig Festival, leaving about $5,000 remaining to be raised.

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Also part of the event weekend will be a water slide which will start at the Fire Hall in Southampton and go all the way down almost to G.C. Huston. “The Fire Department waters it and you just slide and slide... you get into tubes and whatever but it goes right down the road,” said Russell, adding that at G.C. Huston their philosophy is, “Go big or go home.”

After Russell finished, a question came from the audience with regard to the fact that G.C. Huston had been mentioned on an initial consult as one of the schools to possibly close in the district. Although Russell couldn’t comment on a potential closure, he did want to mention that the initial report didn’t take into account “extenuating circumstances” and only looked at numbers.

“When things do come to G.C. Huston, eventually we're going have an accommodation review... that’s the time that they’ll look at extenuating circumstances," said Russell, who added that, among other things, the school's relationship with Saugeen First Nation could be seen as an extenuating circumstance.

“We have more First Nation students at G.C. Huston than any other school in our board,” said Russell. “Our special relationship with Saugeen First Nation is something that enhances our school in so many ways.”