By Emily Wei, Columnist
Now that the spring weather is finally here, things are really heating up here at Halifax West High School! With life finally returning back to somewhat normal since COVID-19 hit us, April has definitely been one of the busiest months of the school year so far!
Starting on the very first day of the month, the West recognized all students observing Ramadan. We are so glad to have such a diverse school community and invited any students or staff who would like to support Ramadan and participate in a voluntary fast for the day on April 26. In addition to this, like I mentioned in the previous column, we have our new CoPresidents for the next school year! A big congratulations to Chloe Carabbacan and Rebekah Hart for being elected as the new Presidents, there’s no one better suited for the job than these two. Speaking of our new government, the rest of our Executive followed by our full government minister selection will be selected in early May!
April at the West is infamous for our annual Head for a Cure event to raise money for the Terry Fox Foundation. This year our Volunteerism Committee hosted it on April. 20 and it was definitely one to remember! On top of having three live hairstylists to cut our top fundraisers’ hair, we had multiple games hosted by the Spirit Committee such as tug of war and musical chairs! As if this wasn’t enough, we had multiple keynotes to shed some light on their experience with cancer as well as a special performance by one of our very own students, Anna Martin, who sang “To Make You Feel My Love” by Adele. By the end, we were able to reach our goal of raising over $5000 and to commemorate it, our very own Mr. White volunteered to have his hair dyed bright red in front of the whole school! As the live broadcast of Head for a Cure was being played to all classrooms in the school, there were a few games taking place in our cafeteria to raise even more money. Our signature “KnockOut Cancer” game combined with the canteen and taping Mr. Aidoo to the wall has always been a big hit and this year was no exception.
As I’m sure many of you know, Earth day was on April. 22 and our World Involvement and Environment Committee took it by storm and organized Earth Week! From April 22- 29 the theme was ocean wellness (AKA Shark Week)! This included schoolyard cleanups, candy bags, presentations, and much more. In addition to this, “Perogies for Peace” was created to raise money for Ukraine relief organizations by selling perogies during lunchtime. On the same day as “Perogies for Peace”, it was also Secretary Appreciation day so our Appreciation and Inclusion Committee made sure to let our amazing secretaries know how much we appreciate them with a complimentary lunch and dessert from Mezza. The day after this was also the staff appreciation luncheon where Sobeys catered!
To end April, we had our Grade 11 Representative elections and congratulations to Vanessa Arthur, Jane Elliot, and Ashon McNamara for being the newest members of our 2022-2023 Executive Government! Speaking of endings, to end this column it is necessary to highlight the history being made with our sports teams! Starting off strong, both the Boys and Girls Hockey teams placed first in their selective divisions at Provincials! Not only this but our Girls Field Hockey is underway and they have already won a tournament, as well as everyone’s much loved badminton team playing in Provincials.
