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16 - The Oakville Beaver, Wednesday March 21, 2007 www.oakvillebeaver.com Loyola to celebrate and reunite Continued from page 15 campus (to the rear of St. Dominic's School and Church) in 1982. As plans proceeded for the new Oakville Catholic high school, the announcement of full funding to Catholic school boards in Ontario saw those plans revamped. Loyola, like its predecessor Assumption in Burlington, was designed as a senior elementary school, but went back to the drawing board for design into a full-fledged, state-of-the-art building, which finally opened with its new students "Education in high school is not the way we remember it." Brian Arsenault, Head of Athletics, St. Ignatius of Loyola Secondary School in 1986. Those plans moved ahead, with agreement from the Ministry of Education, but only on the condition that the school board be responsible for the additional SAVE $$$$$$$ OAKVILLE KIA SUPERSTORE or up to $5000 Cash Back All Stock Windshield Priced and Ready to Go. Once a Year Saving $$$$$$ $3700 gets you in a new or pre-owned vehicle. 1-866-369-8109 OAKVILLE KIA 1450 Speers Rd. Oakville Also open Sundays 11am - 4pm funding should full funding not make it to legislation. The rest is history -- and now Loyola is 25 years old. Arsenault said more than 600 staff have worked at Loyola over the years so he expects the staff reunion will be a major draw. "We can all see how we've aged," he said. Just about everything around the school is and has been done for some time in anticipation of the celebration. Murals were added to the interior walls, a scoreboard was added to the football field -- a field and track that was completed some time after Loyola first opened. The high school currently has about 1,150 students, but peaked in the early 1990s with a whopping 1,700 students. Portables have always been part of the landscape at Loyola -- though they were relocated from their original home south of the school to the north side of the building. Over the years Loyola has crested and ebbed with changes in education and in the local landscape. Loyola has been the holding school for other Oakville Catholic high schools -- first St. Thomas Aquinas (the former Gordon E. Perdue) and more recently for Holy Trinity Eco Festival is coming up March 31 There will be lots to see and do at the annual Halton Eco Festival Saturday, March 31 and Sunday April 1. The environmental fair will run 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday, March 31 and again from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Sunday, April 1 at the Glen Abbey Recreation Centre located at 1415 Third Line. "The environment is the number one concern of Canadians," said Stephen Dankowich, Executive Director of the Oakville Community Centre For Peace, Ecology And Human Rights (OCCPEHR) which organizes the event. "The seventh annual Halton Eco Festival (www.haltonecofest.ca) is a fun, family-oriented, environmental fair that encourages people to learn how to improve our natural environment, health and community," said Dankowich. "The 2007 Halton Eco Festival features a fantastic 1,600 square foot kid's eco fun area, 60 exhibitors, 16 free educational workshops, alternative healthcare, good food from our eco café and kitchen, a silent auction, and an exciting `Eco Jeopardy' game," said Thomas Patrick, an OCCPEHR board member. There will be daily presentations of Sarah Harmer's new film Escarpment Blues, and The Faithful Witness: The Journey of the White Pine in Southern Ontario by ecologist Paul O'Hara for $5. "Families will love the spacious kid's eco fun area in the green marketplace arena, and features (like) environmental games, puppets, a play-dough and art table, puzzles and a crafts 'recycling' table," said Karyn Burney of the Unitarian Congregation of South Peel, co-ordinators of the space. This year's sponsors include the Canadian Diabetes Association (bring a bag of used clothes and get $1 off admission), CKLN 88.1 FM, Halton Region, City of Burlington and Town of Oakville. Free educational workshops on Saturday, March 31 include presentations about using entertainment and television for social change, alternatives to pesticides, detoxification and health, schoolyard resources, environmental management in developing countries, the top five toxins in your home, ecology and the rights of animals, bottled water, socially-responsible investing, and fair voting systems. On Sunday, April 1, workshops include: the Niagara Escarpment, building sustainability, GE/GMO foods and the risk to the environment, laughter for health and peace, global warming and climate change, and Ontario's boreal forest. Admission is $12 for a non-transferable wristband, good for both days. The event is free for all students. Wristbands are available at Ten Thousand Villages in downtown Oakville or by mailing a cheque to OCCPEHR, 148 Kerr St., Oakville L6K 3A7 and including $1 for postage. Visitors can carpool or take Bus #28 from the Oakville GO Station or walk or cycle if they live nearby or park free at the Bronte GO Station south of the QEW at Third Line and shuttle to the fair. Call 905-849-5501, or visit www.haltonecofest.ca to volunteer or ask questions. Brian Arsenault located on Sixth Line. It no longer has Grade 13 students -- a change that not only affected numbers, but ages of students in the school. "Education in high school is not the way we remember it," said Arsenault who himself attended high school in Hamilton as Halton had no Catholic high schools of its own. Students today are younger and they're in high school for less time. Then again, teachers are still dealing with youths and cell phones or iPods or not, they're still youths, said Arsenault. Students are still great people and Loyola is a very well recognized school that's supported in its community, said Arsenault. "The key to any building is the people in it," said Arsenault, adding, "It's a great place to be." Leaders in Lifelong Learning Continuing Education at Sheridan: Choose from hundreds of professional and personal development courses, most starting the week of April 23, 2007. Register online today: www.sheridaninstitute.ca Call 905.845.9430 or 905.459.7533 TM CONTINUING EDUCATION