Events

EVENTS

Georgian Moments

Class of 2020 Reunion

Over 40 alumni from the Class of 2020 joined Mr. Beatty and over a dozen faculty members on January 21 for a casual Zoom event. There was a scavenger hunt and a lot of identifi able RSGC swag within reach!

Class of 2020 Alumni Parent Virtual Pub Night

On February 4, Alumni Parent Reps Daniela Gallo, Pat Forgione and their co-hosts, Julie and Andrew Dreger, hosted a virtual Pub Night for the Class of 2020 parents. There was a fun trivia challenge, time to catch up in small groups and a visit from Headmaster Stephen Beatty ’86. To enhance the evening, optional Cheese Boutique Snack Packs were available for purchase and prizes were awarded to the champions of the pub quiz. Thank you to everyone who joined us for this fun event.

On-Screen Cuisine with Afrim Pristine ’99

On February 17, the RSGCAA hosted the second On-Screen Cuisine with Toronto’s very own cheese master and owner of the Cheese Boutique, Afrim Pristine ’99. Afrim led a sold-out audience of 270 people (120 households) through a virtual cooking demonstration of a traditional meze-style meal with Italian, Greek, Turkish and Moroccan fl avours, textures and combinations. All ingredients were delivered right to the homes of our participants, including a bottle of Le Calvane’s Quercione Chianti and a sampling of bread from Forno Cultura, donated by the DiCapo Family Foundation. These were the perfect complement to the meal.

Hidden Gems

A virtual Hidden Gems showcasing the incredible talents of the RSGC community was held on April 8. If you missed it, you can watch it anytime by scanning this QR code.

Thank you to music teacher Emily Johnson for her dedication, along with MC Max Balzer and editors Liam Cassano, Owen O’Leary and Joey Lisser.

University Transition Workshop

In an effort to help the Class of 2021 prepare for life after high school, the RSGCAA hosted the annual Grade 12 University Transition Workshop on May 12. This event is designed to help prepare our boys for the transition from high school to the lecture halls of post-secondary study. Guest speaker Noah Gentner, Ph.D., NBC-HWC, CPHWC, RHC, Professor and Program Coordinator for the Wellness Coaching post-graduate program at Humber College, spoke to the students about mental health, time management, accountability and tools for success. Noah was joined by a panel of alumni for his presentation , and a group of university mentors from the Class of 2020 led a series of breakout discussions.

Grad Moms’ Tea

On May 7, RSGC hosted the virtual Grad Moms’ Tea, one of the most beloved events on the school calendar. Despite not being held in person, moms of boys graduating this year were still celebrated. The Advancement Team delivered them a package of goodies and a special gift, and everyone got together on Zoom for an emotional tribute. Tears were shed.

COMMUNITY

UNEXPECTED BLESSINGS

The pandemic hasn’t been an easy time for most of us. What has been an unexpected blessing that has come out of it?

Being able to spend extra precious time with my kids and get midday hugs! —Lori Gomes, RSGC parent

Blessed to have the Rouge Park in my Stouffville backyard. Nice long hikes in silence overlooking the Toronto skyline! —Michelle Bader, Senior School teacher

My children have learned how to entertain themselves and have become far more creative with their playtime than they ever were before.

It makes me realize that their lives were likely overprogrammed and, ‘postCOVID’, it wouldn’t hurt to have more downtime. We’ll see how that goes! —An RSGC employee

I’m so grateful that I have a job, and I’m grateful for life in general. —Toni Nosworthy, Admissions Associate

Rouge Park

Theo Gomes

I’ve realized that COVID sucks in a lot of ways, but that in a lot of ways, it doesn’t. Many people are getting sick and it’s amazing to see other people go above and beyond to care for them. We can’t see each other’s smiles under our masks, but we’re also making eye

Heidi Phlip with her teenage sons

Connecting with myself. Connecting with others. — Heidi Philip, RSGC parent

Listening in to my daughter’s university Art History lectures—so enriching. Prompted me to re-enrol in university; we’ll see if another degree materializes or not! —Clare Samworth, RSGC parent

Ben Sharma ’99

contact more than ever. Us introverts, we realized that we need other people, and the extroverts among us have a greater sense of self. Personally, I was suddenly unemployed, but then again, I had a summer off to hang with my teenage sons. I was able to see that living well doesn’t necessarily correlate to fi nancial security. In fact, the things that most fulfi ll me have nothing to do with money. Th ey have everything to do with connecting with nature. Th e largest blessing from the pandemic, I strongly believe, is time. Time and space for introspection, for a stocktaking of one’s life. Th ere was a bit of a cultural narrative about how we were all rushing around, without the time that our parents or grandparents might have had to try out new things, get into new hobbies, pursue personal interests. Th e year 2020-21 has given us all the time in the world to do that. It feels, in many ways, like the summer vacations we had as schoolboys—for good AND for ill. —Ben Sharma ’99

My RSGC stand-up comedy club went online and moved to Wednesday evenings at 7:00 pm. We had a hard time meeting after classes without one of us having a scheduling confl ict, but the boys who signed up are really into it, so it was important to us to fi nd a time to make it work. Th is is always the highlight of my week, and I don’t want to go back! Having it outside of regular school hours makes it seem more like it’s just a group of random people with an interest in comedy getting together, being themselves and having some great laughs. It’s better than anything I’d be watching on Netfl ix! I think taking a few hours between school and the club, and having dinner fi rst, just puts everyone in a great place to be creative

RSGC Stand-up Comedy club Clare Samworth's original student card

Karen Atkinson's view during a drive with her son Seb.

and workshop their ideas. — Leanne Mladen, Senior School Art Teacher

May 2020: Lockdown was two months old and we were adjusting to consistent family dinners—a novel luxury—and the lack of social lives for our teenage sons.

One night, Seb needed a break from his final push on his Grade 11 end-of-year assignments. He asked to head out after dinner to practice driving. He had earned his G1 licence prior to the pandemic and wanted to practice parallel parking, while waiting for G2 driving tests to resume.

While I was saddened for him that a study break was a car ride with his mom instead of a trip to Tom’s Dairy Freeze with his friends, we buckled in and he started driving down an eerily empty Bloor Street. Seb chose the playlist: Drake, Chance the Rapper, Pop Smoke and then it became 100 per cent Tragically Hip. It was a warm spring evening and we felt somewhat liberated from the lockdown, as the windows were rolled down. Then, the opening riffs of “Bobcaygeon” spilled from speakers across the open windows and onto Bloor. As Seb drove, we sang aloud, discussing the poetry and the history of Gord’s references in the music, including the 1933 race riots as we drove past Christie Pits.

As Seb pulled into the driveway, the constellations appeared, the pandemic and lockdown forgotten. Ten months later, the lockdown continues, yet music and poetry continue to keep us connected and hopeful. — Karen Atkinson, RSGC Parent

For me, the biggest blessing from the pandemic has been the liberation and divergence from what I “should be doing” as an MBA and young business professional. Even before attending the Rotman School of Management, my aspiration was always to be an executive in the National Hockey League (sidenote: in my graduating year, I told Brian Burke that I was going to take his job right in front of the chapel entrance!), but I got caught up in the pre-COVID rhetoric and ended up in the rat race at a Bay Street consulting firm. It took more than seven months of lockdown for me to come to the realization that I would never be happy running my life by someone else’s rules. As luck would have it, a week after leaving the Ivory Tower, I was back in the rink working for a dream organization, Hockey Canada. Now, instead of building spreadsheets and talking in corporate gibberish, through the Hockey Canada Foundation’s Assist Fund, I get to remove financial barriers for families in need from coast-to-coast, and ultimately

Tristan Bogler ’10

grow the game that we all love! —Tristan Bogler ’10

I’ve found that with the lack of social connection, I’ve made more of an effort to connect with friends and family all over the world. I’ve had many Zoom calls, Google Meets and joint Facetime chats with my sisters and father, who live in three different states in the U.S. We never did that in a pre-pandemic world, despite all living in different cities. No doubt, it’s something we’ll continue whenever things get back to something that resembles normal life. —Lauren Alpern, Shield Editor

Lauren Alpern's Google Meet with her family in the U.S.