Wheatley Public School celebrating 50 years on May 6

By Mark Ribble

For hundreds of former students at Wheatley Area Public School, the upcoming 50th anniversary open house there will be a walk down memory lane.

Christine PrudenceHopper and Marilyn Foster — members of the organizing committee — met with the Sun last week to outline some of the plans for the upcoming celebration.

The open house will be held on Saturday, May 6 from 11 am to 2 pm and all are welcome to attend.

The school held its grand opening on November 17, 1972, moving the students over from the previous Wheatley Public School across the road and a little south.

The previous school building now houses the Wheatley Friendship Club and Marilyn remembers the finals days in that building.

“The senior students helped us by carrying everything over from the old school to the new school,” she said.

Mrs. Foster taught at both schools for a number of years and credits Mr. Ben Taves —the former principal — with getting the school ready for the kids to move into when the summer vacation ended that year.

“Mr. Taves chose the school colours,” she said. “The brown and gold is embedded into the colour scheme of the exterior.”

She also credits a former music teacher at the school with coming up with a school song.

“Mrs. McAuslan wrote the school song and the students helped write the words to it,” says Marilyn. “She is no longer with us, but she’d be thrilled to hear the song today.”

Christine, who has been teaching at W.A.P.S. since 1998, says the song is still part of the school community.

“As a former student here, we learned that song and we still use it now,” she said. “And I still get emotional when I hear it.”

Christine is among four current teachers who were students at the school — something that you may not see at other schools these days. She attended from 1975-1984.

“My Warrior story has gone full circle as I went from being a student to now a teacher,” she said. “I’ve seen many changes on the inside and the outside of the school.”

The enrollment in those early days was well over 400 students. Now it sits at 170.

“We had a great staff,” adds Marilyn. “And we’re so proud of our alumni.” She pointed out that many W.A.P.S. grads have gone to their own teaching careers and launched careers in medicine, politics and other fields.

As for the 50th anniversary weekend, the pair says there are lots of nostalgic events planned, which will also include many photos collected over the years.

Anyone who attended W.A.P.S. at any point in their life will find a treasure trove of memories waiting for them at the open house.

The committee is also working on a recipe book and are asking former staff and students to send in their favourite recipes.

According to Christine, the recipe book is also a throw-back to yesteryear.

“I remember them doing school cookbooks when I was a kid and I think I still have mine,” she said.

Marilyn said each of her kids have a cookbook from the school that they still use to this day.

Some of the memories shared by Christine and Marilyn include the original open concept design, playing marbles outside and games like Red Rover at recess, traveling to Tilbury for Home Economics and Shop classes and Christmas carolling with the whole school in the gym.

A couple of things stand out, however, as special memories indeed.

June Rutt was the Kinsmen bus driver for the school back in the day and is still the bus driver for most of the kids in Wheatley.

“She’s still going and still an awesome bus driver,” says Christine.

Also, the graduating class doing their annual “Walk of Honour” from the school to uptown to have their grad dinner is still going strong.

“It used to be at the Community Hall back in the day,” says Christine — who attended the school as a student. “People would line the streets to watch the kids walk uptown.”

Of course, the walk still takes place, although it was toned down during the COVID pandemic.

For Marilyn, her memories go back even further to encompass the opening of the school for the 197273 school year and the years she spent at the old location.

She said that since there was no gym for other sports at the old school, the students excelled at track and field.

“We did really well at track and field,” she said.

“And before the arena was built, the Grades 5-8 girls would go weekly to Leamington to play broomball and the boys would go to play hockey.”

She fondly remembers so many of her students and will be a wealth of information and memories during the open house to be sure.

For Christine, she too hopes to see a lot of familiar faces.

“As I reflect back over the years, our colours may have changed from brown and gold to blue and gold, but one thing is for sure,” she said, “W.A.P.S. is a fine place to grow. We share many happy memories with those we’ve come to know. We try our best in all we do, our spirit is one to uphold. Though times may change, our hearts remain W.A.P.S.”

For those who’ve attended W.A.P.S. in the past 50 years, those words will be familiar as they come from the beloved school song.

If you are interested in being part of the cookbook, you can email recipes to Christine at Christine.Hopper@lkdsb.net.

Marilyn Foster can be reached via email at lynmarlfc@ aol.com

The Wheatley Public School track and field team circa 1969 at the old school. This photo will be among hundreds of photos displayed at the 50th anniversary open house on May 6. Front row, left to right: Kent Parsons, Dennis Freitas, Mark Bowman, Wendy Freeland, Dawn Jackson, Carolyn Nicholson, Sandra Drummond, Greg St. John, Brian Edwards, Ed Nevills. Second row: Honorato Freitas, Paul Dunmore, Ron Freeland, Michelle Nicholson, Cindy Zaburny, Diane Drummond, Nannette Nicholson, Leslie Omstead, Chris Dundas, Gilbert Beleutz, Mr. Bill Bohunicky. Back row: Mike Omstead, Rick Dibbley, Pete Shaw, Diane Hillier, Laurie Omstead, Linda Cobby, Carol Taylor, Vickie Tusch, Joanne Omstead, Phillip Faubert, Brad Thompson, Ken Corlett.

Christine Prudence-Hopper (left) and Marilyn Foster in front of Wheatley Area Public School on Friday, April 21 SUN photo