Balmoral Hall School - Optima Anni Yearbook (Winnipeg, Manitoba Canada)

Page 11 text:

gg gg 9 OUR PREFECTS Mary-Kaye Simpkinson, Carol Cross, Diana Duncan, Dorothy Richardson, Patricia Busby. Miss Murrell-Wright, Geills Kilgour, Jennifer Rose, Gail Brooking, Jacqueline Hoare, Susan Carnegie, Dawna Duncan, Jane Savage. Thanksgiving Service and The Presentation of Prefects' Cords At Morning Prayers, October eighth, Balmoral Hall held its annual Thanksgiving Service at which our Head Girl, Dorothy Richardson, read an article about the Red Feather after which the schools offering to the Red Feather Campaign was presented by the House Heads. Following the hymn, O Brother Man , Gail Brooking, Dorothy Richardson, Dawna and Diana Duncan-already prefects-brought forward Pat- ricia Busby, Susan Carnegie, Carol Cross, jacque- line Hoare, Geills Kilgour, jennifer Rose, lane Savage and Mary-Kaye Simpkinson to be made Prefects and receive their symbol of office- the green cord. The service ended with the singing of the school's Thanksgiving hymn, The Presentation of Special Pins Monday, September 15, former Sport's Captain Gail Brooking presented the Sports Captains pin to our newly-elected captain, Geills Kilgour. The pin, the school crest on a silver shield was pre- sented to the school last year by Glen Murray, Sports Captain of 1953. At morning Prayers, Thursday, September 16, former House Heads were present to pin the House bars on the new Heads. Susan Carnegie of Glen Gairn, received hers from Louise Albertseng jennifer Rose, Craig Gorwan from Doreen Nichol, jane Savage, Braemar, from Carol Nixon, and Diana Duncan, Ballater, from Dawna Duncan.

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glean! Quia VALEDICTUHY Dear Girls, Eleven years ago, when I entered Grade I, I certainly never thought it would be my privi- lege to write a valedictory for the graduating class of 1955. Five years ago, when this 'school became Balmoral Hall, we began talking new build- ing , and now, just as this building becomes a reality, our year must say good-bye. What a lot of friends, fun, and memories this good- bye covers. I hope, as you who are s-taying use the Common Room, you will remember, as we shall, the candy sale, and the countless tables of sticky oUR HEAD GIRL-DOROTHY RICHARDSON but beautifully boxed candy, all of which soon will result in chairs and sofas for this new room, the Smorgasbord, when we all became sailors, and the water pipes bursting just before the guests arrived, and finally this year's Christmas Village-an exciting climax. We have had fun earning our share but I think we owe most grateful thanks to our Mothers, whose sincere efforts have made our new building possible. ' Although we are sad to leave B.H. just when there will be a new building, we are all happy to leave behind a growing and better school, and we are especially glad that the new laboratory will make it unnecessary for Miss Sharman to carry back and forth her pet box full of rocks, bones, pulleys and occasionally the odd dead owl. But the rising generation will never know the fun and excitement of the old lab. All that happened there could never be told, but the well-meaning student who mixed the wrong chemicals, with amazing results, the meat-eating water beetle and the specimens that got overlooked and very whiffy, gave it an unforgettable charm that I shall always remember. This year has been full of new experiences and has had its hard moments too- a year we could never have managed without the constant 'help and understanding of Miss Murrell-Wright and all the Staff. To them, go our grateful and affectionate thanks. And now as I close, I think as all of you will be thinking, of next year's Head Girl - to her I give my best wishes, and the assurance that if you are as wonderful to her, as you have been to me, her year will be one to remember all her life. Love, Dodo.

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IO gg ,f ,' Z K, fi hull D - 2 5-fy ' M-ul ,,,,,4- ,., .1-on G L i'i'lfll ' fx 4-LQ FR ,- .ff L Winter The chair came swinging up behind her. Twist- ing, she grabbed it with one hand and steered it towards her. The next second it had hit the backs of her knees and she was swept off her feet. Next time I'll try standing back further , she thought as she felt the bruises behind her knees, She passed over the heads of other skiers wafting in line and drew a smile, and a cjuick nod or a HH from those she knew. The chair rose to meet the first tower and with two jerks it passed over the wheels. Now she was alone. Music floated up to her from the loudspeaker in the lodge. The boy in the chair ahead swung his skis in time to the gay, lilting tune and the motion travelled down the cable to her. Her chair rose and fell gently in response. Below her and swinging up to her left was the practice jump hill. lt seemed to end abruptly at a ledge four feet high. Far below this, two wide tracks appeared from nowhere. She remembered the day when only one track had been made. It was at an important ski meet and the jumping always attracted a large Sunday afternoon crowd. As a competitor soared off into space, one of his skis came off. lnstinctively he landed on his one re- maining ski to break his fall, but the runaway ski hurtled down like a meteor upon the crowd and the screams of an injured child were heard before it finally came to rest. The music on the loudspeaker stopped. She seemed to Hoat in a silence broken only by the whirr of wheels on the approaching tower and the bump-bump as she passed over them. She en- tered an avenue of whiteness. Everything around her had succumbed to winter. The Cedars had bowed under the weight of snows until they looked like a crowd of old wo-men silently eyeing her as she passed. Here and there, the 'stark ruin of a tamarack rose among them. The helter-Skelter tracks of a rabbit were woven around the snowy forms below her. A bright chocolate 'bar wrap- ping, strangely incongruous, caught her eye. Snow- Hakes softly touched her face and 'she bent her head to study their minute beauty outlined on her red jacket. ' The trees parted and the hill came into view. Youth held possession of it and gay whoops, laughter and yodels echoed their joie de Vivre. Wfith lightning swiftness and effortless grace, they slalomed down its face, or amid cries of track!i' a daredevil would hurtle down the schus galley at sixty-miles-an-hour. As she passed into the trees again she thought how fortunate she was to be one of these vigorous, young people. The greatest sport of all, she sighed contentedly. The cable climbed more steeply. In a moment she would enter the clouds, She took one last look at what lay behind her. Far off was the Columbia River winding into the United States. Six miles down, the city in which she lived was slowly becoming obscure. On clear, brilliant days, range upon mountain range, their myriads of splen- did peaks dazzling the eyes, overcame one with their tremendous stillness.