Elmwood School - Samara Yearbook (Ottawa, Ontario Canada)

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SAMARA 13 Carleton and members of their Faculty and Students ' Council. Speeches were made by Dr. McOdrum, Mrs. Graham and Mr. Perry. Sheila McCormick, on behalf of the girls, thanked everyone who had made the visit possible. It proved to be a most exciting and interesting experience, especially for the girls who plan to attend college. Dances Step ladder, nails, hammer! Help, this ladder wobbles! These are just a few of the comments that anyone who liked to live dangerously would hear if she were to walk through the Elmwood gym on Friday the eighteenth of February. It was not a lesson in carpentry, as one might think; in fact its importance would be infinitely greater than any lesson, as it was the preparation for our yearly Formal. For weeks now the decorating committee, despite strong opposition in the form of basketball games and homework, had been working at silver stars and life-sized card- board people. Our thanks here go to Elizabeth MacKenzie who, with about two days notice, gave up her free time to make these figures. Her work was much appreciated by all, especially the committee. Early that Friday morning an enormous wall of paper was seen coming through the stone corridor with four feet and a bit of skirt supporting it. Upon further exploration and analysis we discovered the feet belonged to Sheila McCormick and Susan Belcourt. Susan had been successful in bringing to school Mr. Hyndman ' s back-drop from the May- court Ball. Completely covering one wall we decided that it looked very effective and that it would also make an excellent topic of con- versation. The curtains had been pulled on the win- dows not covered by the back-drop and it was on these that we nailed the cardboard people. Exhausted boarders spent the afternoon blowing up balloons. We grouped these in suitable corners of the gym. From the corners red and white streamers stretched to a huge bunch of balloons on the ceiling. It was just co-incidence that we chose red and white as we discovered later that these are the colours of Royal Military College, and although it has an attraction for a couple of our scholars, we did not mean to support it at our annual dance. Later, as we studied the final results, we patted ourselves on the back and decided that the streamers, balloons, backdrop, silver moon and stars all looked very nice. The Square Dance An atmosphere of anticipation prevailed in the 5B classroom when our head girl, Sally Wright, told us about the square dance which we were to give for the younger girls on Friday, March 21. All went well until a few days later one of the more practical types asked where we were to get the necessary boys. No one had any suggestions, so the square dance was about to be called off, when the boys from Rockcliffe Public School were mentioned. The square dance was held in the Rock- cliffe Public School gymnasium and Bob Maudsley from Lisgar was caller. The 5 B hostesses were relieved to find that their food supply was adequate. The dance ended at eleven-thirty when we all went home, sorry to leave the dance but happy to get off our shoes. House Dances This year Elmwood ' s social calendar featured two house dances, one early in the fall term and the other this spring. The more formal of these informal dances was held in October and was a great success because of the enthusiasm and untiring efforts of our head girl, Sally Wright. Our second house dance was held the last of April before the serious work of preparing for final examinations. Shelia McCormick, our head boarder, was in charge of this dance and created a unique effect in using movies as the theme of her decorations. The Golden Rule Club The last period on Monday afternoon is always special for the girls from Transition to Form 4 B. It is then we have our Golden Rule Club meeting. This year we have

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12 SAMARA a Matric subject which proved most successful. Not only has it been useful for former Chemistry students who could not distinguish between H O and HoSO , but Mr. Hyndman has been frequently heard to say, You will not pass your A4atric unless you produce a masterpiece today. The result was that we did our utmost to produce a masterpiece. Each week Mr. Hyndman came with some new and different model or technique, the result being a most interesting and beneficial year of Art. Matriculation Art As an addition to Mr. Hyndman ' s art classes. Miss Maxwell has also contributed her time and patience to teaching clay work to those interested in taking Art as a Matricula- tion subject. In this class we have moulded such objects as figurines, heads, book-ends, ash-trays, and plates, which have really turned out quite well. Decorating our articles with overglaze paint we have also found to be most fascinating. The Debating Club The Debating Club was a new hobby of the girls this year. It was run entirely by the girls with teachers present as our guests. President of this club was Barbara Kennedy, to whom its success is due. Ton-Ton Darri- cades was the able Vice-President while Mickey Manion acted as Public Relations Officer. Our efficient Secretary was Joan Horovitz who was kept busy writing invita- tions. The Club ' s main aim was to learn more about different countries, sciences, people and general knowledge of current events. Conse- quently, it was decided that to have guest speakers would be the best way to gain familiarity with new topics. Such distinguished people as Mrs. Baig, Mr. van der Vossen, and Mrs. Liu told us about the far-off countries of Pakistan, Holland, and Nationalist China. Mrs. Buck gave an interesting summary of Modern History, and Dr. Chater explained the Evolution of the Egg . We broadened our outlook when we heard discussion of the Psychology of Religion, the Colombo Plan, and the Navy by Dr. Sidlauskas, Mr. Manion, and Commodore Wright respectively. After these interesting speakers we had dis- cussions of our own with members of the staff, proving that we had benefited by our venture of organizing a debating club. Elmwood Newspaper This year for the first time, Elmwood put out a newspaper called The Elmwood Echoes , a most suitable title because we found it impossible to put out but two papers, owing to lack of proper equipment for printing. Under the expert eye of Miss Schurman, the girls on the newspaper staff put a great deal of work into this project and no doubt learned many things about a newspaper. The newspaper staff this year was as follows: Editor: Frances Wood Associate Editor: Sheila McCormick News Editor: Margo Freiman Sports Editor and Cartoonist: Gillian Neville Finance Editor: Susan Brain Circulation Manager: Susan Belcourt Assistant: Joan Horovitz Printer: Carolyn Bruce Reporters: Franny Drury, Sarah Jennings Carleton College The day was cold and windy, but spirits were high as a bus load of about twenty girls from Six Matric and Six Upper set out for Carleton College. It was Elmwood ' s and Ash- bury ' s turn to visit the college as part of a plan to introduce high school students to college life. Dr. McLeish, the Registrar at Carleton, had come to the school the week before to arrange with the girls the classes they would visit and the things they would see during the day. Once at the college, each girl attended two one-hour classes, ranging from Calculus to Journalism. The third hour was spent visiting Carleton ' s new modern library, the Students ' Union, and the cafeteria for coffee. At twelve o ' clock the guests were treated to a luncheon attended by the President of

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14 SAMARA been interested in hearing letters from Alderico Zanirati, an Italian boy we are supporting. To help to collect money for Alderico we held a candy sale at which we made $17.56. During the year we have collected altogether about $45.00 for the Save the Children Fund. Something new this year has been popping corn and roasting marshmallows at some of our meetings. Apart from the business of the Club, we have also had plays put on by the forms, have taken part in an amateur show, and have had games and singing (especially camp songs). The highlight of the club year was Cinderella , the play put on by Transition and Form 1 with Mrs. McAuley. We feel that our club has had a happy year due to the efforts of Mrs. McAuley, Miss Schurman, Miss Perry, and Mrs. Ketcheson. Free Day Free day came as usual at the end of January, Friday the 28th. Again it was the day when the girls saw what it was like to run a school, for they chose their own time- table, no two classes the same. The mistresses this year were persuaded to teach subjects which ranged from Economics to History and Russian. The day was a great success and discipline was kept well in hand by the officers. On February 25th Elmwood began its dramatic presentations of the year with the annual house plays. The first performance was given by Nightingale who presented The Dear Departed with Sally Trueman, Vicky Brain and Esther Prudham in the leading roles, supported by Margo Freiman, Shirley Ann Gobeil and Ton-Ton Darricades. Next came Keller with a comedy ' The Man in the Bowl- er Hat with Mary Fisher-Rowe and Joan Fagan heading the cast, followed by Jane Yates, Rosemary Findlay, Joan Horovitz, and Frances Drury. Fry then gave their presentation of a Scottish tragedy Campbell of Kilmohr with Emilie van der Vaart, Gail La Charity, Mickey Manion, and Gillian Nev- ille in the leading parts with Elaine Calkoen, Beverley Brown, Beth Hay and Eleanor Patrick as supporting cast. The winner of the competition was Fry and points for acting were given to Vicky Brain, Joan Fagan, Emilie van der Vaart, Gail La Charity and Gillian Neville for the portrayals of their parts. The Christmas programme included the Nativity presented by the Junior school, followed by The Pagan Fawn acted by Forms 2 and 3 and directed by Mrs. Davis. On the night of March 4th, Ashbury- Elmwood presented the comedy Mr. Belve- dere by Gwen Davenport. This play was under the combined direction of Mr. Belcher and Mr. Devine, and was well received by the audience. Credit should be given to Joan Fagan, Vicky Brain, Frances Wood and Esther Prudham for excellent performances in their various roles. The night of April 28th saw two produc- tions in the dramatic field. The first to be performed was a one act play Sunday Costs Five Pesos by Josephine Niggli, which takes place in Mexico. Under Mrs. Meiklejohn ' s direction— Joan Horovitz, Gillian Neville, Frances Wood, Emilie van der Vaart, and Ton-Ton Darricades enacted the fights and arguments created by a jealous love quarrel. This was followed by an opera Papageno adapted from Mozart ' s The Magic Flute with excellent music direction by Mr. Mac- Tavish combined with the stage direction of Mrs. Meiklejohn. We were also pleased to receive Mr. Robert Fleming who played the accompaniment so expertly for this produc- tion. Joan Yates, Denise Karr and Beth Hay should be given a great deal of credit for their singing in the leading roles. With these latter presentations Elmwood closed the curtains on another successful season of dramatics.