Ava Smith and Koen Shand are Grade 12 students at Liverpool Regional High School. They’re helping out with the LRHS Scholarship Auction 2024. (Rick Conrad)

The graduating class at Liverpool Regional High School may be relatively small, but they’ve had a mighty significant impact over the years on students going on to higher learning.

Since 1998, the Liverpool Regional High School Scholarship Auction has awarded more than 400 Queens County students over $500,000 in bursaries to help them pay for their post-secondary education.

The 26th annual auction kicked off on Facebook on April 18. And this year, for the first time since before the pandemic, the fundraiser wraps up with an in-person silent and live auction event on Thurs., May 30 at the high school.

Koen Shand and Ava Smith are two Grade 12 students who are part of the 40-person-strong organizing committee. About 25 of those volunteers are students themselves, which is about half of the graduating class. Parents, teachers and other community members make up the rest of the organizing committee.

“It’s pretty impactful,” Koen says of the auction. “It’s just nice to know that we are such a small town and we do have that support that you might not get from coming from a big city. It’s just nice to know that we have these organizaitons backing us up.”

“I think it’s nice to feel you have a lot of people in your corner,” Ava says,  “you have a lot of people rooting for you. It’s nice to know that you have a big community, a big family here that’s wanting you do well and is going to be there when you need help.”

Koen will be going to Dalhousie University next year to study engineering, while Ava plans to attend Saint Mary’s University and then on to Mount Saint Vincent University for an education degree.

They said they were eager to help out with the auction because pursuing an education is so expensive. They’re both involved with various extra-curricular activities at the school — Koen with the Key Club and various sports teams, and Ava as Nova Scotia International Student Program ambassador and as co-president of the student council.

“This is up my alley, I love helping out with this stuff,” Ava says. “I just think it’s good to get involved and help give back to the community that’s always helped, especially here since it’s such a small community, it’s such a supportive one.”

“My school has given me lots of opportunities, lot of memories, playing sports, doing multiple things,” Koen says,  “and I just think whatever I can do to give back and help our grads succeed.”

Organizers expect to get more than 200 items, in addition to monetary contributions, donated from local businesses and residents for the online and in-person auctions. They’ve already auctioned off dozens of items.

The last time an in-person auction was held, it raised about $20,000. Since it went online, it has raised between $25,000 and $40,000 each year.

Students are awarded bursaries based on need and their contribution to school life. In previous years, about a third of the class received the awards, which ranged from $500 to $2,000. 

“It’s not based on your academics,” Ava says. “It’s based on what you’ve done to contribute to the school and in the community. Which I think is really good because there are lots of kids in our school who might not have honour rolls but are still an active member in our community and an active member in our school. Which I think is great that they are getting money they deserve.

“I think receiving money like this helps to kind of take the weight off a little bit. It’s still going to cover some of your classes, your books, maybe it’s going to cover your meal card, and even though it is obviously not $25,000 to cover your year, anything that contributes helps a lot. It also lessens the amount of student loan you’re going to have to take out.”

Ava and Koen are excited to participate in Thursday’s in-person event. Students will be helping to display the items up for auction, with Al Steele as the auctioneer.

When asked how much people should bid at the event, Koen has some simple advice.

“As much as they want. It’s going to a good cause, so feel free.”

The online portion of the auction is in its last week. You can participate by joining the LRHS Scholarship Auction 2024 public Facebook group.

Email: rickconradqccr@gmail.com

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Minister Kim Masland announces funding for new athletic facilities at Liverpool Regional High. Photo Ed Halverson

New athletic facilities and a walking trail are coming to Liverpool Regional High School.

Public Works Minister and MLA for Queens Kim Masland announced a combined $2.75 million from three levels of government to replace the school’s existing soccer field with artificial turf and build a 400-metre-long gravel running track.

The new artificial turf field will resolve long-standing issues with drainage.

At Friday’s announcement Masland said Queens has a history of producing world-class athletes and construction of the new field will support future athletes by allowing them to train closer to home.

“The big thing for us is we want to make sure that we’re providing a facility that people can use in our community. We have amazing athletes. We talked a little bit today about Sarah Mitton and [in] the announcement we talk about our special Olympians,” said Masland. “Many of our athletes have to travel to Bridgewater to be able to adequately train, so this will be able to keep people home and also bring people here for events.”

LRHS Principal Todd Symes says the effort to replace the school field began about six or seven years ago.

“Students always went to other schools and were kind of jealous or envious of facilities in other schools had and then logistically, a lot of our students had to travel to participate, to have the same advantages that a lot of other areas already had,” said Symes. “So, the students themselves came up with an idea. They came up with the design to come up with a plan and they were adamant that they wanted something done. So, we had students that were with us for 3-4 years. They worked the whole time they were here to engage community members, to draw designs, to work with staff members, to initiate development of a non-profit society and they were the ones who started the dream.”

Symes says the current funding will build the track and field and students will be approaching the community to help raise another $200,000 to realize the entire vision, including a Mi’kmaw learning trail.

Masland says the tender to replace the track and field will be released later this fall and the new field is expected to be completed in 2024.

Damaged retaining wall on Shore Rd in Western Head. Photo Ed Halverson

Also announced Friday was $1 million in funding from the federal and provincial governments to protect two stretches of Shore Rd in Western Head which are dealing with erosion and flooding.

Work will include reinforcing an existing retaining wall and excavating existing rock and gravel to provide more protection against the effects of climate change.

Masland says work on that project will be performed by local Public Works staff beginning this fall and finishing in spring of 2024.

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Liverpool Regional High School. Photo credit Ed Halverson

The annual Liverpool Regional High School scholarship fundraiser is marking 25 years of providing money for graduates to attend post-secondary school.

What started as a dinner and auction moved online during the pandemic and has been breaking donation records ever since.

Last year, organizers raised over $33,000, smashing through their $22,000 goal.

This year they’re challenging themselves and the community to come up with $35,000.

Fundraising committee member Pierre Losier says organizers considered returning to an in-person format but decided staying online offered benefits that couldn’t be ignored.

“What we found is with the online auction format it provides more than just a one-day event. It provides more opportunities for folks to participate in the auction,” said Losier. “We start in the first of May and go through the month into June until we’ve gone through the different lots of auction. So, it’s a different format but it increases our participation and as a result also increases the funding.”

The committee is composed of parents, teachers and most importantly, students.

“They are broken down in smaller groups with a mentor committee parent and they will go and canvas the community for donations of either items to be sold at auction or some financial donations to the committee,” said Losier.

The auction is held on the LRHS 2023 Scholarship Fundraiser Facebook page.

Items up for auction are displayed as posts and bids can be made in the comments.

Losier says given the generosity of the community they could surpass the set goal of $35,000.

“Our community, year after year, just shows amazing support for this program and we’re confident that will continue on.”

Each year, about a third of the graduating class receive $1,000 awards from the scholarship fund to support their post-secondary schooling.

In the 25 years the auction has been running, over 400 students have received around $500,000 towards their continuing education from the LRHS Foundation.

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Cleaning up after flooding at LRHS. Photo Bradley Judge, South Shore Regional Centre of Education

A teacher is being credited with preventing extensive damage to Liverpool Regional High School when they discovered flooding over March Break.

Around 6:30 Saturday night the teacher returned to school and noticed water on the floor.

They notified the custodian who traced the leak to a defective filter under the sink in the second-floor cooking lab.

Water had soaked the floor and flowed through the first-floor ceiling.

The custodian contacted the operations department at South Shore regional centre for education and it wasn’t long before custodians and staff from several other schools across Liverpool arrived to help clean up.

Within three hours the custodians had dried all the water and a restoration contractor was brought in to assess the extent of the damage.

In addition to many ceiling tiles coming down, ceilings in the change rooms and in the wood shop had to be taken down and will be replaced.

Flooding damaged tech ed shop and locker rooms at LRHS. Photo Bradley Judge South Shore Regional Centre of Education

Coordinator of Operations Bradley Judge says that work is underway and will continue into next week.

But any students or staff hoping for an extended break will be disappointed.

“No worries at all about reopening. It’ll be reopened safely after March Break. We still may have a few areas left to touch up. But talking to the admin people at the school we can work around it,” said Judge. “For example, if the tech ed shop isn’t 100 percent good to go they can use another area. So very slight inconvenience, luckily.”

Judge expects the school should be back to normal within a couple of weeks thanks to the quick actions of everyone involved.

“It’s very lucky. There was a lot of water and if that teacher hadn’t have walked in it would’ve been far worse than what it was,” said Judge. “And if our staff wouldn’t have cleaned it up as quickly and as efficiently as they did we would’ve been facing something different.”

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Liverpool Regional High School. Photo credit Ed Halverson

Students and teachers returning to school at Liverpool Regional High School will be leaving their phones at the door.

To reduce classroom disruption and improve learning outcomes students and staff are no longer permitted to use cell phones during class time.

Beth Woodford-Collins, coordinator of programs for grades 7-12 at South Shore Regional Centre for Education says putting phones away allows students to be more engaged with their education and each other.

“Problem solving is one of our competencies that we are working on to ensure that students have when they graduate,” said Woodford-Collins. “Communication, problem solving, critical thinking, technological fluency, all of these competencies are competencies that actually do involve direct communication and interaction and engagement in a more dynamic, in-person way.”

She says taking the cell phone off the table for an hour allows the students to get to know each other in a different way.

That’s not to say technology won’t be used as every student has access to their own Chromebook.

Woodford-Collins says providing students with same access to technology while in class produces another desired outcome, equity.

“It really does remove that A) distraction and B) that disparity between student A and student B when everybody’s got the same device, Chromebook,” said Woodford-Collins.

SSRCE Director of Programs and Student Service Denise Dodge-Baker says the strategy will be monitored and evaluated at regular intervals.

“The school is going to continue to kind of look at it and get feedback and response in a survey, kind of a check in as time progresses to kinda say, how’s it working? Is there an aspect of the strategy that we need to tighten or is there a part of this that’s working well for people?” said Dodge-Baker.

According to a statement released by LRHS on its social media, 80 percent of office referrals come from conflict from using cell phones and misuse of social media.

Dodge-Baker says the strategy was developed after discussions with other school districts around how they deal with mobile devices in class.

If things pan out, she hopes the model being used at LRHS can be used in schools across the province.

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Liverpool Regional High School. Photo credit Ed Halverson

Parents and the community have come forward to give graduates of Liverpool Regional High School a proper send off.

Heather Stevens, one of the organizers behind the LRHS Scholarship Fundraiser Auction says once she and other parents became aware there would not be a prom they leapt into action.

“It’s been absolutely amazing. This prom, I may have organized it, but the community is basically putting it on,” said Stevens.

A call out on social media saw parents and volunteers step up and give their time, the Milton Hall donated their space for the night, the Queens florist, now called the Atlantic Grow Shop, will provide plants, the Decoration Depot in Hebbville donated trellises and lattice backdrops, even the DJ is offering a night of free music.

Stevens says the students will start the evening with a sit-down, full turkey dinner.

“Because they’re not having a traditional graduation this year, they’re going to have their valedictorian speech while they’re eating. They’re going to have a couple of speeches and stuff and then they’ll have the music once they’re done eating.”

The prom will take place at the Milton Hall on June 24.

As COVID restrictions began lifting, the South Shore Regional Centre for Education told schools to decide for themselves what graduation activities they would provide students at the end of the year.

LRHS will be honoring students with individual in-person ceremonies where each graduate will be assigned a time for close family members to watch them cross the stage and receive their diploma.

Following that, Stevens and her team have coordinated with Queens Place Emera Centre to host a drive-by graduation on June 29.

“And all the students will be in their caps and gowns. They all would have graduated by then,” said Stevens. “We will line them up in chairs and we’ll have music playing and then all of the family and supporters, they decorate their cars and drive by and honk. The kids love it.”

Stevens says after that all 67 graduates will board a bus and head back to school to attend the safe grad being organized by the teachers.

She says after taking on the work to organize events for students during COVID, the community now has a better understanding of the amount of time and effort it takes to host prom and graduation events.

She’s hopeful if the school once again decides to take on the job of organizing graduation events next year community members will continue to offer their time and support.

“Instead of the teachers trying to take it all on themselves, have more individuals volunteer and help with it.,” said Stevens. “But as long as something gets done for the kids, I think that’s the most important thing.”

Reported by Ed Halverson 
E-mail: edhalversonnews@gmail.com
Twitter: @edwardhalverson

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Liverpool Regional High School. Photo credit Ed Halverson

An online fundraiser for graduates at Liverpool Regional High School collected 50 percent more than organizers had hoped.

The LRHS Scholarship fundraiser volunteers received $33,627 in donations, blowing through the goal of $22,000 set for the class of 2022.

Scholarship fundraising committee chairperson Heather Stevens says although the annual fundraiser has been held online since the pandemic hit in 2020, they really seemed to find their stride this year.

Stevens says she and the seven parent volunteers worked together to mentor the 44 participating students.

“They were in charge of delivering letters to businesses or craftspeople or whoever they may know that may have items to donate to the auction. So it was all up to the kids to go out, introduce themselves, explain what they were there for and receive donations,” said Stevens.

Students collected 221 items that were then divided over a series of 12 online mini auctions to raise $22,742.

Stevens says organizers tried to incorporate some of the fun aspects of the annual live auction fundraiser into the online effort.

‘The one thing that the kids missed is, the kids that are on the auction would go that night and they would dress up and they would sort of be the Vanna Whites for the night and they would display the items,” said Stevens. “How we did it this year is we took photos of the grads with their items and would say a little blurb. For example, my son, this is Noah Stevens, he’s holding this donation from so and so and he’ll be going off to Dalhousie next year. We wanted the people to see where the money was going.”

In addition to the online auction the community stepped up to donate $5,925 in cash.

A challenge for LRHS alumni to donate and vote on which LRHS school they felt was better, the old one or the new one, raised $905 (the old school won).

And a pair of diamond earrings worth $1,150 donated by Reynolds Pharmasave and Pirates Cove was raffled off to raise another $4,055.

The money raised will now be turned over to the Liverpool Regional High School Scholarship Foundation.

A committee will review how many eligible students have applied for scholarships and determine how much each student will receive.

Even though the last of her three children is graduating this year, Stevens says she will likely stay on to help with the fundraiser again next year.

She says her team built on the success of last year’s volunteers and she hopes to see the legacy continue.

Reported by Ed Halverson 
E-mail: edhalversonnews@gmail.com
Twitter: @edwardhalverson

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Liverpool Regional High School. Photo credit Ed Halverson

Supporters of Liverpool Regional High School graduates will continue to do so online this year.

For close to 25 years, organizers have held a dinner and auction to raise money for the LRHS scholarship fund.

Each year, the fund distributes around 20 $1,000 awards to roughly a third of the graduating class in support of their post-secondary schooling.

Fundraising efforts moved to an online auction when the COVID-19 pandemic hit in 2020, cancelling the in-person dinner.

Fundraising committee member Kim McPhail says uncertainty surrounding how lifting COVID restrictions would impact the live event made staying online the most viable option this year.

“We just kind of had to say, okay, we don’t know what’s going to happen in the future. We’re going to have to do the online one to make sure that we can provide the kids with the best option we can,” said McPhail.

Instead of serving patrons dinner as they normally would, 40 student volunteers are headed into the community to ask residents and businesses to donate items to be auctioned off.

So far, those items include donations of everything from gift certificates to a load of gravel ranging in value from $25 up to $500.

Items are auctioned off in blocks on the LRHS Foundation Facebook Page.

McPhail doesn’t know how many items will be up for auction as donations are still pouring in but says bidding opens for each item in a block at 8:00am and closes at 8:00pm three days later.

She says the auction will end May 31 so the money raised can be turned over to the LRHS Scholarship Foundation by June 1.

McPhail says the group has set a goal of raising $22,000 this year.

“It’s a big goal but we do have a lot of community support.”

Since the auction began 24 years ago, the LRHS Foundation has awarded almost half a million dollars to over 400 students.

Reported by Ed Halverson 
E-mail: edhalversonnews@gmail.com
Twitter: @edwardhalverson

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New Tech Ed building under construction behind Liverpool Regional High School. Photo Ed Halverson

Construction of the new Technology Education building at Liverpool Regional High School is underway.

Regional Executive Director of South Shore Regional Centre for Education Paul Ash says the new facility will open up more options for students.

“Unfortunately, sometimes people who don’t have those early experiences, in terms of exposure, the hands-on aspect of it, don’t really have a clear direction,” said Ash. “We’re hoping with the skill trades facility being there, students can focus on the areas they want to go to.”

Ash says the trades programs are so popular LRHS will be expanding to two classes of the Construction 11 program and a class for Skilled Trades 10 this fall.

Students in those programs gain valuable experience that show what options are open to them in their post-secondary education.

“Essentially they’re carpentry skills, plumbing skills, electrical skills; they’re exposed to a wide variety of the different skills so that they’re better able to make the decision about where they’d like to specialize when they go into NSCC,” said Ash.

Workers build frame of new Tech Ed facility. Photo Ed Halverson

LRHS is working to secure a Tech Ed teacher who is already a skilled tradesperson to provide students another leg up in their careers.

“If we have a skilled tradesperson who’s teaching the class, the students are actually building hours towards their apprenticeship while they’re at the high school level,” said Ash.

The $975,000 project funded through the Department of Education and awarded to Rikjak Construction is set to be complete by September.

Reported by Ed Halverson 
E-mail: edhalversonnews@gmail.com
Twitter: @edwardhalverson

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LRHS Grad drive-thru parade. Photo Ed Halverson

A jubilant mood outside Queens Place as proud parents, grandparents and members of the community gathered to celebrate the 2021 Liverpool Regional High School graduates.

For the second year in a row, the LRHS community had to find another way to acknowledge graduates as pandemic restrictions have forced the cancellation of traditional proms, safe grads and public graduation ceremonies.

Deborah Raddall says she and her fellow organizers simply followed the plan parents laid out last year.

Students were permitted to be seated six feet apart in front of Queens Place while their loved ones drove past to acknowledge their accomplishments.

Deborah Raddall looks on as the community rolls by in a drive-thru graduation celebration. Photo Ed Halverson

Raddall says after her group bombed public health with letters asking for permission to hold the event, Nova Scotia’s chief medical officer of health Dr. Robert Strang not only endorsed the plan during one of his COVID updates, he encouraged other schools to ‘steal’ it and adapt it for their own graduations.

“It’s a simple concept,” said Raddall. “We didn’t ask for more than they were prepared to give and I think that’s really why we got the okay. It was a reasonable, well, thought-out plan, safety was the primary thing.”

Graduate Jamie Dunn is one of many students who appreciates the efforts so many put in to give them a public celebration.

LRHS Graduate Jamie Dunn. Photo Ed Halverson

“It’s really nice that we have classmates with really caring parents that could organize this for us,” said Dunn. “I’m really grateful that everyone is here tonight, together.”

Parent Todd Wilms was on hand to cheer on his daughter Piper. He was glad to see so many people come out to celebrate the graduates.

“This is the epitome of a small community getting together, despite the circumstances here now with the pandemic. Wonderful,” said Wilms.

The excitement of the evening was tempered for some. Graduate Chris Bowers says he appreciates the effort but is a bit disappointed the pandemic has prevented students celebrating the end of their time together in a more traditional way.

“It’s not as exciting as I thought it would be but it’s better than nothing,” said Bowers.

LRHS Graduate Chris Bowers. Photo Ed Halverson

When asked what he was hoping for, Bowers responded, “More together, more than just an hour with everyone. Safe grad is what I’m going to miss the most, not having that.”

Volunteers from Queens County Search and Rescue directed traffic as car after car, loaded with supporters, circled Queens Place several times, honking horns, waving signs and blowing bubbles.

Raddall’s daughter Ellen is among the 2021 graduating class. She was impressed with the turnout from the community and the resilience shown by her fellow graduates.

LRHS Graduate Ellen Raddall. Photo Ed Halverson

“It’s so incredible to see so many people out here today and seeing people who have driven from Bridgewater, like our teachers, just to come and celebrate us. It kind of makes up for the lack of grad we get because of COVID. It really didn’t crack our spirit at all,” said Raddall.

Ellen’s mom Deborah says the support from the community and the turnout really made all the effort worthwhile.

“It’s more than I envisioned. It’s so exciting. I’m trying to hold myself together from having lots of tears, you know, momma tears but it’s excellent,” said Raddall. “The kids are all excited. We’re across the parking lot and you can see them grinning from ear-to ear.”

Reported by Ed Halverson 
E-mail: edhalversonnews@gmail.com
Twitter: @edwardhalverson

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