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The Good & True

The Good & True ...issue# 30...January, 2001

Warren Abbott

The President's Message

Greetings to my fellow Georgians, our families, friends and supporters. Our best wishes to you all in this new year Ð the real millennium. Our goal is to leverage off the huge momentum from last year's anniversary celebrations and let this catapult us into our 151st year. We have a lot going for us and we do want to continue to support the school at the levels we have. They need our assistance and are very appreciative of what we are doing for them (see Fr. Dziak's letter and update on page 4). It's our time to give back to an institution that gave us the tools to cope with, succeed, and in some cases, excel in this Canadian environment.

In this first newsletter for 2001, we are setting out the calendar of our main activities for the year.

Plan your activities around these dates and try to attend as many as you can. The same goes to our Jamaican and other overseas readers, many of whom we know will try to make it up for at least one event - the Aug. 3rd fundraiser over the Caribana weekend in August, with the Fab 5 is a big draw. Caribana is the largest West Indian festival in North America and spreads over one week with tons of activities, drawing in excess of half a million tourists to the Toronto area.

February 25th - Sunday, 12:00 Noon
Mass & Communion Breakfast - St. Aidan's Church.
Deacons Patrick Chang & Peter Rickards will assist at Mass.

March 25th - Sunday, 1:00 p.m.
Annual General Meeting- St Aidan's Church

June 16th - Saturday
Family Dinner & $1,000 scholarship presentation - St. Aidan's Church.
Special Guests: Headmaster - Van Hitchener & Fr. George Winchester, S.J.

August 3rd - Friday (Caribana Weekend)
Dinner/Dance- International Plaza Hotel, 655 Dixon Rd. (near Airport)
Music by The Fabulous 5 (same as last year)

August 26th - Sunday, 10:00 a.m. - 8:00 p.m.
Family Picnic with Alpha & Immaculate at Milne Park - Mapleview) McCowan Road, South of Highway 7 (same location as last year).

Please note that the venue for the first three events, the Mass & Communion Breakfast, AGM and the Family Dinner has changed to St. Aidan's Church at 3501 Finch Ave West, on the South side between Warden & Birchmount. This is Deacon Patrick Chang's assigned church and facilities are very accommodating.

This is by no means all our activities. Our regional vice presidents for the East, Central & West have their plans afoot for events in their sphere of operations (refer to their reports). They, too, need your feedback and help.

Ray Lodenquai flanked by daughters Lauren and Megan at the 
Hakka Confrence held at York University, Toronto, December 2000

Last year saw some of the largest attendance at all our events. We really have something going here. Join us! Interest in our newsletters has skyrocketed and they are now mailed to nearly 700 families in Ontario, the States and an ever-expanding base in Jamaica. Issues can be picked up on the Internet at: http://www.pacificnet.net/~jaweb. Our thanks to Greg Chin in California, who has been maintaining the site.

Our cover photo acknowledges the importance of the Hakka culture to many of our alumni and features Georgian Ray Lodenquai with his daughters Lauren and Megan at the sold-out Hakka conference in Toronto. This event was quite a success with many Georgians participating (see Neil's article, My Views).

Scholarship Award - $1000

The scholarship will be awarded at our annual family dinner on June 16th. Past recipients include Alex Vernon, Aaron Sani, Dimitri Haddad, Jeff Dalhouse and last year's winner Lauren Lodenquai. All children of dues paying Old Boys in the Ontario Chapter, who will be or are currently attending college/university are eligible. Past unsuccessful applicants can reapply. All that you need to do is submit a profile of yourself and include details on the choice of studies, why you chose that field and where you are or hope to be attending. In addition, the successful candidate will have provided an overview of his/her successes and accomplishments and expressed their own reasoning behind why he or she should be recipient of this grant. The award is not necessarily granted to the person with the highest grades. Community involvement and potential contribution to society are important factors. Applications should be mailed in a confidential envelope to the association, at the mailing address: 504 Karen Park Cres, Mississauga, ON L5A 3C6. The deadline for entries is May 1st.

Our prayers go out to the sick among Georgians and their families, especially Solo Binns, Drs. Louis and Khus Lee's mom in Florida, and Paul Bunting who undergoes surgery this month.

Warren Abbott 

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HAPPENINGS 

Got a call from Joe Richards alerting us to the visit of our distinguished old boy, His Grace, The Most Rev. Edgerton Clarke, D.D., Archbishop of Kingston, who would be a guest speaker at a function put on by the Race and Ethnic Relations Multicultural Department, in conjunction with Our Lady of Good Counsel Caribbean Catholic Church. This took place at the Toronto Catholic District School Board headquarters at 80 Sheppard Ave East on Friday September 29. For those of you who didn't know, Our Lady of Good Counsel Church at 867 College St. celebrated its 25th anniversary in 2000. It serves the Caribbean-Canadian Catholic community and draws its membership mainly from the Eastern Caribbean, particularly Trinidad, and were they out in support!

L-R: Joe Richards, Archbishop Clarke, Robbie Vernon and Danny HoLung

We had a strong contingent from our Ontario chapter. Joe and Bev Richards, Danny and JoJo HoLung and Robert and Alex Vernon. We corralled Bishop Clarke before the start to make him aware of our presence in support. He was visibly pleased and in his opening remarks let the audience know about St. George's College, that he was a past student himself, and had recently participated in some of the celebratory activities for its 150th anniversary year. He went on to give a picture on the Caribbean church and some of the challenges it was facing. For me it was interesting to find out that the Catholic population in Trinidad was 35%, Dominica 90%, St. Lucia 95% and Jamaica only 5%. In many of these with a high Catholic population the schools were owned by the Catholic Church. There was still however in these islands a lack of commitment to the Christian way of life, and the morality values of the church. The church, he said, cannot abnegate its responsibility and remove faith from culture. In Jamaica there was also the problem of violence and of course people emigrating - people of a quality Christian background. Nevertheless, for those remaining, the hard times can lead them from that level of life to become people of dignity. Yes! not withstanding the violence, good things were happening. The church was still alive and working!

After the talk and the audience had largely dispersed, what an interesting rap session took place with Bishop Clarke, Alvin Curling MPP Rouge River, Joe Richards, Danny HoLung, Alex Vernon and myself. All about Jamaica, St. George's College, Jamaicans in Canada and what role we could play to help back home. I had just picked up the September newsletter that afternoon and dashed back to my car to get copies for Bishop Clarke and Alvin Curling. Alvin was surprised to see himself on page 2, and commented on the achievements of the Ontario chapter and his pleasure in attending our events.

What an interesting evening and Bishop Clarke was assured he would be on our mailing list.

Lloyd (front left), soloing with the Heritage Singers in Bob Marley's "Redemption song"

On Sunday October 15th Heather and I were off to St. Paul's Anglican Church, downtown Toronto to hear my St.G.C. former classmate Lloyd Chung sing (Lloydie-our Ontario chapter sports director).

Actually this was a fundraiser concert for the Heritage Singers of which he is a member. It was a packed church and included in the programme as well was Andrew Aarons (son of Dr. Gillie and Adrienne) on the piano. With a theme of 'A tribute to Parents', it turned into an evening of great musical entertainment and we were fortunate to catch Lloyd in full vocal prominence as he soloed in the great Bob Marley hit 'Redemption song'. Bob would have been proud of this rendition!

Lloyd toured with the Heritage singers in Germany last year as they participated in a Folk festival and were very well received. The November Christmas Pantomime was also a success and this year in August they will be going to Mexico. With a heavy concert schedule and numerous practicing sessions Lloyd is a busy man. We Georgians have certainly made our mark up here as we continue to bloom wherever we are transplanted.

We are proud of you Lloydie!

Next big event for many Georgians was Sunday December 10th when Immaculate had their Family Mass and Communion Breakfast at Sheppard's Lodge. Fr. Reg Whelan, who spent many years in Jamaica (was at Holy Cross in Half Way Tree) celebrated Mass. What a good turnout. Pat Ferguson (Uncle P), Chris Chin, Francis Rutty, Stanley Chin were all there in support.

Saskia Garel as Nala in the Lion King

Anyone seen the Toronto production of Disney's The Lion King as yet? This is certainly one of the sought after North American shows, and has been having a most successful run at the Princess of Wales Theatre in Toronto. Just to provide you with one other good reason to go - featured in one of the leading roles is Saskia Garel, daughter of Roland and Carole Garel. She sings the demanding role of Nala, but then that's nothing for this dynamic individual who holds a bachelor of fine arts (honours) degree in music from York University and was a recipient of the prestigious Oscar Peterson Award. As the other half of the recording duo Love & Sas, she has generated three top ten hits, five music videos and two Juno Awards. Saskia has toured extensively in Canada, the U.S and the U.K., and received critical acclaim for her role of Mimi in the Canadian production of the Broadway musical Rent. Her film credits include roles in Mistrial (HBO), Teammates, and The Colour of Justice.

Keep on making waves Saskia!

Anne & Howie Williams with Robbie

This has also been a year for catching up with long lost Georgians. Anton Glegg, remember him? Class of 1959. Haven't seen or heard from him since the 60's, when he dropped out of sight. He was recently located in Vancouver and I will share an update on a most interesting life.

Anton admits to making a couple of false starts in Jamaica, working on the flour desk at Grace Kennedy, then articling with a law firm.

Anton Glegg with wife Jay and children,  Amanda and Andrew

Feeling a change in direction was necessary, he left Jamaica for Montreal in 1963 and enrolled at McGill where he obtained a B.Comm and moved on to The University of Toronto for an MBA. Not satisfied, he picked up an auditing designation in the U.S. After a stint with Northern Telecom he moved out to Vancouver in the mid seventies and worked with the Workers Compensation Board for a few years.

In the late eighties he moved back to Canada and is now the Senior Auditor, MSP Audit Section, with the B.C. Government.

Anton finds much comfort and joy in his two children Andrew and Amanda, and his lovely Thai wife, Jay.

I am trying to get them to join us at one of our functions in Toronto.

Some interesting quotes from a recent Email from Anton, which says a lot about the value of our newsletters.

"I have to admit that I read and re-read all the issues, and really look forward to them".

Well that last edition of the newsletter was a gem. Blubba, Freddie Campbell, Paul Foreman, Delroy Charley-Sale, Abe Dabdoub, Paul Bitter. Names from the past, all alive and kicking!

Great hearing from you Anton, and we look forward to seeing you and your family in Toronto.

Note: Anton would particularly like to get in touch with a couple of old boys and pals from Montreal, Derek Green and Bobby Neal. If either of you should read this, perhaps you could drop him a note - via our mailing address.

Robbie Vernon

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