PRESIDENT'S WELCOME

Thank You

As the last day of school quickly approaches and we all continue to get used to our new reality, I want to thank every member of the ACPA Executive for your hard work and support throughout the school year. We have a fantastic team that brought so much passion and energy to events this year. I also want to thank the entire Appleby parent community - everyone who supported the ACPA by attending the Grade Parties, Boarder Breaks, Coffee Mornings and Tree Trimming; by shopping at the beautiful new College Shop, donating items to the Turnover Shop, buying wreaths at Christmas, and in many other ways! We are so lucky to have such a fabulous community.

This is my last year as a current Appleby parent and it has been my honour and an absolute pleasure to have the opportunity to act as ACPA President. I will always treasure our family's Appleby experience. While social distancing and remote learning weren't even on our radar as recently as two months ago, the Appleby community always rises to the occasion and embraces new challenges with optimism and enthusiasm. I wish you all a happy and healthy summer and we can all look forward to brighter days ahead.

 

Sincerely,

Sarah McMillan
2019-2020 Appleby College Parents' Association President

Join Us!

Please Join Us - Parenting in a Time of Crisis

Please join us for a special presentation by noted speakers Dr. Michael Thompson, consultant, author and psychologist and Dr. Rob Evans, clinical and organizational psychologist, on Parenting in a Time of Crisis. The webinar for parents takes place on Wednesday, May 13 at 7:00 p.m. EDT and will focus on the challenge of parenting in these unprecedented days. Please click here to register. Call-in details will be sent to registered participants prior to the session. Appleby College is pleased to co-present this informative session in conjunction with the Canadian Positive Education Network, Lakefield College School, Ridley College, St. Andrew's College and Upper Canada College.

We are so excited to be offering Appleby parents a revised Connect-Ed programme. We hope to see many of you join us for the following opportunities:

 

• Quarantine Cooking with Laura Boyd - Need meal ideas? Faculty member Laura Boyd has you covered! Click here to view a tutorial on how to make bacon fried rice and click here for the written recipe. Click here to learn how to bake scones, and click here for the recipe. More recipes to come!

• Community Wellbeing - Wednesday, May 13, 1:00 p.m. (Zoom call). Join Appleby College's Athletic Therapist, Melissa Trinh to learn self-massage/release techniques for stress-prone areas to promote body-mind connection.

• A Night Under the Stars - Thursday, May 14, 8:30 p.m. (Zoom call). Join faculty member Bryce Petersen on an interactive tour of the evening sky with opportunities to view some of the most notorious celestial gems in the northern hemisphere.

• Sips and Songs - Thursday, May 21, 6:00 - 8:00 p.m. (Zoom call). Appleby faculty members Ericka Shodin, Sarah Morrison and Sara Joy will lead participants through a rehearsal to learn some of the great music hits of our time!

• Book Talk - Tuesday, May 26, 7:00 - 8:30 p.m. (Zoom call). Join faculty members Andy Jelinek, Claire Kelly, Kathleen Kirkpatrick, Janet Kurusanather, Noelle Morris, Ericka Shodin and Dave Suchanek for a book talk on The Choice, a memoir by Dr. Edith Eger.

 

To register for these Connect-Ed sessions, please click here. If you have any questions, please contact Patricia Smallbone, coordinator, events and parent relations.

ACPA in Action

Call for Headbands from Natasha Stanford '20 and Parent Michelle Stanford
If you happen to be visiting your local 'dollar' store, please look in the haircare section for adult headbands (plain or patterned). They are needed for health care workers in hospitals and clinics, cleaning staff, receptionists, porters, etc. as they help stop chaffing from mask strings behind the ears. So far, Natasha and Michelle have made over 100 adjusters and they are working on a second round of 80. For more information on how you can help, or if you are interested in sewing by hand or machine, please contact Michelle through Facebook. Arrangements can be made for picking up donated headbands from residences located within 25 km of downtown Oakville. Click here to view a short video message. 

Call for Elastic and White Cone Thread

Appleby parents Anne Marie Lattemore, Turnover Shop volunteer and Gordon Lattemore need your help! They have made almost 500 masks for the community and have run out of a few supplies. If you know where elastic and white cone thread are available, please e-mail glattemore@cogeco.ca.

Community Meals: Kerr Street Mission
Thank you to ArtHouse and Kerr Street Café for fundraising and preparing meals for Kerr Street Mission! Elli Barr '22 and parent Vanessa Barr have been busy delivering food to Kerr Street Mission families. Currently there are four drivers that deliver meals on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. The meal delivery service is a great program that helps low income families stretch their food budgets during this time, especially when some families cannot attend the regular meal and community programs offered through Kerr Street Mission.

Appleby Parent "Buddies"

All parents who are new to Appleby are assigned an Appleby parent "buddy" (who is a current Appleby parent) after they have completed the registration process. An excellent source of information, buddies keep in touch regarding important school dates and are there to help parents feel welcomed into the community. If you are a current parent and interested in becoming a parent buddy, please contact Patricia Smallbone, coordinator, events and parent relations. *If you speak more than one language, we are happy to match you with bilingual families.

We would also like to say a huge thank you to the College Shop co-curricular students for their wonderful initiative with The Glass Half Full t-shirt campaign. All proceeds from the sale of these t-shirts will go to jack.org, a charity that supports youth struggling with mental health. T-shirts are available to the Appleby community through the online College Shop for $10.

There are no words to fully describe how deeply grateful we are to all the front line workers who are making huge sacrifices every day to support our community. It is so comforting to know we are surrounded by these incredibly brave and kind people. Thank you so much!

We are very much looking forward to seeing everyone again at the College Shop, as soon as it is safe to do so. In the meantime, we wish you happy moments during this challenging time. Please continue to stay safe and be well.

-The College Shop Team

Be Mindful

According to Google, mindfulness is defined as a mental state achieved by focusing one's awareness on the present moment, while calmly acknowledging and accepting one's feelings, thoughts and bodily sensations, and surrounding environment. When we practice mindfulness, our thoughts tune into what we're sensing in the present moment rather than rehashing the past or imagining the future.

Before COVID-19, I was the furthest thing from being mindful. Don't get me wrong, I always wanted to practice mindfulness, take time to smell the roses, and appreciate all the little things in life. But no matter how much I wanted to live in the moment, I just never could. I knew in my head and heart what my ideal world would look like. I would even go as far as saying to each one of my children, "Seize the Day" as I dropped them off at school, but do you think I could follow my own advice? Not a chance. I would rush through my day, running errands like a chicken with its head cut off, doing all those things we all need to get done, all the while, thinking about what I had to do next, or what I should have done yesterday. I would replay scenes in my head of how things could have gone, or would have gone, had I said or done things differently, and I would stress over what lied ahead. And through it all, I was always so tired…exhausted at the end of each night.

Anyone who knows me, knows I have survived breast cancer, six years and counting, so you would think that would have smartened me up about being mindful. However, it did not. I was even warned countless times by other survivors, or friends of survivors, that if one went back to their stressful ways, there was a good chance they would face that horrible disease again. Nothing stopped me from over-scheduling my life, even during and after chemotherapy. I just kept going and adding to my plate and never learning how to say no. It continued to get worse until I started saying to anyone who would listen, "I just want to stay home!"

And then I got my wish. I am so sorry. This whole pandemic thing may in fact be my fault! I put it out to the Universe, and look what happened. In all honesty, I think we all put it out there. I am in no way suggesting that a global pandemic is something we all wished for, or that bringing our lives and economy to a standstill is either. However, I am suggesting that maybe we all needed to take a breath. Maybe we all needed a moment, okay, maybe not as many moments as we have had since March, but maybe, just maybe, we all needed some extra time. Extra time to spend with our families, extra time to try those recipes, extra time to watch that TV program, extra time to go for walks, extra time to just look out the window and watch the birds and all the wildlife we never knew existed in our backyards, extra time to learn things we always wanted to, extra time to paint, sing, dance and play games, extra time to make those phone calls we have been putting off, extra time to stay in our pajamas the whole day, extra time to declutter and organize, extra time to look at old photos and home movies, extra time to reconnect with friends and family, and extra time to just do whatever we feel like doing, whether we are holding a beverage of any sort in one hand while doing it, or not!

And extra time to be mindful. I have time to think now. I have time to be calm and to be aware of what I am doing when I am doing it. At the same time, I think about the sadness that this virus has caused, and I also think about how we are all going to be changed because of it. And I truly believe that that change will be unique for everyone and everything living on this planet. In the meantime, my house may not be any more organized than it was in early March, but I am proud to say that I have made some killer dishes from recipe books I have hung onto since 1988! May you all stay safe and healthy until I see you again, and in the meantime, CARPE DIEM!

- Donna Cappuccitti, ACPA chapel guild and the Chapel Team

Catching Up With the ACPA
On April 16, the ACPA connected via Zoom for a fun night of catching up. See the questions and answers below for what we've been up to at home!

 

1) What has been your favourite meal during this period of social distancing? 
• Homemade pasta using a pasta machine!
• Homemade pizza
• Pad Thai

 

2) Have you taken up a new hobby?
• Writing a book 
• Ping Pong
• Puzzles

3) What has been your favourite family activity that has come out of these 'unique circumstances'?
• Gardening
• Cooking and baking
• Ping pong 

• Re-watching classic TV shows: Friends, Big Bang Theory, etc.

4) What has been your most technical fail over the last few weeks? (i.e. Wifi issues, video chats, etc.)
• Zoom host fail – none of the options to mute participants, no control!
• Student writing final exam, Wifi dropped after three hours into the four-hour exam – had to redo the exam

 

5) Do you have a song that you have been listening to for inspiration?
• Appleby chapel!
• Bachata music
• Oldies
• Andrea Bocelli – Amazing Grace (LIVE)

6) Have you binge watched any shows? What are they?
• Westworld
• The Crown
• Tiger King
• Breaking Bad
• Swan Lake (ballet)

7) Have you read any new books that you would recommend?
• American Dirt

8) What's the first thing you are going to do once this is over? (i.e. travel)
• Get my hair done!
• Travel
• Hug people
• Be with friends again