A new four legged staff member!

Thanks to your fantastic fundraising efforts last Spring, we are thrilled to announce a new-ish addition to our YMCA Academy team; Mars!

We worked with an organization called “Companion Paws Canada” to find a rescue dog for the role! We loved that this organization rescues pups from shelters rather than breeding for their program. Mars came from a kill shelter in Texas, and she was only three days away from being euthanized, simply due to overcrowding.

Mars arrived in Canada on August 13th 2022 and her new paw-rent, Brydie, picked her up in Niagara Falls. As she is a rescue dog, she was very timid and needed to learn the basics. She’s come a long way since she arrived in Canada but given her history of being a stray, she’s still got some work to do before she can take the test to become a certified assisted therapy dog.

Mars has passed two training courses so far and is currently working on building her confidence in busy settings and with meeting new people. She attends the Academy daily with Brydie, and has made herself very much at home in the staff room! She’s started 1:1 and in small groups training sessions with some dog savvy students who are supporting her training – it’s been a great experience for Mars and the students! Given her background, she does take a while to feel safe and warm up to people, but she’s come on leaps and bounds with only good things to come!

Keep your eyes peeled for more posts about her on our blog, Instagram, and Facebook accounts!

“Mars is really adorable and looks like a hotdog. She helps me change my attitude when I’m feeling down. I like it when she comes to class.” – Dushan R.

“She’s very helpful, playful, interactive with people and very friendly when she gets used to you.” – Joseph W

“Mars is a sweet and caring girl and she is cuddly and soft” – Claire K

“She gives me kisses and she’s so adorable. I like hanging out with her and running on the terrace with her” – Asher A

“Mars is nice. She licks me on the hand. It tickles and makes me feel very talented” – David B

Value Awards

As a YMCA program, we strive to uphold the YMCA’s core values; Inclusiveness, Integrity, Kindness, Optimism, Respect, and Well-Being. We see our students demonstrate these values every day, but each year we recognize students who have been selected by their peers as someone who exemplifies each of these values.

As we approach the end of the 2023 school year, we would like to take the time to acknowledge our 2022 winners who have continued to uphold these values.

Inclusiveness: Sammy E
The award for Inclusiveness recognizes the student who ensures that all students, staff, friends and visitors at the Academy are made to feel welcomed and valued for their gifts, talents and contributions to the community. This student helps others, doesn’t judge people and welcomes anyone who seems like they need a friend or helping hand.

Integrity: Ben S
The award for Integrity recognizes the student who demonstrates a willingness to receive and offer feedback about strengths and areas for improvement and who always maintains the highest degree of honesty and truth in their relationships with others. They stick to their values and say their authentic feelings, ideas and beliefs.

Kindness: Griffin H
The award for Kindness recognizes the student who demonstrates a capacity for developing genuine relationships with others and who carefully weighs the needs of the individual and the community when making decisions. They take an active role in the happiness of others and above all else, show compassion for others.

Optimism: Sam C
The award for Optimism recognizes the student who demonstrates an attitude of positivity in their identity and voice at the Academy. They are hopeful and work hard to see the positive side of things. They believe they have the skill and ability to make good things happen!

Respect: Ella K
The award for Respect recognizes the student who is developing a greater sense of self and their place in the world. This student treats others the way they would want to be treated, pays attention and listens in all situations. They recognize the value in all people.

Wellbeing: Lex B
The award for Well-Being recognizes the student who has become to incorporate into their young life a valuing of well-being and who is developing attitudes and habits that promote healthy living in a holistic way. The student not only values physical fitness, but values emotional, mental and spiritual fitness as well.

YMCA Academy Community Involvement Award: Ally B
This award is presented to a senior student that shows exceptional commitment and dedication to all facets of the YMCA Academy school experience. This student demonstrates an unparalleled investment when supporting the community life of the Academy, including involvement in school events both at the school and events involving our many partnering organizations.

Mapping the World

In unit two of our Issues in Canadian Geography class, we have been exploring the concepts of Mapping! This includes learning what a map is, who makes maps, map projections and distortions, the features of a map, and how to read the stories that maps tell!

As a warm up activity, the students tried their hand at cartography by drawing a map of the world from memory. Within seconds, all of their erasers were frantically in use–which is the point of the exercise. When we think of the world, we often start with the area(s) of the world that we know best or feel the most familiar with, typically North America. When it’s time to move on to other continents and countries, we realize that we overestimated the size of North America then have to redraw it to make it smaller and smaller…and smaller. The fact that all maps (not just the ones we draw) are drawn from someone’s perspective s an interesting concept to discover with the students, and from there we can further explore how we view the world outside of our community.

See the above photos for our interpretations of the world!

Raptor’s Day at the YMCA Academy

To wrap up their placement at the YMCA Academy, Seneca College student Ambar Fadul Gonzalez recruited her peers Zach and Jenta to plan an epic “Raptor’s Day” for the Academy students! This day included fun activities such as designing a Toronto Raptors logo, slogan, or poster, and participating in “blindfolded basketball,” where the students used teamwork to help their classmates score a mini basket. Meanwhile, a small film crew was on site conducting interviews for their upcoming documentary about Toronto Raptors Fans!

These activities built anticipation for the beloved annual Students vs Staff basketball game which took place later that afternoon. It was an incredibly fun experience for the entire school, whether they were there to play, cheer, or watch! Students from both the middle school and high school participated, filling the court with spirit, effort, excitement, and teamwork! In addition to playing on the day, YMCA Academy student Nathan M. has provided an excellent account of how the game went:

TEACHERS BLOW STUDENTS OUT OF THE WATER IN ANNUAL BASKETBALL GAME – Nathan M.

Two weeks ago, the staff and students of the Y Academy took to the court to compete in the annual Students vs Staff basketball game. Midway through the afternoon, most of the school filed into the gym either to play or to cheer on the teams, assisted by college placement students.

The student team clearly came in without much of a game plan, as they quickly racked up turnover after turnover and missed shot after shot. Apart from inspiring defense by Nathan Moloney on Luka, and a few good moves by Zach and others, the students were hounded on both ends of the court. Indeed it was truly a struggle for the younger students. The game opened with a 12-2 run by the teachers before the students even got another basket.

Yet the student team was not to be held back, rallying amongst themselves to get a good run going. Taking pride in their attacks on the teachers, with a very lively bench getting the student team into the flow of things, they developed some momentum.

By the turn of the second half however, things had entered into “a match of D,” with both teams using defense more than the offensive end. Fighting tooth and nail, the students took a chance to launch a comeback.

Shots came aplenty yet baskets were hard to make. Ryan and Zach led the charge on that end, while the entire team fought hard on the other end. However it would not be quite so easy as Brandon and Katie began to take over the game, tearing up the D. Luka became a third titan of the court as the lineup went smaller on him, allowing him to grab the rebounds and nail easy layups on small ball defenders.

The students had to draft in outside help from a member of the Y, but it was too late in the game. The teachers’ three basketbrutes dealt a huge blow to the student team, leaving them buried around a mountain of dirt and basketballs.

The game did not even get a true ending, as the game had to be ended early due to time issues, leaving the teachers on top with just a little more left on the clock. Hopefully this leads to a better student attack next year for a rematch of the much anticipated annual basketball game.

Check out the rest the rest of the pictures on our Facebook page!

Environmental Action Plan

In our Biology unit, the grade 10 students spent time learning about the environment and how long certain materials take to decompose. Once they had completed their research, we decided to spread awareness by making a fun 3D display! The students brought in items and worked together to build the display. Most students were shocked by what they had learned, and made Environmental Action Plans to spread awareness and commit to changing something about their lifestyle. Some replacement items included:

  • Reusable or recyclable coffee pods
  • “Unpaper towels”
  • Bamboo toothbrushes
  • Concentrated cleaning detergents with reusable bottles
  • Biodegradable dog poop bags
  • Steel, paper or glass straws
  • Reusable coffee mugs

  • While reflecting on what they had learned, this is what they had to say:

    “The numbers don’t surprise me but I want to help because a lot of harm can be done by these things in the amount of time that it takes for them to decompose.”
    -Jasper G-S

    “These numbers surprise me a lot! I’ll be able to make adjustments to the products that I will use after learning this. I will start to recycle more.”
    -Ryan dV-C

    “I can’t believe that Aluminum cans take between 80 and 200 years to as long as a million years. I might recycle more.”
    -Lex B

    “Some of these do surprise me because it takes so long to decompose. Some of the ones that surprise me are plastic bags that take 10-1,000 years to decompose. Another one that surprises me is Chewing gum takes 5 YEARS. Candy wrappers take 10 to 20 years. Glass bottles take a million years to decompose or they don’t decompose at all!”
    -Claire K

    “All of these numbers did surprise me because I never knew that it takes that long for things to decompose!!!! I will make adjustments to the products that I use regularly after what I have learned in order to help save our world!!!!! I would also recycle more because it is better for the environment!!!!”
    -Melia M

    “A lot of these numbers surprise me and I will start to make adjustments to the products I use by using more environmentally friendly products and after learning this I will start to recycle more”
    -Erin R

    “There were lots of things that surprised me when I was learning about how long everything would take to decompose. It takes 1000 years for a plastic toothbrush!” -Matthew S

    Our class challenges YOU to consider your environmental impact and make sustainable changes!