CANORA - The students and teachers of Canora Composite School took part in a town-wide clean up mission in an effort to clean up leaves and weeds around the community.
The cleanup quest occurred during the morning hours of the school day. Students from Grades 5 - 12 put their raking skills to the test at various residences, including Cummings Court and the park next to the curling rink. CCS staff and students were so diligent that officials from the town had to deliver and provide more garbage bags. In the end, over 60 bags were filled with leaves. In some cases, residents rewarded students with candy, ice tea, and cookies. After three hours of cleaning, the students converged on King George V Kiwanis Park for a group photo. One of the residents of Cummings Court stated, “It’s all about giving back to the community,” reinforcing what it means to be contributing citizens of Canora to help others that need help in our community.
Many people across Canada believe that as soon as Canadian Thanksgiving is over, Halloween is very close and that it is time to prepare. CCS started the school’s traditional Halloween lead-up fun with the annual Canora Composite Scare Away Hunger Competition. The competition began on Oct. 17 with a two-week campaign to help the local foodbank by donating non-perishable food items like ramen noodles, cans of beans, etc. The homeroom to gather the most items within the two-week span will win a prize. As of Oct. 27, the Grade 5 group was blowing away the competition in both the junior and senior ends of the school, with an insane amount of products from 5A at 386 total points and 5B with 226 total points. Meanwhile, in the senior end of the competition, the Grade 12s were at 158 total points as of the afternoon of Oct. 27. The point totals from the donation challenge will be added to the class total from other challenges the school is hosting.
Along with the return of the Scare Away Hunger came the return of the pumpkin-carving contest, where each homeroom class had to put their artistic skills to the test by designing spooky pumpkins for the Halloween season. Each homeroom class had four days to complete their pumpkin-carving project before setting up their finished pumpkins in the main hallway. There were two separate pumpkin carving competitions with Grades 5 - 8 competing against each other, and Grades 9 through 12 doing the same. The junior end teachers voted for the senior end pumpkins, while the senior end teachers voted for the junior end pumpkins. The designs on the pumpkins were quite creative. For example, the Grade 10 students based their design on a character from the popular kids cartoon, Teen Mutant Ninja Turtles and the Grade 11s based their design off the Quagmire character from the popular television program, Family Guy. The contest was considered a big hit and is destined to make a return in future years.
The spooky festivities continued at 11 a.m. on Oct. 28,with a Halloween-themed assembly hosted by the Student Representative Council. This was the first assembly in three years, because of the COVID-19 restrictions that were put in place by the Saskatchewan Health Authority and the government. The assembly saw a number of classic games with a Halloween spin. There were six games with the prize being a box of candy for the winning homeroom class.
Game 1 saw both 5A and 5B face off in a race to land six skittles packets into six pumpkins with 5B securing their box of treats. The second game saw 6A and 6B face off against each other to see who could land the most skittle packets into the pumpkins, with 6B claiming victory. 7A and 7B competed in the third game with 7A winning that round. The Grade 8 students competed in a golf-style tournament with 8A winning by one point. The Grade 9 students faced off in a bowling competition, which saw the 9A class, roll their way to victory. The last game was a relay competition between the Grade 10, 11, and 12 students who had to dress up like mummies using toilet paper, carry an eyeball on a spoon, run across the auditorium on a broom, land six skittles packets into six pumpkins, and find four gummies in a container full of spaghetti using their mouths. The Grade 12s were in first place for a majority of the mini-game until the Grade 11 group came from behind and found the fourth gummy, securing their box of treats ahead of the Grade 12 students by just a few seconds. The assembly ended with a massive thank you from the staff to the students for donating the non-perishable food they could gather. The Halloween assembly is set to return in 2023.
Cougar Corner Global Story Of The Week
Waves of condolences are floating into the Asian country of South Korea, after a crowd surge and stampede during Halloween festivities in a district of Seoul with shops and nightclubs. At least 156 people died from suffocation, cardiac arrest, and from being trampled in the rush to escape. Over 150 others were injured, some were rushed to trauma centres in the capital, as rescuers pulled trapped survivors to safety and performed CPR on several victims.
According to CNN reporter Will Ripley who was covering the story in Seoul, thousands of people were cramped together on a busy and narrow side street partying and enjoying themselves during the Halloween fun when a group of people noticed a popular Korean celebrity, which led to screaming and caused a stampede.
The country’s president has declared the tragedy a national disaster and demanded an inspection of all arenas and centres that are prone to have large crowds of people. South Korea has entered a National period of mourning following the disaster, which comes just over a month after a crowd surge and stampede caused by riot police launching prohibited tear gas at a soccer stadium in Indonesia, killing at least 130 people including 40 children. The investigation into the stampede is underway and is expected to take weeks or even months before criminal charges into possible negligence can be ruled out. The festival was the first Halloween event to be hosted in the city after three years of Coronavirus restrictions.
