First and foremost, I need to thank the McDonald family and their John Haley MacDonald Memorial Scholarship fund given to a student who excels at sports with average marks. This $750 scholarship in 1973 paid for my first two years tuition of post secondary education back in the day. As the child of a single mother, who had limited education herself, going on to university would simply not have been possible without it.
I am sure to the surprise of many of my teachers (being a C average student, and having to go to several of them to get my marks raised from C- to a C, as football, not school, was my first priority) I ended up not only graduating but going on to get my Masters of Planning degree. As a result of the generosity of the MacDonald family, I was able to spend my entire life serving the public; first in the Planning Field and then as Municipal CAO - always making sure that everyone was treated equally and had a voice in the communities I worked in and giving back wherever and whenever I could!
Thank you!
Also, my sincere appreciation of Mr. Ken Wright, who would often patrol the halls! I am not sure what he might have seen in me at the time, but he stopped me in the hall once and asked if I had a job lined up after graduation. After confirming that I did not, he arranged for me to get a job working in the New West Parks and Recreation Department during the 1973 Canada Summer Games which morphed into a permanent part-time job that largely paid for the completion of my post secondary education! Having faith and believing in your students can make miracles happen. I hesitate to think where I might have ended up without such support.
Finally to the fun stuff, as the following are clippings and represent fabulous memories of the years at NWSS. The JV football team that came second in the league and beat the Varsity team! 😂
The same JV players moving up to play Varsity- yes, there was a football team before the current edition!
The offence and defence Line on the 1973 Hyacks team. All these players played both ways, many playing the entire game!
Left to Right - Paul Champagne, Brad Caufield, Jim Bromley, Grant Rowbotham, Terry Johnston, Davis Stewart, and Jeff Palidwor. 
How this line was viewed by cartoonist Grant Rowbotham.
- Terry Johnston, Class of 1973