Members of Centennial Secondary School’s choir perform at the opening 50th anniversary reunion of the school Friday, May 12/16.(Photo: John Spitters/Quintenews).
Chargers, young and not so, kicked off a big reunion weekend today (Friday).
Centennial Secondary School in west end Belleville officially opened in Canada’s Centennial year, 1967.
However, as Principal Kim Sampson explained, the school had a partial opening the year before, serving over 460 students.
Current students and staff, and those from decades before, filled Centennial’s auditorium to open the reunion.
The students of today and their teachers presented video comedy skits with the actors using the slang and wearing the clothing of the five decades the school has been in existence.
On top of that, the school’s bands, choir, and vocalists proved that if anything, the students of today are at least as talented, if not more so, than previous generations.
Scott Reid was the featured speaker at Belleville’s Centennial Secondary School reunion’s opening assembly.(Photo: John Spitters/Quinte News).
The reunion’s keynote speaker was Scott Reid, a graduate from the 1980s, who is a political columnist, and a political pundit on national television along with some major market radio stations.
Reid wondered why he, an average student who was anything but an angel during his high school days, would be asked to speak at the reunion.
He joked that “with the passage of time, I guess people just forget!”
Reid brought down the house with a hard life lesson learned at Centennial in the ’80s.
He was running to be president of the student council, and had prepared a clever speech featuring a “killer promise” to woo voters to his side.
He’d built the speech to a point where he’d reveal the “killer promise” after a pregnant pause to build suspense. As soon as Reid paused, popular Stirling boy, and long retired NHL star Rob Ray yelled from the balcony, “Hey Reid, beat it!!”
Reid metaphorically “crumbled on stage”, slinking off to badly lose the election and vowing to never again be a candidate, despite his love for politics.
Although his speech was upbeat and funny, Mr. Reid had to compose himself as he fought back tears for a moment as he remembered some great friends from the Centennial days who had passed away far too early.
Events at Centennial and other locales continue through Sunday. The marquee event is a dinner/dance at the Quinte Sports Centre tomorrow (Saturday) night.
