We are at the final weekend of the school year with only a handful of days remaining. This week had the start of goodbyes and many events for the grads and those who will be returning. We want to thank everyone in Bolton House for a wonderful year, hope everyone has a great summer and returns fresh in the Fall.

Everything has been winding down including many sports that are coming to their conclusion.

Krissh and Dylan went with the tennis team to Vancouver for the provincial championship. SMUS had a challenging tournament, but finished with a bronze!

The rowing team headed to St. Catherines, Ontario for nationals. Malik was there representing Bolton House and won two national championships!

We had a meeting on Monday night to say goodbye to two from Bolton, Adam who has served us well as our head of house over this year, and Eric who were both given Bolton mugs as a gift for joining us over the recent years.

Monday also saw Mr. Turner host all the athletes who had played in a provincial tournament in terms 2 or 3 for a pizza lunch. It was great to see so many Bolton boys in the mix, what a year!

If pizza wasn’t enough, Monday was also the annual ice cream day started by Mr. Symons back in 1931! Read about the history of this fun event here https://www.smus.ca/news/the-history-of-ice-cream-day.

It was also Spirit week at the Senior School with Keep the Beat, fun activities and great outfits on display.

Tuesday night was the Athletics Banquet featuring all the senior teams from the year. Congrats to all the athletes on a fantastic year of athletics and sportsmanship.

The Grade 12 rugby players were also presented with an Alumni jersey as a final wrap up to the season. It was great having them sacrifice so much time and energy to support the program, especially Louis who started back in grade 8!

This Saturday we celebrated the annual tradition of setting up a giant slip n’ slide down the hill in front of the Wenman Pavilion. There was a little apprehension at first, but nearly the entire house took a chance to experience the big slide.

Also, there were volleyball nets and spikeball set up to have fun on the field. The weather finally cooperated for everyone to enjoy the day outside.

Later that night we had a BBQ and everyone got an ice cream from an ice cream truck which was a big hit. Jason especially enjoyed his as you can see below.

As people began cleaning their rooms it was amazing the things that were found. Kenneth found himself stuck in the office when the face masks came out and like the good sport he is he agreed to try it out.

Amid all the celebrations and packing, there were still academic courses taking place with many final exams and projects. Here is some proof!

The final weekend wrapped up with the Bolton House farewell speeches and the final Boarding Chapel. This year we say goodbye to Malte and Noah heading back to Germany, Jeronimo going home to Mexico and Kaz heading back to the USA. We have 14 grads heading off to schools all over North America and we wish them all our very best. We know that they are destined for great things and look forward to hearing of their exploits and to hopefully seeing them again on campus when they come back to visit.

Congratulations to Malik for winning the Robert Common Award for Honour…

Leo for winning the Rob Cameron Award for Brotherhood…

and to Chris for winning the Chuck and Wendy Shergold Award for Strength.

A special thank you to all the houseparents and Bolton boys and their families for making my last 11 years in Bolton such a delight. I will dearly miss the community and people who make this such a special place. I’m glad to know that my desire to “sweep the sheds” has resonated so well! Thank you.

Before saying goodbye and thank you to all the parents, grandparents, siblings, guardians, aunts, uncles and anyone else who helped make this year such a great success for every Bolton boy, we leave you with this remarkable musical performance by Marcus during chapel. Wow.

We wish all the Bolton boys and their families a safe and happy summer wherever they might be. To those graduating best of luck in your next adventures and to those returning next year we look forward to welcoming you back to Bolton in September for another year of learning and fun. Goodbye for now.