Once again the brothers of Bolton House put on a moving and honest chapel for the rest of the boarding community. This time on the subject of Strength. Go Bo!
Bolton House Chapel 2017
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Author Archives: Chris Bateman
Hair raising Halloween activities and Hair Fund-raising Houseparents
Lots of fun Halloween-themed activities started happening on campus this week. We decorated the Bolton/Timmis entry way and bowls of candy have been out. At school the Link Leaders hosted a pumpkin carving activity for the grade 9s. Here you can wee Henry, Xavier, Bolu and Matthias in action.
Also ramping up was a major fundraiser spearheaded by Bolton’s Mr. Daum. The deal was that the Homeroom that raised the most money to fund cancer research had the honor of shaving Mr. Daum’s hair into any style they wanted – and he would keep it for two weeks! Mr. Shaw and other teachers also offered their heads up for styling and all together they raised well over $3,000.
The soccer, volleyball, rowing, cross country and rugby teams continued to compete. Here is a great shot of Patt carrying the ball forward in rugby.
However, on Thursday, everyone took a break from routine and the whole house went out for a big all-you-can-eat dinner. Energy was high as the boys mingled and enjoyed the food. We had a house meeting in the restaurant and awarded Matthias and Ranon with the prestigious Boarding Leadership Colours for their dedicated service to boarding.
The dinner out in October is our Bolton Founder’s Dinner, in honour of W. W. Bolton, after whom the house is named. We spent a while talking to the boys about our namesake. He was a remarkable athlete, scholar, explorer and man of the cloth. Please watch this video about Bolton to get his full story and click here too.
Saturday brought warm sunny skies and students happily signed out to boarding activities. Here are some photos from a photography walk in history Ross Bay Cemetery. Frank and Pine can been seen taking pictures of the local deer and Alan managed to get even closer.
And here are our happy volunteers Adam, Mikhail, and Tommy who helped rake up the fallen leave on campus.
All in all, we have settled in well to life on campus… stay tuned for more exciting photos to come. Go Bo!
Joining Up, Shipping Out & Jumping Around
The week started with the ever popular Clubs and Councils Fair, where the senior school swarmed the many booths set out by our school student leaders. Below you will see David manning the Photo Club booth, Laurent promoting the Magic Circle, Xavier pursuing his options and Matthias explaining French Club. All the boys signed up for at least one if not many opportunities – and the opportunities were many. Matthias was also one of the speakers at school assembly.
Shortly after that the Grade 10s headed off on their many outdoor trips. I’m sure you have heard an update from your son as of the time of writing this because they are back now, suntanned, tired and ready for showers. In the next post we will share pictures of the trips but for now I have a shot of Alan and Logan as they just returned home from sea kayaking.
The boarders who were here this weekend enjoyed a variety of great activities. Adam W and Hemmesh did service work eradicating an invasive plant species from our local park. Patt and Adam L went for a nice walk by the sea. Leo hiked a local mountain. Pine went mini-golfing. Alejandro, Mikhail, Xavier, Garry, Andres and George went to a massive indoor trampoline park. Check out the great time!
And here are a couple fun slooooow-mo clips of our future LeBron James(es):
Go Bo!
The Family
We thought it would be nice to share the friendly faces of Bolton House. The 43 boys you see here come from 12 countries, all across the globe. The dedicated staff and families range in age from one month to… sage mentor age. 🙂 But we all come together to form Bolton House. Brotherhood. Honour. Strength. Go Bo!
Go Bo!
A few weeks have passed since this amazing group of boys have left, some for the summer and some for ever. I wanted to share with everyone some images from the last days of school. The end of the year on campus had a festive air as Grade 10s shared their learning from the Experiential Program. Here you can see Mike and Stanley selling their coffee, Will enjoying a fellow students’ presentation, Laurent teaching others how to write songs and Will performing in a play that he arranged to produce on campus. The house staff also took the grade 12s out for a “wing-feast” one night to thank them for their hard work on duty these past years.
The big event for the Bolton Community was our annual Goodbye Party. This Year our own Mr. Shaw hosted the event in his backyard, creating a lovely setting for many speeches and awards. As is tradition the grade 11s wrote speeches saying good bye to the grads. They also decided to make thank you speeches for the house parents too. A great addition was when Pine and Nadis bravely got up and said goodbye and thanks to Mr. Lilly for his time as Grade 8 Advisor.
The evening also had some awards given out. Here you can see the Grads (and Mr. Lilly who is leaving) with their Bolton Mugs (a tradition going back to more than 25 years). Also pictured are our Prefects and House Award Winners. Ranon: Common Award for Honour. Christian: Cameron Award for Brotherhood and Head Boy. Philippe: Head of House. Derry: Council Head Prefect. Joel: Shergold Award for Strength.
Needless to say it was a moving evening and the next day boarders started the tearful process of saying goodbye to each other. After the majority of the rest of the house moved out, the seniors had a few more big celebrations. First was the Gala: the Grads were dressed to the nines for this event at the Empress Hotel and Mr. Bateman managed to steal a few selfies with the boys.
A few days later the formal Graduation ceremony too place and each student was individually recognized for their accomplishments while at SMUS. The Bolton Boys did not disappoint; their list of accomplishments was very impressive.
So now the campus is more quiet. The halls are full of Summer Program students who have no idea of the strong community that exists for the majority of the year. However, I am sure that they look carefully at the photos and plaques on the walls. They may even notice the newest House Cup plaque which has gone up in the stairwell.
It has been a great year. To all the returning students, see you in a few months. To all the leavers, you are welcome back anytime. You are always a Bolton Brother! Go Bo!
BRINGING HOME THE CUP!
One year ago our Head of House, Philippe, gave a brief but rousing speech to the boys about why he should be elected as their leader. In the speech he promised to bring the Housegames Cup back to Bolton House! On Sunday that promise was made good and, while Philippe obviously played a big role in making that happen, it is clear that this accomplishment could only happen when all the boys pulled together. The motto Brotherhood, Honour, Strength was on full display these housegames. The boys worked well as a team and supported each other, they were good sportsmen in defeat and victory, and they each played their hardest and were victorious in their own way at their own time. Go Bo!
The boys had many other victories last week: golf victories, the cricket banner and silver in Tennis Provincials. Badminton, rugby and rowing are now off to their respective Provincials and Nationals. Good luck boys!
Life has otherwise carried on in its usual busy pace.
In the musical world, Jazz Night was last week. David A, Jack B, Christian, Derry and Laurent wowed the crowed with their smooth playing and singing.
As part of their year in experiential education, the grade 10s started their forensics unit. Here is Stanley dusting for fingerprints.
During lunches, many of the boys participated in a Grassroot Soccer fundraising tournament and had great fun for a great cause.
On Friday our annual fundraiser for War Child took place with ‘Keep the Beat’ – a music marathon and art sale. Richard performed on behalf on Bolton House to great applause.
The houseparents went all out this year with a whole new range of House Olympics events. In teams of seven or eight boys competed in carpentry skills, chopstick dexterity, bocce bowling, rowdy relay races, speedy tie tying and delicate balloon catching. With the overall housepoints between the boys’ houses so close it was crucial that every Bolton team and individual member do their very best at each event. They were rewarded with jumbo freezies to battle the heat of the day.
After Housegames we had our fun and fancy annual ‘SMOscars’ Gala Dinner. This is a play on the Oscars where we hand out prizes for funny categories like “messiest room”, “best hairstyle” and “most likely to return as a houseparent”. Of course the most coveted trophy is the House Cup, which you can see Philippe and Edward claiming.
The rest of the night was spent feasting on a delicious international dinner, posing for pictures (set up by Bolton’s David X and the Photo Club) and dancing the evening away.
With the House Cup safely in our possession for the year we can sit back a bit and enjoy the rest of the rapid journey to the end of the year. Much more to come!!
Rugby & Runways
It is hard to imagine that we only got back from the long weekend last Monday. While the students were away, my daughter and I put up the new Bolton Awards. Named after the three first leaders of Bolton House, and connected to the words of our motto, these awards will be given out for the first time at the end of the year. It is also exciting to see that there is a real structure forming for the Sun Center in what was formerly just a big pit. We can now start to really imagine this amazing building take shape on our campus.
Once back, the sun came out and many boys hit the Rugby pitch. On Thursday alone we had several examples of Bolton Boys charging up and down the field. Here are two of our grade 8s, Diego and Nadis (affectionately known as the “smash brothers”), playing hard against Landsdowne School.
Meanwhile, Carlos was tapped to join the SMUS Jr 7s team. He was lucky enough to get coached by Luke McCloskey (brother of former Bolton HP Jake) and player on the recently victorious Canadian Seven’s Team. It was a thrilling experience for him and he learned a great deal.
At the same time Bolu, Mohammed and David X were playing their hardest against Reynolds. All three were right in the thick of it as you can see by these pictures.
A great deal of this athletic engagement is due to the fact that we have two excellent Rugby coaches on our Housepreant Team in Bolton. Both Mr. Danskin and Mr. Daum were out coaching that same afternoon, and you could definitely see the pride on their faces. And the tradition carries on – at the same time as all the Rugby listed above, Mr. Daums’ son and Mr. Hollingworth’s (former Bolton HP now in Harvey House) son played their own preschool version of Rugby and posed for this classic photo of two friend growing up together on the SMUS campus.
And now for something completely different… the 3D Design students recently completed their “1990s Inspired Headdresses”. While a good number of boys helped create the wearable sculptures, Harry and Joel were the brave ones who modeled their creations during the mini-fashion show last week.
On a bigger scale, the Grad Class had their own fashion show this weekend. This took place on a large scale and David A and Philippe strutted their stuff across the runway.
On Saturday we had our typical compliment of Saturday activities including beach-cleans, farm work, photo-scavenger hunts, and pickle-ball,
Stay tuned for next week and the upcoming first annual Bolton alumni gathering!
Back from the break!
So many boys had amazing breaks and were were very excited to hear about all their adventures. Many boys were off around the world on service trips, like Carlos and Klaus who, you can see below in Africa. Other boys like Jack and Edward met up while on holiday – here they are at an NBA game. All of us were amazed by the progress on the new dining hall.
Right away when we got back one of our Bolton alumni returned to speak to the two digital art classes. Peter O is doing great at UVic and spoke to the classes about his passion, telling stories through digital videos.
The Grade 11’s were at French Beach Saturday for their annual leadership retreat. It was not long after we arrived that in an impromptu game of beach soccer had broken out. In addition to some fun games, there were discussions around leadership styles and communication skills leading up to various challenges. After each challenge students debriefed the all the different scenarios that occurred and reflected on their individual roles.
The main activity was a scavenger hunt crossed with an escape room. When the grade 11s returned from some games on the beach, the Bolton Mascot, Boris the Penguin, was missing and there was a ransom note with clues. The guys had to work together to solve different riddles and challenges that led them all over the park with hopes of finding Boris the Penguin. It was great to see them demonstrate their learning from previous activities. They all shared the floor in order to create equity of voice and they listened to everyone’s ideas before making attempts to solve riddles. At times, excitement got the better of them and they missed smaller clues within the big picture. In the end, they found their beloved penguin and saved him from certain demise! Huge thanks to Mr. Daum and Mr. Danskin for all the work they put into crafting this customized and creative challenge!
The boys were also in charge of cooking up the grub. We were treated to strip loin steaks cooked on the BBQ and salad. The bonus was all the fixins’ that came along with it; nothing like crispy onions and bacon bits on giant steak beside a warm fire! And the infamous Smoreos were a huge hit too. It was a great day and wonderful to know these mature young men will be our grade 12 leaders next year.
Go Bo!
The “Bo” Must Go On!
This Monday was the opening of the annual Senior School Art Show. Over 110 students had art on display and Bolton House artists had their fair share of contributions. Derry, Jero, Diego, Bolu, Laurent and Joel all had art up and many more contributed to the two giant collaborative sculpture pieces.
But besides the art show, in many ways we have carried on as normal, each Bolton boy shining and contributing in his own way. For example, Mohammed delivered an amazing speech to the school about his experiences moving to Canada from Oman. His writing was witty and his timing was perfect, eliciting many hearty laughs and full on applause, mid-speech. Meanwhile, David X developed his outdoor leadership skills during a training weekend. Alan can be seen here two, on his way to kendo classes at UVic, taking advantage of living in the city. Also, this week, we had a “Spark” open-house event to welcome new prospective students to the school. The Bolton-Timmis building (seen here with official Spark signage) is always a favorite stop on the tour, known for its beautiful common room, comfortable atmosphere and tidy hallways.
But while many of us were carrying on in our normal way, a group of students were rehearsing, memorizing and giving every moment they had to the production of “Ragtime” our school’s musical this year. If you haven’t seen a SMUS musical, you really should some year, they are massive productions and very well performed. This year Bolton House happened to three Bolton boys in the male leads and two more in major supporting roles. Christian and David A were both cast as Coalhouse, the musician-turned-radical. They each took the lead for two nights and it was amazing to see the variation in approach to both strong performances. Joel, a veteran of school musicals, was joined by Bolu as part of Coalhouse’s gang, both showing great swagger and attitude. The group was rounded out by Will, who graced most of the scenes in the show, playing an disillusioned aristocrat, who also joins the rebels. In fact, there was a major scene at the end, where five of the six people on stage were from good old Bolton.
The musical of choice, which deals with different racial groups, immigration, tolerance and intolerance, was incredibly topical for our time and each performer dealt with it maturely. Joined by the boys off-stage was Chen, making the magic happen behind the scenes as part of stage crew and Mathias, playing brightly and tirelessly in the pit orchestra. The latter was conducted, of course, by Bolton’s own Mr. Butterfield.
Mrs. Bateman was working backstage and managed to get these great behind-the-scenes shots of her Bolton boys:
Stay tuned for next week when we get to see our Bolton grade 8s as Oompa Loompas, stage hands and Willy Wonka himself in the Middle School musical.
Go Bo!
Penguin Awareness Day
Apparently January 20 was Penguin Awareness Day! This was very fitting for Bolton House given that the noble penguin has been our mascot since 1993. Do you know your penguins?
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And like the many species of penguin, there are many individuals in Bolton House, with different interests. It is great that we therefor offer so many different Saturday activities. For example, some boys played bubble soccer, some played board games and some went downtown to take photographs. Those in the last group were able to witness the Victoria March for Women. For them, the photography was able to turn into photojournalism, recording the group of more than 2,000 peaceful demonstrators.
