Lakeshore Collegiate Institute

Lakeshore Collegiate Institute (also called Lakeshore CI, LCI, previously known as New Toronto Secondary School (NTSS) until 1983) is a high school serving the New Toronto, Long Branch, and Mimico neighbourhoods. Originally built in 1950, it is situated on the northwest corner at the intersection of Kipling Avenue and Birmingham Street in Ward 3 of the Toronto District School Board (formerly Etobicoke Board of Education until amalgamation).

History

Alderwood Collegiate Institute, shown here prior to demolition, merged into New Toronto to form Lakeshore.

New Toronto Secondary School was originally established in 1950 by the Lakeshore Board of Education to serve the Town of New Toronto with its emphasis on education in the technical trades, sciences, and mathematics. During the 1980s, enrollment at Etobicoke public schools plummeted as many catholic immigrants who arrived in the area transferred their children to the separate school system when full separate school funding commenced. This led to the closure of many schools including Alderwood Collegiate Institute, Royal York Collegiate Institute and Mimico High School whose students were consolidated into the newly renamed Lakeshore Collegiate Institute.

Overview

Lakeshore's New Field

Sports

LCI has had several very accomplished sports teams including: Hockey, Baseball, Badminton, Volleyball, Golf, Tennis, Soccer. The football team was resurrected in the fall of 2005 after many years of absence. The hockey team won the TDSSAA West Championships and qualified for OFSSAA in 2004 (Peterborough), 2006 (Timmons) and 2009 (Peterborough). The baseball team won the TDSSAA West Championships in 2006. The soccer team also won the TDSSAA West Region championship for the second time in Lakeshore CI's history in 2008. The first Soccer Championship occurred in 1986 when the Junior Boys' Soccer Team won the Etobicoke championship vs Martingrove Collegiate played at ECI in a shootout. They also went on to win the TDSSAA Championship again via Penalty Shoot-out at Eglinton Flats.

In late 2009, LCI got access to the MasterCard Center of Hockey Excellence, a $34-million four-pad arena complex adjacent to the school.

In 2009, LCI's Varsity girls' soccer team won the TDSAA "AA" West Championship and qualified for OFSAA (Kenora). Also, earlier that year, the Boys' Varsity hockey team won the TDSAA "AA" Championships and qualified for OFSAA (Peterborough) as well.

Other extracurricular activities

Lakeshore Collegiate offers a wide range of extracurricular programs for students whose interests run the gamut. Among these are the Student Activity Council (or SAC), Leadership, Dance Club, Drama club, The Announcements Committee, The Yearbook Committee, sports teams, and various groups that compete in mathematics and science competitions. These programs allow students to participate in regional sporting events, practice their business skills (via the student-run "Lakestore"), and attend camps, as well as fostering both school spirit and co-operation within the student body.

One of Lakeshore Collegiate's highlights is its Drama Department. Headed by Gregory Danakas, the Drama department offers courses for grades nine through twelve. LCI has an annual stage production in which students are selected via audition. Past stage productions have featured performances of Bram Stoker's Dracula, William Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew, Euripides' The Bacchae, Ann-Marie MacDonald's Good Night Desdemona (Good Morning Juliet), Charles Dickens's Oliver Twist, Edmond Rostand's Cyrano de Bergerac, and John Kirkpatrick's Vacancy in Paradise. Drama at LCI offers other extracurricular opportunities, such as the Play By the Lake/Sears Drama Festival, where student directed, student acted, and often student written plays are performed, as well as the Young Company, which offers Grade 9 and 10 students the chance to perform and star in a major play before they can be a part of the Mainstage Production. As of March 9, 2007, Lakeshore has won the Best Host School Award for its district.

In recent years, the LCI music department put on concerts both for the student body and for the public.

Community involvement

One such example of this community involvement is fundraising for the local community health centre, LAMP. Another community-oriented initiative, the Clean-Up-the-Parkathon (CUTPAT), involves the cleaning of local parks and recreational spaces by the student body.

Refusing to stop at local involvement, recent efforts within the school have resulted in programs such as the TEEN project, which has taken on two sponsor children and supports their endeavours.

The annual LCI food drive in December collects food, clothes collect food, and toys for the Daily Bread Food Bank and other local food banks. Every year, donations of reach a value of several thousands of dollars. It has become a "competition" to see which teacher's homeroom class would collect the most items. LCI made a recent contribution of over 1,000 pounds of fresh produce donated to the Daily Bread Food Bank harvested from LCI's Community Garden.

Notable graduates

• Adam Copeland, Former WWE Wrestler known as Edge
• Manny Fernandez, NHL player
• Trish Stratus, Former WWE Diva
• Joseph Gratkowski, Best Mans

See also

• List of high schools in Ontario

References

External links

• Lakeshore Collegiate Institute
• TDSB Profile