Brookside Intermediate is hosting the Brookside Spring Sprint at Voisey’s Brook Park in Portugal Cove – St. Philip’s on Sunday, May 18th, at 1 pm. It is open to kids in Grades 3 to 9; registration is only $10. The proceeds will be split between Brookside Track and Field and the St. Lawrence Church Pop-Up Pantry Food Bank.

There is a 1 km race for students in grades 3 and 4, and a 2 km race for students in grades 5-9. The course is a flat gravel walking trail, suitable for all runners. Registration is capped at 200, so families are encouraged to register their children as soon as possible if they wish to participate.

There will also be an option to walk/run the 1 km race. The walk/run is open to everyone, and pets and strollers are welcome. There is no sign-up or registration cost for the walk/run; however, a donation is requested on the event day.

You can also find more information by following this link:

• https://sites.google.com/nlesd.ca/brooksideathletics/home.

Families can register runners directly at this link:

• https://www.trackie.com/event/brookside-intermediate-spring-sprint-2025/1019776/.

Friendly reminder that today, Thursday, April 17, is the last day of school as the Easter/Spring break starts on Friday, April 18.

School will reopen on Monday, April 28, and it will be Day 1 on the calendar.

The Youth Climate Corps (YCC), youth activists, community members, and supporters are hosting a Town Hall Meeting.

• FORAN GREEN ROOM
• ST. JOHN’S CITY HALL
• Tuesday, April 22, 2025
• 7:00 p.m. – 9:30 p.m.

This event will bring together candidates, city and town councilors, young people and voters,
with the goal of urging political leaders to integrate YCC into their platforms.

If you are interested in attending, please register here: 
https://actionnetwork.org/events/just-transition-nl-all-candidates

If you would like more information, please click here to download a letter from YCC.

The RNC and RCMP are raising concerns about a surge in youth overdoses linked to counterfeit pharmaceuticals. Bromazolam is a potent, unregulated benzodiazepine and is not approved for medical use. Mixing Bromazolam with opioids like fentanyl greatly increases the risk of overdose.

Please review this CCENDU Drug Alert and consider discussing this with your families at home.

Back by popular demand the MDJH Concert Choir will be having their annual Bake Sale tomorrow during lunch!

Please note that this is a cash only event! Bring your loonies and twonies!

Over the past two years, we have done a lot of planning and fundraising to establish a ½ acre school – community garden in the empty field, next to the school. This garden will become an active teaching and learning space where students will combine various curriculum with growing sustainable and healthy food. In addition, the garden will allow for community access where organizations and families will also be able grow with us.

Over the next few weeks, you will see the first of a number of phases of the garden take shape as we have a fence built around the garden space. From there, we will have a large greenhouse and garden beds installed so we can begin growing this season.

To accomplish these garden goals, we are reaching out to you to see if you might have any gardening tools that you are not using, that you would consider donating to our project. If they are not in perfect shape or maybe a little rusty, that’s OK. We can clean and get them ready for use. Anything and everything is very appreciated and will be put to good use by our gardeners.

Drop off will be at the school on Saturday April 12 from 9AM to 12PM.

If you are interested in learning more about the garden or would like to help out, you can visit the site here: Grizzly Gardens or contact me: chesleywest@nlschools.ca.

Thank you for your support.

Today at MDJH we were fortunate to have a visit from Mr. Fred Fox, the brother to national icon Terry Fox. Fred spoke of his family’s history, his relationship with his brother, and of Terry’s drive and determination to never give up. Fred spoke to the whole school in an assembly during last period, and reminded us that 45 years ago today, Terry left Vancouver to fly to St. John’s to prepare for his Marathon of Hope, which began officially on April 12, 1980.

Thank you, Mr. Fox, for your inspiring visit today.

Newfoundland and Labrador School Chess Association (NLSCA) is holding the NL School Team Chess Championship 2025 on Saturday, April 12th, 2025.

Venue

• Brookside Intermediate School
• 1165 Thorburn Rd, Portugal Cove-St. Philip’s, NL A1M 3R6

Registration

• Registration on the door opens 9:30 am and closes at 10:00 am.

Max Capacity

• 100 players

Formats

• 5 rounds. (Swiss pairing or Round Robin)
• Primary: Kindergarten to Grade 3*
• Elementary: Grades 4 to 6*
• Junior High: Grades 7 to 9*
• High School: Grades 10 to 12*
• *Time controls 25 mins + 5 second delay
• Medals and banners for all sections.

Entry Fee

• $25.00. On the door only.
• Credit/debit card or cash accepted

Tournament Director

• Michael Pickard

More Information

• Questions and Answers

Details
Medals for members of the top three school teams in each section. Medals also for the top three individuals in each section, regardless of team affiliation. Players will not generally be paired against players from their own school. Other than that, players will be paired as in a typical NLSCA tournament. School Team scores will be calculated by adding the four highest scores of individuals from each school in that section. Schools can send as few or as many players as they like, but there must be at least three players from the school in a particular section to be considered a team. Individuals are permitted to play and are eligible to win individual medals in the usual way (i.e., top three players in each section), although they will only be eligible to win team medals if they have sufficient players from their school in the appropriate section, as described above.

Important Note to Parents
All scholastic participants must be supervised by a parent or designated guardian. Neither the Newfoundland and Labrador School Chess Association (NLSCA) nor the host school will be held responsible for the safety or behaviour of participants not actively engaged in tournament play. The responsibility of the tournament organizers will be limited to ensuring fair competition in accordance with NLSCA tournament rules. (See http://www.chess.nl.ca or the NLSCA Questions and Answers page for more information.

Congratulations to the Boys Grade 9 A Basketball Team, who won the Provincial Championship this past weekend!

Congratulations as well to the MDJH Boys Hockey Team, for defeating Crescent Collegiate 5-4 in overtime Saturday night in Whitbourne.

Way to go, Grizzlies!

MDJH students will once again have the opportunity to take part in the Student Vote program, casting their (unofficial) votes for the federal election on April 28th. This national program, run by CIVIX, encourages student engagement in politics at all levels of government. Grade 9 students will be discussing the importance of voting, the different parties and their platforms, and the perils of mis- and disinformation.

After the election, CIVIX will release the results of the student vote, and we will compare our results to the actual election outcome.