It was a gathering of the community on July 29 for the sod turning for the next phase of development for the future home of Emmanuel Christian High School.
Board chair Andrew Westrik said he was pleased to see the size of the crowd gathered to support the project.
In addition to the families of past, present and future students, Westrik saw “community members excited at the possibility of this grand old beauty once again becoming a school.”
Guests included Centre Wellington’s acting mayor Steven VanLeeuwen (in Mayor Kelly Linton’s absence), councillors Mary Lloyd and Fred Morris, and Wellington-Halton Hills MP Michael Chong.
Westrik said for many years, there has been a desire for a suitable home for the staff and students of the high school.
In February 2005, Emmanuel Christian High School was officially established and incorporated to create a place students could finish their high school education in a Christian environment.
“Even 10 years ago there was a desire to have a building of our own. Throughout the past years Maranatha Christian School on Garafraxa Street has been our home. We outgrew our quarters some years ago and the search for a new home was earnest.”
The decision to purchase the Tower Street property in Fergus was made on April 16, 2014 and $3.5 million has been raised in pledges with shovels now ready to go, noted Westrik.
Property committee chair John Endeman quipped that when he got onto his second term on the high school board he thought the position of property chair would be easy because it was renting space from Maranatha.
“Then our society decided to buy this … and things changed. I knew we needed to have a good team – and without them we wouldn’t be at this point,” Endeman said.
He added the preliminary drawings were important to determine what the teachers needed “… and how we would do that on budget.”
Sheldon Creek Development was hired for the construction work.
The expectation is that the facility will open its doors in September 2016.
Lloyd said “on behalf of the Township of Centre Wellington, congratulations. You have forged into the future with a braveness of heart, and soul, and mind.”
She said those behind the project “are building upon a something constructed in 1927 as a high school for the community to a high school for your community.”
(Editor’s note: The cornerstone of the building was laid during construction in 1927, but the ceremonial opening was in 1928.)
Chong congratulated the group’s commitment to education and noted it has a long history in the community following the Second World War.
“Initially your institutions were not as strong as they are today, but through the decades you first built primary schools, and now you are moving to the next phase building even larger institutions – with a brand new separate and distinct high school,” said Chong.
He added a quote from Winston Churchill who once said “we shape our buildings and thereafter they shape us.”
“May this stone building behind us serve the reform community as it served the previous community for the next one hundred years.”
Chong added, “Let us count our blessings for the peaceful land we live in, where we can not only practice our religion in freedom but educate our children in the way we wish.”
