Ground-breaking on new arts, activity centre

By Jesse Heffring

A rainy day could not put a damper on the festivities surrounding Summit School breaking ground on its ambitious new Creative Arts and Physical Activity Centre. It was a wonderful and hopeful atmosphere in the gym, where students, donors, community members and staff gathered to celebrate the beginning of a new era at Summit. And that’s quite something, since the school has been around for 60 years!

This new Centre will be a place where a new generation of neurodiverse youth can have access to the resources they need to thrive. Summit has a wide array of students with many diagnoses, cultural and socio-economic backgrounds. This leads to a dynamic social environment, which will only become more so with the addition of a complex that will house a full-size gym, workout centre, dance studio, art room, media studio and music room.

The festivities began with a class of young students singing “Heigh, Ho, It’s Off to Work We Go” and ended with an emotional speech by Sam Lewis, a Summit School alumnus whose life was changed by the arts programming at Summit. The school has put on original plays that have shown on the Segal and Centaur stages. Recently, Summit collaborated with Geordie Theatre in the production of Other Worlds (see p. 39). And, in December you can see Summit alumna Stephanie Torriani in a professional production at the Centaur Theatre titled Extra/Beautiful/U.

After a tour of the school and a view of the construction already underway, guests were treated to a delicious lunch provided by the Summit Bistro.

Jesse Heffring is the director of Development at Summit School.