Iona Academy Wins OCSTA Community Builders Video Contest

The Ontario Catholic School Trustees’ Association announced the finalists for the Community Builders video contest at the OCSTA Annual Catholic Trustees Seminar on January 20. The contest challenged Ontario Catholic schools to demonstrate how their Catholic school community helps and supports those in need.

Iona Academy Catholic School placed first in the province in the elementary category. The video was shown to Board members at the February 19 meeting. Iona Academy principal David McLeod, teacher Donna Sturkenboom-Poirier attended the meeting to speak about the project, along with students Chad Watson and Annie Bacchiochi. This is the second year the school has won the OCSTA province-wide contest.

“It began as a contest and a media literacy project in our class, and we were asked to make a video,” began Annie Bacchiochi. “Once the videos were complete, the teachers got together and chose the winning video.”

“The teachers thought that two of the videos were exceptional, and so the two winning groups came together to create this winning video,” explained Chad Watson.

Board Chair, and OCSTA Regional Director Todd Lalonde noted, “It is apparent that a great amount of work ethic and effort went into producing this video, and we are so proud of the accomplishments of this school, and for again being recognized provincially for all of their hard work.”

Vice-Chair Ron Eamer expressed his gratitude, “The first time we saw this video we were 300 people in a hall in Toronto at the OCSTA conference, and we were pretty proud! It’s an amazing job that you do, and to win two years in a row is outstanding.”