Congratulations and a big thank-you go out to all of our Primary students who came out to put on a splendid performance on June 16th. This year, we did something very new and different for Lord Dufferin - instead of a Spring Concert with a variety show-style program, we put together a complete musical production..
It was called Wing It, a musical written by John Jacobson and John Higgins and published through the Hal Leonard Music Company. The story revolves around a family of birds. Mama and Papa Bird have four young ones but they are growing up and are finally ready to leave the nest once they learn to fly on their own. However, all four decide that the nest is far too comfortable to want to ever leave it, much to the shock and dismay of their parents. As the story develops, we find out that the real reason they don't want to fly is because they are scared to take that big leap on their own, so the whole bird community joins together to support and encourage them to just get out of their nest and 'Wing It'. It's a story about trying new things, taking healthy risks in your learning, believing in yourself, and supporting each other.
A special thanks go out to our brave and talented stage actors that put a tremendous amount of time and effort into getting the piece ready. Thank you as well to all of the Lord Dufferin staff, particularly our Primary Division staff for all their help, support, and flexibility without which, the show could never have gone ahead.
To be a little more specific, Mr. Quinlan would like to thank and recognize:
 Mr. Janusz, Ms Cunningham, Ms Suphal, Ms Evans, Ms Baltazar, Ms Miwa, Ms Seibert, and Ms Pettypiece for their patience, their flexibility and for helping their classes prepare, including getting such fabulous masks ready.
 Ms. Pettypiece for all the time and work she put into making the masks for all of the main actors on the stage.
 Ms Cindy, Ms Shaffer and Ms Parton for coming to lunchtime practices to help the students keep their focus and to offer them input and guidance to prepare them for the final performance.
 Mr. Krygier-Baum for his help with sound during the main performance, and for taking much of his time during the Primary students' music periods to help them learn their class songs.
 Ms Cindy for making the programme to distribute.
 Mr. Green, Ms Moschonissios, Ms Kathy and Ms Lucy for the help from the office and tolerating all the announcements and inquiries that come along from to day while preparing.
 Ms Skinner, Mr. Morgan, Mr. Ramsundar - the caretaking staff for all the access and help with the setting up and taking down of things.
 Mr. Aucoin and his grade five class in Room 222 for building our wonderful birds nest, which was the focal point of our set.
 Ms Gravelle and her grade five class in Room 223 for the beautiful trees that decorated our auditorium.
 The lunchroom staff and daycare staff, for putting up with what eventually became a daily interruption at lunchtime, as the various students were escorted to the practice rooms for rehearsals.
 Students in Mr. Quinlan's class who helped with many of the costumes needed, primarily the beautiful wings that lit up the stage on our main actors and for helping the younger students put on their costumes the night of the main perfornance.
 Deangela and the grade six girls from Mr. Quinlan's and Mr. Mark's classes that helped out backstage ( Delena, Tyanna, Victoria, Kulsum, Yasmin, Anisa & Jaden.)
 Mr. Marks, Mr. Talbot and Ms Weis for being flexible, which allowed Mr. Quinlan to schedule more rehearsals, particularly as the performance approached and students needed time to practise in and get used to the stage and auditorium.
 A BIG, BIG thank-you to Ms Weis for so many contributions and for all of the help and support she offered to get this production organized and ready for viewing.
...and of course, thank-you to all those parents and other members of the community who made up our audience, coming out to see our performance and show support for our primary students.
The students did exceptionally well on the stage, showing everyone all of the hard work they had put together to make this happen!
Check out the photo gallery below. More images will be added in the next couple of days.