SAMS Staff and students gathered June 16th to celebrate the year and unfortunately to say goodbye to some long-serving staff.
The athletic awards were presented first. Winning most improved male and female athlete for 2017 were Andrew Stewart and Cela Jones. Rhys Nygaard and Hannah Le Bouder took home the Most Sportsmanlike male and female trophies. Boys and Girls Basketball MVPs were Jim Tallio and Taija Edgar respectively with Jordan Tuck and Lauren Harrison winning similar MVP awards for soccer. Normally, athlete of the year goes to one student but this year it went to both Ezra Mecham and Breagha Koroluk.
Trinity Mack, who will be representing Bella Coola and SAMS at the upcoming North American Indigenous Games in Toronto in a few weeks, was the recipient of the Parent Advisory Council Citizenship Award for Grade 8 while the Tina Nygaard Citizenship Award for Grade 9 went to Orenda George. Breagha Koroluk won the Parent Advisory Council Citizenship Award for Grade 10. Shayden Younker, who is heavily involved with the Child Youth Health Substance Abuse Local Community Action Team, was named Parent Advisory Council Citizen for Grade 11. Rhys Nygaard took home the citizenship award for the Alternate Program.
The Charlie Endicott Science Award was given to Grade 12 student Samuel Stewart while Jordan Tuck won the Humanities Award and the T.R. Loosmore top academic student award. The top math award named for Ed Nash and the Scott Svisdahl Citizenship award were both won by Lauren Harrison.
Music awards for the past school year were won by: Mallory Hans (Bella Coola Co-op Award), Finn Carlson (Parent Advisory Council Achievement in Music), and Breagha Koroluk (The Laverne Macdonald Music Award).
The Nusatsum Elementary Art award was given to Sadie Gunderson. Kyle Doiron took home the NES Mathematics Award. Meanwhile, the most Improved NES student was Catalina Schooner. The NES Academic Achievement Award was given to Ruby Ratcliff and Finn Carlson was the recipient of the Delmar Solhjell Award given to the best all-around NES student.
Samuel Stewart was the winner of the Royal Canadian Legion Bursary.
SAMS students and staff also said a heartfelt goodbye to several staff members. After thirteen years, James Mack Sr. is hanging up his carving tools. Also departing is Mr. Rushton after five years of service to SAMS. He, his wife Katie, their two daughters and numerous dogs and cats are heading east to their home province of Ontario.
Last but not least, even the greats retire eventually. The staff and students bid a tearful farewell to Mrs. Marlyn Cherry who retires after thirty-four years of faithful service to the students of School District #49. We all wish her well in a well-deserved retirement.