January 2009

Merry Christmas, All!  I hope the Season finds you well and in good spirits.  It’s been a great year and I am very excited about the coming year.  My wife and I are eagerly awaiting the arrival of our second child, due in late February.  And my daughter is pretty excited to be a big sister, although she only really understands that the baby is coming after Santa.

And with that comes a turning of the page for the VCAA.  On the arrival of baby number two, I will be stepping down from the President’s role in order to be able to focus on family matters.  After 12 years, the last 4 as President, it’s time.  I have always been proud of my association with Vancouver College and will be taking many cherished memories with me.

There are many people I would like to acknowledge, so please indulge me for a moment or two.  First and foremost, of course, is my wife whose support and encouragement kept me going.  Second, all of the alumni board members, both past and present, that I have had the pleasure to work with – an outstanding group of individuals who gave/give their time with the best of intentions for the benefit of the VC Community.  John Nixon whose dedication and sacrifice kept this school going and then got to see the school’s renaissance.  You left a brilliant legacy.  Br. Anthony Murphy, a man of deep faith who also worked tirelessly for the betterment of the school.  Dave Hardy, a keen administrator and a steady hand to guide the ship.  And also helped to develop a new appreciation for Saskatchewan!  Bruce Jagger who oversaw the creation of the Vancouver College Millennium Foundation and in its first years help raise over $8 million.  Bruce was also one of the creators of the VC Alumni Sports Hall of Fame that evolved into the VC Hall of Honour.  Kim Findlay who has done a fantastic job in expanding the scope of the Millennium Foundation.  Kim was always available to discuss ideas and provide support.   And the assistants, Charlotte Koehler, Kathy Plant (“Can I book a room for next Tuesday?”), and Margaret Voseen.

We are working on a transition plan and I am positive that the Alumni Association is in good hands and will continue to flourish.  As always, I encourage you to come out to an event, get involved, stay connected.

As a last note, in the time that I have been involved in the VCAA the unofficial motto has always been “we are a fun-raising organization not a fund-raising organization”.  We believe that it is important that there is one organization in the community that doesn’t have its hand out and I have maintained this through my Presidency.  But while we have a social mandate, we are there to support the other branches of the VC Community in their efforts.  And I do believe that it is up to us, all alumni, to support the school.  Our parents sacrificed to send us to VC and it was at VC that we developed the skills and character that have brought us to our places in life.  For that we owe a debt to VC.  In the last issue of the Irish Review, the VCMF acknowledged all of the past year donors.  Of over $2 million raised, I was disappointed to see that barely 1% came from alumni.  We can do better than that and I encourage you to contact the VCMF to see how you can help.

In closing, this isn’t a complete break.  There are still a couple of initiatives that I will stay involved in and I hope to see many of you at upcoming events.

Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night.

Semper Fidelis

Steve Eivemark ’89

VCAA President      

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June 2008 

Seeing as how it is June, I’d like to welcome the ’08 Class as the latest batch of graduates into the Alumni.  You leave this school with energy and enthusiasm and the ability to choose your course.  Which ever path you take, I know you will make us proud.

In April, the Ho family suffered an immense tragedy of which you can read about on the school website.  I am only just starting my journey as a father and I do not know how I would cope.  I extend my deepest sympathies to the family and continue to pray for Mitchell.

On a different note, and by no means on the same level, the Alumni Basketball Tournament was canceled due to low registrations.  Given the tradition that has been established, I’m not sure why but I hope that it’s just some quirk of timing.  I’d like to thank all of the organizers for their hard work and I am looking forward to bringing it back stronger than ever next year.

On the plus side of the ledger, the May Fair seemed to be a huge success.  The rain held off, the crowd was huge, the raffle had some amazing prizes, and my daughter loved the bouncy rides.  The Alumni Football game turned in a hard fought edition with victory reclaimed by the Veterans – I hope the players had fun and bring out a buddy next year.

You’ll also notice that our website is live again.  It’s still a bit raw but Pat Nixon ’02 would be pretty angry if I didn’t give it a plug – vcalumni.com.  It’s an important communication channel and we hope to get lots of content up as soon as possible.  Check it out.  Send us your comments, let us know what you’d like to see added or changed.

And congratulations, one again, to the school for achieving top marks in the Fraser Institute’s Report Card on Secondary Schools.

This past little stretch has seen some ups and downs.  I re-read this article just before signing off and noticed that I used the word “hope” quite a bit.  It’s a powerful word and speaks of better days.  I often speak of Vancouver College as a Community and that has real meaning to me.  A community comes together and shares in successes, tragedies, failures, and grows stronger together from these shared experiences.

Students, Parents, Faculty, Alumni – we are Vancouver College.

Semper Fidelis

Till Next Time
Steve Eivemark ‘89
VCAA - President

P.S. Thank you to my good friend, Gord Ryznar ’89, for pointing out my grammar mistakes in all my messages. 

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April 2008 

Spring has sprung and there’s no time to shake off the winter blahs!

There is a full sleight of events this spring and definitely something for everyone.  Just past is the 20 Years in a Row reunion event.  20 years!  My year was the first year this program was launched and I can remember the struggle they had to get it off the ground.  Now we’ve got national champions!  Also, just past is our very first Alumni Hockey game which sounds like it generated quite a bit of buzz.  Hopefully we’ll hear more about these two events in the next issue.  Have a look at the Upcoming Events listing as well as some of the event ads in throughout the site.

We are making a call for nominations for the VC Hall of Honour.  If you’ve been by the school recently and seen the new wing, The Hall of Honour is located just outside the new gym and high performance fitness centre (incidentally the VCAA is proud to have donated some of the equipment located in the fitness centre).  The Hall looks great and there are some amazing individuals in there.  But it is time to add some more.  This is a really important process and we are asking for your help. We know there are some outstanding people out there and we want to hear about them.  Take some time to nominate a fellow alumnus.

Some personnel changes on the board.  Taylor Biggar ’96, after serving for about 4 years, has stepped down to focus some more time on his other interest.  We have recently welcomed Patrick Nixon ’02 on to the board.  If you recognize the name, he is John Nixon’s son.  Patrick will be giving our website (http://www.vcalumni.com) some much needed attention, so hopefully we’ll have it up and running again soon.  Even more recently we welcomed aboard Bob Estey ’76, Peter Fahrmann ’90, and Greg Smyth ’90.  All three have sons in VC.  We are looking forward to integrating them into the group and getting them set up in areas of their interest.

Till Next Time
Steve Eivemark ‘89
VCAA - President

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Sept 26, 2006

Man that Summer flew by. I remember when Summers used to stretch on for what seemed like an eternity. Fall is here and while September usually still has some warm days (cross your fingers for the upcoming Golf Tournament), it won’t be long before we break out the sweaters and the hot cocoa.

For all the boys, this represents the start of another school year and for those entering Grade 12, the Last! For all of us Alumni, this is simply the beginning of another Fall. But hey, Ski Season is just around the corner.

So the school year is shaping up to be pretty busy with lots of events planned over the next 10 months starting off with the First Annual Alumni Home Coming event on September 16 and wrapping up in June with another first, the First Annual Alumni Fishing Derby (does everything have to have such a long title?). There is pretty much something for everybody this year. Check out the Upcoming Events schedule in this, and future issues, and keep an eye on the website, vcalumni.com, for more details.

On another note, in June we presented the Br. JP Rowland Memorial award to Anthony Aldaba for being accepted into a program of study for religious vocation. Anthony is the second recipient of this award in two years, the first being Pablo Santa Maria Watson. Vancouver College hasn’t produced consecutive religious order initiates in quite some time. This is truly something for the VC Community to be proud. Join me in wishing them the greatest success in the service of God.

I’ll wrap it up with my usual appeal. We are always looking for more volunteers to help out. If you’re looking for an excuse to get out of the house, I’m sure I can find something for you to do.

Till Next Time
Steve Eivemark ‘89
VCAA - President