Dear Collingwood School Community

Yesterday at the Morven campus there was much more in the air than the customary December rain. There was excitement, anticipation and purpose. We celebrated the beginning of construction on the new Morven with a fun event we called "Extreme Make Over - School Edition", and we officially launched the Capital Campaign which will help realize it. 

The good ship Collingwood has been on the voyage to upgrade Morven for quite some time. We've navigated some pretty choppy waters and although there is still much work to be done, particularly in fund raising, it was wonderful to reflect on how far we've come and how rosy our future will be. At the event we had a chance to acknowledge and introduce our Architects, our Builders, our Bankers, our Project Manager, and the many Governors and Collingwood staff who have been driving and shaping this initiative for almost 2 years. The Head Boy, Adam Wray, the Head Girl, Hailey Reeves, and a grade 6 student, Jaclyn Holtby, spoke very movingly about the positive impact these new facilities will have on our students. 

We also seized the moment to focus on the urgent need to achieve our capital fund raising goals in order to secure and complete the project by September 2014. John O'Neill, the Chair of Building Excellence: The Campaign for Collingwood took the opportunity to call to action the entire School Community in reaching our goal of $10 million. He explained that everyone - current families, faculty and staff, alumni and alumni families - will have an opportunity to make a gift at a level that makes sense for them. We will be taking the time to visit all of our families face-to-face and inviting them to help us build our legacy. He ended with the exciting news that we've already secured $2.3 million from some lead gifts. We are well on our way. 

Please keep an eye out for our first Campaign newsletter which should hit the news stands (do they still exist?) in January. 

Cheers and good wishes  -- Rodger