Twin Lakes Secondary School (TLSS) is celebrating its 50th anniversary this weekend.
Principal Julie Richardson says it’s a “momentous event” and the first anniversary celebration of any kind at the school in 25 years.
“We want to celebrate this amazing school, history, and, most importantly, the thousands of students, and staff who have passed through Twin Lakes over these past 50 years,” she said.
This weekend, it’s expected that upwards of 800 former students will pass through the school.
"Twin Lakes has been a hub in the community for 50 years and the importance of community connections has only grown since the pandemic,” Richardson said. “We have so many members of the community as well as past alumni and students who have come forward with great enthusiasm to be involved in this momentous event.”
Today, there is an open house at the school until 3 p.m., during which alumni are invited to play in exhibition sporting events and take part in music jam sessions.
“It truly is such a very special experience to witness people return after almost 50 years to see a place which holds so many memories and where they spent such formative years,” Richardson said. “I am honoured to be able to participate in this event and to have Twin Lakes now make up a very special chapter in my own life.”
Chief of Rama First Nation and TLSS alumni, Ted Williams, spoke at the open house on Saturday morning. He shared with former and present students a story about how his former geography teacher, Jim McKean, became a mentor to him and helped turn his life around.
“He gave me a chance,” he said. “He gave me three chances, but during the last chance he gave me, he did what was probably the best thing that he could have done, which was encourage and support me.”
Williams says it’s because of individuals like McKean that so many Twin Lakes students have gone on to do great things.
To the surprise of everybody in the audience, Simcoe County District School Board (SCDSB) trustee and board chair Jodi Lloyd presented Williams, who finished high school just one credit short, with his high school diploma.
The gesture, which had everyone in the audience fighting back tears during the presentation, was done through a Prior Learning Assessment and Recognition. The evaluation done by the SCDSB is a credit-granting process where students can obtain credits for prior learning.
“This is just one example of what my colleagues did for the students here,” McKean said. “That’s why I’m so proud to be a member of the former staff at Twin Lakes Secondary School.”
Larry Radzio and David Potter, who graduated from TLSS in 1979, returned for the celebration on Saturday morning.
“This has been a great little get-together," Potter said. “Physically you don’t recognize people, and they don’t recognize us either, but getting to know what people have been doing and reconnecting has been great.”
The two 62-year-olds say their time at the Birch Street school — now Orillia's oldest — were some of the best times of their life.
“I moved up here from Toronto during high school, and at that time I was struggling with my grades,” he said. “I came to Twin, it was a brand-new school at the time, and my grades suddenly skyrocketed.”
Radzio credits the teachers at Twin Lakes for motivating him to finish his high school career on a positive note.
Potter says back in the day, TLSS had a different philosophy than other schools.
“I remember the principal of the school would always talk about change by evolution, not revolution,” he recalled. “I think what we learned here was how to work the system and make change from within.”
