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School spirit alive at Bluffton School

As a big yellow school bus departed Oct. 19 from Bluffton School, a weary but excited group of Student Leadership Team members
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Students greeted: Students are greeted with a Candy Shop in Nanton at the ALSC conference. Pictured are Rebecca Lohmann

Submitted by Cheryl Rallison, student leadership advisor

As a big yellow school bus departed Oct. 19 from Bluffton School, a weary but excited group of Student Leadership Team members were bound for Nanton for the Alberta School Leadership Conference. The bus driver, a student’s grandpa, volunteered his time for the journey.

The first stop was Tim Horton’s in Red Deer where the girls decided a flash mob is needed at 8 a.m. to cheer up the fellow weary-eyed travellers. It was then off to Nanton, where the next two days would be full of learning and fun, and a lot of cheers. Their fearless leader, Cheryl Rallison, and parent volunteer, Karen Boyes, slept with them on a classroom floor, but the girls’ excitement could not be contained.

Breakout sessions in the theme of Leadership is Sweet, inspired many ideas, and there were guest speakers Ian Tyson and Stu Saunders. Students from around the province gathered in Nanton to learn initiatives to take back to their school to bolster school spirit. By the time Saturday afternoon came, it was hard to leave all the new friends from around the province but a stop at the Candy Store in Nanton got the girls back on the bus. There was one final flash mob at the Sylvan Lake Tim Hortons, and we had one inspired, energized student leadership team.

Some of the ideas from the conference are already at work at Bluffton School, including a Random Acts of Kindness program. A special thank you to all the work of the school staff and students at JT Foster in Nanton for a great conference with memories these students will have for a lifetime.