Willow Road Public School celebrated its fiftieth anniversary on May 8 with their founding principal who helped design the school before it was created in 1968.
Staff and students from previous years met with their old teachers to connect with those they once went to school with.
The school’s current staff wore t-shirts that read the school’s motto ‘Believe’ on them as students held tours around the school for visitors with food trucks parked outside the school to celebrate.
The library held archives of old t-shirts, yearbooks and artifacts that date back to 1968 when the school first opened its doors.
“It’s great to be back home,” said founding principal Carl Leybourne as he was greeted with cheers, applause and a standing ovation from the audience at the gym assembly.
Leybourne was employed by the school before the building was even constructed. He had a large responsibility to design the school along with the architect of the building.
He says it was the first school designed as a senior organization in the city of Guelph county of Wellington.
“I think back to 50 years, eight months ago Sept. 3, 1968, I stood here. There was no stage there was nothing behind me, there was a concrete floor, there were a few lights and I talked to 650 students and got them welcomed to Willow Road Senior School,” said Leybourne.
Some of the things he worked on with the architect were wide quarters for rotary classes, double gyms so classes could be combined, a stage with access to both a gym and a hallway and an electrical partition.
Leybourne continued to say it is ultimately the people that allow one to experience the greatness of the school.
“You can't have a school with bricks and stones without having the people that lead within this school. I see many here and I commend you for doing a super job,” said Leybourne.
Former staff met with the current staff to and reminisced about the past and signed the memory book that shared stories from the past.
Former 1968 student Judy Dobberthien said she came to the reunion and was able to meet her grade eight teacher, Mr. Townsend.
"Felt really nice seeing him. He's a really nice guy," said Dobberthien.
"I grew up in a family of 9 kids. The rest of my family came here."
Current principal Steve Viveiros said when he looks back at the archives of the school’s photo’s he sees a lot of similarities.
“The space is different and the teaching is different but the experience is really the same,” said Viveiros.
