|
Fall 2011
What a busy and exciting weekend! This year’s Stanstead College Homecoming coincided with the official opening of the Pat Burns Arena. While we were outside cheering on the senior boys and girls soccer squads as they shut out visiting BCS, every now and then another cheer would erupt through the walls of the nearby arena.
“Cheers” as well to everyone in Stanstead for making this arena project such a success. Countless hours have gone into fundraising, profile raising and “barn-raising.” But unlike our old arena, this is no barn; this is hands-down one of the brightest, cleanest, most comfortable public arenas around.
All this hard work culminated in the weekend opening, with a sold-out dinner/dance featuring the musical reunion of The Volcanoes from the fifties, a popular oldtimers’ game between Sher-Estrie over-60 team versus the Classic Border Jets, and finally Sunday’s official opening.
 |
| Mr. Wolfe participates in the puck drop with Line Burns, Henri Richard, MNA Pierre Reid and Guy Carbonneau. |
And what an opening! We were all pleased and touched to have so many members of Pat Burns’ family on hand. The standing ovation for Line Burns was certainly well deserved. This was followed by something I certainly won’t forget – a match between Stanstead locals (including yours truly) and the Montreal Canadiens Alumni, a real crowd-pleaser of a game. A huge thanks to the Canadiens who donated their time and generously made themselves available for photos and autographs, really making Sunday’s opening something special. Another highlight for me was visiting with and playing against former Spartan Martin Lafleur (Class of 1993). It was great to see him back on campus.
After all the celebration and the press attention, the border community and the College now have a superb 12-month ice facility at their disposal. I’m looking forward to our first Stanstead Invitational Senior Boys Hockey Tournament in early January, followed by the NAPHA playoffs here at home, where the girls will hopefully again capture the league championship.
If you haven’t visited the Pat Burns Arena yet, I hope you’ll get a chance to do so. I think like me you’ll be impressed.
Michael Wolfe
Headmaster
|
