Last Thursday, Burlington Central students took a school-sanctioned afternoon off to hang out in the sun, play games, listen to live music, and race their friends through an inflatable obstacle course, as they participated in Dare To Be You(th)’s (DTBY) first-ever Play Day Festival. Community and social connections were made, a much-needed rekindling as they are still dealing with the aftermath of the pandemic.
Hundreds of students from grades 7 to 12 flooded the sports field just past noon, though some people had been there for hours, getting everything set up: DTBY’s Shannon Tobin, volunteers from SB Partners, who were there for an all-staff community day, and musician C.J. Hinds (“Our tech support!” said Tobin. “This wouldn’t have happened without him.”), and event sponsor Karl Wulf Real Estate. Tobin describes Play Day as a way of bringing students, teachers, and community partners together, to give the students a much-needed day of fun, and, ultimately, to build community.
Central teacher Robert Radway was the event’s champion at the school, having brought 150 Central students to DTBY’s Youth Inspire Community Day last year. Radway explained that “those fun days we used to have, they all disappeared with COVID.” So when he heard about the idea of the Play Day Festival, originally conceived by Hinds four years ago, he was all in.
Radway was also excited to welcome the two bands that performed for the students at Play Day, Harm & Ease and the Regulars — nearly all of whom are Central grads (Harm & Ease’s John Goodblood is the exception). “The Regulars graduated in 2020 and Harm and Ease in 2012,” he said.
While DTBY organized the event, Burlington Central High School’s student and athletic councils played an integral role — they were in charge of the games available for their peers to play (a wheelbarrow race, a hula-hooping contest, and a sack race), the ticket sales (which all went towards putting on the event), and promoting the event to all of the students.
Solai, Riddhi, and Shrika of the student council and Sanvi from the athletic council said the work was a joint effort between the groups, something they wanted to do to have fun and make community connections. Maya and Agamya, who also serve on the student council, reiterated the community connection piece. Added Agamya, “It’s a great way to get into the swing of things after COVID.” Later, teacher Oliver Lucas (supply-teaching at Central last week), also commented on the social and community aspect of learning post-pandemic: “If I can teach anything post-pandemic, it’s the social [piece] that’s most important.”
The student and athletic councils have been hard at work for this event since that first week back at school in September. Student council Prime Minister Deena said that since this was the first time Central had done anything like this, there had been “lots of excitement…a lot of people wanted to come.” Deputy Prime Minister Rithik added that the bands were a big part of the lure of Play Day: “There is a lot of musical talent at our school, so music is an interest of many” of their peers.
And how did the Regulars and Harm & Ease feel about their homecoming?
For the Regulars, who graduated three years ago, it was “nice to come back.” It was especially familiar to Aleks Jurcev and David Castano, who have known each other since Mrs. Garvey’s grade 2 class at Burlington Central Elementary school.
It’s been a bit longer for Harm & Ease — just over a decade since graduation — so perhaps not surprising that Harm & Ease co-founder and singer Rylan Whalen described being back on school grounds as “a bit surreal.” Some of their connections go back even before Central: drummer Alex Hamnett greeted his former teacher Jodie Schnurr (now vice principal at Craig Kielburger Secondary in Milton) — Schnurr noted that she used to teach with Hamnett’s mother, and has known Hamnett “since he was tiny.”
Play Day succeeded in its mission, by all measures: students were smiling and laughing together, challenging each other on the inflatable obstacle course and other games, and those all-important connections were both made and re-made.
