St. Joseph’s turns 150

By 
  • October 12, 2013

TORONTO - One of Toronto’s oldest Catholic schools, St. Joseph Catholic Elementary School, is celebrating a century and a half of shaping the lives of the children of Leslieville in the city’s east end.

It all kicks off on Oct. 18 with an alumni meet and greet from 6 to 11 p.m. at St. Joseph’s Parish Hall just steps away from the school.

“Basically people can come in, put on a name tag and chat with people they went to school with back in the day,” said principal Jim McGee.

The following morning at 10 a.m. a special Mass will be celebrated by Bishop William McGrattan. From there a procession, led by students carrying the school’s recently restored statue of St. Joseph, will travel towards the schoolyard. McGee hopes McGrattan will re-consecrate the school and community to the protection of St. Joseph.

During the afternoon will be an open house and that evening alumni make their way to the Royal Canadian Legion on Pape Avenue for a dinner and a dance.

Pulling all of this together wasn’t easy, said Terry Brackett, chair of the St. Joseph’s 150th Anniversary Committee. But seeing the expressions on people’s faces and hearing them reminisce about their time at St. Joseph’s makes it all worthwhile to Brackett.

“It just brings so much joy to people,” she said. “It just brings back a lot of memories that people just feel good about... It is just a wonderful trip going back.”

Brackett said her time there with the Sisters of St. Joseph who ran the school at the time left a permanent and positive impression.

“I always had a good example from the teachers there,” she said. “A lot of them stood out in my memory as setting a good example of what life could be compared to the life that I was brought up in. I came from a very poor family and I remember one teacher tutoring me for absolutely nothing and being very kind.”

Brackett is the mother of three alumni and the grandmother of a current student.

Brackett is far from the only person who was shaped by their time at the school.

“All the people that I do know, all the pockets, do wrap around my foundation from St. Joseph’s,” said Paul Crawford, manager of the archdiocese of Toronto’s supply and services department. “I met my best friend there, Fr. Des Rainey.”

Although Crawford looks back on the friendships, it is the connection to God and the Church which warms his heart the most.

“My whole involvement with the Church down the road is because of the foundation I got there,” said Crawford, a Knights of Columbus and former Catholic school trustee. “It has never stopped and that is the beautiful thing. I always see St. Joesph’s as my home.

“There is a feeling that you are coming home again. It is just a wonderful feeling.”

Please support The Catholic Register

Unlike many media companies, The Catholic Register has never charged readers for access to the news and information on our website. We want to keep our award-winning journalism as widely available as possible. But we need your help.

For more than 125 years, The Register has been a trusted source of faith-based journalism. By making even a small donation you help ensure our future as an important voice in the Catholic Church. If you support the mission of Catholic journalism, please donate today. Thank you.

DONATE