Pinecrest

Each fall, the new Grade 9 TOPS students visit Pinecrest, a YMCA camp in the scenic Muskokas. Besides enjoying themselves to the utmost, students go through leadership, trust and group activities. With the assistance of teachers and a few senior students who come along on the trip, the Grade Nines have their first experiences together as a group, beginning their integration into the program. While at Pinecrest, many students meet new friends; friends they will spend the next four years of their academic and social lives with. Together, they approach the challenges presented to them as a team: encouraging peers on high ropes courses, untangling human knots, creating group skits and even teaming up on the seniors and trouncing them in a game of Ultimate Frisbee. The people who come back from Pinecrest are a tightly knit group who support each other and continually succeed beyond any expectation socially and academically.

Pinecrest Leadership Opportunities

The Pinecrest retreat does not only provide an opportunity for the new TOPS students to bond with one another, but also provides some of the older students with an leadership opportunity. The younger students are always accompanied by seniors who act as camp councilors, mediators or catalysts in the group. They are also responsible for the welcome activities that occur on the final night. When they have returned to the school, these seniors also provide the bridge between the new TOPS students and the older grades, helping to bring them into the close-knit community that the program has become.

Seniors being seniors