They didn’t win on Family Feud Canada, but they certainly had fun trying.
Five teachers from Bernice MacNaughton High School — Eric Matheson, Linda Touchie, Rebecca Moore, Lindsay Dominie and Steve Cormier — recently competed on the game show.
They dominated throughout the show, but in the end, lost to Avon View High School from Windsor, N.S.
But even without a Fast Money Round, they were still awarded $5,000.
Cormier says that’ll kickstart fundraising for a theatre upgrade, “So our theatre is in very, very rough shape. We’re blessed to have a theatre because most new schools don’t. So we’re trying to preserve this beautiful vintage gift that we have. It’s a huge motivation for everyone to try to raise some money.”
The theatre is from 1976, with original carpet and seats.
The cost of the renovation project is around $750,000.
“Our school will be responsible for raising about a third of that, and the district about two-thirds of that. At least we have $5,000 to get us rolling with that,” Moore stated. “ That space is really like a family room of a house for our school, that’s where we all come together. We want it to be a cozy and usable theatre, a place where we can showcase our students’ talents.”
Cormier joked that the hope is alumni might hear their plea, and give them a big donation.
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The school is still working out the details of the full fundraising plan and Ms. Touchie added they don’t know exactly what it will look like yet, ” We’re thinking we’re going to be selling some seats in the theatre and having little plaques on them. So I think that’s a place that will start there.”
As for the experience on Family Feud Canada, hundreds of students, family and friends of the teachers and school came out for a viewing party on Thursday night.
“It made me really happy to see the theatre, you know, with so many people in it. They came to watch a TV show that they could have watched at home, but instead, they came here to watch it together,” Cormier says. “It’s not like we climbed a mountain or anything like that. We made the show, that’s a big deal, but it’s not like we won the Nobel Prize. At the end of the day, we just had so many people behind us sharing posts. I had a student that I taught over 25 years ago in Port Elgin who lives in Australia, and he said, he saw a post. So it’s wonderful to know how much that ripple effect because social media just goes global.”
The school is planning to put that theatre to full use this coming December, for their first musical in several years. BMHS will present “High School Musical” from December 6th to 9th.
They’re currently casting roles, but the team says they’ll have more details to come and rehearsals will begin in the coming weeks.
(Photo: Submitted by Rebecca Moore)
(Photo:TDCB)
