Pillars of Strathmore

Times Reporter  

 

Three more Strathmore High School (SHS) Alumni were inducted as Pillars of Strathmore on March 26. The award, which recognizes former SHS students who have gone on to become pillars in their community, first began in 2010, but it has taken some time to get all of the first recipients honoured. 

The induction ceremony held on March 26 saw former students Robert Mark Daye, Dallas Seitz and Amanda Howard recognized for their achievements since graduating SHS. 

Mark Daye was in the 1987 graduating class, and his former teacher Art Eeles spoke about him and why he was being honoured. After leaving SHS Daye went on to study veterinary medicine, which eventually lead to his becoming a certified veterinary surgeon. Today he is the part owner, with his wife as his business partner, of the Ohio Veterinary Surgery and Neurology and the Metropolitan Veterinary Hospital. Daye performs orthopedic surgery daily and trains young surgeons to prepare them for certifications with the American College of Veterinary Surgery. 

“I was very touched and honoured to be recognized by Strathmore High School. Particularly heartwarming were the heartfelt words given by former and current teachers who presented the plaques to this first class of inductees,” said Daye.

“It meant the world to be personally inducted by a teacher and mentor I respect as much as Mr. Art Eeles. He taught with high expectations and led his classes by excellent example. 

“The Pillars of Strathmore High School is a great program and I feel very fortunate to be included in such excellent company considering how many Strathmore High School students have gone on to have amazing accomplishments.”

Amanda Howard, class of 2005, was also in attendance for the ceremony, and was presented with her plaque by her former teacher Louise Bleier. 

Howard has always been a top athlete, winning MVP for both varsity basketball and track and field while at SHS, and in 2003 was voted the SHS Female Athlete of the Year. In 2005 Howard was chosen to represent Canada as part of Team Canada Elite Softball.

After graduation from SHS, Howard went on to Oklahoma City University (OCU). In 2006 she was presented with the CoSida – the ESPN Magazine Academic Honors Award. 

During her successful softball career with Oklahoma she was part of the team that won the NAIA National Gold Championship in 2007, was named player of the year in 2009, and set two NAIA regular season records in 2009 when she hit 26 home runs and also accumulated 193 bases. After graduating from OCU with a Bachelor of Science Degree in Kinesiology and Masters of Science Degree in Health and Human Performance Howard became an ACSM Certified Personal Trainer and certified member of the Alberta Kinesiology Association. 

“I am honoured to receive such a wonderful award. Mr. Kyle Larson, Mrs. Louise Bleier, my family and many teammates throughout the years thank you for all the encouragement and support. I know I need to thank so many more people but this quote says it best, ‘it takes a village to raise a child,’” said Howard. 

The third inductee of the evening, Dallas Seitz, was unable to attend the ceremony since he is now based in London, England. His sister accepted the plaque on his behalf, which was presented by Charlotte Cummings.  

Seitz, since graduating in 1989, has gone on to become a successful artist. He attended the Juilliard School of Performing Arts in New York. He also earned a Bachelor of Arts and a Master of Arts designation. He has spent time as an artist-in-residence at the Banff Centre, and has had his work exhibited around the world. 

He currently lectures at the University of Arts London. He also continues to make and exhibit his own sculptural, video and photographic works. 

“I am very honoured to be included in the Pillars of Strathmore. Growing up in Strathmore I never really thought being an artist was going to be an option for me but having great support from family and friends and especially Charlotte Cummings, my Art and Drama teacher who was such an inspiration to me, pushed me to pursue a career in the arts,” said Seitz.

“I hope other young people in Strathmore have the support and inspiration to follow their interests no matter how challenging.”

The Pillars of Strathmore idea began with a donation from the Rodehutskors family. 

Steve Rodehutskors attended SHS when it was known as Samuel Crowther School. He had always excelled at sports and after leaving Strathmore had gone on to the University of Lethbridge. From there he attended the University of Calgary for his Bachelor of Science, and decided to give football a try, something that hadn’t been available in Strathmore when he was younger. 

Rodehutskors was a natural and was eventually drafted to the CFL as a member of the Winnipeg Blue Bombers for five seasons, where he won two Grey Cups in 1988 and 1990. He went on to play for the B.C. Lions, Toronto Argonauts and Saskatchewan Roughriders. He also attended the University of Saskatchewan from 1994 to 1998 and earned a Doctorate of Veterinary Medicine. Rodehutskors went on to set up a successful veterinary clinic that served Strathmore and area. 

It was after this that he was diagnosed with cancer, and in 2007 he lost his battle.  

A trust had been previously set up in his name to help with medical costs. After Rodehutskors passed, his family donated the funds to SHS, who then created the Pillars of Strathmore recognition award. 

Rodehutskors was the first recipient, inducted in 2010.  

“We had said then that we wanted to use it in a way to recognize outstanding achievements of graduates. Not for stuff that they had done necessarily in the building, but as pillars of whatever community they move in to after,” said SHS Associate Principal Kyle Larson.

“It is to recognize outstanding accomplishment in your chosen field and so now we’re hopeful that we will get some people who will contact us and say have you considered so and so. Our goal is to annually put up two or three, have an induction class each year of at least a couple of people that we would induct each year.

“We feel there have been a lot of former students that have moved on from here, from Strathmore High School, to become pillars in their own community or in their own profession.”

The ceremony was a heartwarming experience and was a great way to reconnect formers students and teachers. Larson said he and the other staff were pleased with how powerful of an evening it turned out to be. 

The deadline for nominations will be the end of September each year, and then the plan is to host an induction ceremony each year. 

“We would ask that if anyone is interested in nominating somebody that they contact the school or contact myself here and let us know and give us just a little bit of background and how we could contact these people,” said Larson.