Churchill High’s Class of ‘76 reuniting to search for a ‘Golden Bulldog’

Almost 50 years after graduating from a Fort Rouge high school, alumni have reunited to create a scholarship for future students of their alma mater.

Members of Collège Churchill High School’s Class of 1976 are marking a major milestone by party-planning and fundraising for a special award ahead of June.

The problem is that many of their classmates, now seniors living in Winnipeg and elsewhere, have proven unreachable, said Teresa Dodds Garside, an organizer on the high school reunion planning committee.

“It’s a lot of detective work, to be honest,” said Dodds Garside, a 67-year-old who attended Churchill High in the mid-’70s.

“Not everybody in our age group is computer-literate or fully embracing (social media). Fifty years after people graduate, it’s hard to find everybody because they’re all spread out, in more ways than one.”

A review of her Grade 12 yearbook suggests there were more than 150 graduates in her senior year.

Dodds Garside, alongside classmates she has recruited for the volunteer-run initiative, have — for the better part of the last two years — been trying to contact them all. They have used word of mouth, online platforms and, in some cases, left a letter in someone’s mailbox.

Fifteen graduates have been confirmed dead. A search for roughly half of the entire cohort is ongoing.

At the same time, the alumni group has been seeking donations to build an endowment fund in partnership with the Winnipeg Foundation.

The collective’s first phase involves unveiling the “Golden Bulldog Student Award” and recognizing their inaugural community-minded recipient at the end of the 2025-26 school year.

The award name pays tribute to the school’s sports mascot — a bulldog, a nod to Sir Winston Churchill’s wartime nickname, the British Bulldog — and the fact it is the organizers’ 50th anniversary, otherwise known as a golden anniversary.

Whereas many scholarships honour academic and athletic excellence, this one will celebrate a graduate “who exemplifies kindness, commitment and community spirit,” Dodds Garside said.

“The kid who looks around and sees who is not being included and reaches out to them and does that consistently — that’s the kid we’re interested in honouring,” said Charlotte Duggan, a fellow alum and now-retired high school teacher in Winnipeg.

Citing the numerous challenges the retiree, her colleagues and their students experienced throughout her career, Duggan said she wanted to be a part of the initiative to lift up the education community.

She said she hopes the scholarship will gain a “prestigious” reputation on the 510 Hay St. campus and all students will strive to be better neighbours to each other, as a result.

Dodds Garside said the many volunteers organizing the fund want it to “create a ripple effect.”

Coun. Sherri Rollins (Fort Rouge-East Fort Garry) has pledged $2,000, in addition to another $8,000 that will be gifted once alumni match that amount through their own fundraising efforts.

The volunteers have raised roughly $7,000. They plan to increase that sum on Wednesday evening by selling alumni-designed merchandise at the South Osborne Farmers’ Market.

Their overall target is $23,000, to ensure every teen who wins the “Goldie” receives at least $1,000 in accrued interest.

The Class of 1976 plans to create a formal Churchill High alumni association, so there is an official steward of the fund and way for all graduates of the 70-year-old school to network.

“When you talk about a high school-reunion, most people roll their eyes,” Dodds Garside said.

She acknowledged that reflecting on one’s teenage years is much more difficult for some than others.

“But I’m encouraging people to have a bit of a do-over… I am so proud of our class. We have people from all walks of life working together to get this award up and running.”

B.C.-based alum Geoff Murray, a career carpenter, offered to build the base of the trophy and transport it to Winnipeg.

The Golden Bulldogs’ website suggests the handmade award will commemorate “the spirit of” the graduating class that established it.

maggie.macintosh@freepress.mb.ca