— SCHOOL BURNS DOWN — Disaster struck on Saturday morning, March 20,1954. Stella Maris School went up in flames. An entry from the annals of the Stella Maris Convent give the following account: "At 5:20 a.m. the ringing of the church bell awakened us. We were stunned! For days after the fire, we seemed to be walking in an awful nightmare but the bleak-looking sight across the way spoke only too vividly of the reality. "In less than an hour our beloved school had burned, with everything it contained as if it were just a house of cardboard. We stood look¬ ing utterly helpless in our misery!' Eric MacEwen recalls the time the Stella Maris School burned down — he was in Grade III at the time. His home was near where the arena is situated. Eric writes: "It's funny the things you remember from your childhood, especially those that make the most impression. Like the night the school burn¬ ed down. For me, the adventure began at 8 a.m. on that Saturday morning, March 20th/1954. Now, a Saturday morning brings a welcome feeling at any age, but none more so than when, as a school kid, you realize upon awakening that you have no school that day. Nothing to worry about, only fun to face the whole day ahead. As I walked downstairs to a warm kitchen, I was greeted by a nervous mother who told me to sit down and make sure I had my breakfast before I set foot outside the house. I sat down to the kitchen table and glanced outside to see what kind of day was in store. Something strange was happening. There were huge black flakes falling to the ground. I immediately fired off a string of questions to my mother and grandmother who eventually admitted to me that during the night the school had caught fire. I also learned that all the men in the village, my grandfather Wally Pursey included, had spent most of the night fighting it. With this news I was gone like a shot. It was a perfectly still morn¬ ing and the air smelled of smoke while all around pieces of soot and ashes were floating to the ground. Arriving at the bottom of the school hill, I could see smoke billowing from what was left of the four storey structure. The village was galvanized into action. All around me, men were busy dousing the nearby homes and the Convent with water in an effort to keep the fire from spreading. Half- frightened, half-excited, I stared at the flaming, smoking remains 32