Lots of familiar faces coming to town

We've got lots of coverage this week for the upcoming Ancaster High 50 Years of Royalty reunion.

More than 1,700 people will attend the May 8-10 anniversary weekend, including some familiar faces like CTV Newsnet Primetime anchor Marcia MacMillan and Canadian football great Bob Cameron.

Also watch for our special 50 Years of Royalty pull-out section appearing in this week's paper.

Here's a peak at my feature on CTV News anchors Marcia MacMillan and Sarah Galashan. Interestingly enough, Marcia and Sarah only recently discovered they are both Ancaster High alumni. Marcia graduated in 1989 and Sarah started Grade 9 in 1990, so they never crossed paths. Marcia plans to attend the reunion weekend. Sarah now lives in the Whistler B.C. area and can't attend, but she offered me her comments for the story.

From Ancaster to the world

She’s journeyed around the world and into your home on a nightly basis.
Millions of Canadians get their news from Marcia MacMillan, an Ancaster High School graduate and anchor of CTV Newsnet Primetime.
Ms. MacMillan is one of two Ancaster graduates now working as a CTV News anchor. Sarah Galashan is Whistler bureau chief for CTV British Columbia.
Sometimes the news is powerful and uplifting. It can also be shocking and saddening.
On Feb. 12, Ms. MacMillan awoke from a deep sleep to learn a plane had crashed in a Buffalo suburb, killing 44 passengers, four crew members, an off-duty pilot and one bystander.
Ms. MacMillan immediately got out of bed and went back to work providing live coverage from 2-7 a.m.
“My producer was still wearing his pyjama top,” she recalled in an e-mail exchange. “I was deeply saddened by that story. It’s close to home and it just seemed brutally unfair.”
Ms. MacMillan is much more than a news reader. On a typical work day, her shift begins at 2 p.m. with a hair and makeup session – a television necessity. She attends an evening editorial meeting to discuss the day’s top stories and interview opportunities. Newsnet Primetime offers a recap of the day’s top stories with additional analysis and perspective. To stay on top of new developments, Ms. MacMillan listens to the news at home and in the car. She’s also an avid newspaper reader.
“Before we hit the air at 6 p.m., I do research for my interviews, work on questions and go over the copy of the show,” Ms. MacMillan explained. “Despite some popular belief, the anchors at CTV are working journalists who are heavily involved in the content of the news. We are not just news readers!”
Ms. MacMillan has also entered dangerous territory in search of a story. She arrived in New Orleans last September just ahead of Hurricane Gustav. The city was a ghost town and Ms. MacMillan had no idea what to expect.
“Fortunately, Gustav was not nearly as deadly as forecast but it opened my eyes to a new reality,” she recalled.
Like millions of people around the world, Ms. MacMillan was moved by the historic election of U.S. President Barack Obama. She’s always saddened by the loss of Canadian troops in Afghanistan. Looking ahead, she can’t wait to cover the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver.
When the world comes to Canada, Sarah Galashan will interact with the athletes in Whistler. By next winter the resort town will be transformed with an athletes’ village, and new venues for skiing, luge and bobsled.
Since graduating from Ancaster High in 1995, Ms. Galashan has spent most of her career in Western Canada, as a CTV bureau chief in Calgary and Whistler.
As an Ancaster High student, Ms. Galashan enjoyed media arts. She recalls a writers’ craft course taught by Ms. Bean that offered her first introduction to journalism.
“I had a really great high school experience,” Ms. Galashan said in a telephone interview. “I was on student council and that was fun.”
Motivated by her outgoing personality, Ms. Galashan participated in several school musicals such as Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat and the Wizard of Oz, when she played a witch.
After high school, Ms. Galashan went to the University of British Columbia for Canadian studies. She worked for the UBC student newspaper and applied for newspaper jobs across the country.
“Journalism just sounded exciting to me,” Ms. Galashan said.
But aside from her media studies courses at Ancaster High, she lacked formal journalism training. Despite her disadvantage over other applicants, a brand new paper, the National Post, welcomed her aboard. Ms. Galashan later returned to Ontario for an internship at the Hamilton Spectator before returning west to start her career with CTV.
In 2006, Ms. Galashan was embedded with Canadian troops in Afghanistan. It was one of her most exciting assignments and also one of her most difficult. Four Canadian soldiers she had travelled with were killed.
“There were parts that were great and there were parts that were very hard,” she explained.
Ms. Galashan also visited Canada’s only polygamist colony in Bountiful, B.C. and reported live from Mayerthorpe, Alta., the night four young RCMP officers were gunned down on a rural property.
Although they share the same alma mater, due to their age difference, Ms. Galashan and Ms. MacMillan never crossed paths at Ancaster High. Despite working on several assignments together over the years, they only recently discovered they are both Ancaster High alumni.
Ms. MacMillan identified her career goals at an early age.
“This career pursued me!” she stated. “It combines two things I love most – talking and writing. I have known since I was 10 years old I wanted to do this. I feel very fortunate it’s turned out the way it has.”
Since graduating from Ancaster High in 1989, Ms. MacMillan has worked in several small news markets, including Hamilton’s CHCH TV.
At CTV she’s realized her dream of working for a national network, covering breaking news around the world.
Ms. MacMillan honed her communication skills at Ancaster High. She loved reading and discussing classic literature. Ms. MacMillan also enjoyed Mr. Barnes’ language classes, not so much for the lessons, but for the great stories he told, with incredible life lessons.
“Sometimes we would just talk for the hour – will I get him in trouble for that?” Ms. MacMillan mused.
After years of success on a national stage, Ms. MacMillan hasn’t forgotten her Ancaster roots.
“My favourite memories of AHVS are really tied to growing up in Ancaster,” Ms. MacMillan explained. “I loved that it was small and in a sense, isolated. I mean that in a good way. Everyone knew each other and there was a strong sense of community.”
“As I get older, and see and learn more about the world, I appreciate the experience of Ancaster and Ancaster High.”