As we wind down our mild winter and ramp up for spring, it is a good time to reflect on the past year and upcoming events and opportunities from Land O’ Lakes Community Services. This month will highlight our Community Support Program and Pine Meadow Nursing Home.

Board Initiatives:

Our Quality Assurance Committee has been hard at work sprucing up much of our office space by placing some new brochure/pamphlet boards in the main office waiting area and some nice artwork throughout the building (all donated), providing a positive atmosphere for our employees and visitors alike.

Community Support Programs:

Last year, our Meals-On-Wheels provided 68 different individuals with a hot meal every Thursday, prepared by volunteer cooks and delivered by volunteer drivers. In that same time frame, our Transportation program saw 12 volunteer drivers travel a total of 193,581 kilometres to get individuals to appointments, locally and outside the community, and our Congregate Dining programs (Adult Drop-In in Northbrook and Denbigh Diners in Denbigh) provided services (lunch and socialization) for 333 different individuals.

Pine Meadow Nursing Home:

As everyone is aware, we saw the completion of our expansion and were re-licensed. During the holiday season our residents had visits from students of North Addington Education Centre and enjoyed a wonderful Christmas concert with lots of music and entertainment.

We continue visit Adult Drop-In twice a month and are looking forward to our upcoming events. We will be having a Chinese New Year Bingo and regular outings that are still to be determined. Our Breakfast Club is up and running and anticipating a great Pancake Tuesday Breakfast. There are many opportunities to volunteer at Pine Meadow, and this can be a great opportunity for high school students who require 40 volunteer hours to graduate. We encourage anyone who is interested to call for more information at 613-336-9120.

Upcoming Events:

Our annual spaghetti supper in support of the Adult Protective Services program is scheduled for Saturday March 19 at the Barrie Township Hall in Cloyne from 4-7 p.m. This is a great place to bring in spring with a delicious meal and some fun company.

Once again, we will be running our income-tax program from March 1 until April 30. Volunteers complete income tax forms. If you enjoy completing these forms and are looking for a short-term volunteer commitment, this could be something that interests you. Please call the office for more information about the service or to volunteer at 613-336-8934.

We are also recruiting volunteer cooks and drivers for the Meals-On-Wheels program. Cooking for this program is a relatively small time commitment as the schedule is to cook once every 8 or 9 weeks. If interested please call Lori at 613-336-8934.  

In an effort to get the message about the dangers of drug use out early to students who will soon to be entering high school, members of the OPP's Frontenac detachment have been visiting area schools.

In a presentation to grade 7/8 students at Land O'Lakes Public School on February 5, Frontenac Community Services Officer, Constable Roop Sandhu, spoke to students about the dangers that alcohol, tobacco, and prescription drugs can pose for both youth and adults alike. These substances have highly addictive qualities and Constable Sandhu outlined how overuse and/or non-prescribed use of them can lead to illness, addiction and in some cases even death.

He spoke of the legal consequences when minors become involved with these substances and how their unlawful use under the Criminal Code can lead to criminal charges, jail sentences and even a life-long criminal record. Sandhu also covered the subject of mixing highly caffeinated drugs with alcohol, which can pose dangerous health risks. He spoke of how the use of these substances can negatively affect one’s life physically, socially, emotionally and financially - of how it can be devastating to a student’s academic performance, their future outcomes and their families.

Constable Sandhu ended his section of the presentation by advising how students should react when presented with any of these substances. He stressed that non-use is the best choice, especially if the students do not know what the substances are or where they came from. He also advised students to never accept a drink from a stranger, and to immediately seek adult assistance if they should accidentally ingest a dangerous substance.

He suggested many healthier ways that youngsters can spend their time, either by taking up a hobby, joining a sports team, participating in other extra-curricular activities, volunteering in the community, or spending more time with family.

The second half of the presentation focused specifically on illegal drugs, and Constable Snider, a drug enforcement OPP officer with Frontenac County, spoke to students about the consequences of using and/or dealing in illegal drugs. He described the various categories of these drugs, which include cannabis, opiates, barbiturates, hallucinogens, and steroids. He outlined the laws and consequences related to using, possessing, trafficking in, or manufacturing these substances. He stressed that today’s high potency cannabis can have serious adverse health affects. A six-year study published in the British Journal of Medicine in 2014 showed that daily cannabis users are five times more likely to suffer from psychosis than those who have never used it. He warned students that though the current federal government is looking to legalize marijuana, for now it is still illegal. He spoke of the many new and altered forms of street drugs that are constantly emerging and how they are being manufactured specifically to avoid detection by law enforcement and to appeal to youth. Synthetic cannabinoids, for example, are often sold under various names to avoid detection

Constable Snider spoke of horrible physical effects that Krokodil, a potent morphine derivative known as the “drug of the poor”, can cause. To help bring his point home he recalled a poem written by a young crystal meth addict while she was spending time in jail. The last lines of the poem concluded with this dire warning:

“If you try me be warned - this is no game,
If given the chance, I'll drive you insane.
I'll ravish your body, I'll control your mind,
I’ll own you completely; your soul will be mine.”

Following the presentation, Constable Sandhu said, “Young people need to be able to determine the fact from the fiction around these substances. Sometimes they are getting information from others that is simply not true and often downright wrong. These young kids have enough to deal with when entering high school, which is enough of a challenge to them, and they need to know well in advance of that time that drugs are just not the way to go.” Schools interested in a presentation can contact Constable Sandhu at 613-372-1932 ext.6955

Young artists had a chance to try their hand at painting landscapes at this year's annual installment of the Land O' Lakes Art Club. Eighteen students aged 8-13 took part in the classes under the tutelage of grade 7/8 teacher Lee Hull, himself an accomplished and talented artist.

The students spent seven weeks painting the fall landscape surrounding the school. They took their easels, canvases and paints into the great outdoors and chose a section of landscape behind the school that they wanted to paint. Part of the challenge for the students was dealing with the ever-changing fall colours and Hull said that the students, who painted just once a week, were forced to remember the scenes in their mind's eye since the colours in the scenery were constantly changing.

The students also focused their talents on painting exactly what they saw rather than just the idea of it. Mr. Hull explained that, “Rather than painting the idea of a tree, the students had to paint a particular tree if that was their focus in the work.”

Other scenes included a wooden gazebo, and one student chose to focus on a bush with bright red leaves at the far end of the school yard. The students learned about scale, how to make objects in the foreground come to the front while keeping the other background elements towards the back of the canvas. The students learned how to mix colours and were also given the challenge of not using the colour black in the process.

The students began by painting a canvas with a neutral toned background and then used the colour green to sketch in with their brushes a drawing of the scene, paying close attention to detail and scale. The next step was to fill in the neutral section of the background, with the idea that once that had been done, the painting was then finished. The final step was to apply the colour white to hit the highlights in the scene and to bring the lightest parts of the picture forward.

To celebrate their finished works, the students held an art show and vernissage at the school on November 19 where the artists and guests enjoyed a multitude of fancy snacks courtesy of student parent Linda Tremblay, bringing to a close a successful exploration in landscape painting for students at the school.

It was a chilly day for the hundreds of wannabee wolves at Land O'Lakes Public School in Mountain Grove on October 1. Students from five northern area schools in grades one through eight gathered there to participate in the annual Timber Wolf Run, an event that was founded close to a decade and a half ago by former LOLPS teacher, Brian Robertson. For the last five years LOLPS grade one teacher, Jen Meulenaar, has been heading up the event with the help of staff at the school. The run is aimed at getting students from northern area schools together for a fun day of outdoor racing and is a great way for students to kick off the cross-country running season.

Participants included students from Land O'Lakes, Granite Ridge, North Addington, Prince Charles and Clarendon Central. The races included competitive runs of 1km, 1.8km and 2.5 km as well as a non-competitive one kilometre walk/run for students not wishing to compete. The competitive race winners took home medals and ribbons. Though the race is not an official qualifier for other upcoming regional racing events, it is a good practice event for those students who were hoping to qualify at the Region 3 qualifier race, which took place at Fort Henry in Kingston on October 6 in advance of the district finals.

Prior to the run at LOLPS, the students warmed up in the school gym before heading out to the starting line and running on the nearby trails, which took them through the woods surrounding the school. School principal, Emily Yanch, said the event is an annual tradition and a great opportunity for northern area students to get together. The participants not only got loads of exercise and fresh air but also enjoyed the opportunity to cheer one another on. Congratulations to all of the runners who took part.

Ottawa Valley-based singer songwriter Craig Cardiff not is only a gifted performer but he also has a unique ability to encourage and inspire youngsters. The singer/songwriter was invited to perform and hold workshops at Land O'Lakes Public School on June 23 by Kathy Bateman, the student support teacher at the school. The event was made possible thanks in part to a grant the school received from Blue Skies in the Community, whose mandate is to bring music appreciation and opportunities to students in North and Central Frontenac.

Cardiff, who performs regularly across Canada and the United States, engaged the students by showing them how they too can write their own songs. “I remember as a youngster being inspired by musicians who visited my school and my goal with this workshop and performance is to help inspire students; to get them to write a song so they can realize that it's not hard and to hopefully spark a musical interest in them”, he said when I interviewed him as he was setting up his gear in the school gym. Cardiff, who has been playing since he was very young, began by performing a number of his own original songs, tunes like “Safe Here” and “Love is Louder”.

At just 38 years old he has 20 albums under his belt and he easily captured the attention of the appreciative audience. First he spoke about what inspires his own lyrics and next he taught them the choruses of his tunes, inviting them to raise their hands and sway in time to the music as they sang.

Next he invited a student, five-year-old Keegan to the stage, who helped Cardiff write a song about the latter's love for trucks and cars, which included lyrics like, “I love jacking up trucks and taking the tires off, installing roll bars”, and another that told of how “monster truck drivers are safely strapped in under six seat belts”.

Cardiff invited a second student, five-year-old Keeley to the stage and together they composed a song on a topic close to her heart - princesses. The song included lyrics offered up by Keeley, one line about Bambi, the prince of the forest, and another about Cinderella's two very rude sisters.

Between the songs the students had a chance to question Cardiff and he answered a wide range of questions with “Yes, I like cheese and no, I am not rich,” though he did mention that his craft does pay the bills and feed his family.

He answered many more questions on the topic of music, including what inspires him, who his favorite singer is (Paul Simon), and his thoughts about fame and when and how he got started. To wrap up the performance and prior to working one on one with the students, Cardiff sang a medley of some of his favorite tunes from Paul Simon's Graceland.

The students were no doubt inspired by Cardiff's performance and you can bet that many family members were treated to a few original compositions before the day was out. For more information and to sample some of Craig's music visit his website at www.craigcardiff.com.

Students in grades JK through six at Land O' Lakes Public School in Mountain Grove were full of questions at a presentation by Hydro One staff celebrating Arbour Week, which took place at the school on May 5.

The presentation was headed up by Hydro One forestry technician Kerry Hinton, who explained the important roles that trees play in our environment by preventing soil erosion, reducing noise pollution, filtering water and cleaning the air of impurities through photosynthesis. He stressed their significance for wildlife as they provide nesting areas for birds, homes for squirrels and raccoons and hiding places from predators, while also offering sources of food such as berries, nuts and leaves. For us humans they not only provide shade in the hot summer months and act as wind breaks, but provide us with building supplies and food as well as pure aesthetic beauty. Hinton explained the various pieces of equipment that he and other staff members use to remove trees, and to trim branches and brush from Hydro lines.

Following the presentation the students went outdoors and watched a Hyrdro One staff member make an emergency descent from one of their bucket trucks, which garnered a generous round of applause. Students were also invited to help plant one large pear tree and one large Crimson King maple tree on the school’s front lawn. Each was also given a small white pine or white spruce sapling to take home to plant. Hinton said Arbour Week is an important way for children to understand the importance of trees in the environment while also learning about the work that Hydro One staff do out in the bush. He said it is a way to give back to communities by offering hundreds of trees to plant.

Willis Deline, who works as a senior foreman in the brushing department at Hydro One, said that he and his crew did a lot of brushing and tree removal in the area last summer and he felt this would be a nice opportunity for the crew to return to the community and show their support to the local school. Arbour Week presentations will take place at 35 different schools across Ontario.

Students from Land O' Lakes Public School put on the play "A Dragon's Tale" last week in performances at Granite Ridge Education Centre, and in the auditorium at LOLPS on Thursday night for parents and other family members, and again on Friday for students in the school. The show was produced and directed by teacher Danielle Harding, and featured students from multiple grades in the cast. A combination of live theatre and puppetry, A Dragon's Tale is a humorous take on the adventure genre. The students enjoyed putting it on and the audience enjoyed the performance as well.

The art work of the 24 students who participated in this year's Art Club at Land O'Lakes Public School in Mountain Grove was on display at their final show on April 20. The students spent six weeks creating the colourful paintings still lifes that were on display.

Grade 7/8 teacher, Mr. Hull, who heads up the club, said that he was impressed with the student work. He explained that he likes to let the students paint what comes naturally to them and tries his best not to influence their final pieces. The students began by learning basic drawing techniques, and then moved into creating colour tones, first painting with larger brushes and then moving into finishing accents using smaller brushes. The paintings were impressive and ranged from bright, dramatic colour schemes of frogs and teddy bears, some reminiscent of Matisse, to impressionistically depicted vases of flowers and other subjects. The only rule that the young artists had to abide by was not using black to create their darker tones and shadows since it has a tendency to muddy the final work.

The special event was catered by Linda Tremblay with the help of her children, Boris and Natasha. The young artists and their guests enjoyed a number of fancy treats that included cappuccinos, sparkling juices, cakes, fancy croissant sandwiches, lemon and chocolate mousse, a fancy layer cake and speared fruit sticks.

Chiaroscuro, the technique of painting light and shadow, is one of the techniques that has been used by realistic painters for hundreds of years. It was the topic introduced to the 20 students at Land O'Lakes Public School on February 9 at their first session of the school’s popular art club, which is now in its third year there. Headed up by grade 7/8 teacher Mr. Hull, an award-winning painter in his own right, the club is open to students from grades three through eight and this year the club attracted 20 enthusiastic young artists, many returning for another year.

Mr. Hull began the class by explaining the technique of chiaroscuro and demonstrated how artists have used it to create the illusion of three-dimensional space on a flat two-dimensional canvas. The basic idea is that light and shadow within a single artwork result from one or more imagined light sources and that the objects within the canvas are articulated three dimensionally based on where they sit in relation to that/those light sources.

Hull began by showing the students slides of various paintings, a few Rembrandt portraits and some of his own portraits of different staff members from the school. He asked the students to identify the position of the imagined light source in each work, which he explained is best done by looking at where the darkest shadows and brightest highlights fall within the painting. “Rembrandt is the classic example to use when demonstrating this technique,” Hull said, “since his paintings often depict a luminous figure in a deep sea of black. Chiaroscuro is just one element of design but it is a very important one when trying to make images appear three-dimensional.”

Following his talk Hull set up a spotlight in the classroom and invited the students to draw a number of balls set up on desks around the class. Using white and black charcoal on grey paper the students set to work and almost instantly a distinctive hum of focused creativity took over the room. As the children worked, Hull and his assistant Mr. Campbell answered questions and gave helpful suggestions to the students. Next, the students will move to the gym where they will paint still lifes that will be lit from a single light source, thereby furthering their understanding of the technique of chiaroscuro.

“Typically a lot of art work you see these days can tend to be flat and muddy but when you throw a strong light source on the subject matter and introduce the technique of chiaroscuro, the students begin to develop a much better understanding of how to make their paintings more three dimensional. In teaching this technique, I also want to open their eyes to the idea that everything they see in everyday life is a result of this idea and that they can apply this technique and paint from life using it.”

Hull is planning an art show at the school when the club wraps up in the coming months, where students, staff and the community will be invited to view the students’ finished works.

Sharbot Lake and District Lions president Bill Zwier welcomed the over 100 seniors who gathered at the Land O' Lakes Public School in Mountain Grove on October 22 for the 38th rendition of their annual Seniors Night. The event, which is sponsored by W. A. Robinson Asset Management Ltd. of Sharbot Lake, buses in seniors from the townships of Central and North Frontenac who wish to attend the event. Guests enjoyed an evening of first-rate entertainment courtesy of local Elvis tribute artist and Johnny Cash impersonator Dan Stoness, young fiddler Jessica Wedden and local musician Tommy Asselstine. Guests had a chance to win numerous door prizes that were handed out throughout the evening. Members of the club also had a chance to show off their star power in a number of comical skits. Elvis put on a very memorable and interactive show and offered a special birthday tribute to two lucky ladies in the audience, Shirley Jones and Lois Webster, who were both celebrating their birthdays the night of the event.

The evening concluded with a generous spread of refreshments and once again the Lions proved that they indeed know how to put together a show and entertain guests.

Hats off to all the Lions, including chair of the Seniors Night committee Linda Zwier who unfortunately, due to a fall, was unable to attend. It was the second year that the Lions held the annual event at Land O' Lakes P.S. Previously it had been held at the former Sharbot Lake High School.