Bill Bowick | Dec 13, 2017


Canada 150 Finale

 

Canada’s Sesquicentennial is drawing to a close and the people of Central Frontenac should congratulate themselves for having staged a great year. We have marked the occasion with some truly memorable projects.

 

Each of our community institutions has come through with something special - a heritage video at Parham Fair, special demonstrations by the Arden Fire Department, a Trail day at the Railway Heritage Park in Sharbot Lake and commemorative public benches where we can enjoy our beautiful surroundings. The area’s churches held special services (indoors and out) and supported community events such as the Giving Thanks Dinner. The lake associations got into the act with flotillas on Kennebec, Horseshoe and Long Lakes and tree planting projects on Eagle Lake and Sharbot. And the Frontenac Heritage Festival had a distinctly 150 flavour this year. The Recreation committees made a special contribution to the year with a host of programs in Arden, a fantastic Canada Day in Sharbot Lake and a great Canada 150 float in the Parham Santa Claus parade.

 

Credit for some of the best projects has to go to the individuals who inspired them – Diane Lake’s 150 stories of 150 women, Virgil Garrett’s goal of 150 (now over 200) visitors to his grandfather clocks, Janet Gutowski’s display of 150 quilts and Jim MacPherson and friends with 150 Canadian songs on quiet evenings in the Oso Park. This one grew into a great evening of Canadian music at GREC – Covering Canada – with profits going to the school music program.

 

Rural Frontenac Community Services, The Child Centre, supported a focus on youth by partnering with Shabot Obaadjiwan and North Frontenac Little Theatre, in the first case for the Strawberry Moon Festival and the second for a picnic and workshop in the park. The Little Theatre also provided a great next-to-last Canada 150 event with this year’s fall production of Sunshine Sketches of Our Little Town - a delightful retrospective of our community and the wonderful things that happen in it especially those in celebration of our nation’s 150th Birthday.

 

The Legions started the year with a New Years Day levee in the Arden branch and will end it with a New Years Eve ball to be held in the Sharbot Lake branch. This final event of the year will be a traditional New Year’s Eve party with food, dancing, decorations and door prizes. It is jointly sponsored by the Legion branch and by the District #3 Rec committee. Profits will be divided between the two groups – the Legion share going to meals for shut-ins and the Rec Committee share to the rink project. One special activity will be a draw for the Canada 150 quilt shown in the picture. A few tickets are still available for the dance. They can be purchased at Gray’s Grocery or either Legion Branch. Quilt tickets can be purchased by calling Rosemarie Bowick at 613 279-3341.

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