Do you like browsing at plant sales, looking for something different? Something you won’t find at most garden centres? On Saturday, June 1, the fifth annual Grandmothers’ Plant & Bake Sale will be held in front of Tiffany Gift Shoppe in Harrowsmith at 10 a.m. sharp (no early-bird sales). Home baking and a wide variety of plants grown by the Grandmothers by the Lake and their supporters will be offered at modest prices to benefit the Grandmothers Campaign -- a very deserving cause.

Grandmothers by the Lake is one of over 250 grandmother groups across Canada dedicated to helping the grandmothers in sub-Saharan Africa who have been severely impacted by the HIV/AIDS pandemic. The Grandmothers Campaign, launched in 2006 by the Stephen Lewis Foundation, raises money for grassroots projects begun by and for those African grandmothers who are, in the words of Stephen Lewis, “the unsung heroes” of Africa. Despite having to cope with the deaths of their own children, these grandmothers must carry on with the task of raising their orphaned grandchildren in communities that are devastated by the AIDS virus and impoverished. In many communities, small and large, the grandmothers have formed support groups to deal with issues such as feeding, clothing, and sending their grandchildren to school; health care; AIDS education; grief counselling; and skills development for self-sufficiency.

It is for these grassroots projects, initiated and run by African women, that the Grandmothers Campaign of the Stephen Lewis Foundation raises funds. The money we raise not only helps to support these vital projects, but also bolsters the African grandmothers’ strength and courage to continue with their struggle, knowing that the grandmothers of Canada care.

We believe that the grandmother movement is one way to make a difference in our world.

So come to the sale, pick up some interesting plants and delicious home baking, and if you’re interested, talk to members of Grandmothers by the Lake about what our group does.

The spring Coffee House held last week at Sharbot Lake High School was co-sponsored by the Youth program of Northern Frontenac Community Services (NFCS). It was also included in a province-wide initiative called Change the World.

The Kingston Frontenac Lennox and Addington United Way is the regional co-ordinator for Change the World, a program that encourages volunteerism among youth.

Bill Miklas, the Volunteer Services Manager for the KFL&A United Way, has been overseeing efforts in secondary schools throughout the region to encourage youth to participate in Change the World. The way the program works, young people who volunteer their services for anyone between April 21 and May 20 are encouraged to register with the program by filling in a form.

“Our goal is to have 1,000 individuals volunteer within the four-week window, for a total of at least 3,000 volunteer hours. The added benefit to students is that the hours count towards their 40-hour volunteer requirement for high school graduation,” said Bill Miklas.

By contacting student councils at most of the schools in the Limestone Board and getting them to take on the project, Miklas said he is confident the goal is going to be easily achieved.

The musicians, organizers, and those who helped by baking treats for the coffee house were all eligible to register for Change the World.

The United Way depends on volunteers, and Miklas said, “This is a great way for us to introduce a whole new generation to the benefits of volunteering and since NFCS is one of our partner agencies, it was a good fit for them to be involved.”

For their part, Sharbot Lake High School students were able to enjoy performances by their classmates, some of them accompanied by parents and friends.

“This is a great way for us to see another side of our students,” said one of the school’s teachers who was attending the coffee house. Over 20 students participated in the Coffee House, performing everything from alt-country to pop, heavy metal and rock ’n roll music.

For the NFCS youth program, the partnership with the high school bodes well for an enhanced relationship once the new school opens later in the fall.

“It is great for us to partner with the school and the United Way. It is good for everyone,” said Maribeth Scott from NFCS.

The Snow Road Snowmobile Club is well-known for its fundraising breakfasts and other events. The funds raised are used to maintain the clubhouse, pay utilities and taxes, etc. as the club does not receive any money from the sale of snowmobile permits. However, as the snowmobile season winds down the volunteers turn their efforts to help others, recognizing that the community that supports them all winter needs support. Breakfasts held in April allowed the club to pass along $612 to Relay for Life for Cancer and $314.75 each to the Alzheimer Society of Lanark County and the Kingston, Frontenac, Lennox and Addington Alzheimer Society.

The last breakfast, held fittingly on May 4 as May is Melanoma Awareness Month, raised a very satisfying $1,043.50 for this worthy cause. “It’s all about giving back to the community” said Ruth Wark, club president. “It would not be possible without the help of our regular volunteers and those who lend a hand when and where they can. They deserve the credit for making it happen. There are so many people in our families and our community that are affected by these diseases.” Special thanks go this week to the extra hands from the family of the late Denise Cooper. Denise spearheaded the breakfast for Malignant Melanoma last year to spread awareness as melanoma is one of the fastest growing cancers in Canada today. Skin cancer is highly curable if detected early, so please remember to practice sun-safety all year round, and especially as we head into the summer months.

Ruth expressed appreciation for the representatives from the Cancer and Alzheimer’s Societies who attended the breakfasts bringing displays and information and were available to answer questions.

The club will hold a breakfast and bake sale on Saturday, June 29, as part of Canada Day celebrations in North Frontenac and Lanark Highlands townships.

On April 27, Anne Marie Young, the manager of Economic Sustainability at the County of Frontenac, led a group of 25 trail blazers in a clean up of the Verona section of the K&P Trail. The group, which included three families from the Kingston area, covered a six-kilometre strip of the trail from Bellrock Road to Craig Road. Young said the event, now in its fifth year, is focusing on the Verona section of the trail, which staff at the county hope to further develop by brushing, grading and finishing off with a layer of stone dust. “To date we at the county have so far developed the trail from the county border at Kingston, all the way north to Hartington and we hope to get all the way up to Craig Road in what will be Phase 2 of the project,” Young said when I spoke to her on a section of the trail behind Prince Charles Public School in Verona where she and her two grandsons were busy picking up trash.

The county began developing a trail plan in 2009 and in 2010 the trail committee put in a bridge at Millhaven Creek. In 2011 the committee's work focused on landowner and other paperwork issues and in 2012 the group developed the trail bed from Orser Road up to the Cataraqui Trail and then further north to Hartington. Young said she hopes this year to see the section of trail completed from Hartington up to Craig Road with the committee negotiating a trade of land with the school board so that the trail can continue through Verona to Craig Road.

Young said the county has two main reasons to see the trail completed: 1) for economic reasons, by attracting tourism to the area, which will help the smaller towns in the north by increasing business; and 2) offering a healthy outdoor activity to people within and outside of the community.

Young said that the biggest challenges facing the trail development have been funding and landowner issues. Regarding the latter Young said, “It's really a case of personally liking the trail or not. Some people are really happy to have a trail behind their property and others not so much.”

Young said that those landowner issues will become more apparent in the near future because as the trail heads north, especially between Tichborne and Sharbot Lake, certain sections are owned privately after having been sold off to individual property owners over the years. Young remains hopeful and said that in the coming years there will be a definite push to see the trail completed since 2017 marks the anniversary of the Trans-Canada Trail. She hopes that the county might receive an influx of funding with that anniversary date looming.

In May 2011, Drew Cumpson, a Sydenham High School graduate and current student at the University of Guelph, became a quadriplegic after a freak body surfing mishap while he was volunteering in Lima, Peru.

This Saturday May 4, Drew, along with his family and friends will be hosting a fundraiser at the Frontenac Community Arena near Godfrey from 7pm 2am. Three local bands: Bauder Road, Still Standing and Killing Time will be performing and the event will include a silent and live auction offering up to bidders a plethora of top-notch items donated by local businesses and individuals. These include a signed Sydney Crosby jersey, tickets to a Taylor Swift concert, an ice fishing hut, a brand new chainsaw plus a wide range of gift certificates and themed baskets and much, much more. Tickets, which cost $20, will include a buffet at 11pm.

Proceeds from the event will go towards funding the accessibility features in what will soon be Drew and his family’s new home in Westbrooke. The Cumpson family will be moving into the new home, which is being built especially to accommodate Drew, who now uses a wheel chair and head apparatus to maneuver through his everyday life. The special features of the house will allow Drew to access special controls for lights, television, doors, an elevator, audio visual equipment, his computer and phone.

Drew’s parents, Heather and Jim, hope to move into the new home on May 10 and Drew will be moving in soon after once he gets his home care in place.

In addition to the upcoming fundraiser Drew is also taking part in the current National Mobility Awareness event, which is offering up three brand new accessible vans to the individuals that acquire the most on-line votes. Drew is six feet tall and he hopes to acquire one of the new vans, which have larger door openings.

“Right now I am having major issues with getting in and out of the van that I use and the new van will definitely solve those problems,” Drew said when I spoke to him by phone earlier this week. He said he plans to donate his old van should he win a new one.

Currently Drew has amassed 13,000 on-line votes but hopes to see that number increase to 20,000 before the deadline, which is fast approaching on Friday May 10. Drew's supporters can vote for him once a day up until the May 10 deadline by visiting the website at www.mobilityawarenessmonth.com/localheroes and typing in Drew's name in the local heroes search bar. Supporters will find on Drew's on line page a video of him speaking of his accident and his life since. Answer the skill testing question and Drew will receive an extra vote from you. 

Since it was first produced in English on Broadway in 2009, “God of Carnage” has been an unlikely hit. It's about two couples who meet at one of their houses to talk about their sons, 11-year-old boys who got into a fight after school. Although it is not referred to by any of the characters, there is an underlying sense that the conflict that spurs the action in the play is something that would only be important in a modern context, and only among a specific social class.

What the play is really about is how the thin veneer of civility can be broken down between and among the two couples. While “Carnage” is a comedic romp through the wasteland of modern marriage, the interactions between the characters ring true. Although we laugh, it is not always comfortable laughter, perhaps because the characters are a bit too much like us. “God of Carnage” is the final North Frontenac Little Theatre production at the Sharbot Lake High School Cafetorium. It stars well-known NFLT actors Karen Steele, John Stephen and Martina Field, and introduces Rob Bell as Alan. Directed by Kelli Bell. “Carnage” runs from Thursday to Sunday. See the ad on page 2 for details.

Members of the community are being invited to participate in a special, first time ever spring community clean up event courtesy of staff at Community Living-North Frontenac. The event, which is being organized by Ryan Wood, Community Activity Support Worker at CLNF, is designed “as a way for our agency to give back to the Sharbot Lake community, and to clean up within the city limits of Sharbot Lake,” he said. Staff at CLNF will be supplying protective plastic gloves and garbage bags to participants, who are invited to meet at the CLNF offices on Elizabeth Street in Sharbot Lake on Saturday May 4 at 9am. The event will continue until 1pm, at which time CLNF staff will be offering up a free BBQ lunch at their office site.

Executive Director of CLNF Dean Walsh said he hopes to see the event become a regular annual one and that it is “a great way for CLNF staff and local residents to promote, engage in and give back to the community.”

Mr. Wood has provided general safety information for participants, who he stresses should: avoid picking up litter on either side of Road 38; have one member of the group always watching for traffic; always wear the safety gloves provided; wear bright clothing, cross streets with extreme caution; and work on one side of all streets at a time. Children under the age of 13 must be accompanied by an adult and children must be supervised at all times. Sunscreen and hats are recommended and participants should avoid handling any animals, syringes/needles, all of which should be reported to CLNF staff. All broken glass should be wrapped in newspaper or placed in a bucket. For more information about the first ever Sharbot Lake Trash Bash event contact Ryan Wood at 613-279-3731.

Silver Lake Pow Wow

The Grand Parade of the Silver Lake Pow Wow is not an entirely solemn event, but it carries the weight of ceremony. The dancers enter the ring in a prescribed order, the flag bearers hop from one foot to the other to the beat of the drum, which performs a slow song that befits the occasion.

Although the Silver Lake Pow Wow is 19 years old, the gathering of communities at summer's end goes back a lot longer than that. Old friends greet each other with words and hugs, and after the elder has said a few words and the drum sends the assembled dancers through another turn around the ring, the parade breaks up and the greetings continue. Then the ring is opened up to everyone in attendance and it is completely filled. The Pow Wow is under way.

Photo - Kiley Stanley, 2nd from right, was declared Miss Garlic, the princess of the Maberly Fair parade.

At the Maberly Fair, the parade enters the fairgrounds led by two girls dressed as heads of garlic, followed by a marching pipe band, floats carrying entire extended families pulled by newer and older tractors (including one that is over 90 years old) followed by fire trucks. Politicians and heads of agricultural groups, as well as the fair convenor, bring greetings as the parade participants watch from the infield, but the fair is already underway. The Light Horse show is well into its second hour; the poultry are squawking away in the poultry display shed; Marilyn the Psychic is already making predictions in her booth; the zucchini vehicles are set out on a table even though the race is hours away, and old friends are greeting each other throughout the compact fairgrounds. It’s a one-day fair so no one wants to wait for the ceremony to be completed before starting to have fun.

Light Horse pull at Parham Fair.

The Parham Fair starts on Friday evening. The grandstand is almost full when the fair committee and township politicians proclaim the fair open, but the people aren’t paying much attention. They are waiting for the Light Horse pull to begin. They want to see if Bill Lee will win again (he will – at 7,200 pounds, see photo on page 9). Meanwhile kids and teenagers are gathering at the bandshell for the Cowboy/Cowgirl and Parham Idol contests to start. Ambush is ready to play when the contests end, and the midway is open for business.

These three events and others are all about people gathering in community to mark the end of another summer, before preparations begin for another harsh rural winter’s onset.

No, it’s not the name of a tool or the revival of a heavy metal band.

It’s the name of a gruelling 1200 km bicycle ride that follows the same basic rules as the Paris-Brest-Paris (PBP) Randonee, one of the oldest bicycle races in the world, which dates back to 1891. The PBP is still run today, although not as a race, but more as a rally. Riders have 90 hours to complete the race, and can only receive support at specified control points along the route.

Randonneurs Ontario is a bicycle club that is affiliated with the Audax Club Parisien, the organizing body of the PBP. Just like the Audax club, Randonneurs Ontario organises a series of qualifying races, Brevets, in distances of 200, 300, 400, and 600 km. In order to qualify for a 1200 km event riders must either complete a full Brevet series in the year of the 1200 km event, or a 1200 km in the preceding year.

Once every four years Randoneurs Ontario organize the Granite Anvil, which is named for the shape of the course, and the fact that the course features a long stretch of road within the southern portion of the Canadian Shield, a.k.a. the Frontenac Spur.

The course starts in Oshawa, then heads northwest through Newmarket, Vaughan, Caledon and Orangeville, before turning north-east to Georgian Bay and Collingwood, Wasaga beach, and Midland then heading towards Bancroft. The route then runs through Haliburton and the Madawaska Highlands before heading towards Denbigh. It hits Frontenac County at Vennachar, then follows Buckshot Lake Road to Road 506, and down Ardoch Road to 509, then onto Road 38 and into Sharbot Lake. It follows 38 to Harowsmith before turning off on the Wilton Road towards Napanee. It takes Highway 2 at that point on its return leg back to Oshawa.

One of the control points in the route is at the Sharbot Lake beach, where riders were expected on August 24. As the control point monitors explained, the riders take their own pace. Although they were scheduled to stay over in Bancroft on Friday night and reach Sharbot Lake on Saturday afternoon, the first couple of riders came through at 9:00 am on Saturday, having ridden through Bancroft to Plevna on Friday.

Just after 1 p.m., Ken Bonner, a cyclist from BC, came through the control point at Sharbot Lake. He said he had started his ride from Bancroft at midnight, after a four-hour sleep. Bonner, who is a veteran rider and is in his 70s, found the 220 km stretch from Bancroft to Sharbot Lake particularly difficult.

“You never seem to get away from the hills in the entire distance,” he said. When he was told that the next section, down 38 to Harrowsmith and across Wilton Road towards Napanee, was relatively flat and was downhill over all, he did not seem convinced.

“They said the elevation in Bancroft is 400 feet and Sharbot Lake is 200 feet, but I seem to have been climbing all night and day,” he said, as he sipped a half a can of coke that organizers gave him.

Although he needed help climbing up the short embankment by the bandstand at the beach back to his bike, Ken Bonner managed to get on his bike and whiz off onto the highway. He said he was going to ride straight through to Oshawa without stopping.

Sure enough, he arrived in Oshawa at about 8:45 am on Sunday morning, 76 hours and 45 minutes after starting the Granite Anvil. He averaged 15.76 kilometres per hour, including sleep and rest time.

There were 47 riders who attempted the course, and 44 of them completed it within the allotted time.

For those who are interested in taking on the next Granite Anvil, there is ample time to train. The event runs every four years. For further information, go to randonneursontario.ca

2013 Eastern Ontario Garlic Awards winners; raising the bar on locally grown garlic

Garlic growers from across the region have come to appreciate the tone that the Verona Lions set for their annual garlic festival. Because the festival takes place within the context of the Frontenac Farmers Market, it has avoided some of the trappings that other festivals have succumbed to over the years.

The booths are mostly devoted to garlic production or other kinds of agricultural products, and the crowds, this year having to dodge raindrops, have become steadily larger over the years.

One of the features of the Verona Garlic Festival is the awarding of the Eastern Ontario Garlic awards, the official competition for the best garlic produced in the region.

The awards were founded by Maberly’s Paul Pospisil, with a view towards promoting continual improvement in the quality of garlic grown in the region. The awards were judged this year by the News’ own Wilma Kenny, who is certified by the Ontario Horticulture Society.

The awards this year celebrated one of the most accomplished growers in the region over many years, as well as newcomers and a home grower.

David Hahn won his 6th Champion Grower award his time around. New growers from Perth, Ali Ross and Glen Gangnier, also produced top-notch all around garlic, taking the Reserve Champion's prize. Bill Kirby of Yarker won the single bulb category.

Diane Dowling, president of Local 316 of the National Farmers Union, presented the $100 grand prize to David Hahn and she also stood in for Kim Perry from Local Family Farms in presenting the $50 prize to Glen Gangnier.

Exhibitors in past years have learned the meaning of “quality” from the scores assigned by the judge on their garlic entries. In this way, the Garlic Awards have contributed to raising the bar on the quality of garlic grown in the Eastern Ontario region, giving it the excellent reputation that it justly deserves.

A great vote of thanks to the Lions Club of Verona for again hosting this competition.