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Wednesday, 08 January 2020 11:29

Duncan Sinclair joins the Order of Canada

Buck Lake’s Duncan Sinclair was one of 77 Canadians who were invested as members of the Order of Canada last week, in recognition of his contributions to the health care system in Canada. Dr. Sinclair was born in Rochester, New York and graduated from the Ontario Veterinary College at Guelph, before going on to receive a Masters in Science at the University of Toronto, and a PHD in Physiology from Queen’s. He spent most of his academic career at Queen’s, where he was appointed as the Markle Scholar in Academic Medicine in 1966. He served as the Dean of Arts and Sciences between 1974 and 1983. When he was appointed as Dean of the Faculty of Medicine in 1988, he became the first non-medical doctor to head a faculty of medicine in Canada.

He retired from Queen’s in 1996 but has remained active in community efforts since then, and as a consultant in the field of health care reform, which remains a passion of his to this day. He chaired the Ontario Health Services Restructuring Commission between 1996 and 2000 and true to his reputation for frank discourse, was the co-author of a book in 2005, Riding the Third Rail, that that was an account of the successes and failures of the commissions efforts, and the subsequent outcomes over the 5 years that followed its demise.

The themes covered in Riding the Third Rail are almost identical to the discussions that are underway during the current healthcare reform effort, and Duncan Sinclair remains involved in the process in an informal way. It is fair to say that anyone who has had a leadership role in healthcare reform in Ontario over the last 25 years is familiar with Sinclair’s perspective, through his writings, and likely through personal contact. And his phone keeps ringing.

Locally he is an active community member, from his support for the Buck Lake Boatilla, his service to the Board of Directors of Southern Frontenac Community Services for 5 years, and as an informal advisor to anyone interested in a clear-eyed, insightful opinion.

He is not the first member of his family to become a member of the Order of Canada. He joins his son, Gord, bassist for the Tragically Hip, who was appointed in 2017.

The other Kingston appointee this year also has a Frontenac County connection. Queen’s University geographer, Brian Osborne, did a lot research and writing on Kingston and the surrounding region as part of his long and distinguished career. He wrote a chapter, “The Farmer and the Land” in the only comprehensive work on the history of Frontenac County, “County of a Thousand Lakes”, which was funded by Frontenac County and published in 1982.

Published in FRONTENAC COUNTY
Wednesday, 03 July 2019 15:21

Buck Lake community does it again

On Saturday, June 29, 2019, the Buck Lake community held the 15"‘ annual Buck Lake Boatilla in support of Easter Seals’ Send a Kid to Camp campaign raising $26,800, with more funds still coming in! In total over the past 15 years, the Buck Lake Boatilla, has raised $277,000 and sent 111 children to Camp Merrywood, a fully accessible camp for children and youth with physical disabilities!

This year’s event once again provided kids an opportunity to spend a day on the water experiencing camp and boating fun. The fun-filled afternoon featured boat tours of the lake for community members and Easter Seals families, including 15 boats this year participating from the community. The Kasaboski Band provided live entertainment again as the attendees enjoyed their complimentary community BBQ donated by local stores and bought delicious treats from the children's bake sale.

The Buck Lake community donates 100% of all funds raised each year to the Easter Seals Send a Kid to Camp campaign, giving kids with physical disabilities the opportunity to boat, swim and fish and more at the fully-accessible Camp Merrywood on the Big Rideau.

For the past 97 years, Easter Seals has played an important role in providing programs that enable children with physical disabilities to experience greater freedom and focus on what they can do rather than on their limitations. Easter Seals provides funding for essential mobility and accessibility equipment, as well as fully accessible summer camp opportunities at its two properties, Camp Merrywood and Camp Woodeden.

Published in SOUTH FRONTENAC
Wednesday, 26 June 2019 10:51

15th Buck Lake Boatilla set for Saturday

By the time all the money is collected, counted and donated after the 15th Buck Lake Boatilla, Camp Merrywood will have received over $250,000 in donations over the history of the event.

Not bad for something that only came about because of vandalism on Buck Lake back about 20 years. According to a history of the boatilla that was written by Buck Lake resident Duncan Sinclair, a neighbourhood watch program was instituted after a rash of break-ins and fuel thefts from boats, etc.

The crimes stopped when some people moved away from the lake, but instead of disbanding, the group decided to look around for something else to do. They decided to start a ‘send a kid to camp’ with the goal of raising the $2,000 that it costs for one child with physical disabilities to attend Camp Merrywood.

The camp is located on Big Rideau Lake near Perth. It was opened in 1948 as a camp for children with polio, and has been providing traditional summer camp programming, tailored to physically disabled campers, ever since.

It was a bit of a precarious first year, highlighted by the fact the one of the organisers, Ross Trudel, spent much of the day trying to collect $5 per person from each of the boats, while they were on the water on a pretty windy day. He survived, and $3750 was raised, almost enough to send two kids to camp. Soon after the money collection issues were ironed out, and the focus of the Boatilla has shifted somewhat over the years, with one of the the focal points now being a BBQ at the Hidden Valley Road Campground (off Perth Road).

Over the years the scale of the event, and its fundraising success, has grown. For the last few years over $25,000 has been raised each year, and the participation of some of the Camp Merrywood campers has also added a new focus to the Boatilla.

This year’s event once again provides kids an opportunity to spend a day on the water experiencing camp and boating fun. The afternoon will begin at 1pm. and feature boat tours of the Lake, including over 30 boats participating from the community. Boatilla attendees will then enjoy a complimentary community BBQ, followed by the grand finale, a cheque presentation announcing the total raised for 2019. And again this year there will also be live entertainment by The Kasaboski Family Trio.

Easter Seals Ontario, the organisation that runs Camp Merrywood, has been an enthusiastic and grateful supporter of the Boatilla over the years. They also help to promote the event.

For further information about the Boatilla or to donate, go to easterseals.org/buck-lake-boatilla

Published in SOUTH FRONTENAC
Wednesday, 28 June 2017 10:44

History of the Buck Lake Boatilla

The Buck Lake Boatilla sends physically disabled children to Camp Merrywood, a spe-cially equipped summer camp on the Big Rideau operated by Easter Seals.

Ironically, the Buck Lake Boatilla traces its origins back to an outbreak of petty crime in the 1990s. In response to a rash of break-ins,  some ‘take charge’ members of the community formed a Neighbourhood Watch and recruited others to conduct regular pa-trols and keep their eyes open for trouble. The crimes stopped when the culprit was found and arrested. It was not long before the  watch organizers decided the watch was no longer necessary. Rather than disbanding, they cast around for another useful pur-pose for the organization. They decided on supporting Easter Seals’ Camp Merrywood and created the slogan “Send a Kid to Camp”. That was in 2005, the start of the Buck Lake Boatilla.

That first year was both hilarious and a bit scary. Randy Ruttan and his campers agreed to have the participating boaters and others assemble for a barbecue at the Hidden Valley campground at the end of the parade of boats. The plan on that first day was for the boats to assemble at the culvert, parade around Pulpit and Buck Islands, and re-assemble in a sort of ‘floatilla’ in Christmas Bay. There was no advance canvas for funds; instead the suggestion was that people would donate $5.00 for every person on their boat, the collection being done by Ross Trudel. It was a great plan but it didn’t allow for the strong wind and high waves that day that made the ‘floatilla’ part impossible and produced any number of near dunkings as Roscoe precariously attempted to do his collections without ramming anybody.

It was quite a show, but a successful one that raised $3,750, enough  to send nearly two kids to Camp Merrywood; the goal had been funding enough for one. In those days it cost $2,000 per child; more recently the cost has increased to $2,500. The high cost is due to the need for a very high staff to camper ratio combined with the Camp’s having comprehensive health care services on site to keep the children safe and also with the specialized equipment needed for them to overcome the limits of their physical disabilities.

Each year since 2005 the Boatilla has grown both as a charitable and a community event. Thanks to Randy Ruttan and the campers, many of whom participate actively, that first frustrated ‘flotilla’ in Christmas Bay was replaced shortly thereafter by a com-munity barbecue at the Hidden Valley campground. The campers, largely from the Unit-ed States, are  generous contributors to Camp Merrywood and participants in he Boatil-la and BBQ.

Another great innovation adopted early on was to invite past and potential campers to the barbecue and, more recently, for Buck Lakers with big pontoon boats to provide them with rides in the Boatilla itself. Sometimes it has been quite a challenge to get those big battery-powered wheelchairs safely maneuvered onto the decks of pontoon boats but the resulting delighted smiles on the faces of the children and their parents have been well worth the effort.

Another more recent innovation has been live music at the wind-up BBQ. This has been provided by Caz’ band, a father associated with the Kingston Symphony Orchestra and his two daughters. A feature number in the last two years has been an original song written and sung by Kiera, a Merrywood camper, who has come with her parents sever-al times to the Boatilla. Another speaks well for the future. About four years ago, some children from Hidden Valley spontaneously showed up with a little plastic cash register and put on a bake sale, all proceeds (over $300) going to the Boatilla. It was a surprise to everyone except, of course, their parents who no doubt furnished encouragement, cooking skills, and the baked goods’ ingredients. In the same spirit of giving, other chil-dren on Buck Lake have put on a book sale and offered lemonade from a dock in the narrows with the proceeds earmarked for various causes, including cancer research.

The Boatilla’s contributes substantially to our community’s pride, its identity, and to the pleasure its seasonal and full-time members derive from their participation in it. Its con-tribution to Easter Seals is relatively easily measured in terms of the money raised for Camp Merrywood. Its contribution to physically challenged children is partially counted by the number of kids sent to camp. Getting measures of what going to camp means to those children, their enjoyment, development, self-assurance, and the respite provided to their parents is significant but not easily measured.

The first principle of the Boatilla has been that all donations matter and are welcome, small and large; it’s the spirit that counts. The second principle is that 100% of the donations go to Easter Seals and Camp Merriwood; the Boatilla incurs no administrative costs.

The 2017 Boatilla will be the 13th annual. Cumulatively (including the anticipated dona-tions this year) our community, through the Buck Lake Boatilla, will have raised over $200,000 over its 13 years, enough money to send to camp around 100 kids who would not otherwise have been able to have this great experience.

That’s something of which to be really proud!

The Buck Lake Boatilla is set for Sunday, July 2 this year.

Published in SOUTH FRONTENAC

The 11th annual Buck Lake Boatilla to raise funds for Easter Seals Camp Merrywood commences at 2 p.m. on Saturday, July 4, at the culvert on the south branch of Buck Lake. All forms of watercraft are welcome. The event will feature a tour of the lake, followed by a complementary barbeque at Hidden Valley Campground at 3 p.m., and a checque presentation to Easter Seals.

What began as an attempt to raise enough money to send one child with physical disabilities to camp quickly became a large event within the community involving local, regional, and even international contributions.

Buck Lake resident, Pat Haggerty said, “Our Community Watch organization wanted to give something charitable back to the community, so we decided to work with Easter Seals, specifically for Camp Merrywood. We wanted to provide an opportunity for children and youth with physical disabilities to do the things that we do here at Buck Lake – sailing, fishing, canoeing, and having campfires.”

During their first event in 2005, the Buck Lake community raised over $3700, and was able to send one child to camp. Over 10 years later, the Boatilla continues, and it has raised over $135,000 to date, sending 64 children to camp.

Last year along, $2,700 was raised, enough to send 10 kids to camp.

The dedication and enthusiasm of the Buck Lake community is really extraordinary,” said Jessica Kostuck, Fundraising Specialist for Easter Seals Ontario. “Camp Merrywood’s programs and activities help kids develop a strong sense of self-esteem, achievement, and confidence. The annual Buck Lake Boatilla exemplifies the spirit of Camp Merrywood, and is a delight for local Easter Seals families and supporters alike.”

Our success wouldn’t be possible without the outstanding support of the community,” stated Don Hopkins, Buck Lake resident and event organizer. “We are a small community, but we extend well beyond the lake. We’ve had fundraising efforts come in from as far as Lancaster and Toronto, the event even reaches out internationally to Pennsylvania. Over the years, donations have come in from local businesses, in areas such as Kingston, Belleville, Verona, Westport and Glenburnie, to mention a few”.

Sending children with physical disabilities to Camp Merrywood has always been our objective, and all of the funds raised go towards meeting that goal,” said community member Duncan Sinclair. “The event also helps to develop our community as well, and really gets our members involved and contributing to a great cause.”

Published in NORTH FRONTENAC
With the participation of the Government of Canada