On November 25, the University of Waterloo held the first Ontario Winter Camping Conference with over 400 people in attendance. People of all ages are realizing that camping in the winter need not be a hardship but can be very enjoyable. The woods are much quieter in the winter and the smell of snow is very relaxing and comforting. Again this winter Bob Miller and Mike Procter will lead a Saturday overnight camping adventure near Sharbot Lake as part of the Frontenac Heritage Festival activities. The date of the camp will not be on the Heritage Festival weekend but will be chosen by the participants keeping in mind the weather forecast and the schedules of the participants, likely in late January or early February. This winter we have 3 returning campers confirmed and we can accommodate another 4 people so anyone wishing to inquire about joining us for the free one night camp is required to contact Mike at 613-279-2572. All meals will be supplied and we have some blankets and other gear you can borrow. If you have never tried winter camping please consider it as a way to actually enjoy our great Canadian winter. While you are enjoying this Christmas season think about making 2018 a year to remember.

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.

On November 25, the University of Waterloo held the first Ontario Winter Camping Conference with over 400 people in attendance. People of all ages are realizing that camping in the winter need not be a hardship but can be very enjoyable. The woods are much quieter in the winter and the smell of snow is very relaxing and comforting. Again this winter Bob Miller and Mike Procter will lead a Saturday overnight camping adventure near Sharbot Lake as part of the Frontenac Heritage Festival activities. The date of the camp will not be on the Heritage Festival weekend but will be chosen by the participants keeping in mind the weather forecast and the schedules of the participants, likely in late January or early February. This winter we have 3 returning campers confirmed and we can accommodate another 4 people so anyone wishing to inquire about joining us for the free one night camp is required to contact Mike at 613-279-2572. All meals will be supplied and we have some blankets and other gear you can borrow. If you have never tried winter camping please consider it as a way to actually enjoy our great Canadian winter. While you are enjoying this Christmas season think about making 2018 a year to remember.

The balmy weather brought out 34 participants and two dogs on Family Day Monday to raise $300 for the OSO recreation committee rink fund.  The finisher cookies were yummy and very colourful this year.   Runners and walkers were from Sharbot Lake and area, Crow Lake, Sydenham, Hartington, Perth, Carleton Place, and Japan.  The St. Lawrence College Employment Centre 10k winners were: 1st. Miyu Shimokawa, 2nd. Cathy Byrnes,  3rd. Anne-Marie McCauslan and 1st. Cory Plant, 2nd. Rudy Hollywood,  and 3rd. Bob Harding.  The Central Frontenac Heritage Committee 5k winners were: 1st. Kris Plant, 2nd. Erin Bridge,  3rd. Lynette Whan and 1st. Kai Plant, and 2nd. Andrew Martin.  The Central Frontenac OSO Rec. Committee 2k winners were 1st. Laura Bridge, 2nd. Alison Bridge,  3rd. Linda Harding-Devries and 1st. Denis Morel (lead by his dog Willow),  2nd. Darrell Bridge,  and 3rd. David Martin.  TriRudy.com presented two special awards: one to Lloyd Whan for his volunteer work and one to Miyu Shimokawa for the person who travelled the furthest to race.

When Rosemarie Bowick took on the task of organizing a quilt show for the Frontenac Heritage Festival this year, she wasn’t sure they’d be able meet the mandate of 150 quilts in honour of Canada’s 150th Anniversary.

“I only had to make three phone calls,” she said. “The next thing you know, we had more quilts than we knew what to do with.

“We had to limit many to three or four quilts.”

While the final count probably won’t ever be official, nobody could claim they didn’t make their goal of 150 quilts. In fact, the more accurate question might be how much they exceeded it by. There were four official venues (the Masons Hall, United and Anglican churches in Sharbot Lake and the United Church in Arden), each packed with quilts and each played host to a steady stream of visitors.

“We’ve been jam packed all day,” said Bowick at the Masons Hall. “And people just seem to be blown away.

“One thing people seem to like is the little cards on each quilt with the story of how the quilt came to be.

“That was Janet’s (Festival organizer Gutowski) idea.”

At each venue there were a mixture of heritage and modern quilts, all brought in by local residents.

Which ones were the most popular?

“I can’t say which one is the most popular,” Bowick said. “All of them?”

One quilt in particular did get its share of attention, the 150th quilt.

Debbie Embry did the quilting and Bowick did the assembly, along with husband Bill.

It’s to be raffled off over this year with the winner announced at the New Year’s Eve Dance.

While the sunny skies were welcome for much of the Frontenac Heritage Festival last weekend, the Tichborne venue might have preferred a slightly cooler temperature as the rink featured a bit of water across its surface.

Undaunted however, the Kingston & Area Ice Stock Club along with a few locals still threw a few rocks and got in a game or two.

“It’s OK,” said spokesperson Chris Hammer. “This game can be frustrating in the best of conditions but we’re always competitive.”

Ice stock is game very similar to curling. Indeed, practitioners throw stones towards a ‘house’ and the closer your stones are to the house (actually a rubber ring so it has similarities with bocce) than your opponents, the more points you score. The stones are quite similar to curling stones, except the handles are straight up. There is one big difference, however, the design of the 4.5 kilo stones allows for the exchanging of bases such that it can be played on asphalt during the summer.

“The summer game uses Teflon bases,” Hammer said. “That’s what we’ll be using when we start our summer season at the tennis courts in Sydenham.

“The winter bases are rubber.”

The sport likely has its origins in curling (although it is depicted in Peter Bruegel paintings from the 1500s) but it’s actually a German-Austrian variant established in 1934.

Locally, it began at Ernst Porhaska’s and Otto Egger’s properties just off Sydenham Road north of the 401 in the late ’50s.

It suffered a local decline in the ’90s but has been enjoying a resurgence with 45 regular members in the local club.

The only thing missing was some guy spinning plates on sticks to Sabre Dance.

But as the dust settled, country crooner Zach Teal took top honours in Frontenac’s got talent, the kick-off event at this year’s 11th annual Frontenac Heritage Festival.

Singer-pianist Amber Minutillo took second, poi juggler Eric Zwier was third and the Bucket Drummers were awarded an honourable mention.

It was an eclectic evening at the Granite Ridge Education Centre as emcee Rob Moore introduced 12 acts in a spoof of the popular ‘Got Talent’ TV format.

The “No” dancers kicked off the show followed by local legend Dave Dawson (yes, he yodelled a bit). Minutillo followed showing considerable promise followed by the increasingly popular Bucket Drummers.

What followed next was anybody’s guess but essentially it was pictures of some guy playing with his dog.

The last act before intermission was Rudy Hollywood and Brian Robertson camping up an ode to “Tichborne,” a performance that prompted judge Sherry Whan to observe: “I’ve never seen anything like that before.”

Intermission.

Coming back from the break was an act that pretty much defies description. We’re calling it Mike McKenzie’s levitation trick.

After that, a sense of normalcy settled in with Brett and Nancy Hilder followed by last year’s sensation Jennifer Argyle.

Then the lights went down for Zwier to spin his lighted poi’s (no fire but it was still pretty cool).

Then judge Mike Proctor took the mike for some comedic musings followed by Teal’s winning performance.

The Food Bank however was the big winner on the evening, collecting $475 in donations plus food items.

“Everything is falling into place” for the 11th annual Frontenac Heritage Festival this weekend, says organizer Janet Gutowski.

It looks like even the weather will be cooperating with partly sunny skies and temperatures around 0 degrees forecast.

“For the past two years, we’ve hit the coldest weekend of the year,” Gutowski said. “Even to the point of having to reschedule the Polar Bear Plunge.”

And speaking of the Plunge, it’s back on Sunday at noon where costumed plungers will jump into the frozen Sharbot Lake down at the marina to raise funds for Community Living, Connections Adult Learning Centre and the Central Frontenac Volunteer Firefighters.

Things get underway Friday afternoon as Gutowski, town crier Paddy O’Connor, Debbie and Doug Lovegrove will be going around to various businesses and organizations dressed in period costume to award prizes.

Those prizes, along with those for the snow sculpture contest will be awarded at the opening ceremonies at the Granite Ridge Educational Centre at 6:30 p.m. with a performance by the Limestone North Young Choristers.

Then, at 7 p.m., things move upstairs at GREC for Frontenac’s Got Talent, the annual variety show (admission is a donation to the food bank).

“(Variety show producer) Rob Moore’s enthusiasm for the variety show is amazing and there will be plenty of ‘variety,’” Gutowski said.

Things really get going on Saturday, with a variety of events all with heritage themes including Bavarian Curling in Tichborne with the Kingston Area Ice Stock Club (noon-2 p.m.), an open house at Peter Bell’s restored 19th Century log home on Fall River Road (11 a.m. to 3 p.m.), Lion’s breakfast at Oso Hall followed by an open mike, a ‘romp & stomp’ at the Child Centre with kids events, the caboose in Sharbot Lake will be open, a host of events at the Community Centre in Arden including the popular fur-traders camp reenactment, wolf creek carvings, displays by the Kennebec Trappers Association and Historical Society, the Arden Potters Empty Bowls Project, horse-drawn wagon rides and finally the chilli cook-off at the Legion.

On Sunday, there’s the aforementioned Plunge, followed by chili on a bun at the Sharbot Lake Legion and the popular Tryon Farm visit on Wagarville Road from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Parking is at the Parham Fire Station with a free shuttle every 20 minutes. There’s also a movie for kids at Oso Hall at 1:30 p.m., The Good Dinosaur. Sunday evening wraps up with a performance by Harry Manx at The Crossing Pub in Sharbot Lake.
On Monday, there’s the annual Heritage Walk/Run at 1 p.m. Register at Oso Hall.

And something else that will be running on Saturday that Gutowski’s really looking forward to is quilt displays. Participation and interest was such that they had to arrange four venues to accommodate all the quilts.

“It will be at the Sharbot Lake United Church, the Sharbot Lake Anglican Church, the Arden United Church and the Masonic Hall in Sharbot Lake,” Gutowski said. “I think with this being the 150th Anniversary year for Canada, there’s been a lot of interest.

“The vast majority of quilts are heritage but even the newer ones will have something special about them that will show what we have in our hearts.”

The Empty Bowls started off in 1990 as a small project by a group of potters working with some chefs in a town in Michigan to give away bowls of soup and allow people to keep the bowls. All that was requested was a donation to a local food based charity. Twenty seven years later not a lot has changed about how with Empty Bowls work, except it is now a series of small projects in communities throughout North America. It was introduced in Eastern Ontario by Perth area Potter Jackie Seaton who developed it with the help of a number of potters in the Perth, Brooke Valley and Maberly area into an event that raises over $10,000 each year for The Table, YAK and other projects in Perth. Although Seaton has since died, the project remains strong.

Three years ago, Joanne Pickett of Arden Pottery started an Empty Bowls event in Arden, holding it in conjunction with the Frontenac Heritage Festival weekend. In Arden it has taken on a Frontenac County flavour and has grown every year. Last year over 100 bowls of soup were served and carted away and $1,400 was raised. Instead of restaurants making the soup, in Arden it was local volunteers.

“There were some real gourmet soups last year, including venison soup and sun dried tomato blue cheese soup, and in our project the potters serve the soup,” said Pickett, when contacted about this year’s event earlier this week.
The potters who are participating this year include Pickett, who has been potting at her studio on Big Clear Lake for nearly 40 years, Tracy Bamford and Sharon Matthews (Long Lake Potters) and Jonas Bonnetta. Local cooks are going to be supplying desserts and coffee this year and the suggested donation will be $20, in the hope of raising $2,000 for the North Frontenac Food Bank.

“It has been a good fit to hold the Empty Bowls during the Heritage Festival weekend because there are many other events in Arden during the weekend and they all help each other. And with all the help from the local community it is more than just potters who are involved. Everyone in Arden helps out,” she said.

Empty Bowls runs from 10-4 on Saturday, February 18th along with displays by the Frontenac Trappers Council and the Kennebec Historical Society, chainsaw carving by Robin Deruchie, and games put on by the Arden Volunteer Firefighter Association. There will be a pioneer demonstration outside, and weather permitting, horse drawn wagon rides.

For information about Empty Bowls, contact Joanne Pickett at 613-335-2763

2017-02-08: Corrected the date in the headline from "February 21" to "February 18". The article also missed one of the potters who has participated, Aileen Merriam. Aileen has been participating for three years. She will have some of her pots available and will be on hand on the 18th.

Come help us celebrate Canada’s 150th by participating in our 7th annual Polar Plunge as part of our annual Frontenac Heritage Festival. The first toes hit the water on Sunday, February 17th at 12 noon sharp! Our thanks again to Richard Struthers and his staff at the Marina for hosting the event. You can participate as a plunger, a spectator or even as a financial contributor!!

After two years of particularly polar postponements – this year we will jump the following Sunday if the weather is to be below -20 C. We will make a proclamation 24 hours before jump time on whether it is a go or not and this will be broadcast on the Heritage Festival Facebook page and website so check in the evening before, or the morning of the jump for the latest updates.

Plungers please show up between 10:45 to 11 for pre-plunge refreshments and safety briefing.  Paddy O’Conner, our Town Crier, will get things underway at 12 Noon and the first plunger will hit the water shortly after.  For the sake of the participants and the audience the action will be fast and furious and should wrap up within 30-45 minutes.  Through the generosity of St. Lawrence College Employment Center, Karen McGregor will join Mayor Frances Smith to present the trophies for our award winners just before the plunge.

Come!! Plunge with us - but if (for some reason) you can’t – why not sponsor a plunger??  Funds raised this year will go to assisting:

• Community Living – Treasure Trunk
• Northern Connections Adult Learning Centre
• Central Frontenac Fire Department

Thank you in advance for all your generous donations.  When making cheques out to plungers, please make them payable to: Township of Central Frontenac with a notation of “Polar Plunge” at the bottom.  If you want a receipt for your generous donation please include accurate postal address info on the pledge form so we can get the receipt to you!!  Our thanks again to Bill Young and the Firefighters for being in the water right there with us, the Emergency Services personnel for being on hand (just in case!) and the many volunteers that make this event possible.

For information or pledge forms, or for info on available plungers to fund please contact Art Holloway at 613-985-2895 or at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..