The Parents Council at Prince Charles Public School in Verona was looking for a slightly different way to acknowledge Earth Day.

They found one.

Last Saturday, the Council representatives asked area residents to bring them their e-waste (ie electronics no longer in working order or no longer used) which the Council would then turn over to recyclers in return for some cash that would go to the school.

At the end of the day, they collected 5,960 pounds of TVs, VCRs, computers and what nots.

“We thought we’d try something different,” said Tina McHale, treasurer of the Parents Council. “Actually, this is the first time we’ve tried anything like this, and after just two hours, the bin is half full.

“And that’s amazing because there are a lot of things we can’t take like toys, games, vacuums, microwaves, blenders, CDs and VHS tapes.”

“There are a couple of old-time turn-dial TVs in there,” said helper Mike Williams. “There’s an old-school projector and I’m waiting for an old-school TV with legs.”

For those who might find it difficult to get to the bin location, they even had drivers making pickups.

“One lady told us ‘if my husband weren’t home, I’d have more to bring you,” he said.

“(Most) people seem glad to get rid of these things though,” said McHale. “We’ve got old stereo components, some of those old thick laptops — one lady brought in three of those.”

“And a lot of it is probably still working,” said Williams.

Given the success of this year’s pickup, they might consider making it an annual event.

I met Kevin Wenkoff, of Bellrock, South Frontenac, at his apiary beyond their wild flower and herb garden. Kevin is a full-time school teacher and keeps a hobby apiary of four colonies of Russian honeybees on his two-acre property. Any honey that he collects he uses himself or gives away to family and friends.

I wanted to understand the work involved in keeping bees, so, leading me into his office he simply said, “OK, let’s suit up and go and take a look.” Dressed for a moon landing, we walked in that clumsy style of Neil Armstrong.

Dedicated beekeepers stress that it is the hands-on experience of keeping bees that is important in learning about these insects. Having bees on your hands and watching their daily dance conveys more information about the colony condition than reading.

Wenkoff had a goose feather for moving any bees out of the way or off my hands. It does not harm or frighten the bees - and if you have any exposed bare skin you do not want to frighten 20,000 bees.

Wenkoff spends about two hours a week working with and talking to his bees, and many more hours just watching and enjoying the relaxation that they provide. It is not all fun, however. Two years earlier he experienced a winter die-off of a complete colony and lost 12,237 bees.

When asked how he estimated that number, he replied, “It’s not an estimation. I asked my grade 6/7 French class from Prince Charles School in Verona if they would like to do some real math in my apiary. We organised a supervised school trip; most of the class came out to count dead bees in February”.

The students had to count and speak in French. One boy found and identified the Queen.

Wenkoff believes that his winter die-off was a natural disaster. It had been very cold that year and he had not added sufficient insulation.

His colonies have bounced back. This summer’s good nectar flow and new strong queen bees have helped. He will assist by ensuring that he leaves plenty of nectar and honey for them to feed off during the winter and he will add insulation to the hives. He is also considering a winter feeding program if he still has one weak hive late this fall.

Wenkoff is trying to allow the bees to survive naturally and he does not replace the colony queen bees. He allows the colony to make that decision, and they do.

Bees need to be creative; they are builders and foragers of nectar. Wenkoff does not give them a complete ready-built home with plastic honeycombs; rather, he encourages the bees to build their own honeycomb from a very small basic beeswax starter, on the frames. Commercial beekeepers cannot afford the time for this and insert a complete plastic backing shaped as the hexagonal honeycomb base on a frame.

Wenkoff’s approach to beekeeping is known as the Biodynamic method. This is not as cost-effective as that employed in commercial beekeeping, but this approach could be breeding stronger, more infection-resistant bees. Only time will tell.

Peter Mouncey has taken over the role as school principal at Prince Charles Public School in Verona for the 2016-2017 school year.

“I truly believe in education, particularly public education, as something that can be transformative,” he says. “It can change individual lives; it can change communities and when we do a good job with our schools then I think we’re doing a good job with our society.”

Mouncey has been with the Limestone District School Board since 2000. He got his first position as a vice-principal and has not slowed down since. He has worked at seven different schools since starting with the board. Before Prince Charles he was at First Avenue, Marysville, Holsgrove, Selby, Westdale Park, Southview and Winston Churchill.

Mouncey says that growing up he was always drawn to teaching. Whether it was as a leader at cub scouts, camp counselor, Sunday school teacher or tutor, he has always had a love for leadership.

“Anything that a teenager could do that was directed towards working with children I just gravitated to naturally,” he says. “I really can’t imagine doing anything else with my life.”

After graduating from the Queen’s University Concurrent Education program, Mouncey got his first teaching job working at an international school with his wife Sharon Isbell in Hong Kong. It was there that he and Isbell got married.

The two of them stayed in Hong Kong for two years before moving back to Canada to start teaching in Eastern Ontario.

The Cobourg native got his first taste of Verona in the summer of 1977 while playing in a baseball tournament. After getting a co-op with an outdoor and experiential education program in his final year of teachers’ college, Mouncey returned to Frontenac and really started to fall in love with the area.

He and his family made the move to the Kingston area in the summer of 2000 and have been here ever since. Now with three children, the couple spends their time racing from work to hockey arenas and dance studios.

Mouncey says that he was very pleased to get the position in the Verona area. He says that the students and parent community at the school have been incredibly welcoming of him. He has loved his time at Prince Charles so far and is looking forward to a great school year.

“I can’t emphasize enough how well this first month has gone,” says Mouncey. “I truly have felt very welcomed and supported. There are folks in Verona and the surrounding area who really do value and support their school and I’d like to thank everybody for how things have gone so far.”

Last Friday the students of Prince Charles Public School, Verona, gathered for the dedication of a maple tree donated and planted by the Parents’ Council of Prince Charles, in memory of three former students who had died under tragic circumstances within the past year.

Nicky Gowdy, chair of the Parents’ Council, spoke warmly of the three individuals: Kevin Grant who loved his farm, family and fishing; Jen Rose Duffy, athletic spitfire and popular bus monitor, and Brian James, “BJ”, a person with a great zest for life who was fascinated by all motorized vehicles.

Representatives from the bereaved families then each tied a memorial yellow ribbon around the tree: Brody Badour, for Kevin; John Morey, for BJ; and Dacota Duffy for Jem.

Prince Charles Public School in Verona held their 8th annual Relay for Life fund-raising event last Friday, June 10, under the brilliant late spring sunshine.

Cam Whalen, who co-ordinates student relay events for the Canadian Cancer Society in eastern Ontario, was on hand for the opening of the event.

He said that Prince Charles is one of only two elementary schools in the entire region that holds an event, along with Winston Churchill in Kingston.

He told the students that over eight years they have raised over $15,000 to go towards cancer research.

“While it takes millions to find a cure, sometimes small grants have big results,” he said, and talked about a new treatment that will soon be available that uses a virus that eats cancer cells but is benign otherwise.

“The original grant for that project was for $25,000,” he said, “so the money you have raised really does lead to cures.”

Prince Charles principal, Peter Dendy, said that at the kickoff assembly for relay this year, before the pledge sheets were handed out and students were told how to go about getting sponsors, he asked the students to raise their hands if they knew of anyone in their family who had been affected by cancer.

“Ninety-five percent of you raised your hands,” he told the students, “so you all know what this is about.”

Before the students started to walk around the school’s track for the afternoon, a Survivors’ lap was completed by Joyce Dendy, Peter's mother, and Doug McIntyre, who is a very popular crossing guard at Prince Charles.

The students all joined in after the first lap. Over 100 students participated in the rally.

The tally of the amount raised has not been completed yet, but will be available within a week.

Members of the parent council at Prince Charles Public School in Verona, along with some of the school’s staff members, organized and hosted a direct sellers/craft show and sale at the school on March 26, which combined forces with vendors at the Frontenac Farmers Easter Market event. Proceeds from the parent council’s fundraiser will go towards purchasing new playground equipment for the school, at a cost of approximately $13,000. The event offered visitors a unique shopping experience, with a number of direct sellers and crafters offering up a wide variety of products. The farmers’ market vendors also donated their table rental fees to the playground fundraiser.

Alison Williams, secretary of the PCPS parent council, helped organize the event. She said, “There has been a great need for this kind of equipment at the school for a number of years now and we, the parent council, have already made a down payment on the equipment, which will be installed at the school sometime in April”. Williams said that while the school currently has playground equipment for kindergarten-aged school children and children in grades six and above, there is a great need for equipment for the intermediate students at the school. '”Currently there is no equipment outside specifically geared for children in grades 2 through 5.”

The new equipment to be purchased will include three large separate structures; two different types of rock climbing walls and a third structure that will have interactive equipment that focuses on developing this age group’s gross motor skills.

In an effort to teach practical life skills to students in the Limestone District School Board (LDSB), a new pilot project called Slow Cookers for Kids was launched at three Kingston area schools, and last week the three-day program was introduced to grade 7 and 8 students at Prince Charles Public School in Verona. The project is run by the Enactus St. Lawrence College (SLC) program and delivered by Chef Thomas Elia and his culinary students at St. Lawrence College in Kingston.

Slow Cookers for Kids is one of Enactus's many projects designed to “reduce poverty and hunger, while promoting entrepreneurship, literacy life skills by creating comprehensive solutions to issues within the greater community.”

The Slow Cookers For Kids program resulted from Chef Elia's Food Sense program, which he runs at St. Lawrence College. Food Sense shows post-secondary students how to survive on an OSAP food budget of $7.50/day, which Chef Elia said is “pretty hard to do if you don't know how to cook”.

Given the fact that hot plates are not allowed in the student rooms at St. Lawrence, Elia introduced the idea of healthy and inexpensive cooking with the help of a slow cooker. “The beauty of a slow cooker is that it is safe and that it works 100% of the time.” he said.

Next, Chef Elia partnered up with Jason Quenneville, the technology teacher at First Avenue Public School in Kingston, and with the help of his students brought the Slow Cooker for Kids program to schools in the LDSB. The program teaches grade 7 and 8 students how to prepare and cook a number of healthy, inexpensive meals with the help of a slow cooker.

I visited Prince Charles during the final day of the program on February 26, where the students were preparing chocolate cake and a curry lentil dish, both made using a slow cooker. Chef Elia had the full attention of the students as he put the finishing touches on both items. Other meals prepared by the students during the program included vegetarian lasagne, and black bean soup and each meal cost on average about 50 cents per serving.

The students, who participated in the program not only learned the ins and out of slow cooking, but at the end of the program each received a canvas bag filled with the ingredients to create their own meal at home; a recipe book titled "Recipes for an Empty Wallet"; and last but not least their very own Hamilton Beach slow cooker.

Robert Riddell, a second-year culinary student at St. Lawrence, was one of four students teaching the PCPS students. He was thrilled with the opportunity to work with the students at PCPS. “It's a real pleasure to work with the students here and the program gives me an opportunity to share my skills and my trade and is a great way to give back to the community.”

Chef Elia, who to date has brought the program to three schools in the LDSB, was equally enthusiastic about how the program has been received. “What is truly amazing is that we did not know if we would be able to get young kids to eat this kind of stuff - lentils, curry and beans - and we have found the response to be phenomenal. Not only do the students love to cook, but they also love the meals and are taking the crock pots home, where they are making meals for their families.”

Elia said he hopes to see the program continue on at LDSB schools and that it is quickly grabbing the attention of other schools across Canada.

Funding for the program came from a partnership between Enactus SLC and the LDSB, and Elia said that a trust fund is currently being set up at the LDSB so that more slow cookers can be purchased for the program.

One student said, prior to digging into her bowl of lentil curry, that the program will definitely encourage more cooking at home for herself and her family.

For more information visit enactusslc.ca

Those familiar with the old children’s fairy tales, like Hansel and Gretel, are in for a real treat thanks to an artful production that continues at Prince Charles Public School in Verona this week.

Written by Steph DeFerie, the play is directed by Doug MacIntyre and produced by himself and Kathy King. It is the perfect piece of community theatre for the Halloween season since it offers up loads of colourful costumes plus a hefty portion of comical characters in all shapes and sizes for young and old alike. The story is not just about Hansel and Gretel; it brings in all the beloved fairy tale characters we have grown up with, and each is generously scripted and given a chance to shine.

That is the case for Meagan Smith, who plays Blossom the Cow and whose three-letter word utterances charm to no end. So is the case for the forest mouse, Alyssa Parks, whose wee cuteness and focused attention to the action is equally charming.

And speaking of charming, Josh Detlor’s dandy Prince was just that, as was Gareth Hewitt's Big Bad Wolf, a character you just love to hate. Similarly Hailey Hickey's mirrored face was a hilarious sight to behold, as were the words she spoke as the bearer of the truth. Stephanie Rowe as both Snow White and Red Hiding Hood was also highly entertaining. The truth – or what we think we know as the truth about these characters - is one idea that the plot closely hinges on in this play and is what DeFerie plays on.

Veteran actors to the community stage did not miss out on a chance to put their talents to the test. Both Astrid Tanton as Gretel and Johnny Parks as Hansel were stellar as the young leads who personalities changed on a dime and whom the audience first enthusiastically wooed then booed. Audience participation in the form of clapping, cheering, and jeering was highly encouraged and was a big part of why this show is so enjoyable for all ages.

Other lead players also had a chance to demonstrate the extremes of their acting chops; Connie Shibley as Brunhilda and Amanita Phalloides, and Beth Freeland in her two opposing sides as stepmother to the lead siblings both showed they have what it takes. Similarly, father Wilhelm (Piotr Rauchfleisch) played his role as an innocent and victimized dad with aplomb and his scenes with Freeland were classic comedy given their polar opposites in both form and temperament. Alison Williams as the Fairy Godmother was a sheer joy to behold, a natural to the stage and who, due to an early wand mishap, gets the classic stories and situations hilariously befuddled. Dick Miller as Inspector Wombat and his sidekick Dalton Hurren as Sergeant Ringworm made a hilarious sleuthing duo. The show’s costumer designer, Debbie Lovegrove, is truly gifted and though this production was no doubt a challenge, she definitely rose to it and brilliantly surpassed the mark, creating some very memorable and clever costumes that added to the cartoonish, campy feel of the show.

The sets by Robert Rowe and Dave King were similarly clever and simple, with turnstile forest trees changing into a cozy indoor hearth and with the actors taking full advantage of the space in front of the stage where much of the action occurred. In the second act the stage opened up revealing the inside of a candy house, a simple and aptly decorated set equipped with cage, stove, witch’s broom, wood pile and a glowing bright fire light.

Part mystery, part mockery and a full-on high jinks tale with many unseen twists, the play was one of the best I have seen to date by Doug MacIntyre, who never fails to put his heart and soul into every show that he stages. Hansel and Gretel is one of his best and those who missed the first two performances have no fear. There are two more this coming weekend - Sat. Nov. 1 at 7pm and Sun. Nov. 2 at 2pm. Tickets are $12 for adults and $8 for children 12 years of age and under and are available at the door or at Verona Convenience Store, Verona Drug Mart, Verona Hardware and Asselstine Hardware.

There is probably no better guide to lead a tour of the universe than celebrated Canadian astronomer, Terence Dickinson.

Dickinson, who resides in Yarker, was invited to Prince Charles PS in Verona by Laurie Swinton, former chair of the parent council, to give an evening talk about the universe on October 2 to listeners of all ages with curious minds.

Dickinson, who became fascinated by the stars at age five, has made an admirable career as a renowned astronomer and has authored 15 books on the subject including “Nightwatch: A Practical Guide to Viewing the Universe”, “The Backyard Astronomer’s Guide” and “Exploring the Night Sky”. For years he edited the magazine Astronomy and in 1995 he founded and is still editor of the Canadian astronomy magazine SkyNews.

Over his career he has held numerous posts as staff astronomer at such places as the McLaughlin Planetarium in Toronto and was assistant director at the Strasenburgh Planetarium in Rochester, New York. He has won numerous honors and awards including a honorary PhD from the University of Trenton. He was also awarded the Order of Canada and has had an asteroid named after him. However, it is his passion for his subject and his ability to deliver information in understandable terms for all ages that made his appearance at PCPS such a treat.

Dickinson used models to demonstrate the magnitude of the universe, inviting one youngster to hold a yellow golf ball representing our sun and inviting another to hold a second white ball representing the next nearest star system, Alpha Centauri. He informed the second youngster that he would have to take his white golf ball all the way to Winnipeg to give a true scale representation of its distance from our sun. Understanding the scope and size of the universe is a daunting task even for the most nimble minded. It is estimated that there are roughly 100 billion galaxies in the universe with each on average having 100 billion stars, which brings the estimated total numbers of stars in the universe to 10,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 stars (or 10 to the power of 22).

While listeners were awed by what they heard, Dickinson also accompanied his talk with a slide show of equally awe-inspiring photos. One, a view of the earth as seen from the moon was particularly breathtaking.

Following his talk he invited guests to view the moon on what thankfully was a perfectly clear night. He explained that with the strength of present-day telescopes, viewers that night in Verona could actually see the moon as close up as the astronauts who orbited it in space had seen it.

He spoke of what a shame it is that in Toronto one cannot view the sky as he was able to as a boy in suburban Toronto so he is glad that in the more northern towns like Verona and those even further north, people are still able to enjoy dark skies and are doing their best to preserve and promote them.

Dickinson hopes that his passion might ignite a flame in the young minds of local students and he will be returning to Prince Charles later in October to speak to the students about the subject he loves and knows best.

By the way, those who have played the board game Trivial Pursuit have Terrence Dickinson to thank for most of the astronomy questions and answers found there.

Photos-

2038-famed Canadian astronomer Terence Dickinson awed listeners at his talk “A Tour of the Universe” at Prince Charles PS in Verona on October 2

2042-a slide in his presentation shows earth as seen from the moon  

In an effort to get young students involved with the Canadian Cancer Society's Relay for Life, staff at Prince Charles Public School in Verona held their own special Relay for Life event at the school on June 20. The school’s Relay is now in its fourth year and included a presentation in the gym in which Cam Whalen, a fundraiser/relationship manager with the Canadian Cancer Society in Eastern Ontario, spoke about the importance of the CCS's annual Relay event and how the funds raised are used to help individuals battling the disease. School Principal Peter Dendy invited his mother Joyce Dendy, a cancer survivor, to participate in the PCPS relay. Joyce who was diagnosed with breast cancer in 1997, underwent surgery and treatment, and is now cancer free. I spoke to her at the event and she stressed the importance of women getting regular mammograms. She said that she regularly takes part in the annual Kingston Breast Cancer Action Kingston Walk as well. She was pleased to be able to come to the school and said that the event is an important one for students. “As time goes on students will remember these kinds of events and will come to realize that they have done something to help”, she said.

After the formal gym presentation, Joyce proceeded to the school’s track and lapped it, after which she received multiple “high fives” from the students as she passed by. The students were then invited to Relay on the track along with her.

Prior to the relay students were given envelopes and asked to fundraise and it was announced at the presentation that they raised over $2,000 for the cause. Leading up to the event students were made aware of various cancer statistics and the importance of raising funds so that more research can be done and more services can be made available to those diagnosed the disease.

Lisa Cousins-Badour, who teaches at the school, said the Relay is an important way of making students aware of the disease, how best to prevent it and how to help support the efforts of the CCS. Congratulations to all of the students, who not only reached but surpassed their $2,000 goal. Students who raised the most funds will be winning a special prize; they will be dyeing PCPS teacher Ms. Edmonds’ hair as a reward for their efforts.

photo-2012