Granite Ridge Educational Centre can add a couple more names to its growing list of accomplished athletes.

Grade 12s Devin Cooney and Nick Anderson have returned home from the Youth Invitational Special Olympics in Toronto last week (May 14-17) with a total medal haul of five, including two golds.

Cooney took the gold in shot put and silver in both the 200 metres and 400 metres. He was also fifth in the long jump.

Anderson won gold in the long jump and a bronze in the 100 metres (both personal bests) and added a sixth in the shot put.

“This was a big deal because there were 2,500 athletes from all across North America, including Cayman Islands and Jamaica,” said coach Tammy Steele.

“There were athletes from Chicago, North Carolina, Texas, Michigan, Manitoba, Alberta, Quebec,” said Cooney.

The guys are no strangers to athletic competition. Last year, Cooney was on a gold-medal winning basketball team from the school and Anderson took gold on the soccer team. Albeit, those were much smaller events.

Cooney actually likes basketball best, he said, citing Michael Jordan as the best ever. But the Invitational in Toronto was “a lot of fun, evenly fun with basketball.”

Anderson prefers the field events, such as long jump, despite winning bronze in the 100 metres.

“With the running events, after a while my legs hurt,” he said, explaining that he’s had a bout of shin splints lately. “But my goal is to be a weightlifter like my Uncle Murray.”

(Murray Anderson has had considerable success in strongman competitions, including two 12th-place finishes in Ontario’s Strongest Man in 2005 and 2007.)

Both Cooney and Anderson, like most athletes, remember the food at the competition.

“They had good breakfast, lunch and supper,” said Cooney. “And cappuccinos.”

“And Ice-caps,” said Anderson.

Next year, the Invitational is scheduled to be held in Kingston and both athletes are looking forward to it, albeit for different reasons.

The school is looking at taking most of the student body to the Kingston meet to cheer them on.

“The student body is coming to watch?” asked Cooney. “I want that!

“I guess I’ll really have to train harder.” Anderson said that while he likes the idea of competing, having a lot of people there watching him really isn’t his thing.

“No, not really, anxiety,” he said.

The Toronto Invitational marked 50th year of Special Olympics since its inception by Dr. Frank Hyden and Eunice Kennedy Shriver in 1968.

The Boy Wonder completed a successful four day run at Granite Ridge Education Centre on Sunday afternoon. The Mother’s Day matinee had a modest audience, but sellouts on the previous two nights and a very well-attended opening night on Thursday made it one of the most popular productions for the 40-year-old community theatre company in recent years.

The play was both an original work and a throwback at the same time. It was conceived, written and directed by long time NFLT lighting director, Jeff Siamon.

Siamon is a fan of old-time musicals of the 1930’s and 40’s that were often about putting on a musical. The Boy Wonder includes a play within a play, and is constructed around songs that were drawn from the post World War I era.

The Boy Wonder of the title is Guy Martin (Christopher Hall). At the beginning of the play, he is a few days from the opening of his make or break musical “A Woeful Love” when his star and lover, Deloris (Angela Cowdy), quits. It takes him quite a while to realise what the audience has known from the start: that the typist, Monica Jones (Danielle Hall), is destined to be the star of the show and of his heart. It will take a while, but in the end “A Joyful Love” ends up being destined for Broadway successful and Guy and Monica have become an item.

There is a point, about halfway through the play, when Monica tells Guy something that, in retrospect, Jeff Siamon was also telling the audience. In the scene where the title of “A Woeful Love” is ultimately changed, Monica tells Guy that he should turn his play into a revue, because the music tells the story anyway and the audience comes out for the music, not the storyline.

This was certainly the case with A Boy Wonder, which had 24 musical numbers, creating an opportunity for not only the two leads to sing several numbers, both together and apart, but for a number of secondary characters to perform one or two songs. The chorus, as well, took centre stage at one point.

The best thing about A Boy Wonder were the musical performances. The two leads, who are newly weds in real life, complemented each other well. Danielle Hall, well known to NFLT fans from when she was a youngster, has an ease on the stage and the comic timing to keep the action flowing, as well as the singing talent to navigate a wide variety of songs. Christopher Hall, who comes from a family that is steeped in music, seemed to hit every note effortlessly and beautifully. Together, they carried the play, and some of their performances (hers: Second Hand Rose, Melancholy Baby, his: Anytime, After I Say I’m Sorry and together: Put Your Arms Around Me) were among the highlights of the production.

Other major characters included Mitzi (Megan Hall - Christopher’s sister) and Summer Storm (Sarah McCullough). They are both first time performers who both fully inhabited their roles, Mitzi as the plucky theatre insider and confidant to Monica, and Summer as a burlesque performer looking for a way into the legitimate theater. They made the most of their scenes, and belted out their songs when the opportunity came.

NFLT veterans, Brian Robertson as Victor and Angela Cowdy as Deloris, also mugged their way through in admirable fashion, as did Braidey Merigan as Wendell Bradshaw. In non-singing roles, Greg Morris as Guy Martin’s unsupportive father, Terence Martin, was the picture of cold villainy, and Marc Veno as the gangster, Eddie Bradshaw, was in full comic book mode.

Martina Field and Virginia Beckett were positively ditsy as sister chorus girls without a lot of talent. The chorus: Pam Giroux, Joan Hollywood, Linda Bush, Margo McCullough and Carol Morris, added depth to many of the musical numbers. Rounding out the cast were Rudy Hollywood, John Stephen and Evangeline Michie as the porter, bartender, and flower girl, respectively.

The costumes (Geoffrey Murray), set design (Steve Scantlebury) and staging of the Boy Wonder were also effective, thanks to the efficient work by the stage crew under stage manager, Barb Scantlebury, who kept the numerous set changes quick.

The Boy Wonder ran long - almost 3 hours with two intermissions. Although it could have been shorter, the quality of the production numbers was at a very high level, keeping the audience fully engaged to the end during the Friday night performance that I attended. John Inglis on piano and Adam Parker on a programmed keyboard that simulated a fuller orchestration also did well, although on some occasions the music was too loud, making the vocal solos harder to hear.

The Boy Wonder was a massive undertaking for Jeff Siamon and the NFLT, a fitting kick-off for its 40th anniversary year.

It was hard to tell who was having more fun last Wednesday at GREC — the organizers of the music workshops going on, or the students participating in them.

“Teaching is an art form,” said vice-principal Kristin Stevens, the main coordinator of the artistic events. “Art finds its way into everything (and) fun is always our focus.”

This particular event, made possible by Al Rankin, Blue Skies and Live Wire Music, the Parents Council and an Arts grant from the Limestone District School Board, featured about 150 Grade 4-8 students from GREC, Land O’Lakes Public School, Prince Charles Public School and Clarendon Central Public School. The students spent the day rotating through music and instrument-making workshops including flute making, indigenous drumming and song, drum making and acoustic instruments.

“The students are making art,” Stevens said. “They’re learning indigenous drumming and the value of arts endeavours.”

Judy Montgomery and Pam Giroux led the indigenous drumming/singing workshop.

“We’re having loads of fun working with the students,” Montgomery said. “We’re teaching them why we have music — why people sing.

“We give thanks to Mother Earth and our connection to the Earth.

“It encompasses the language and gives a sense of peace and well-being.”

And to get a sense of what’s involved in making music, students got a chance to make their own instruments.

Lily Legacy, who’s been known to create symphonies with nothing more than plastic buckets and enthusiasm, led a drum-making workshop where students made their own “indigenous inspired” hand drums out of tubes used for pouring concrete footings and packing tape.

“They’re super cheap,” Legacy said. “And they’re making drumsticks from dowels and hockey tape.

“It’s a good day.”

Over in the wood shop, students were drilling holes in dowels and creating unique flutes.

“When I’m not teaching, I’m making music or doing carpentry,” said teacher Julia Schall. “These kids are super engaged.”

Finally, students got to spend some time with Teilhard Frost, a fiddler by trade but also a music historian and on this day, he was passing along his knowledge of the not-so-common aspects of acoustic instruments, showing how just about anything can be used to make music.

“I picked some grass in the front yard of the school to show kids how to make notes blowing through it,” he said. “You don’t need anything other than what’s always been around to make music.

“You can be a drumset — without a drumset.”

Frost said he showed the students the relationship between a conch shell and a trumpet.

“You want people to know you’re there,” he said. “And a jug is the basis for hip-hop and beatbox.

He said this is the basis for his acoustic music project — “No Batteries required.”

The Grade 5-8 students from Granite Ridge Education Centre visited Prince Charles Public School in Verona Tuesday where Teilhard Frost performed a concert in the morning.

Frost also did a body percussion workshop in the afternoon for the PCPS Grade K-4 students.

During the day, the Grade 5-8 students from both schools rotated through music workshops including The History of Instruments, Bucket Drumming and Vocal Harmonies.

PCPS Grade 5-8 students will be visiting GREC in a few weeks for more workshops including using their wood shops.

Nikon ambassador Michelle Valberg was supposed to give a talk at GREC Saturday night, showing off her wildlife photographs.

However, with the weather calling for freezing rain and a flight scheduled for 6am to photograph Canada’s reindeer herd, Valberg had to beg off.

Luckily, the guy responsible for (almost) bringing her to Sharbot Lake has also taken quite a few wildlife photos, and it’s likely the insights he brought to the genre exceeded what a pure photographer might have had.

Gray Merriam, PhD, Dsc, Professor Emeritus, Landscape Ecologist, knows a thing or two about critters and the way they interact with their environment, and the audience didn’t seem to mind him filling in at the last minute.

“I used to do ecological research and live only 18 kilometers from Sharbot Lake,” he said.

Merriam’s lecture featured four photo shoots — polar bears in ‘Bear Town’ near Churchill, Manitoba, grizzly bears in Knight Inlet, B.C., ‘spirit’ bears in the Great Bear Rainforest in B.C. and painted hunting dogs in Botswana, Africa.

He began with polar bears.

“There are polar bear alert signs in the area,” he said. “A boulder covered in snow and a polar bear look quite similar but stepping on one gets very different results.”

He said the bears come ashore when the sea ice melts and they’re stuck there until it reforms, with very little to eat, so photographers have to load into a specialized ‘bear buggy’ to mingle with them.

“The time between the ice melting and reforming is getting longer and there’s not much food for the bears except seaweed,” he said. “It has very little nutritive value, except for something to chew on.”

He also had several shots of arctic foxes.

“They’re about the size of a large housecat,” he said. “The red foxes are moving north and are about twice the size of the arctic foxes.

“They prey on them.”

Next came the grizzlies of Knight Island.

“They’re having litters of three and four, which is the best indication that they’re doing well,” he said.

He said that “their ability to catch fish varies greatly” and the ones that are really good at it tend to eat only the “best parts — the roe and brains.” The bears that aren’t that good at fishing scoop up what’s left and drag them off into the woods.

“In this way they fertilize the forest,” he said.

Then came the highlight of the lecture — the Kermode bears, or spirit bears.

“These bears only exist on two islands,” he said. “They’re actually black bears with a genetic difference in that there’s no pigment in their hair.

“They’re not albinos as they do have pigment in their eyes.

“We were very lucky. Lots of people go there and never see a spirit bear. We got our fair share.”

Merriam finished up his talk with photos of the painted dogs of the Okavango Delta in Botswana.

“They have various patterns,” he said. “No two are ever alike.

“They’re about the size of a German shepherd, but with no body fat because they run all day, every day.”

He showed pictures of pups nipping at adults’ lips to make them regurgitate food for the pups as well as a number of other species in the area including leopards, crocodiles, lions, a serval, hippos, a bush baby and elephants.

The GREC gym somewhat resembled a mediaeval competition last Thursday as the Gryphons hosted teams from Holy Cross Secondary in Kingston, the North Addington Education Centre in Cloyne and Percy Centennial Public School in Warkworth for a National Archery in the Schools Program (NASP) championship.

“The program was designed in Kentucky and now we have 18 million kids participating worldwide,” said Tim Watts, who helps run the program in Ontario. “And not one insurance claim.”

Safety is paramount for obvious reasons. The participants are regulated and told when to approach the shooting line, when to shoot and when to retrieve their arrows.

Watts said all shooters use the same Mathews compound bows.

“That’s so a Grade 4 can hand the bow to a grade 12 and not have to adjust anything,” he said.

There are 125 schools in Ontario active in the program and more than 500 teachers trained, he said.

“The schools purchase the equipment (at 65 per cent of retail) and we train their teachers,” he said.

Shawn Lavender and Jamie McCullough run the program at GREC.

“This is our 4th year participating in the tournament,” said McCullough. “This is our second live and we’ve been in two virtual tournaments.

“When we found out they were looking for a host site, we offered ours.”

“Archery addresses students that don’t normally participate in group sports,” said Lavender. “It’s a bit of a niche in that you’re competing for a personal best all the time.

“And there’s a lot of camaraderie.”

He said they had six archers when they began and have 15 now, including students in the community program members.

“We’re trying to offer a variety of sports,” said McCullough. “Including ultimate frisbee and we even have a fishing team.”

They even lured retired teacher, Tom Corneil, out of retirement to help out with the younger members.

“I enjoy archery,” he said. “You can do it anywhere.

“And giving people an opportunity to participate is what teaching is all about.

“I like watching the kids participate, smile and improve.”

Senior student Tyee Davis is one of those participants.

“I’ve been shooting since I was three years old with a little plastic bow,” he said. “Archery is just really fun in general but it also connects me to my Native ancestors.

“And it’s good practice for hunting.”

A broomball tournament Saturday in Mountain Grove raised $350 to go towards a portable pitching mound for the baseball (yes, hardball) team at GREC.

The baseball club isn’t the highest profile squad at the school, in fact they don’t even have a real baseball diamond or pitching mound to practice on and have to play all their games in Kingston.

But what they lack in facilities, they make up for with enthusiasm, said coach Jamie McCullough.

“We’re going into our second year and it’s a co-ed team with 15 players,” he said. “We play in Kingston but our pitching suffers without a real mound to throw off of and so that’s why we’re raising money — to get a portable pitching mound so we don’t have to go to Kingston to practice.”

So, McCullough approached the District 2 Rec Committee and the rink was free last Saturday.

“We have four teams, two from the high school, one team with some staff and one with just parents,” McCullough said. “The final game was staff vs. students.

“Although the students beat the staff team 2-1 during round robin play, the staff played some shutdown broomball beating the students 5-0 in the final game.”

You can support the baseball team by dropping a donation off at GREC and telling the staff it’s for the pitching mound.

The 12th Annual Frontenac Heritage Festival is set to go Feb. 16-19 and one of its regular features, the local talent show, is once again the big draw on opening night (6:30 p.m. at the Granite Ridge Education Centre).

Once again it will follow the Frontenacs Got Talent format with guest judges determining an overall winner.

“Last year’s winner, Zack Teal, will be opening the show as per tradition,” said emcee Rob Moore at last Wednesday night’s audition/rehearsal. “A new winner will be crowned that evening.”

Once again there will be a variety of acts ranging from musical offerings to the demonstration team from Sharbot Lake Karate to poi juggler Eric Zwier to the Sharbot Lake Line Dancing group.

“And Mike Procter will be doing a magic show,” Moore said.

Following the opening gala Friday night, there will be a range of events and activities all weekend including skating at the Tichborne Rink on Saturday, breakfast at Oso Hall, bucket drumming at the Child Centre, bonfire warming station at the C.F. Train museum and a host of events including empty bowls, log-splitting, hay rides and pioneer village in Arden.

On Sunday, there’s the ever-popular Polar Plunge at the Sharbot Lake Marina followed an open mike with chilli at the Sharbot Lake Legion.

North Frontenac will be revisiting how it handles planning following a discussion at its regular meeting last Friday in Ompah.

Currently, planning work (subdivisions, condominiums, severances, minor variances, etc) is handled by Frontenac County on behalf of the Township.

But a recent report from director of planning and economic development Joe Gallivan says that the current workload leads to an unacceptable amount of overtime and therefore justifies the hiring of a junior planner with a salary in the range of $90,000 per year.

Gallivan’s report suggests that salary should come out of the County levy but also acknowledges that that might not be approved by County Council as the services provided would only be applicable to Central Frontenac, North Frontenac and Frontenac Islands. South Frontenac has its own planning department.

Mayor Ron Higgins agreed in a report to Council that the position should be covered by the County levy and also that that might not be approved by County Council.

“For North Frontenac, the priority today is an updated Zoning Bylaw (the current one is from 2004) which we wanted to have completed this past spring,” Higgins said. “I recommend we issue an RFP and hire a consultant to update our Zoning Bylaw to ensure that we have a Zoning Bylaw that meets the Building Code, other legislation and Official Plan requirements by spring 2018.”

“I don’t think a County planner should be making field trips on every application,” said Coun. Gerry Martin. “Our committee of adjustment is quite capable of making site visits.

“The County planner is wasting its resources (and) there’s a real deficit in management.”

“We should have a discussion on whether to stay with County planning or hire a contract planner,” said Higgins.

Central Frontenac Council had a similar discussion at a recent meeting.

• • •

North Frontenac will continue to review its strategic plan in the new year.

“This is a big document and I don’t think we’ve had the time to review it adequately,” said Coun. John Inglis. “I’d like to see it accepted provisionally.”

“We need it for the budget,” said Mayor Ron Higgins.

“I’m glad to see something about seniors housing in there (but) I feel it’s mainly your document,” said Inglis. “We haven’t had much discussion and I have something about the budget I’d like to get in there.”

“The main thing is affordable seniors housing (which was added by amendment),” said Higgins. “We’ll continue to review it in the new year.”

• • •

Following a public meeting on the subject, Council approved changes to the Fees and Charges Bylaw.

The fee for a Private Lane Name Sign increases to $400 from $250.

The Entrance Permit fee changes to $70 from $40.

The Blue Box Recycling Bin fee changes to $10 from $7.

The Composter fee changes to $40 from $30.

Township ball caps are $8.85.

• • •

After Council considered some funding requests, Coun. Gerry Martin wondered aloud: “how come we never see any requests from GREC (Granite Ridge Education Centre in Sharbot Lake that many North Frontenac residents attend)? Are they not aware that we give out grants?”

“They will be as of Thursday,” said Mayor Ron Vandewal, while watching The Frontenac News reporter scribbling down Martin’s words.

One of the final Canada 150 events in this sesquicentennial year will feature the music of Canada.
The Covering Canada 150 Coffee House is set to go this Friday night (Oct. 13) in the Granite Ridge Education Centre auditorium at 7 p.m. Admission is $5 and includes free coffee and snacks. Proceeds will go to a special fund being set up to pay for music lessons and/or music camp for deserving local students.
“There have been so many 150 celebrations this year,” said Jim MacPherson, who along with fellow musician Gary Giller organized the event. “We wanted to do something to show the Canadian music scene and the many avenues that entails. And we wanted to highlight the Canadian singer/songwriters and artists we’ve been influenced by.”

The two-set show was in the process of being finalized at press time but in addition to MacPherson and Giller, locals Pete MacPherson, Julia Schall, Martina Field-Green, Dave Limber, Dennis and Donna Larocque and others are scheduled to perform a variety of Canadian tunes, covering such artists as Neil Young, The Guess Who, Ron Hynes, The Barenaked Ladies and Fred Eaglesmith.

MacPherson said they also wanted to give back by raising funds to help kids who might not otherwise have access to music lessons and the musical experience.
“Essentially, we’re just folks who enjoy music,” he said.

Although not directly connected to the Canada 150 project whereby several local musicians met at Oso Beach on Wednesday nights to cover 150 Canadian songs, many of the same musicians are involved, and most of the material being presented Friday night was also part of that project.