With 6-3 and 7-1 victories on Saturday and Sunday respectively, the Frontenac Novice (8 years old and under) Flyers need only one more win to take the Lou Jeffries Trophy, as champions of their respective EOMHL division.

The Flyers travel back to Wasaga Beach Friday (March 24, 6 p.m. game start, Game 4, if necessary, is March 19 at 2:30 p.m. in Piccadilly) to play the Stars in what could be their final game of the season. (In the finals, the first team to reach 6 points wins and the Flyers are up 4-0 after their wins in the first two games.)

In the Saturday game, the Flyers opened the scoring in the first and never looked back getting goals from Cole Rowat (2), Jack Craig (2), Kayson Antoine and Mason Norgaard.

In the Sunday game at Wasaga Beach, Craig (2), Shane Kennedy (2), Antoine, Norgaard and Zac Gardiner-Kay handled the scoring duties.

But scoring prowess aside, this Flyers team seems to be more opportunistic than offense-minded and their strong suit is playing a positional game with strong basics.

“That is our game,” said head coach Jamie Craig. “Passing, playing positional hockey and skating.

“We’ve (including asst. coach Don Rowat) had most of these players for three years and that’s what we’ve stressed.”

And there’s another vital cog in the Flyers machine — goalie Hayden Consack.

“He’s been our backbone,” said Craig, singling out Consack as instrumental in the Saturday win (all three Wasaga Beach goals were on the power play).

Consack was front and centre in the Sunday win as well, allowing only a single tally but once again it was strong positional play contributing to team success.

“It (Sunday) was our best all-round team game this season,” Craig said.

Just getting to the final is “a bit new for these guys” Craig said but it bodes well for the future of the Frontenac Minor Hockey system.

“I’m very happy and proud of these guys,” Craig said. “And there are a lot of people involved in their success.

“(FMH president) Al Pixley is doing a helluva job.”

“Are we there yet?” Only ten minutes into a six hour journey, it may be hard to match your young child’s excitement with “Not yet, honey.” But parents who travel with children are resourceful. They know there are more options than mesmerizing children into silence with movies or electronic games.

Parents haul bags of travel tricks. The bags hold music and audio stories – favourites from home or new ones borrowed from the library. The bag holds story books, seek and find picture books, crayons, paper and a stash of dry Cheerios. The bag holds stickers and page protectors with a magazine page of scenery or a printed photo of a familiar setting tucked inside each protector. Their child can then make up sticker stories by placing and moving stickers on the scenes. Some parents and children enhance the story pages by drawing scenes or designs onto blank paper and inserting them into the page protectors instead of photos.

The bag may hold a blindfold for their older preschooler or school age child to wear while drawing a simple picture on paper at a restaurant. The picture may be a tree, house, sun, person etc. Only after the blindfold is removed do others on the trip guess what has been drawn.

Parents also have travel tricks up their sleeves. They introduce an alphabet game, played either cooperatively or competitively. The goal is to spot all the alphabet letters in one of their names or in order from A to Z on road signs, license plates, billboards etc. Each letter is called out when it is seen until the winner finds and calls out the final letter. The alphabet game becomes more challenging when played from Z to A.

Counting games, easily adapted to passing scenery, are at the ready too. Young children choose specific items like stop signs, cows, motorcycles or transport trucks to count. The first person to count ten of a specific item wins. More elaborate games are created for older children who can add and subtract. A counting game with horses, for example, may have different points for a brown horse, black horse or white horse. But if the car passes a cemetery, all points are lost and the player must begin at zero once again.

Parents know that storytelling games are a good choice when it’s too dark to observe scenery. The ‘Unfortunately Fortunately’ game enables everyone in the car to tell one story together. The story is told by alternating the first word of each sentence between “unfortunately” and “fortunately”.  For example the parent may start the game with “Unfortunately we are travelling with a kangaroo in the car.” One child might continue with “Fortunately we have a sunroof for his head to poke through.” Another passenger might continue with “Unfortunately it’s snowing.” Where the story ends is anyone’s and everyone’s guess.

Oh the places you’ll go. Dr. Seuss would agree. The destination can’t be reached without the journey. And the journey can be a lot of fun.

Susan Ramsay is the Early Literacy Specialist for Hastings, Frontenac, Lennox & Addington. You can contact her at 613-354-6318 (ext 32)  This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Students from the School to Community class at Granite Ridge Education Centre (GREC) in Sharbot Lake posing in front of a Spread the Word to End the Word poster that was signed by Granite Ridge students and staff.

The School to Community students at GREC encouraged their peers to take the pledge to Spread the Word to End the Word on Wednesday, March 1st. Students from Kindergarten to Grade 12 as well as support staff, office staff and classroom teachers participated in the event and promised to refrain from using the R-word from now on.

The awareness campaign is supported by the r-word.org website which includes personal stories from people who have been impacted by the use of the R-word, a word that symbolises the barriers to inclusion and full participation in community life for those who are subjected to it.

“In my opinion, the r-word creates a divide among students; it's exclusive, offensive and derogatory. The word is old and misused daily both as a harmless one-liner or a pointed attempt at bullying. The students in the School to Community program at GREC are not the only ones who hear this word from time to time, but it is these students who want to take a stand against it from here on out,” said Kendra DeRooy, school to community class teacher at GREC.

GREC students are all being encouraged to take the pledge, either by signing an actual pledge at www.r-word.org or in some other way as part of ongoing efforts to make the school a safe and inclusive place for all members of the school community.

On Feb. 22, students at the Granite Ridge Education Centre celebrated Pink Shirt Day, a tradition that began in Canada to help combat bullying in all its forms.

This year, they had help in the person of Abby Stewart, a Holy Cross student who’s making waves in country/country rock circles.

Stewart, whose stage presence and performance savvy goes way beyond her teenage years, seemed right in her element as her 40-minute set just flew by, to the delight of her (mostly younger) audience.

From her opening cover of Maddie & Tae’s Fly and the crowd favourite Burning House, Stewart had her audience’s attention, and that was a good thing, because along with top-tier music, she also had a message — put an end to bullying.

“I haven’t done this in . . . forever,” she said before launching into Taylor Swift’s Mean. “But it fits the day.

“Today is a day we need to stand up against exclusion — any form of cruelty.”

In an interview, Stewart said the message of Pink Shirt Day is “close to my heart” as she’s had experiences in the form of exclusion.

Indeed, her own You Don’t Know That is about those experiences, a song she co-wrote with a friend on Skype.

“And I love the tag line (‘Be Kind’),” she said. “There’s way too much cruelty in this world.”

Even at her young age, Stewart sees the power of music, in a couple of different ways. As such, she has no problems when it comes to music with a message.

“Rock music should be expressed with what you’re feeling,” she said. “And, music can help you through things.

“You put in the ear buds and it can make you feel a lot better . . . I know it does for me.”

And it would seem the same was true for GREC students as well on this day, as Stewart stuck around after the gig, high-fiving and talking with a throng of young fans and admirers.

Stewart was ably backed by Chris Murphy on acoustic guitar and harmony vocals, Lee Casement on bass, Jeff Babcock on drums, and Matt Baetz on electric guitar

“Ok everyone, stand up and do a back flip.” I remember the look of disbelief, shocked silence, and a few nervous giggles from the audience as occupational therapist Amy Quilty began her presentation with this command. She spoke to a room full of early learning educators and parents, yet not one adult in the group was in the kind of physical condition to flip backwards around the room’s perimeter.

According to Quilty, placing expectations on children to print without first giving them opportunities to strengthen and coordinate their muscles is no less daunting. Children need many and varied opportunities to develop readiness to print.

Outdoor play and indoor play with blocks or trucks develop the large muscle control required for whole body stability when children print. At first children use big arm movements when they draw. Writing skill increases when children can keep their arm still and move only their wrist and fingers. By sometimes placing paper on the floor with the child lying on his stomach and forearms, children are positioned to use the muscles in their hands to draw.

A very young child who needs to reach to her right or left for a crayon will typically draw with whichever hand is closest to that crayon. But if the crayon is directly in front of her, she will automatically use her dominant hand. Consistent centre-front placement of writing tools such as crayons, and encouragement to finish a picture using the same hand she started drawing with, helps a child determine right or left-handedness more quickly.

Children discover how to clutch a pencil in their fist before they learn how to hold it between thumb and forefinger in a pincer grasp. Helping children develop the ability to use a pincer grasp can be a lot of fun. Provide kitchen tongs and a few ping pong balls for bath time water play. Can your child catch the ping pong balls bobbing in the bathwater with the tongs? Can she fill plastic containers with water using a turkey-baster? Create a simple flat boat from tinfoil. Perhaps it becomes a pirate ship! Wonder together how much treasure the boat will hold before it sinks. Offer your child plastic clothespins or tweezers to pick up poker chips for loading onto their ‘pirate ship.’ When the ship sinks, dive under water with the tools to retrieve the treasure. Your child may want to repair or redesign the ship to hold more pirate loot.

Children are typically very curious about print. Print is all around them and they continually see people using print to make and communicate decisions. Parents and educators play a leading role in helping children recognize and write alphabet letters. Because the letters in a child’s own name are most meaningful and motivating to learn, use a highlighter to print your child’s name. Invite him to trace over these letters. Short pencils or crayons and pipsqueak markers are ideal for helping children hold the writing tool with fingers and thumb rather than a fist.

Children also need many and varied opportunities to write without tracing. Though young children’s unguided writing will undoubtedly result in letter-like scribbles that are hard to decipher, this is a stage of writing we want children to experience! What do you do when your child proudly shows you something he has written and you have no idea what it says? Ask him to tell you what he has written. Then show your child how you would write that same letter, word or sentence. Talk about what you both notice. What is similar and what is different about each of your versions of print? This motivates your child to analyze the appearance of print, validates his learning, and inspires him to tweak the way he writes.

To become proficient at drawing, printing and writing children do need many playful opportunities to develop hand strength and coordination of their muscles. And just maybe, while our children are having fun with writing warm-ups, you and I can work up to a few back flips.

Susan Ramsay is the Early Literacy Specialist for Hastings, Frontenac, Lennox & Addington. You can contact her at 613-354-6318 (ext 32)  This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

If this astronaut thing doesn’t work out for candidate Andrew Smith doesn’t work out, he could probably make a living teaching public school judging by how he had students at Harrowsmith Public School enthralled during his visit last week.

Smith, who attended Harrowsmith in his younger days, is currently one of 72 candidates left for two open spots in the Canadian Space Agency’s astronaut selection process. He spent last Thursday talking to students and visiting classrooms to field questions from eager space fans.

Of course, students weren’t all that interested in the fact that Smith was born and raised in Harrowsmith and his parents Don (a former South Frontenac Council member) and Margaret still live in the family home. Nor were they interested in the fact that Smith was a running back for both the Sydenham High School’s Golden Eagles or Queen’s Golden Gaels.

Heck, they didn’t care that he has two Queen’s engineering degrees and is currently completing a PhD in aeronautics and astronautics at Stanford University or that he works for Gumstix Research Canada.

They wanted to know about space . . . and Smith was happy to oblige.

“At heart, I’m an engineer,” he said when asked why he wanted to go into space. “I really like taking things apart and putting them back together again.

“In space, all the problems associated with building stuff are bigger, so that’s why I want to go to space, to solve those problems and build stuff.”

If all goes well and Smith is one of the two successful candidates, he would head to Houston at the end of August to begin training full-time. Since June of last year, he’s been involved in the selection process.

“What will you be doing as an astronaut?” one student asked.

“I don’t really know much about being an astronaut yet,” Smith replied. “But astronauts are either doing experiments are fixing things most of the time.”

Of course there were questions about the moon being made of cheese (“I don’t think so”) and the possibility of alien life (“to me, it seems a little odd that we are the only ones”) and “how do you get back to Earth?

After thinking a moment about how to answer in a way seven-year-olds could fathom, Smith replied: “You slow down and the Earth sucks you back in.”

His overall message to the students was about the importance of working hard — both at school and also at whatever other interests you have.

“Math and science are perhaps the most important subjects if you want to be an astronaut, but it’s important to be well-rounded,” he said.

So were those his favourite subjects in school?

“Actually, I liked auto shop the best,” he said.

Johnathan Ferreira is lucky to be alive.

Standing in his room in the burn unit at Sick Kids Hospital four days after he was engulfed in flames, the 15-year-old from Sydenham talks with a mature somberness about the accident on Feb. 8 that nearly took his life.
Gone is the fun-loving teenager with the big smile who friends call Johnny. In his place is a young man recovering from a brief mishandling of a heat source and can of gasoline on a cold Canadian night.

Covered in second degree burns on his face and third degree burns on his neck, his skin appears raw and painful. He wears gloves to apply Vaseline to the sores that doctors say will heal with time. Small spots of blood dot the sheets where he sleeps.

“I’m okay,” he replies softly when asked about his health. “It’s a little iffy sometimes, but overall, I’m not too bad.”

At his side since he was flown to Sick Kids from Kingston General Hospital, Johnny’s parents nod from a corner of the room to confirm the validity of his statement.

Looking tired from their constant vigil, John admits, “It was awful. “He looks like much better now, compared to those first 48 hours.”

“The nightmares are hard (though),” adds Tina, Johnny’s mother. “He wakes up and he thinks he’s on fire.”

Her words trail after her and leave a silent echo in the room that reinforce the extent of the damage above and below her son’s skin.

Out of immediate danger, Johnny’s treatment scheduled for the next day is the removal of dead skin on his face and neck. As luck would have it, good clothing and work boots protected the rest of his body when flames consumed him.

Grateful the burns aren’t worse, his parents say he could be discharged later in the week if he continues to heal without complications.

“We’re taking it day-by-day,” confirms Sherri Douven, Johnny’s Aunt.

Standing with the loving family that fills, and sometimes overflows, the hospital room in Toronto, Douven smiles as she talks about the support Johnny and his family have received from friends in neighbours back in South Frontenac Township.

“The support of his friends has been amazing. They’re definitely a family of kids,” she says thoughtfully, referring to a group of Sydenham High School students who were with Johnny the night of the accident; one of whom drove him to the hospital. The group has been supporting him ever since.

“I know any one of them would do anything for him,” says Johnny’s mother gratefully.

Reflecting on the outpouring of support they have received, Tina admits, “The community and everyone has been very helpful.”

Johnathan Ferreira is a Grade 10 student at Sydenham High School. He is expected to make a full recovery from his injuries sustained the evening of Feb. 8. To make a donation to help the family with unforeseen expenses, please visit Go Fund Me and go to Funds for Johnathan.

A rally of about 30 people of all ages was held on Wednesday, February 8 in front of the Limestone District School Board offices on Portsmouth Avenue in Kingston. It was a protest against the board’s proposal to close all the public schools in Stone Mills Township and the school Selby, starting with the Yarker Family School.

The Yarker Family School educates children from 3 years 8 months in Junior Kindergarten up to 8-9 years old in Grade 3.

“Closing this school would increase bus ride times for our youngest students to more than an hour each way. The possibility of being bullying and witnessing inappropriate behaviour by these very young children goes up the longer the bus ride.,” said Gail Knowles, one of the protestors.

Students from Yarker and Selby achieve the highest standardized test scores, #1 and #2 respectively, of all the schools in the Limestone board.

“The board has proposed that students from Yarker be sent to Odessa Public School where the test scores are #39th. This means more than half the Odessa students failed to meet provincial standards. Since the board rarely mentions scholastic achievement it would appear that school closures have more to do with balancing the financial books than anything else,” Knowles added.

According to Knowles, the provincial funding model has serious flaws, giving school boards money to build new schools but providing only limited funds to maintain schools that are already here.

“They are forcing students from their a rural school where they learn well, feel safe, and are fully supported by their parents, and sending them away from their home community to a large penitentiary sized school doesn’t seem to work certainly when the standardized test scores are compared.” she said.

Supporters of the Yarker School and other schools slate for closure in the near future are encouraged to express their opinion about possible school closures by writing to the Minister of Education and elected representatives.

Robin Hutcheon, chair of the group called Rural Schools Matter, holds her sign outside the Limestone District School Board offices on Portsmouth Avenue in Kingston on November 8, 2017. She, along with about 30 others, are protesting the possible closure of all of the public schools in Stone Mills Township and the school in Selby.

 If you’re an aboriginal youth aged 15-30 and interested in working in the construction business, St. Lawrence College Employment Centre in Sharbot Lake has just the program for you.

The Centre is beginning an eight-week course which will be offered at the Shabot Obaadjiwan Centre near Arden. Following the course, which is scheduled to run until after Easter, there will be a 12-week work placement will will hopefully lead to permanent employment.

Program coordinator Erin Godfrey said that in order to do the course, participants have to declare indigenous ancestry; no band card is required.

Local contractor Kevin Rioux of K. R. Contracting will be teaching the course which will consist of various skills and knowledge young builders will need, she said.

“There will be plenty of hands-on learning, including a building project,” Godfrey said. “But they will also learn many of the certificate skills they’ll need like CPR, First Aid, Working from heights, scaffold safety, occupational health and safety and personal protective equipment.

“We will also provide things like work boots and belts and some other equipment they’ll need.”

There will also be instruction in things like resume writing, applications and cover letters, she said.

Another aspect of the program is that they’re also looking for some contractors who would be willing to take on the students for a 12-week practical experience part, she said.

“If there are employers out there who could take on some of these students after the classroom and practical aspect, I’d love to hear from them,” she said.

She said they have room for 12 participants and interested people can either come into the Centre in Sharbot Lake in person or call Godfrey at 613-545-3949, ext: 1688.

“We’re hoping we can get people some real world experience that leads to a permanent job,” she said

Frontenac Community Arena Receives an Ontario150 Community Capital Program Grant

The Frontenac Community Arena (FCA) Board of Directors is pleased to announce that it is the recipient of a $30,000 Ontario150 Community Capital Program grant. These funds will help fund the capital costs of replacing the Arena’s 30-year-old dehumidification system with a new, more energy-efficient Desiccant system.

“Our community arenas act as a hub where people come together to share and grow; the Ontario150 Community Capital Program grant is providing for improvements at Frontenac Community Arena will help secure the continued enjoyment and enhance the benefits of this much-loved facility,” said Randy Hillier, MPP for Lanark, Frontenac, Lennox and Addington.

Administered by the Ontario Trillium Foundation, these grants will help non-profit organizations, municipalities and Indigenous communities to renovate, repair and retrofit existing community and cultural infrastructure. The one-time, Ontario150 Community Capital Program has been designed to help honour Ontario’s past, showcase the present and inspire future generations.

“We are very pleased to be a recipient of a Ontario150 Community Capital Program grant. It will support the replacement of aging equipment vital to ice making process,” said Sherry Whan, Central Frontenac Township Councillor and Arena Board Chair.

“This important Capital project along with work completed over the past two years is vital to the Frontenac Community Arena operations,” said Tim Laprade, Arena Manager. “This work reflects the Arena Boards continued commitment to investing in infrastructure that will reduce our energy consumption and support ice activities,” added Laprade.

The Ontario150 Community Capital Program is administered by the Ontario Trillium Foundation, an agency of the Government of Ontario and one of Canada’s largest granting foundations.