Gilmour’s on 38 Meat Shop and Deli in Harrowsmith is having a charity barbeque tomorrow, Friday July 24 from 2 to 6pm to raise funds for the Clothes for Kids Foundation. This organization works with underprivileged families to make sure that the children have warm winter clothes and snowsuits.

Owner Nick Gilmour says that this is Gilmour’s first charity barbeque and that every penny raised will be going to Clothes for Kids. TV and radio stations CKWS and FM 96 are also working with Gilmour’s to promote the event.

Gilmour’s works closely with Friendly Fires of Kingston, a company that sells barbeques and fireplaces, and they will be coming to the event, donating the use of their barbeques and their time to the cause. Best of all, they’re going to do the cooking.

Gilmour’s is located at 5062 Road 38 in Harrowsmith. They will be cooking up sausages, hamburgers and hot dogs for $3 per item and of course, any additional donations would be welcome. If you cannot attend the BBQ but would still like to donate, or for more information, please call Nick Gilmour at 613-372-1818.

On July 11, members of COFA (Conservationists of Frontenac Addington) attended a meeting at the Barrie hall in Cloyne, where Ron Pethick, one of the organization's founding members, announced that he would be stepping down this year after over two decades as the organization's president.

He cited health issues and said he lacks the necessary energy required for the role. He also understands that the organization needs some fresh blood to foster new directions if it is to continue. Pethick said he does hope to see the organization continue and he is hoping that the members will hold elections this September.

Pethick opened the meeting with a history of COFA, which was formed in 1994, because, he said, “A lot was going on politically at that time and we needed to have a local voice in this area to make sure that certain things like resources, land management and wild life habitats and populations were properly looked after.”

In fact, it was a meeting held at that time at the Lions hall in Northbrook, which hundreds of people attended, that Pethick said resulted in the squashing of the Madawaska Highlands Regional Trust, a group whose aim he said was to “ban fishing, boating hunting, trapping, and logging in an area that stretched west to Bancroft, north to Madoc, east to Perth and south to Cobden.”

COFA was formed after the Northbrook meeting and has been up and running ever since. In 1995 the organization established the Bishop Lake pickerel hatchery, where over 11 years, 18.5 million swim up pickerel fry were hatched and deposited in area lakes. The organization also stocked 28,000 speckled trout in local lakes, along with thousands of rainbow trout and pickerel fingerlings.

In an effort to improve local pickerel spawning beds, members have helped spread 350 tons of rock in Mississagagon Lake and similarly spread another 70 tonnes of rock at Skootamatta causeway. As well, in conjunction with the Mississippi Valley Conservation Authority, an additional 150 tons was spread in Mazinaw Lake to create a new lake trout spawning bed.

Members have run hundreds of miles of trails to assist deer during especially harsh winters and have also provided herds with thousands of pounds of feed. Members have also helped to fund the rehabilitation of orphaned white tailed deer and for years have donated a $500 bursary annually to local North Addington Education Centre students. This August six lucky youngster, thanks to COFA, will be fishing at Deer Rock Lake.

Now with the hatchery no longer functioning and with Pethick making public his intention of stepping down, many members are wondering how and if COFA will carry on. They stress the need to get new projects up and running in order to attract new members. Many suggestions were made at the Cloyne meeting. One member volunteered to assist Ron's wife Dot with administrative tasks and other new ideas were suggested, which included establishing a COFA website, getting students at NAEC involved with the group and also trying to make connections with the various local lake associations to find out what kinds of projects COFA members may be able to assist with.

It is still a big unknown whether the hatchery, in which COFA has upwards of $15,000 invested, will ever be operational again, though many members expressed interest in getting it up and running. It looks as though there are members who want to COFA to continue into the future.

Long-time member Dave Dacuk shot up his hand when asked if anyone would be interested in stepping in as president and it was decided that a second meeting will be held in September, at which time elections will likely be held.

In the meantime, members were asked to continue brain storming about possible new projects for the future. Anyone interested in joining COFA or existing members who missed the meeting but have new ideas for COFA's future, please contact Lauder Smith at 613-336-2998.

Wayne Conway, past president of the Verona Lions and the current director and chair of the Verona Lions Jamboree, said that not much has changed since the annual fundraiser began 64 years ago. Guests from near and far return year after year to attend the annual event, one of the Lions’ biggest fundraisers of the year, which ran from July 9-11 and included a midway, numerous games of chance, mini golf, bingo and food and beverages prepared on site at the Lions canteen.

This year the organizers were promoting their new waste recycling management system, which was adopted by the Lions from the annual Cattail Festival and involves all of the garbage being brought to one central recycling station where it is processed and sorted. Conway said the system has dramatically decreased the amount of garbage being generated at the event. A number of student volunteers assisted at the waste management center. Great weather made this year’s event another successful one for the local Lions.

Sharbot Lake Property Owners' Association (SLPOA) is amalgamating their Annual General Meeting (AGM) with their annual social function, creating a full day event on Saturday, July 18.

The AGM will commence at 10am at the St. James Major Catholic Church in Sharbot Lake and the social shenanigans will run from 5pm to 7pm at the same location.

This year's AGM is an important meeting as the executive must be selected for the next two years. The agenda begins with an opening welcome and introduction of SLPOA executive followed by the general business portion in which they will adopt the 2014 AGM minutes and have reports from President Kevin Browne as well as the secretary/treasurer and environmental issues coordinator. After this they will hold elections for the full executive and members at large. They are interested in members joining the executive. Next they will have an update from Mayor Frances Smith and then the main presentations, including a Love Your Lake update, and an Introduction to Pollinators for Cottagers by Susan Chan, project manager, Farms at Work. 

The 2015 photo contest winners will then be announced, followed by an open forum to end the meeting.

The association has asked attendees to bring a non-perishable item for the North Frontenac Food Bank.

The SLPOA, led by Kevin Browne, has improved the layout of the social function following the results from a survey conducted last year. Instead of a fish-fry they will be serving barbeque chicken and at a larger venue from past years so as to allow for a sit down, leisurely and talkative atmosphere. They will also be hosting a live band, Ottawa’s The Kingmakers. The Kingmakers play a mix of rockabilly, jump jive, hillbilly boogie and rock and roll. They have an upbeat and infectious sound, enjoyable for all ages. The Kingmakers also played at the Viva Las Vegas Rockabilly Weekender Festival this year in Las Vegas, Nevada, as well as at the Ottawa Jazz Festival. Obviously none of those venues compare to the honor of performing on SLPOA Day!

The later portion of the event will be catered by Temple’s and Taste. The menu goes as follows: Maple Bourbon BBQ Chicken Skewers, skewers rubbed with Cajun spice and glazed maple bourbon BBQ Sauce (Adult: 2 skewers, 8 oz white breast chicken, Children: 1 skewer), green mixed salad, pasta salad, Temple’s buttermilk biscuit, and Temple’s assorted cookies and brownies for dessert. Mmmm. The event will include a wine and beer cash bar as well as a silent auction.
Cost for the meal portion of the event beginning at 5pm are: $16 per adult and $10 per child. Children under 6 eat free. Tickets are available for purchase at the Pharmasave Sharbot Lake Pharmacy, Mike Dean’s Super Food Store (customer service counter) or through SLPOA by request to Joyce Waller (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.). Please make cheques payable to SLPOA and mail to SLPOA, P.O. Box 333, Sharbot Lake, ON K0H 2P0. Tickets will be waiting at the entrance to the event. This event is open to both members and non-members of the association and everyone is welcome.

Verona Lions Club will be hosting the 64th Annual Verona Lions Jamboree at the Verona Lions Centre, 4504 Sand Road, from July 9 to July 11. Starting on Thursday, Friday and Saturday evenings, canteen and rides will open at 5pm. The bingo pavilion and other Verona Lions’ activities open at 6:30pm. Once again this year the Bingo Pavilion will have one grand prize bingo game worth over $100 during each evening. The Verona Lions Jamboree Raffle will be drawing three prizes, one each evening. The first draw will be on Thursday at 10pm for a prize worth $400. The second draw will be on Friday at 10pm for a prize worth $600. The final draw will be on Saturday at 10pm for a prize worth $1000. Tickets can be purchased from any Lion member, Mom’s Restaurant, Asselstine Hardware and Verona Hardware. Established in 1949, the Verona Lions Club is a non-profit organization. Funds raised go to programs for the blind, hearing, diabetes and also for many local needs.  

Genevieve L’Abbe, a 17-year-old Sydenham Lake Canoe Club sprint paddler and Junior National Team Member, successfully competed in Montreal at the National Team Trials regatta last weekend for one of five positions on the Junior World’s Women’s Kayaking Team.

L’Abbe will be on her way to Portugal this summer to compete in the ICF Canoe Sprint Junior & U23 World Championships Regatta, which will be held in Montemor-O-Velho, Portugal on July 24-26.

“I feel very fortunate to have made the team as it was a real battle to make the 5th spot on the team. When the points were added up after the National Team Trial qualifying event last Saturday, I ended up beating my competitor by one point. It was my faster time in the 500m race that got me on the World Junior Team”.

It is going to be a busy summer for L’Abbe. who will be graduating from Grade 12 this week. She will be spending a month in Montreal training with her new five teammates who are all from different regions of Canada. “I am looking forward to getting to know them and learning to work as a team” says L’Abbe. An Ottawa paddler will compete in the individual K1 races and K2 races, and she, and her other three teammates, will compete in the K4 events”.

“My family and friends have been very supportive in helping me get to this level. If my family hadn’t become involved in the Sydenham Lake Canoe Club, I wouldn’t have been introduced to the wonderful sport of sprint kayaking. Knowing previous Olympian, George Jones, from the Canoe Club for the last seven years really helped me keep my eye my goal. I had heard him tell stories about the comradery that he had experienced paddling back in the 80’s and it made me think that I wanted to do that too. I guess, for lack of a better word, you could call him my hero. My biggest challenge in the next month will be the cost of traveling to Portugal as Canoe Kayak Canada only partially covers the fees. I may have to pass around the hat this summer and ask for a bit of help. I feel fortunate that I am a part of a good community”.

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.”

The Living Watersheds Workshop will be an active learning experience. Participants will engage with their entire watershed AND acquire the tools for building a “Friends of River” group. The Friends of the Salmon River have provided stewardship for a decade in the Salmon watershed and wish to share this experience with others. The workshop is open to anyone in the Moira, Black, Skootamatta and Napanee watersheds – Quinte Conservation territory.

More people are needed for the workshop, particularly from the Moira, Black and Skootamatta watersheds. Anyone interested in attending may contact Susan Moore at 613-379-5958 and This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. OR Gray Merriam at 613-335-3589 and This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. There is no charge for the event and lunch will be provided ONLY if you register in advance. Contact Susan or Gray to register as soon as possible. Participants should register (or at least call us) by July 16.

The Living Watersheds Workshop takes place on Saturday, September 12 in Roblin (on Hwy. 41, north of Napanee). Keynote speaker Cindy Chu will present: The Valley Rules the Stream, all about the holistic watershed, complete with the headwaters, wetlands, creeks, and land - along with her findings on the effects of climate change on eastern Ontario rivers and watersheds.

Cindy Chu is a freshwater ecologist and research scientist with Aquatic Research and Monitoring at the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry. She spent three years working on rivers in southeastern Ontario to learn more about their habitats and biodiversity.

In the afternoon, Friends of the Salmon River (FSR) will provide a package on the start-up, history and organization of their group as a template for new organizations. Breakout groups will discuss and work on projects related to their watersheds. Quinte Conservation and FSR will provide resource people to assist with the work. Quinte will also provide mapping, information boards, and resource materials for the day.

This is a valuable opportunity to help protect and nurture the Moira, Black, Skootamatta and Napanee watersheds. At the workshop event, there will be time to play at the Salmon River and experience the beauty of the watershed. For more information, see friendsofsalmonriver.ca

Rev. Karen Hincke led the 130th Anniversary service of the Snow Road Presbyterian Church on June 7 and spoke to a capacity crowd. The service included special musical guests, the Abrams Family, with Wayne, Mary and their son Brian Abrams performing their top notch brand of musical ministry, which delighted the congregation.

Rev. Hincke made many references to family histories in the service, first in her conversation with the children where she spoke of her own personal history with the church and specifically of her great grandfather, a Methodist circuit rider who rode a horse in South-western Ontario, preaching to a number of different communities there. Regarding the Snow Road church's 130th anniversary, Hincke said, “As a church we are born and are identified by our history... and the meaning of that history will be determined by the future, and by where our history is leading us.” In her sermon, the theme of genealogy continued and Hincke said that the purpose of the anniversary “is to look back at the130 years of this congregation’s life, which will give us courage and hope for the decades to come.”

She chose to read the opening 17 verses from the Gospel of Matthew, which are seldom read at a worship service. They speak of the genealogy of Jesus Christ and the 42 generations that led to his birth. She cited the reading as “a genealogy that is the proper beginning of the story of Jesus for two main purposes, since first, it tells the reader who Jesus was and how he fits both into the history of the Jews and the Christian church” and secondly she said that it “shows Matthew's readers at that time, the beginning of their own history.”

The history of the Snow Road church has been celebrated and chronicled in a publication titled “The First Hundred Years - Snow Road Presbyterian Church”, which was put together by Max Millar, Hilda Geddes and Don St. Pierre in celebration of the church's 100-year anniversary in 1985.

I have included here some highlights from that publication here.

The church was built in 1885 at the cost of $1600 by Mr. Snowden, a contractor and builder, on a lot donated by Mrs. James (“Granny”) Millar. The church was opened and dedicated on November 28, 1885. Prior to its construction services were held in a no longer existing schoolhouse in the village. John Allan, who moved to Snow Road from the Perth area, is the individual credited with instigating the building of the church and was its first elder. He also organized its first Sunday school. A year after its construction, the churches of McDonalds Corners and Elphin were transferred to the Kingston Presbytery since the new church was a member and the three remained in the Kingston Presbytery until 1927, when they became a part of the Presbytery of Lanark and Renfrew.

Rev. Alexander McAuley was the church's first minister. The church organ that was played at Sunday's service by organist Lynda Russell was purchased in 1936, replacing an older hand pump organ and in 1968 it was electrified. The church was originally heated by a single box stove, and a second stove was later added. They were replaced first by one and then a second wood-burning furnace, which were installed in the church’s basement. Because the heating system proved insufficient, in 1968 the family of John A. and Blanche Geddes (Hilda, Ralph, Katharine, Eileen and Jim) paid to install electric heating, which was dedicated in memory of their parents. The church was originally lit with kerosene lamps, which were replaced in 1934 by gas lamps. These in turn were replaced by electric lights in 1938.

Many additions occurred at the church over the years. In 1952 an entrance over the basement door was built and in 1956 a vestry was built at the front of the building. New windows were installed in 1962 and in 1967 a privy was built outside at the rear of the church. It has just recently been updated. In 1975 new front windows were acquired and a green steel roof was purchased and installed. In 1980 a sound system was installed.

Over the years numerous gifts were donated to the church, allowing for the purchase of building and other materials. When the church congregation celebrated their 100-year anniversary in 1985, the building was repainted inside and out for the celebrations, which were led by Reverend Linda Bell and took place there on August 4, 1985.

Rev. Hincke concluded the service by saying that this anniversary was an important opportunity for congregants to look both to the past and to the future. “During this anniversary celebration we look to our history...remembering who we are and where we have been as we look to the future remembering what we have been put here to do and where we are going.”

Upcoming will be the 169th anniversary celebration and service at the Elphin Presbyterian Church on Sunday, June 28 at 11 a.m. and on Sunday July 19 the Knox Presbyterian Church in McDonalds Corners will be holding a special 170th celebration and service at 11 a.m.

On Sunday, June 14, at 11am, Sharbot Lake United Church will host the 48th anniversary of the founding of the grouping of churches known as the Centenary Pastoral Charge, and all are welcome.

Forty-eight years ago, in Centennial year 1967, the three congregations of Maberly, Sharbot Lake and Parham joined together to form one unit to serve God by sharing prayers, resources, clergy, sacred spaces, and sharing their joys and sorrows together. The three churches will join up for a joint celebratory worship service at the Sharbot Lake site followed by a light lunch, and they hope that many will come.

Rev. Jean Brown will lead the worship. Special music is planned. It is hoped to raise the roof in praise and in singing some of the older hymns from our founding years.

The founding year of the United Church of Canada, a uniting and united church, was 1925 when three denominations - Presbyterian, Methodist and Congregational, “united” to form one denomination. It was the first union of churches in the world to cross historical denominational lines and hence received international acclaim. Impetus for the union arose out of the concerns for serving the vast Canadian northwest and in the desire for better overseas mission. Each of the uniting churches, however, had a long history prior to 1925. Throughout the following years, this pattern of amalgamating, joining together to serve God and community, and sharing spaces continued, and it continues today as Maberly United Church prayerfully looks ahead to amalgamating with Sharbot Lake United. Past amalgamations in Sharbot Lake included Zealand and Oso, while Parham included Oconto, Tichborne, Wagarville and Long Lake.