Headline News

Vince’s announces results of 2024 Toonies for Tummies campaign

March 28, 2024   ·   0 Comments

By Neil Moore

Vince’s continues its steadfast commitment to fighting hunger in our communities, raising $7,296 in the recent Toonies for Tummies (TFT) national campaign. This annual initiative, supported by Vince’s customers and team members, contributes to the Grocery Foundation’s efforts to ensure that no child goes to school hungry.

Over the last nine years, Vince’s has contributed more than $38,000 to TFT. They are part of a growing community of nearly 1,500 grocery retailers across Canada supporting this vital cause, which is focused on nourishing the 1 in 3 children at risk of going to school on an empty stomach. This year, the campaign aims to raise $4 million, which will help provide approximately 2 million healthy meals to school-aged children in more than 3,000 programs.

Maria Ciarlandini, Vince’s Community Support Ambassador, expressed her gratitude: “Thank you to every customer who donated a toonie and made this year’s Toonies for Tummies campaign so successful.”

The campaign ensures that 100 percent of donations made at participating stores and online directly support the Grocery Foundation’s student nutrition partners. This year’s beneficiaries, The Breakfast Club of Canada in Western and Atlantic Canada, and Student Nutrition Ontario offer judgment-free, inclusive programs, which are a key source of nutrition for many students. Beyond providing healthy meals, they also offer nutrition education and foster a supportive school community, helping students flourish throughout the day.

“The power of this program is that every toonie has an impact,” said Grocery Foundation Executive Director Shaun McKenna. “Individual toonies can help nourish a child, and collectively, when we help an entire school or several schools, we are helping students and communities today and for the longer term. Breakfasts come with a welcoming smile, and they elevate a child’s day both physically and emotionally. We are incredibly grateful to Vince’s, to their store teams, and every donor who is part of helping dreams take flight and making essential nourishment within reach.”

But Vince’s commitment doesn’t stop with the annual two-week February campaign. The independent grocer has expanded its support, through the Community Product Initiative (CPI), to continue fundraising for TFT throughout 2024. CPI involves all four stores, participating vendors, and, crucially, Vince’s customers. This program selects various staple items (Community Products) throughout the year, and sets aside 15 percent of sales for the CPI beneficiary – which is Toonies For Tummies in 2024. Since its inception in 2018, Vince’s Community Product Initiative has raised approximately $150,000 for several life-changing organizations, and looks forward to significant contributions in 2024.

“We are proud that we’re able to make an even greater impact on this program in 2024,” said Vince’s President Giancarlo Trimarchi. “A big thanks to our customers for helping tackle child hunger. It’s wonderful to see the difference we’re making in kids’ lives, boosting their nutrition, and helping them focus and succeed in school.”

General News

Bubbles & Smiles is tasty way to support local seniors

March 28, 2024   ·   0 Comments

By Brock Weir

A feast for the senses will unfold at the historic Aurora Armoury on April 24 as CHATS – Community & Home Assistance to Seniors – hosts its second-annual Bubbles & Smiles event.

Formally, the second-annual “Bubbles & Smiles Sommelier Tutored Tasting & Culinary Experience,” this year’s event will feature a variety of champagnes and “bubbles from around the world” showcased by sommelier Ben Pilsky-Somers of Bossanova Wine & Beer and hors d’oeuvre pairings from the Armoury’s Chef Soohyeong Lee.

Bubbles & Smiles is the brainchild of Colleen Jones, Past Vice Chair of CHATS’ Board of Directors, who wanted to continue helping to fill in the gaps when it comes to local seniors’ care.

“Like most seniors, my mom did not want to move from her home, but living on her own, without help, was no longer viable,” said Jones. “Unfortunately, the community where she lived did not have the types of supports she needed.”

In keeping with the theme, proceeds from the second-annual event will help enhance programs to address senior isolation and loneliness.

“We’re finding the uptake on people coming back to in-person activities has been a lot slower than we would have thought,” says CHATS CEO Christina Bisanz. “We’re really trying to raise awareness that we have wellness programs in the community, that we have programs for diverse communities available, but that period of time where people stayed home and didn’t engage, I think, is still continuing on at this time. We really want to be able to get out, perhaps offer some new programs in different communities where we haven’t been present before and be able to serve our older adults with engaging activities that will get them out of isolation and address potential loneliness.”

CHATS is currently exploring ways in which they can address what they describe as “NORC” models – Naturally-Occurring Retirement Communities – that have formed in other locations within Canada and the United States.

These would be programs implemented in buildings that have a significant population of seniors – more than 30 per cent – but are not necessarily senior-specific communities.

“Many of these buildings are privately-owned, but they have common rooms, large lobbies, areas for people to congregate and be socially-involved – there are different models and we’re looking at NORC buildings in Aurora and Newmarket to see if there is potential for us to bring some programs into buildings and get people socially-engaged and active.

“An organization like CHATS, for example, would come in and organize social wellness programs – maybe a little light exercise. There could be a congregate meal that is served where people sit down and share [the experience]. In Halton, they have a PACE model – Progress for All-Inclusive Care of the Elderly. Those programs are even more robust in terms of also offering healthcare services that come into the building and have somebody on site who provides care coordination – helping older adults navigate care services and how to access care and understand where those services are available. Oasis, in Kingston, is a combination of social and healthcare and that is what we want to do just to start: to explore different models, understand how they are operating, what’s involved.”

There is also, she added, interest and support from members of the Northern York-South Simcoe Ontario Health Team to look at opportunities to partner with other groups.

“It’s early days, but this is an area where we really think there is tremendous potential to get something started.”

And every bubble and delicacy will help CHATS move forward.

Tickets for the April 24 event are on sale now at chatsbubblessmiles.ca.

General News

Temporary Restaurant Patio Program now accepting applications

March 28, 2024   ·   0 Comments

By Brian Lockhart

The Town of New Tecumseth’s Temporary Restaurant Patio Program provides restaurants with the opportunity to establish or expand patio spaces to take advantage of the summer weather and offer safe outdoor dining areas to customers.

Patios can operate in parking lots and adjacent premises on the restaurant’s private property as well as on municipal sidewalks at restaurants located in the downtown areas of Alliston, Beeton and Tottenham.

Patios are subject to the program’s conditions and public health measures.

No municipal fees will be charged to participating restaurants in 2024.

Submission requirements to obtain a permit include a completed application form, property owner approval, a site-specific conceptual site plan drawing, and a Health Unit Certificate of Inspection.

An AGCO Liquor License is necessary, if applicable, a certificate of insurance, a professional engineer’s certificate for temporary ‘bump-out’ sidewalk structures and traffic barriers, if applicable, and an encroachment agreement, if applicable, are also needed.

You can download the Curbside Patio Application Package and Private Property Patio Application Package online at the Town’s website.

General News

Spring Clean-up looking for volunteers

March 28, 2024   ·   0 Comments

By Brian Lockhart

With warmer weather approaching, and the snow all gone, many places in New Tecumseth have been left with litter strewn about.

It is unsightly and unhealthy to have ditches, roadways, parks, and green spaces, covered with garbage that was carelessly tossed from cars, trucks, and people walking down the street.

To help clean up the mess, the Town of New Tecumseth is hosting a Spring Clean-Up event. The Town is looking for volunteers to do their part in cleaning up their community.

The event will take place from April 14 to April 28.

Taking part is easy. First, you can choose a clean-up location.

This could be an area near your home, a park, or just a street that needs some attention.

Once you have a location, contact the Town Parks office to register your clean-up area and arrange pick-up of your free supplies.

You can do the job on your own or as a family or a group of friends who have pride in the town and want it to look its best.

After you finish cleaning up your chosen area, Parks staff will pick up the collected waste at the pre-arranged site.

It doesn’t take long to clean up an area, and this is a great way to volunteer, doing some good, while making the Town a cleaner place to live, work, and play.

General News

Province investing over $1.8 billion to build homes

March 28, 2024   ·   0 Comments

By Brian Lockhart

The Ontario government is investing more than $1.8 billion in house-enabling infrastructure funding aimed at building at least 1.5 million homes by 2031.

The announcement came through the office of Brian Saunderson, MPP for Simcoe-Grey on March 22.

Included in the funding is $1 billion for the new Municipal Housing Infrastructure Program, and $625 million more for the Housing-Enabling Water Systems Fund, bringing its total funding to $825 million.

This new funding complements existing and ongoing provincial investments in housing and community-enabling infrastructure, including the original $200 million for Housing-Enabling Water Systems Fund, and the investment of nearly $2 billion for the Ontario Community Infrastructure Fund since 2021-22.

“Ontario families want housing. This Government is committed to working with our municipal partners to meet our housing target and get more homes built across the Province,” said MPP Saunderson. “These very significant investments are critical to ensuring our communities have the capacity to build the infrastructure necessary to support this much needed growth.”

The announcement said the government is giving municipalities the tools they need to build more homes faster and tackle the affordability crisis that is pricing too many people, especially young families and newcomers, out of the dream of home ownership.

The statement goes on to say that Ontario will continue working hard to unlock housing opportunities and support growing communities.

The province continues to call on the federal government to pay its fair share to help fund housing-enabling infrastructure investments and support vibrant, growing communities.

Sports

Hornets will face Siskins in Division championship

March 28, 2024   ·   0 Comments

By Brian Lockhart

The Alliston Hornets have advanced to the North Carruthers Division championship series after eliminating the Schomberg Cougars in a semi-final series that went five games.

The semi-final got underway on Wednesday, March 13. In game one, the Cougars left the ice with a 4-3 win on Alliston’s home ice.

Game two, also on Alliston ice two days later, saw the series tied when the Hornets squeezed out a 2-1 win in the low-scoring game.

Moving to Schomberg for the next two games, the Hornets went ahead with a 6-3 win at the Trisan Centre in Schomberg in game three.

After a four day break, the teams returned for game four on Thursday, March 21.

The Hornets left the ice with a 4-1 win.

Back in Alliston for game five, the Hornets were determined to end the series with a home-ice win.

Schomberg scored the only first-period goal in game five.

Alliston responded in the second with goals from Ben Smith and Mark Coish for a 2-1 lead with one period left to go.

The Hornets took command of the game in the third with three goals by the midway mark in the frame.

Hornets goals came from Will Millington, Cole Turcotte, and Coish.

Schomberg got a single at the 12:03 mark in the frame.

Coish got a hattrick with a final empty-net goal with 19 seconds on the clock to give the Hornets a 6-2 win.

“They battled hard, but I think we were the better team throughout the series and I think we deserve it,” said Hornets forward Mark Coish after the game. “I would say we were pretty confident going into tonight’s game. We wanted to end it – the fourth game is always the hardest to win, and we were playing a pretty good team out there. They battled hard but I think we were the better team and we came out on top.”

The Hornets will now face the Stayner Siskins in the Division championship best-of-seven series.

Stayner eliminated the Orillia Terriers in four games in their semi-final series that wrapped up on March 21.

The Alliston versus Stayner championship series will get underway in Alliston on Friday, March 29.

General News

NVCA hosting fly fishing event prior to trout season

March 28, 2024   ·   0 Comments

By Brian Lockhart

If you’re an angler and would like to try fly fishing, or even if you have been fly fishing for years but would like to learn more, Cabela’s Barrie and the Nottawasaga Valley Conservation Authority are hosting a pre-season fly fishing event as a warm-up to the opening day of trout season.

The event will be held at the Cabela’s store in Barrie. It will feature educational seminars about fly fishing as well as a ‘Fish like a Biologist’ presentation that will teach you how to interpret stream temperature and flow conditions in order to make the most of your opening day experience.

The event will also feature fly casting instruction, fly-tying tutorials, an overview of the Nottawasaga River Restoration Program, and expert advice on flies and equipment.

The Learn to Fish like a Biologist event will take place on Saturday, April 6, from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., at the Cabela’s store in Barrie at 50 Concert Way.

No registration is required.

General News

 Equine event offers advice on the well-being of horses

March 28, 2024   ·   0 Comments

By Brian Lockhart

With three decades of experience working with horses of various ages, breeds and conditions, Alyson Sharpe, along with her husband and daughter, has established a track on the family farm and transformed it into a distinctive boarding facility for horses, setting itself apart from conventional equine establishments.

After founding PB Track Livery in England, Alyson had a clear objective: to raise awareness about Paddock Paradise and Track System equine management.

“I’ve always wanted to help horses,” Alyson said. “I want to share my knowledge and help heal and rehabilitate horses in a happy, healthy and natural environment.”

Convinced of the benefits that track systems offer, Michèle Rhéaume, founder of Ontario-based Wakita Equine, became intrigued by the work of the PB Track Livery family several years ago. Recognizing the interest among many of her local horse owner clients, she decided to introduce the expertise of the Sharpe family to Canada and establish the Paddock Paradise conference.

Organized by Wakita Equine, this groundbreaking two-day event presents a singular opportunity for small and large equine farm owners to learn insights from Alyson and Maddie Sharpe on how to revitalize their properties and create sanctuaries of equine well-being.

The event will take place on Saturday, April 6, and Sunday, April 7, at Horse Spirit Connections in Tottenham.

Wakita Equine is an equine holistic health business focused on prevention and education.

Registration for this conference is open.

For more information contact Michèle Rhéaume from Wakita Equine at: michele@michelerheaume.com.

You can also visit the Wakita Equine Facebook page to learn more.

General News

Protect your eyes and stay safe during solar eclipse

March 28, 2024   ·   0 Comments

By Brian Lockhart

It will be a rare occurrence on April 8, when the moon will pass in front of the sun causing a total solar eclipse across a swath of North America.

The path of the total eclipse will cross Mexico, then Texas, and across the U.S. midwest. As it goes north, it will enter the very southern part of Ontario, including the Niagara Peninsula and Hamilton, continuing east through Quebec, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland, before continuing across the Atlantic Ocean.

The eclipse will be visible in New Tecumseth, but it won’t be a total eclipse. However, the moon will cover around 98 per cent of the sun making for a spectacular sight. There will be only a small sliver of the sun remaining visible when the eclipse peaks at 3:20 p.m.

While this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to see an eclipse, watching this phenomenon can be dangerous if you don’t take the proper precautions.

Staring directly at the sun can cause permanent damage to your eyes and vision. While most of the sun will be blocked out during the eclipse, looking at it directly can still do the same damage as staring at the sun on a normal day.

While the sky will look darker during the eclipse, the sun’s ultraviolet rays are just as powerful from behind the moon.

Staring at the eclipse, even briefly, can cause an injury known as solar retinopathy. Once you damage your eyes this way, it is permanent.

If you want to view the eclipse, you should get the special glasses that are designed for it.

Regular sunglasses will not do the trick, even very dark ones.

When you buy the special eclipse glasses, make sure they have an official ISO-12312-2 certification. If they don’t have this designation, they may not be proper glasses and you still may end up with eye damage.

Be especially careful with children during this eclipse. Kids have a tendency to look up at the sun during an eclipse without realizing the dangerous consequences.

The entire eclipse will take around 2 hours and 25 minutes on Monday, April 8.

In New Tecumseth, the moon will start to cover the outer edge of the sun at 2:03 p.m.

Peak coverage, around 99 percent, will occur at 3:20 p.m. when only a tiny sliver of the sun will be visible.

The moon will cross over the sun and move out of its path at 4:30 p.m.

This will be a spectacular experience, but make sure to stay safe and protect your eyes during this once-in-a-lifetime event.

Commentary, Opinion

Yesterdayland, Todayland, and Tomorrowland

March 22, 2024   ·   0 Comments

By Brock Weir

It’s often said that hindsight is 20/20, but sometimes the results can be unexpected.

Having kids of one’s own, I hear, can give you a new appreciation of what your parents went through with you, particularly if your kids try to pull the same stunts.

It does, of course, cut both ways.

Hindsight can also help you scratch the surface of positive or negative memories, giving you new context through which you can re-evaluate them either way.

In other, less drastic ways, these experiences can reinforce the fact that you’re living in the here and now and some of these life lessons you’ve taken with you from childhood no longer have any relevance or currency in today’s world. Advice from parents and grandparents on homeownership to kids born in the 80s, 90s, and early 00s immediately comes to mind, but that’s a subject for another colum!

Who else grew up in the 1990s grew up watching Mrs. Doubtfire?

Chances are, when you first saw it as a youngster, you sided with Robin Williams’ Daniel when his marriage blew up following a raucous indoor party, complete with a petting zoo in the living room featuring livestock. As fun a party as it looked, in hindsight, Sally Field’s Miranda had every right to shut that nonsense down.

Who was going to clean that up, let alone re-plant her begonias?

In an informal straw poll of my peers, the general consensus was the invariable change of allegiance came as something of a surprise. Of course, it’s less of a surprise to our parents as they watched it with us and they knew where they stood. They knew what the future would hold.

But what does the future hold for all of us?

Maybe in this case it’s important to look back before we look forward.

Throughout our history, anyone with a splash of creativity coursing through their veins has had one vision or another of what the next decades, centuries or millennia might look like.

In the 1950s, when humans began to make real strides towards viable space travel, this spit-balling on what’s to come hit something of a fever pitch, with even Walt Disney embedding these very ideas into his theme parks through the development of Tomorrowland.

“Walt Disney – storyteller, visionary, and one of Time’s 20 most influential innovators of the 20th century – saw the future as a wonderous and magical place,” said Rachel Withers in a 2017 Slate article entitled, Yesterdayland. “He embraced new technology throughout his career: His early animations used what were then cutting-edge effects, such as color and sound, and he was obsessed with mass transit, with the concept for Disneyland coming out his passion for increasingly large model trains. Plus, he loved outer space. From 1954 to 1958, he hosted Disneyland, a weekly show on ABC, to finance the park’s construction. His passion for futurology came across in his Tomorrowland segments. Tomorrowland, referred to in early plans as The Land of Tomorrow, and envisioned by Walt to be ‘the factual and scientific exposition of things to come,’ was one of four imaginative realms that park-goers could visit (Fantasyland, Adventureland, Frontierland, and Tomorrowland). Walt always intended his park to be educational as well as entertaining. In his Tomorrowland dedication speech, displayed in the park to this day, Walt promised the land would be a: vista into a world of wonderous ideas, signifying man’s achievements…a step into the future, with predictions of constructive things to come. Tomorrow offers new frontiers in science, adventure and ideals: the Atomic Age… the challenges of outer space…and the hope for a peaceful and unified world. But the problem with designing the world of tomorrow soon became apparent: Tomorrow very quickly becomes today, and then yesterday. The future never stays that way for long.”

We’re now living in the timeline that Disney envisioned in the future, but I doubt many of us are feeling it is necessarily a time of wondrous ideas and constructive things to come. There have been innovative ideas, sure, but constructive? I guess it depends on your perspective.

New frontiers in science, adventure and ideals? Sure, but some of these new frontiers in science have been conquered out of necessity more than anything else; and many the conquest of new, adventurous “frontiers” often feels more driven by profit than knowledge and knowledge-sharing.

Part and parcel of this vision of the future espoused by our forebears focused on robotics and primitive ideas of what we now call A.I. set on making our lives easier and more fulfilling, but as both have progressed rapidly in the last decade or so, has it been for the greater good?

Various forms of Artificial Intelligence have the potential to make a powerful, positive impact on this world, and have already proven themselves, but the march of this particular form of “progress” has also made many occupations endangered and, some of those individuals holding purse-strings might wrongly argue, obsolete.

Robots were also supposed to be developed for the betterment of our lives and society. Who wouldn’t want a delightfully sassy robot like Rosie from The Jetsons powering up every morning to help us get through the drudgery with a healthy helping of snark delivered on the side just for kicks?

I know I did.

Now, at a local big box store, I see a robot, with its outer features arranged in such a way to suggest a friendly smile, roaming about cleaning floors while, at any given moment, in a quiet corner of their parking lot, are two packed-to-the-roof cars that appear to be serving as their driver’s primary residence. It might not be glamorous, but perhaps an opportunity for a custodial job could make a world of difference in their lives.

At any number of fast-food outlets, we have machines there ready to take our order, with varying degrees of success; at some of our “slow food” establishments, we now have to contend with our orders being delivered by a happy l’il robot who has taken the place of a human; at some of our largest service providers, if we want customer service, we have to get through the gate-keeper of cutesy chatbots that are ill-equipped to handle many of the simplest request. And then, of course, we have the self-check-outs at the grocery stores and new machines in some locations that are, apparently, there to check your work before letting you out of the store.

And on and on it goes, along with our chance for human interaction, opportunity and, when you get right down to it, humanity.

Which brings me back to the life lessons provided by the likes of Daniel and Miranda Hillard in Mrs. Doubtfire.

As much as we loved to hate the stuffy and gruff Mr. Spacely, at least he had the sense to recognize George Jetson’s specialized skills in producing Spacely Sprockets and held off on replacing him with a clanking riveter known as Rosie 2.0.

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