Month: August 2012

A woman facing the trauma of cancer and the often harsh effects of chemo and radiation therapy already has a lot on her mind. Particularly devastating for many women is the loss of their eyebrows and hair, and the subsequent alteration in their appearances. 

Look Good Feel Better is devoted to helping women combat the toll cancer can take by helping them to learn how to maximize their looks as they heal. 

“If you don’t feel good, it’s harder to heal,” said Joanne Notman, who has been a volunteer with Look Good Feel Better workshops for seven years. “Women, especially cancer victims, need the morale boost of looking their best.”

The two hour work shops are designed to work with women, one on one, so they can learn tricks about how to minimize hair loss, puffiness, dry skin, and how to cope with nail issues, all of them by-products of cancer treatments. The workshops give women a chance to share and relax, to try on wigs and experiment with make up secure in a private and supportive atmosphere.

“When I attend a workshop,” Notman explained, “I find the participants are always amazed at the quality and quantity of the goods they receive for free. Each work shop has a team leader (Notman is a leader) and a group of cosmetic advisors. These advisors are all volunteers and are all in the cosmetic business.”

“There are three aspects to each workshop,” Notman explained. “Makeup and skin care, nail care and the hair portion. We also talk with women about what to expect as they undergo treatments so that the changes they face are easier to bear.”

The Look Good Feel Better movement began in the United States about 20 years ago, when an oncology nurse witnessed women, devastated by the changes in their appearances, essentially “dropped” once their medical treatments were finished. The idea of workshops to help them cope took hold.

In Canada, the program is sponsored by the Canadian Cosmetic, Toiletry and Fragrance Association. 

Each participant in a workshop receives a complimentary kit of products donated by this group, all of them designed for traumatized skin. 

“There is even a workshop held at CHEO,” Joanne explained, “for teenage girls who are undergoing treatments.  The teenagers, we’ve found, are less concerned with the whole background program. They just want to get into the makeup,” Joanne laughed, “but then what girl doesn’t?” 

There are already workshops held in Ottawa and Kingston. And now Winchester District Memorial Hospital also holds a free workshop bi-monthly.

The free workshops at WDMH are held every other month, with the next one scheduled for Wednesday, September 26, in the afternoon. Women of any age can register, whether they are currently undergoing treatment, or will be starting therapy. The number is 613-774-2420, extension 6792.

Joanne Notman believes that the Look Good Feel Better program  is of great value to women facing the trials of cancer.  

“If we can make a woman (and her family too) feel happier and more confident, then it’s all worth it. I call Look Good Feel Better my charity of choice. I love it.”

[…]

 

 Like many 19-year-olds, Cody Lewis is planning to head to university within the next year or two intending to study theology. 

But unlike many Canadian teens, Cody Lewis also chose to spend nearly four weeks in May, 2012, in the nation of Romania, volunteering at four state-run orphanages. 

Cody volunteered to travel overseas with International Teams, the Canadian branch. International Teams currently has 102 volunteer teams, made up of people from over 24 countries, serving world-wide. Cody went specifically with ‘Impact Romania’ and its Pas Cu Pas program (Step by Step in Romanian).

The Impact Romania program focuses on institutionalized Romanian orphans and young adults in northwest Romania. 

“I first got involved with this group through Muskoka Woods, a Christian Youth Camp near Parry Sound. We saw a video of a previous team’s work in Romania, and I soon felt I had to go. After interviews and a screening process, I was pleased, and nervous and excited to find out I had been accepted.”

At Toronto training sessions, Lewis learned that his purpose would be to meet the orphans, to work with them, play with them and share with them. He would live in the orphanages during his stay, sharing the children’s lives.

On April 29 he flew from Toronto to Paris and then to Budapest. After a nine hour bus ride, he reached the Romanian town of Cluj, a hopeful city with  growing universities.

En route to the orphanage, “I saw how beautiful the countryside was,” Lewis said. “Buildings are hundreds of years old with many Medieval churches.”

In the small city of Beclean, he lived in the town orphanage.

“The town itself is mostly run down. The orphanage is gated and guarded: children can’t leave and people can’t get in. The yard is big, but it is mostly paved over. The pavement is covered in broken glass that no one cleans up, and there is a kind of dump/garbage site on the property. I never saw anyone pick up the garbage while I was there.”

Many orphanages in Romania are the legacy of the manic policies of her former totalitarian president, Nicolae Ceausescu. His behaviour bordered on madness, “degrading social and moral life in his country” Romanians say. 

Although Ceausescu was executed by his countrymen following an uprising in 1989, child abandonment had already become commonplace among desperately poor families. At one point (early 1990’s), Cody was told, there may have been more than 80,000 orphans in Romania.

“Orphanages have toddlers and kids up to age 18. Sometimes the children have physical or mental issues, but sometimes,” Cody explained, “little kids are simply dropped off when a new baby arrives. Parents are so poor, they can’t feed both children. 

These abandoned kids are almost never reclaimed, even though they know they have families out there. They can be angry and frustrated. Some of the older kids become very aggressive in the orphanages, bullying the younger ones. Few trained counsellors or psychologists are available. We often sat and talked to these kids, trying to show them there are other ways to act.”

At Christmas, one of the mission trips from Impact Romania holds a special feast in each of the orphanages presenting some small gifts. “But birthdays and other holidays tend not to be celebrated,” Cody said quietly.

Teachers are dedicated and do what they can. The classrooms are organized not by age, but by levels of education. “You can have a five year old and a 10-year-old in the same class because they both have limited education. We talked to them about Canada, but I still think they don’t really know where it is,” he said. “We handed out maple syrup, and the kids licked the cups clean. It was a rare special treat.” 

Cody played games with children, helped with English lessons, gave piggy-back rides, smiled and laughed with them.
“While I was there, a five-year-old was dropped off. I can’t imagine what it felt like, to be left like this, confronted by strangers, even ones trying to be friendly. It breaks your heart.”

Cody lost his own heart to many of the children. “I wish I had gotten involved sooner. I wish I could have stayed longer to work with Andre, a troubled 15-year-old. I wish it had been possible to adopt Ana, a child from the Princhindel Orphanage, who clung to my hand everyday and smiled at me. I cried when I had to leave her; she kept calling my name. I want, I hope, to go back next year because it will matter to these kids to recognize that someone came back to them, not just the one time.”

“This was a life-changing experience,” said Cody Lewis. “You come face to face with the reality of people’s lives, dealing with hard situations. The lessons  I learned in Romania, I hope to apply even here in Canada.”  

[…]

 

It isn’t every young hopeful, fresh out of college, who gets the chance to live her dream. But that is how things have worked out for Lindsay Gilmer, daughter of Doug and Cathy Gilmer of Iroquois.

Lindsay, who graduated this spring from the Humber College in film and television, a three year advanced diploma, is the newest office production assistant on the television show, Bomb Girls, which will air on Global in the new year. 

“I work five days a week, 12 hour days, and I love it,” Lindsay said. “It’s very tough to break into the entertainment and film industry in Canada, and I consider myself very fortunate. I really wanted to get into television, and here I am, starting a career I really love working on Bomb Girls.”

Executive producers Adrienne Mitchell, Michael MacLennan and Janis Lundman of Back Alley Films, are the forces behind Bomb Girls, which originally aired as a mini series January 4, 2012. 

The show will return for a full run on Global beginning in January, 2013. 

The series is set in the 1940s, at the height of World War II. It is based on the lives and experiences of five women, of all ages and backgrounds, who have stepped into traditional men’s roles in the factories. The central characters work on an assembly line in a munitions factory creating bombs, a dirty and potentially deadly job. 

The series (actress Meg Tilly won the 2012 Leo Award for best lead performance by a female in a dramatic series) is a gritty and realistic look at women at war. 

Lindsay has only been with the company a month, but she feels that she is constantly “learning new things, as aspects of the job are becoming more and more natural.”

Lindsay’s decision to enter the challenging world of film and television began back at Seaway District High School. With the encouragement of then drama teacher, Kevin Kennedy, she submitted an original short film, The Christmas Monster, to the 2009 Toronto Student Film Festival. She was thrilled to receive the Judge’s Special Recognition Award. 

That fall, she was accepted into the Humber program where she made short films throughout her school years and filmed documentaries and studio drama. In her third year, she was the producer of a 10 minute ‘thesis film’, The Writer’s Room, a story with science fiction overtones. “I loved every minute of school,” Lindsay said. “It was lots of work, but that work was fun.”

Lindsay laughed when she described sending out resumés to “every single television show filming in Toronto. I really wanted to get into television.”

She was actually en route to her graduation ceremony when she got a phone call from the production co-ordinator of the police drama, Flashpoint. The company offered her the chance to work the last week of filming for Flashpoint. 

“They wanted to see if I had what it took to come straight out of school to a working show. At this point, I had no real experience except a brief internship at school.”

She worked hard with the company for the last three days of filming (this is Flashpoint’s final season) and the two wrap days. 

To her delight, she was offered a tentative position with Bomb Girls. “However, I wasn’t completely sure that I had a definite commitment with them, and my Humber professor arranged an interview for me with the Rookie Blue police drama.” 

Lindsay received a call back from Rookie Blue, but ultimately decided to take the job with Bomb Girls.  

“Most of the crew from Flashpoint had shifted over to work on Bomb Girls, and I felt that I had started a solid working relationship with that crew and producer.”

Net working and connections are very important in the entertainment industry, Lindsay explained. An entire crew can go with a producer when he moves to a new series. Ultimately, Lindsay hopes to “piggy back into other television series as I go along with Bomb Girls.” 

 Gilmer feels that the film and television industry in Ontario is healthy and vibrant.  The film Total Recall, which recently opened, was made in Toronto, as was the current Resident Evil sequel.  

An extraordinary number of television series are actually filming in and around Toronto including Rookie Blue, Saving Hope, LA Complex, Nikita, XIII, The Murdoch Mysteries and a new series for Showcase called Copper.

“There is a strong entertainment district in Toronto, which is home to a lot of studios, primarily Canadian. Cinespace has four studios and Pinewood is another big company.”

Most of the shows are partnered with US networks.  The  Americans “like our tax credits. Ontario has a tax point system that provides some government funding if a company uses Canadian crews and production services, or films on locations in and around Ontario. This brings money and work to the province, and showcases the real talent we have in this country.”

Vancouver and Montreal are also hubs for the television and film industry. “I believe this is a good time to get into this field,” Lindsay said.

What are Lindsay’s long term goals?

“Ultimately, I would like to become a ‘show runner’, which means a combination of head writer with a lot of say in editing, directing and producing. I’ve seen the challenges this job involves close up and I like them.”

Gilmer laughed when I asked her whether she already had some ideas for television shows.

“Frankly, I think right here in South Dundas there are enough interesting characters to create a show, or at least an episode in a television series. 

Try explaining Tubie Weekend to outsiders: it’s like the Olympics if you live in South Dundas! And what about a high school holding farm day, complete with tractors in the student parking lot? There is great source material here. Really, you can’t make this stuff up.”

[…]

 South Dundas Sports and Recreation Program director Ben Macpherson, with the support of the Ontario Trillium Foundation, has taken another step in bringing healthy living and recreation to residents of South Dundas.

Last Thursday, August 9, Macpherson, along with Catherine Maclaine, a member of the Trillium Foundation’s grant team for the  local Champlain area announced a $27,500 Trillium grant  for the purchase of sport and recreation equipment to establish a Sport Lending Library.

Joining Macpherson and Mac- laine for the announcement were Stormont-Dundas-South Glengarry MPP Jim McDonell and members of South Dundas council including mayor Steven Byvelds, deputy-mayor Jim Locke and councillors Evonne Delegarde and Archie Mellan.

In addition to the announcement of the Trillium Funding, Macpherson announced that the Sport Lending Library will eventually find its home in some of the space currently occupied by the County Library beneath the Morrisburg Arena lobby.

“The Township of South Dundas is to be commended for their innovative approach to providing their residents with the use of sporting equipment, which will enhance their healthy and active lifestyle,” said McDonnell. “I am very pleased that the Ontario Trillium Foundation supports this initiative.”

“I think this is a great opportunity for South Dundas and for those people who don’t have equipment,” said mayor Byvelds. “I certainly want to thank the Trillium Foundation for this grant that has enabled Ben to buy the equipment.”

“There is a demand for recreation in South Dundas and this will enhance our recreation programming. It will certainly give everyone the opportunity to try something, and they can decide where to go from there.”

While the space at the arena is occupied by the library, equipment in the Sports Lending Library will be temporarily housed in a unit to be built in the south west corner of the arena as well as at the nearby former St. Lawrence Parks Commission building. 

Macpherson said he has been busy purchasing the equipment which will support a wide range of sports and activities.

The equipment will include such items as life jackets, basketballs, volleyballs, skipping ropes, badminton nets and racquets and other sporting balls. Big ticket items are skates, helmets, snowshoes and cross country skis.

The Sport Lending Library will offer residents access to a variety of sporting and recreation equipment at no charge and as soon as Macpherson can get it arranged, he will open satellite lending cupboards in Iroquois and Williamsburg.

Although there will be no charge to use the equipment, users will be required to fill out loan forms and there will be charges applied in the event of damage or lost equipment.

Macpherson is hoping to line up some volunteers who will handle the loans in addition to having the staff at the arena help out.

“South Dundas Recreation is committed to helping residents improve or continue leading healthy, active lives,” says Macpherson.

The Trillium Foundation is a leading grant maker in Canada which strengthens the capacity of the voluntary sector through investments in community-based initiatives. 

[…]