Year: 2012

 

 If a great meal, outstanding entertainment and approximately $4,000 raised for the Canadian Glaucoma Foundation equal a successful anniversary celebration, then the Iroquois-Matilda Lions outdid themselves. 

The club celebrated its 65th anniversary at the Matilda Hall on Saturday, October 27. It was quite a party.

Over 250 Iroquois Lions, members of the community and Lions from Morrisburg and other  clubs, attended the gala reception. The 2012-13 president of the Iroquois-Matilda Lions, Steve Wilson, acted as emcee.

“We thank you very much for coming out to celebrate with us tonight,” Wilson said. “I must tell you that this was a wonderful year to be president of this club. We had three goals for this evening. First, we wanted to celebrate the 65 years the Lions have served this community. The second goal was to offer our guests a delicious meal and some outstanding entertainment. And our third goal was to raise funds for the Glaucoma Foundation.” 

The silent auction brought in approximately $4,000 for Glaucoma research, according to Lion Paul Robertson (with Jim Mustard and Steve Wilson, a gala organizer). “We are very pleased with the generosity of people. We offer many thanks to those who donated to our cause, and to those who supported us by bidding.”

Greetings and honours were presented to the club following the dinner. 

MP Guy Lauzon will be delivering a formal plaque from the federal government to the Iroquois-Matilda Lions later this week. “Our government appreciates all that you Lions do in your communities. This is a remarkable achievement: without our Lions, what kind of community would we have?”

Jim Locke set aside his Lions’ colours and donned his deputy mayor’s hat to bring the congratulations and best wishes of mayor Steven Byvelds and the South Dundas council to the club.

Special guest at the gala was John Chilvers, Lions International District A-4 governor.

District A-4 is made up of 68 Lions clubs, with 1,710 active members. The Iroquois-Matilda Lions are part of A-4.

“I feel that it is a real privilege to be here tonight to celebrate with a club that is hitting such a milestone,” Chilvers said. “I want to emphasize that Lions do a lot in the world. There are currently 1.35 million Lions in 208 countries. You Lions support your local communities, but you also support the greater world.”

The governor brought a special commemorative plaque to the club as part of the celebration.

Bowser and Blue, who provided the entertainment for the gala evening, quite literally brought the house down. 

Rick Blue and George Bowser are a stellar Canadian musical and comedy act. Their witty on-stage patter, and the clever lyrics to their songs kept guests entertained and roaring with laughter. 

“We shall now sing a song in the Canadian key.

The Canadian key?

Yes. The key of ‘eh’!”

From the classic Colorectal Surgeons Song, to We’re All Canadians (“We’re all here/’cause we’re not all there!”), Bowser and Blue were outstanding showmen.

For many, though, the musical highlight of the evening may have been Bald is Beautiful, which the duo sang to Lions Phil Parry and Glenn Swerdfeger to thunderous laughter and applause. 

The Iroquois-Matilda Lions have had a great 65 years. They plan to continue to be of service to this community as they enter their next decade.

[…]

 

Many members of the Iroquois community have come to expect more than just ‘trick-or-treators’ knocking at their doors on Hallowe’en.  

For the past 12 years, a group of teens in grades 9 to 12 from Dixon’s Corners Community Christian Reformed Church has organized a food drive between 6 p.m. and 8 p.m. on October 31st. 

They walk, in small groups door-to-door, collecting non-perishable items for the Dundas County Food Bank. 

The group choses this specific date to collect food because it is an evening when most families are home and already expect people knocking on their doors.   

This drive has become one of the largest the food bank relies on each year.  

With increased interest and a few new groups joining the DC youth, they plan to expand the drive into Morrisburg in an attempt to out-do the 1,700 items collected last year.  

Much like the ‘rules’ of trick-or-treating, the teens will only knock on doors where the lights are on.  The goal is to eventually have enough help to cover all roads in both Iroquois and Morrisburg. But, given the volunteer numbers for this year, not every road will be covered. If your road is missed, you can still donate by bringing your food items directly to the food bank. 

The DC youth group is thankful for the support each year and looks forward to another fun and successful night helping their local communities.

[…]

 

From a 15 year old with peach fuzz on his top lip that grew into a proper moustache by the time he was 18, now South Dundas Mayor Steven Byvelds has never been without a moustache. 

That could all change at the end of this month if the residents of South Dundas take up the challenge being issued by Mayor Byvelds in support of the Flash a ‘Stache effort to help fight prostate cancer.

“I am issuing a challenge,” said Byvelds. “If $1,000 in donations are made, I will cut off my forever moustache.”

Saturday night at the Dundas County Hospice Hoedown Jan Clapp convinced Byvelds that he should participate in the Dare to Flash a ‘Stache fundraiser benefitting the Winchester District Memorial Hospital Foundation and the Ottawa Region Cancer Centre Foundation to fight prostate cancer.

“It definitely took some convincing,” said Byvelds, “This is a pretty big leap for me.” 

Although, now that he has decided to participate, he sincerely hopes people will take up the challenge and donate to this very worthy cause.

“I think each one of us knows someone who has battled prostate cancer,” he says. 

In addition to helping to raise funds, this effort helps to raise awareness so that people get checked and through fund raisers like this one ensure that the hospitals have everything they need to provide treatment.

There is only one week to reach Byvelds fund raising goal, so he asks that anyone interested in taking up the challenge by making a donation to the Dare to to Flash a ‘Stache effort do so before October 31.

Donations can be made online at www.flashastache.ca, click on Sponsor a Participant and type in Steven Byvelds and follow the steps. For those not comfortable with donating online, contact Byvelds and he will help facilitate the donation process. He can be reached by email mayor@southdundas.com or by phone 613-652-2271.

[…]

 

Hamlet signs in South Dundas are fading and deteriorating, and it has become much more noticeable now that our neighbours have replaced their existing signs with new, redesigned hamlet and welcome signs.

South Dundas councillor Archie Mellan brought the issue to the South Dundas council table Oct. 16 to bring to staff’s attention the need to do something with a couple of existing signs that need repairs. 

However, discussions steered instead towards highlighting the need to re-sign the entire municipality with new, uniform redesigned hamlet and welcome signs.

“We seem to have a wide variety of them,” said Mellan. “It would be nice to see something done like our neighbours to the north. Their new signs look nice. I do realize there is a cost to make everything uniform.” 

“We do need to renew our signs,” agreed South Dundas mayor Steven Byvelds. “Signs boast of where you live and North Dundas, in their second time around, have done a really good job. The signs give you a good sense of where you are.”

“Our signs are starting to fade. I think for now we’ll patch up what we have and work towards a new plan,” said Mayor Byvelds. 

As part of an upcoming report about the Upper Canada Region branding concept, South Dundas clerk Brenda Brunt says that the issue of signs will be discussed.

“Also, all the traffic on the 401 needs to know who we are and what we have to offer,” said Byvelds.

[…]

 

Food bank usage in Dundas County continues to rise.

“Our usage is up 10 percent over last month,” said Brian Cox, a director with the Dundas County Food Bank who was at the Morrisburg location Friday morning to receive the large amount of food delivered by Ken Rundle, owner of the Morrisburg Giant Tiger store.

Cox thanked Rundle for the quantity of food and funds he delivered, courtesy of Giant Tiger shoppers. “This food is deeply required,” said Cox.

Giant Tiger recently wrapped up their food drive whereby the cashiers asked customers to make a donation to the food bank. 

One of the donation options was to donate $5 for a whole bag of food which included canned tomatoes, canned beans, caned flaked tuna, canned flaked ham, can flaked turkey and canned beans.

These food bags were tailored to feed the specific needs of this food bank.

“These items collected are among those that the food bank distributes on a regular basis and are always needs,” noted Dundas County Food Bank administrator Donna Quesnel. “Ken made an excellent choice in selecting these items and we are grateful to the Giant Tiger customers who purchased this food.”

Donations made equated to 75 bags of food, including $450 worth of food product. Another $150 in cash donations was also collected.

Rundle credits the community with the success of the food drive, which he plans to do again next year. “The support of the community was great. They are the ones who made this happen, we just facilitated.”

In seeing the most recent statistics showing increased need, Cox is pleased to have this food drive and others taking place. While the DC Youth plan on collecting food on Halloween, Creepy Creek Camp is accepting food donations for the food bank and the OPP Auxiliary are also planning an upcoming food drive.

“These are all deeply needed and appreciated,” said Cox.

[…]

 

Firefighters from all three South Dundas fire stations fought a fire on Pages Corners Road last Friday.

At 7:30 a.m., October 19, firefighters rushed to the scene of a structure fire at Xolanda Farms, where the large tarp building used for hay storage was fully engulfed in flames.

“Crews quickly extinguished the flames,” reported Chris McDonough, fire chief for South Dundas Fire and Emergency Services. “Then the long process of extinguishing the hot spots began,” he noted, adding that the rain made it difficult for the crews because it was forcing the smoke to stay at ground level. A contractor was called in with an excavator to separate the burning bales of hay. Crews remained on scene until about 5:30 p.m.

The fire was caused by a Bobcat loader’s exhaust igniting combustibles (possibly hay) in the coverall building.

A previous fire, in the same structure approximately three years ago, destroyed only the outer shell of the building, so the owners were able to use the same frame and replace only the tarp. The fire chief is awaiting an engineer’s report to determine if once again the steel structure is salvageable before making an estimate of damages.

[…]