Month: June 2013

 “Bluegrass is the best music in the world, with its songs, stories and links to the past,” said Chris Coole, a member of the Foggy Hogtown Boys, who were the headliners at the 2013 Galop-Canal Bluegrass Festival, held at the Iroquois Point June 14-16. “Bluegrass might have begun in Appalachia, but its appeal is now world wide. This kind of folk music is ageless, and the crowd here is really enjoying it.”

With attendance at the 3rd annual Bluegrass Festival up 35 per cent over last year, Geraldine Fitzsimmons, on the organizing committee for the event,  admitted that she was tired but “very happy.”

Last year, 98 campers stayed at the point. This year, the campground was nearly full with over 140 campers taking advantage of the stunning setting and the 10 terrific bands which performed over the weekend. And a little rain on Sunday did not seem to dampen anyone’s spirits.

“Overall, this was a very successful festival,” Fitzsimmons said. “The quality of the bands we had on the program was outstanding. I was especially impressed with our headliners, The Foggy Hogtown Boys. And I feel that having all these people staying locally was a perfect way to showcase South Dundas. Our Festival was really good for the local economy.”  

“This year we had an all-Canadian line up of talent,” said Mike Anderson, a committee member, a musician and emcee for the Festival. “We increased out band budget some and brought in performers from farther away. We also ran really well attended free workshops in the guitar, mandolin and banjo. There was even an impromptu fiddle workshop led by Wade Foster, here with the Dusty Drifters. 

Performers like Darwin Thom and Gilles Leclerc and Foster are real ambassadors for bluegrass,.They share their talents freely on stage and in the workshops.”

Fitzsimmons had a lot of praise for the months of hard work put in by the Festival committee members, all volunteers. She particularly noted the Basket Case in Morrisburg. “Hanna (Rycroft) and Carl (McIntyre) on their own raised over $5,000 in support of the festival.” Many other individuals and businesses offered up their time, their energy and their financial support.

Upper Canada Playhouse artistic director Donnie Bowes stepped in as Friday night’s emcee when mayor Byvelds, SD councillors and committee members officially cut the opening ribbon.

This year, the Bluegrass Festival also partnered with the volunteers of Love South Dundas. 

“Our Father’s Day free breakfast was organized by Love South Dundas, and it was delicious. Rev. Geoff Howard and his family were wonderful, and contributed so much to the weekend.”

While rain on Sunday kept many classic vehicles at home, a few members of the Golden Gears Car club did make it to the Point as part of the celebration. 

“And I can’t tell you how many members of the different bands came up to tell me that the food cooked and served up by the Iroquois-Matilda Lions was just great,” Fitzsimmons said.

Matt Elwood, performing with the Unseen Strangers, and presenter of the banjo workshop, summed up the entire weekend.

“This was my first visit to the Iroquois Bluegrass Festival, and I’m loving it here.”

[…]

The Reverend James Tripp, who received his call to serve at the Morrisburg Pentecostal Tabernacle in March of this year, is already starting to feel at home with his new congregation and in his new community. 

“It’s wonderful that this is not just a church in the community, but really a church that is very much a part of this community,” Rev. Tripp said. “We could feel that this was a church deeply involved with its community, with a strong tradition of service, and that really attracted me.”

Pastor Tripp, and his wife, Sarah, an elementary teacher, both in their 30’s, have moved to South Dundas and are currently living in Iroquois. They are expecting their first child in October so they are particularly pleased to be safely settled into their new home.

Tripp preached his first sermons as pastor at the Morrisburg Pentecostal Tabernacle in May.  He assumed the full time position following the retirement of long-serving pastor, Duncan Perry, who retired late last year. The Reverend Lorna Casselman has been the interim pastor while the Morrisburg Pastoral Search Committee looked for a full time candidate. 

“I believe the Pastoral Committee got my resumé from our District Office,” Rev. Tripp explained. “They seemed to feel I might be a good fit with this congregation. We did an initial telephone interview, followed by a face-to-face. Then I was presented to the congregation to ‘preach for the call’. The entire membership of the church makes the final decision, on the recommendation of the Committee.”

Pastor Tripp brings a wealth of experience to his new charge.

An only child, he grew up in Mount Bridges, Ontario, attending high school in Strathroy. “I knew that I would be a pastor at a very young age,” he said. “I truly felt it was my calling, my purpose. I was about seven or eight. My parents were definitely alright with this decision as church was a strong part of our family experience.”

He completed his theological education at Eastern Pentecostal Bible College, now known as Master’s College and Seminary in Peterborough. He served five years at Bethel Church in Bobcaygeon, Ontario, in the Kawartha cottage country. Before that, he was an assistant pastor at a church in New Hamburg, in the Kitchener-Waterloo area. He did 10 years of student ministry at different churches before he went to Bobcaygeon.

Pastor Tripp has also been involved in missions and cross cultural work.

He spoke at a conference in Trinidad and worked in Poland, Cuba and the Czech Republic. “These were short term experiences. We were partnered with local churches, “church planting” or starting up churches in communities without them.” 

He hopes that somewhere down the road, the possibility of going overseas again will continue to be an option. “Perhaps one day I will be able to take teams from Morrisburg,” he said. 

He praises the outstanding staff he has at the Tabernacle. He also has a new assistant pastor, Sharon Bretz, who just started work a week ago. 

“I think that this church is very welcoming to families. We encourage people to come to us ‘just as they are.’ I think, too, that it is our mission to serve this community, and I am definitely looking forward to all the challenges ahead,” said pastor James Tripp.

“Our church doors are open, and we would love to meet people. Please feel free to drop in.”

[…]

 This is really the story of the ‘little school that could.’ 

Timothy Christian School was founded 50 years ago just outside the community of Williamsburg, in the heart of South Dundas farming country. Through struggles, set backs and challenges, the independent school has persevered, grown and thrived. 

The weekend of June 28-30, 2013, the Timothy Christian School family, past and present, are gathering to celebrate its rich history and faith based heritage. “Celebrating a half century of Christian education in our community is very special,” said Art Pol, chair of the board of directors of the school. “Our anniversary committee was formed last year, and they have been intently planning a weekend filled with all kinds of celebrations. Graduates, current students, families and friends are all invited to join our reunion.”

On June 6, I had the opportunity to sit down with Timothy Christian School’s very busy principal (grade eight graduation is just ahead, as well as the reunion celebrations) to talk about the history of the school, and the faith tenets on which it is based.

Gary Postma is the fourth principal the school has had since its founding.

“Our first principal was Mrs. Schaillee,” he said, “and she led us from 1963 to about 1966. Until the early ‘70s Mr. Hank Jensen was principal. Mr. Jim Kooistra took over in the mid ‘70s and was principal until 1992. Then I came in. My wife and I were actually from Toronto, and I took a position at this small school originally because we wanted a short break from city life. Well,” Postma laughed, “we fell in love with the school, the community, everything. Our ‘few years’ has turned into two decades.”

Origins of the school

“Following World War II, many Dutch left a Holland suffering from years of Occupation, and able to offer only limited opportunities. Immigrants arrived in the Williamsburg area in the early 1950s. Within two years, these Dutch farm families built their first wooden church. Two years after that, they came to the decision that a school was needed. From the outset, they wanted kids to lean into life with Church and school linked.

These were not wealthy families by any means. Timothy Christian began in 1963 with 30 or so students in two borrowed classrooms in Dixons Corners School, then moved to space in the Christian Reformed Church. Money was eventually raised, and in 1969, the present site on County Road 18 was opened. Farming families, many of them dairy farmers, were the backbone of our early school. 

Like a lot of Christian schools, we started small, but we grew.”

Curriculum and Christian networking

“We teach based on faith development and try to find connections between learning and faith. 

We are not ‘run’ by the Christian Reformed Church. Several different churches and denominations support us, and we gladly welcome all Christians into our school. We believe that this is a school for parents who want an education that honours God and brings glory to Jesus Christ.

Our school board is made up of seven members, many of them parents, who must be elected by the school’s membership at two major meetings a year. The board acts as trustees who maintain the overall mission of the school and its bylaws.

Timothy Christian is a charter member of the Ontario Alliance of Christian Schools, out of Hamilton, Ontario, and we are also tied to Christian Schools International, based in Grand Rapids, Michigan, a world wide umbrella of Christian schools. 

These organizations, as well as the Ontario Ministry of Education, are the sources of most of our curriculum. And the Ontario School Information System ensures the safety and security of our students and building.

We receive lots of curriculum guides. As teachers we study the curriculum requirements over all, using those parts of the guides that can help us to bring Biblical concepts into our lessons. 

We want to ensure that faith is always a component of learning. For example, we might look at a teaching unit in this manner: God has blessed Ontario with many rich, natural resources. What are they? How have we managed them? Have we acted as ‘good stewards’?

Teachers at Timothy Christian all hold Ontario teaching certificates and Christian School Teachers Certificates. We require both to teach here. 

Our staff is a lot younger now than it was even 10 years ago, but it’s good to have new ideas and fresh approaches, and an influx of new talent into our classrooms. Some of our staff are themselves graduates of Timothy Christian.

Challenges

“We had about 30 students in our original school. Around 15 years ago, we hit our maximum enrollment of 172 full time students. 

But the reality is that the demographics of our community have changed over the years. Families don’t have the same number of children any more. A number of farms have been sold, and children are less likely to be on the land, or may have moved away. About 10 years ago, we faced serious financial challenges.We had to make some difficult choices. 

We just could no longer afford the high costs to run busses to the school; that hard decision unquestionably cost us some students whose families could not get their children to us without busses. And we also had to reduce the tuition assistant component of our finances: the costs of subsidizing some tuitions was just too high. We lost pupils.

However, we are on solid financial ground these days and many parents arranged alternative ways to get to us. 

Currently we have 63 students, with a hope to reach 80, and have experienced steady growth in the last eight years. We receive no government funding at all. Tuition fees, fund raisers like our March Bazaar, and income from Timmy’s Place bring us our operating funds.”

Celebrations

“Timothy was a partner with Paul in spreading the gospel throughout the world, and our founders wanted that idea commemorated in the name of their school. We are really looking forward to celebrating 50 wonderful years of Timothy Christian School. Everyone is excited. Teachers and former students and families are all coming to our June 28-30 50th anniversary reunion.” 

[…]

 “To raise and train a guide dog for service to deaf, blind or special needs people, takes months of intensive schooling. The cost per dog is $20,000, but the dogs themselves are presented to the people who need them at no cost at all,” said Bill Dixon, past president of District A Lions, and special guest at the Iroquois-Matilda Lions dinner held on Monday, June 10.

“That is why the efforts of these two Junior Lions to raise funds for my Pennies for Pups campaign are important. I am here to honour two young women who have done something special for our cause.”

Iroquois-Matilda Junior Lions, Sarah MacDonald and Larissa Ettlin, raised $330 at their high school, Seaway DHS, to present to the program. “We decided we wanted to get our community and our school involved,” Sarah and Larissa said. “We did the organizing ourselves and set up a competition for home rooms to see which one could raise the most pennies. We worked on the project for close to three months.”

Lion Doug Peters originally brought the campaign, Pennies for Puppies, to the attention of the Iroquois-Matilda Lions. “Sarah and Larissa took up the idea and ran with it,” he said. “I am very pleased that they are being honoured tonight with special certificates.” 

In his address to the club, Dixon, whose  daughter has multiple sclerosis and works with a guide dog, stressed the immense difference a trained guide dog can make in the lives of the people who receive one from the Foundation.

“These animals give a sense of security and safety to humans. Often the dogs are a calming influence on young children dealing with handicaps. The Foundation relies on groups like the Lions and other service clubs for the funds to raise and train these wonderful dogs. We receive no government funding. Young people like Sarah and Larissa are picking up the torch of service.”

The Iroquois-Matilda Lions voted to add extra funds to the Junior Lions’ collection, to make the total donation to the Pennies for Puppies $500. Dixon is hoping to raise $20,000 for GuideDogs.  

[…]

South Dundas’ Iroquois Firefighters took home top honours at the 101st Eastern Ontario Firefighters Association Convention hosted by Edwardsburgh/Cardinal Fire Department in Spencerville over the weekend. 

This ends a long drought for one of the most successful teams in the history of the EOFA.

The field day competition featured a series of races, with points awarded for each race. In the 11 races, Iroquois finished first in six and second in one giving them an impressive points total and the championship. 

Iroquois won the five man lose hay wet race, the five man bunker gear ladder climb, the five man efficiency, the eight man bucket brigade, four man hose couplin, eight man hose coupling and bunker gear relay race.

Iroquois’ outstanding performance amassed them 41 points, for first place. Second placed Augusta had 29 points and third placed Mississippi Mills had 26 points.

“I’m just so pleased,” said Chris McDonough, fire chief for South Dundas Fire and Emergency Services. 

Participating and competing in this event is a long-standing tradition with the Iroquois firefighters, a tradition that those firefighters with the Iroquois station are happy to continue.

“I couldn’t be prouder of these guys,” said McDonough. “They work hard at this. They have been practicing for weeks.”

Historically, the Iroquois Fire Department was hugely successful at the field day, winning the games for 19 consecutive years, through the 1980s and beyond. “The last time we won was 1997,” said Phil Thompson, Deputy Chief with South Dundas Fire and Emergency Services. He participated in the games this year, and has for many years. He said this year, when he looked down the line in the chief’s race, we was looking at a lot of younger faces.

“We’ve undergone a lot of changes in the last five years. We have a lot of younger guys now, and that helps,” Thompson said.

The team has been practicing two nights a week for six weeks. “The guys put a good effort into it, and it showed. Things seemed to go well for us. The guys did a great job. They worked hard and ran hard, and it showed.”

[…]

Since 1948, the SD&G Highlanders have been holding an annual reunion. June 7, 2013, veterans of the Glens and members of the Regimental family made a special excursion to sites along the St. Lawrence where significant battles of the War of 1812 took place. The Glens have been awarded three 1812-15 battle honours. Here  56  reunion guests visit the battle of Iroquois Point. WWII veteran, Major William Whiteacre, awarded a 1945 Military Medal, studies battle plans at Crysler’s Farm Memorial at Upper Canada Village.

[…]

 “I’m telling you, this isn’t over until the fat lady sings,” says a frantic David McGachen (Perry Mucci), at a moment in this comedy when absolutely everything is crashing down around his ears.

“As far as I’m concerned, the orchestra is playing and the fat lady is up on her feet with her mouth open..” his beleaguered partner John Baker (Garfield Andrews) shoots back.

And this is just one of the apparently unending crisis moments in Upper Canada Playhouse’s season opener, the mad farce, Whose Wives Are They, Anyway? playing at the theatre until June 30.

Penned by Michael Parker, author of Hotbed Hotel, The Sensuous Senator, and The Amorous Ambassador, all of which won rave reviews when they were performed at the Playhouse, this current production is just as witty, just as fast paced and just as howlingly funny. “This is a classic farce,” said director Donnie Bowes, “with a tightly written plot, clever dialogue and a wonderful cast that works very fast throughout the production.”

It is actually rather difficult to describe the plot of this show. 

There is one. 

However, it twists and turns and loops around on itself and the characters so often, that you feel you’ve wandered into a kind of literary labyrinth. But that’s half the fun! How could otherwise  reasonably normal characters get into these absurd predicaments, and just how can they possibly get themselves back out?

John Baker and David McGachen just want a weekend of golf at the stately Oakfield Golf and Country Club before assuming new jobs with the Ashley-Maureen Cosmetics Company, under formidable take-over boss D. L. Hutchison (Mary Ellis). (“What’s the D.L. stand for?” David finally asks.  “Dragon Lady, I should think,” John replies.) Their wives, Karly (Viviana Zarrillo) and Laura (Erin MacKinnon) are supposedly off for a New York shopping trip. Everyone is happy.

What could be more innocent? 

What could go wrong?

In this play, just about everything.

Wilson the Club handyman (Bruce Tubbe), who suffers from a bad back, a bad spleen, carbunkles, arthritis, chronic hip joint displacement, a hernia, flat feet…(I lost track here), swiftly introduces massive comic confusion into the plot as he tries to “fix things”. Mrs. Carlson, the manager, (Brenda Quesnel), whose Puritanical suspicions would do credit to the Inquisition, is stalking the hallways. And Tina (Kate Gordon) an otherwise rational, pleasant desk clerk, unfortunately falls foul of champagne, and loses her inhibitions along with large chunks of her costume.

Misconceptions and mixed up identities abound. When John plaintively exclaims “Am I me, my sister, your wife or my own mother?” the audience is as hysterical as the characters.

Did I mention that none of the phones at the Club work properly and that Laura and Karly unexpectedly appear just in time to…

No matter.

With Whose Wives Are They, Anyway? audiences should just sit back, take it all in, and get ready to laugh loudly, long and often. 

The production runs at Upper Canada Playhouse until June 30. For information and tickets contact 613-543-3713, 1-877-550-3650 or go on line at www.uppercanadaplayhouse.com.

[…]