Blok family benefit Jan. 10

For about two years, the Optimist Club of South Dundas has been working towards the mission of Optimist International.

The Optimist mission: By providing hope and positive vision, Optimists bring out the best in kids.

The service organization, which calls itself a friend of youth, has 2,600 clubs around the world, including one in South Dundas.

The club which meets monthly at the Dixon’s Corners Community Centre (the building which formerly housed the public school).

Club representatives, Hugo Desrochers (president), Audrey Ortwein and Ben Luimes, spoke about their club and some of the work they have been doing, after a recent donation made at Iroquois Public School.

“Optimists are friends of youth, and work to help bring out the best of youth,” said Desrochers. 

They have about 30 members, who meet regularly on the last Monday of the month. Although the club is relatively new, they have already been involved in many activities in the community and plan to be involved in many more.

“We are a fairly young club,” said Desrochers.

The South Dundas Optimists organized a bike rodeo last year and Dixon’s Corners, and this year will host another, this time in Morrisburg. 

They support two youth groups weekly, with an average of about 20 kids in total attending weekly. The older members of those two groups are building a fishing shack at the community centre that will be sold as a fund raiser.

This year, the Optimists are working to raise awareness of their organization in the community.

Last week, they donated almost $500 to Iroquois Public School for books. February 17, they are hosting a Family Day Skate at the Dundela outdoor rink, where they will serve hotdogs and hot chocolate from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. They also plan to particpate in summer festivities.

Adult volunteers join Optimist Clubs to conduct positive service projects in their communities aimed at providing a helping hand to youth. 

Each club determines the needs of people in its community and conducts programs to meet those needs.

The South Dundas Optimists are always interested in welcoming new members to the club. Anyone interested can contact Desrochers by email (hdesrochers@live.ca).

[…]

“This is an awesome day, and awesome work by our students,” said Seaway District High School principal, Don Lewis, as he joined teachers and members of the community in examining the displays at the annual SDHS Science Fair. 

“We brought the grade sixes over to see these science projects,” he said, “because it’s great for kids to get a look at the ideas of others, and for our young Seaway scientists to act as mentors, communicating about their projects with others. We were also pleased that members of the community also came to look at the Science Fair.”

Seaway held its Science Fair in the school gym on Friday, February 27. All of the intermediate students as well as 15 grade nines took part. Judging of the projects was done by teachers, community people and by senior high school science students.

There were three types of projects for the fair entrants: experiments, research and design. “We wanted them to focus on scientific enquiry,” said Seaway science teacher, Melissa Ringler. “We wanted students to ask a question, to work to find the answer, and then to communicate that knowledge to others.”

Senior student judges, Joshua Casselman, Jaime Garlough and Bronwen Fowler, indicated that it was a bit of a tug-of-war, evaluating the junior school projects. “We want them to share information, but we didn’t want to intimidate them. There was quite a range of projects and skills out there, and we made a point of giving constructive criticism as we went along.”

The range of skills and interests on display at the fair was very impressive. Student Grant Wells created a virtual hunter training simulator (V.H.T.S.) which is designed to make a person familiar with different types of game and different firearms. “Kids are getting housebound,” Grant said. “This simulator is meant to get them outside, working with animals and the environment, becoming better and safer hunters.” 

Gabriel Baker and Alex Stewart, who both say they really like science, examined the properties of bleach on organic and non-organic materials, while Maiah Horne’s work, Rust Never Sleeps, studied the problems of rust in automobile steel.  

Abigail Jordan studied the relationship between density, colour and nutritional values in selected fruits and vegetables in Eat A Rainbow Every Day. Aaron Tibben explored ways to clean even the dirtiest water, without the use of costly chemicals, by building a long filter that incorporates the earth’s natural filtering properties. “This is important for third world countries,” he said.

Other projects looked at tsumanis, oil versus wind energy, the effect of different liquids on diffusion, the electrolyte challenge and the nature and uses of uranium. 

Science fair winners will move on to a board-wide competition.  

[…]

At the September 6th South Dundas council meeting, Chief Administrative Officer Stephen McDonald recommended that council agree to a study of both Morrisburg and Williamsburg sewer systems.

The proposal for the Infiltration and Inflow Study came from AECOM Canada Ltd. who is currently reviewing the sanitary sewer collection system in Iroquois.

McDonald told council that AECOM’s “study will result in the preparation of a Master Plan with prioritized recommendations and cost estimates for improvements to the collection system.”

Mayor Steven Byvelds said that government grant money has “given us incentive to get this thing done.”

The money referred to is the $3,248,002 from the Ontario Building Together program.

With all in agreement, the plan, according to Byvelds, is to make a “plan, propose to the people, and go.”

[…]