Madagascar Dinner Big Success

 

Upper Canada Village’s new fall event Pumpkinferno has proven its status as the largest, boldest and definitely most unique event in Eastern Ontario.  Just ask the 35,000 visitors, who passed through the gates.  

With performance exceeding even the St. Lawrence Parks Commission’s expectations (approximately 20,000 forecasted), Pumpkinferno will return in 2013 with even more improvements and visual features. 

To say investing in the event required a leap of faith by the SLPC’s leadership would be an understatement.  The concept was actually a few years in development.  

And as the vision and concept was fine-tuned, so to was a business plan and market analysis.  

Investment in the range of $600,000 over three years has been allocated for the event.

The Product and Development Team presented a plan to purchase thousands of artificial pumpkins and carving equipment, hire a team of talented local artists and carvers and a supervisor to bring the concept of Pumpkinferno to life.  

“It definitely was a calculated risk on our part to support the development of this new event,” said general manager and CEO Darren Dalgleish. “But as leaders in event development, the event business plan really fit with our strategic objectives of product mix enrichment.”

The SLPC has led the way in the region with the introduction of special events both during the regular season at Upper Canada Village, Fort Henry and their other recreational properties as well as during what is traditionally the ‘off-season’.”  

“Our experience with Upper Canada Village’s Alight at Night and Fort Henry’s Fort Fright events proved to us that there is interest amongst consumers to visit our sites for a non-traditional product offering,” says Dagleish. “In fact, we find that our audiences for the off season are quite different than for the regular core season.  Often visitors have never been to the sites during the main season, so these events offer us a unique opportunity to broaden our appeal and to connect with market segments we previously may have overlooked to be our guests.” 

“We attracted guests from Montreal, Ottawa, Kingston, Belleville, Northern New York State and some even from Toronto!”

Dalgleish went on to say: “Development of these very successful off season events is critical to our overall business objective to improve our net performance and by doing so, strengthen our sustainability and tourism brands throughout the Great Waterway Region.”

Next up for Upper Canada Village is the winter lights festival Alight at Night which opens its twelfth year on Friday, November 30 at 5 p.m. and operates on select nights through until Saturday, January 5, 2013.  

Admission to Alight at Night is $13 adults (13 to 64 years of age) and $10 for seniors (65+ years of age) and youth (six to 12 years of age.).  

Entry, wagon ride and train ride are all included in the admission price.  Parking is free.  Advance tickets are recommended and can be purchased online at www.AlightatNight.ca

 

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 “Nancy has been on the job here at the St. Lawrence Clinic exactly one week,” laughed Dr. Paul Coolican. “We threw her in at the deep end on her first day, and she has done marvelously. We are very lucky to have Nancy with us.”

Nancy Bonaparte, a 21 year veteran of the Canadian Armed Forces, is the newest member of the Clinic health care team. She is a physician assistant, a highly trained individual, who will help optimize patient care in this area. 

“There are a little over 500 PAs in Canada at the moment,”  Nancy Bonaparte explained, “including in the military. We are generalists, whose role is that of physician extender. We are experienced in many fields of medicine and patient care from ear, nose and throat care to chronic diseases, like diabetes, care. We are also trained in obstetrics, gynecology, pediatrics, geriatrics and trauma medicine.”

PA Bonaparte will be joining other allied health care professionals at the Clinic. A part time social worker will soon be hired as well as a mental health counsellor.

“The majority of our funding for these new personnel comes from a program set up by the Minister of Health,” Dr. Coolican said. “We competed with 140 groups for this funding and we were only one of 13 in the province who received it. It is a great boost, and allows us to provide extended services. And with the bigger offices in the new facilities in Morrisburg and Iroquois, we now have the space for allied health care people.”

The physician assistant is a relatively new field in civilian health care. PAs originated in the Canadian Forces where they were introduced as mid-level clinicians. 

Bonaparte retired from the military as a PA in 2007. Her goal was to take part in the civilian PA pilot project being introduced in Ontario. A key goal of that project is to cut down on wait times in Emergency services, long term care facilities, community health services and hospitals.

Physician assistants perform vital services for medical professionals and for patients alike. Some of their functions include conducting physical exams, diagnosing and treating illness, ordering and interpreting tests, then developing treatment  plans, counseling preventative care, assisting in surgery and writing prescriptions.

“We always work under a doctor’s supervision,” Bonaparte said. “The doctor is either working side by side with us, or on the phone. We do have a scope of practice within which to work. If a patient situation is outside our scope, or very complex, we can confer directly with the doctor, who can then intervene or advise us  immediately on what steps to take.”

Physician assistants must be rigorously trained academically and formally educated. Bonaparte holds an MPAS, a Masters in Physician Assistant in her specialty, geriatrics. She served four and a half years in Kingston  in a pilot project which included long term care.

“Long term care has always been an interest of mine,” she explained. “But when I was fully exposed to it, well, I fell in love with this aspect of medicine.”

“Nancy has a lot of experience in long term care,” Dr. Coolican said. “It is always a challenge for any physician to get to long term care facilities on a consistent, regular basis. Nancy will provide continuity for patients at facilities like Woodland Villa, where she is already working almost half her day. Having a PA on site makes patients feel listened to and well cared for in a place where they already feel comfortable.”

Dr. Coolican explained that PAs like Nancy are a “wonderful” back up support to doctors. “A PA can often cut emergency runs for patients in long term care, and her presence permits treatments to begin immediately.”

He also pointed out that having Nancy on staff will allow the clinic to cope with “same days”, or patients who must be seen right away, and not in a few days. 

PA Bonaparte is commuting from Kanata. She is tremendously excited to be getting back into long term care. “People in this area are really welcoming and helpful,” she said. “It’s nice to be working where people are excited that you’re here. It is great for me to be in at the launch of a new program.”

“I think the PA program is going to be a growing area of health care,” said Dr. Coolican. “We are very fortunate that Nancy Bonaparte has chosen to come to  our community to work.”

[…]

 

Customers at Mustard’s Variety in Iroquois quite often drop a little spare change into the containers by the cash register. While they may not put much thought into where those coins are going, store owner Jim Mustard does.

Recently, Mustard, thanks to the generosity of his customers, had collected enough change to donate $1,000 to the Canadian Mental Health Association.

“All the time, when people are buying things they will say keep the change. So, I started keeping these collection jars,” said Mustard. “That money shouldn’t go in my pocket, it’s not my money,” he added.

This is the fifth time that those collection jars have resulted in major donations to local organizations.

This time, Mustard decided to give to the Mental Health Association because mental health issues touch everyone in some way. 

“For some, it’s in a minor way, but for others it’s in a very serious way. Mental Health issues are the worst best kept secret out there,” said Mustard.

While Mustard says all he is doing is providing an avenue for people to donate and support community organizations and charities in a small way, he does more than that. Mustard always puts some extra thought and effort into fundraising in his store.

Mustard had a goal of raising $1,000 for Mental Health, which takes a very long time when you are adding it up penny by penny, nickle by nickle, so when a customer came in to donate a huge container of pennies, Mustard started a contest whereby other customers could make a donation to guess the number of pennies for a chance to win a store gift certificate. 

He raised $107 in one month through customers guessing the number of pennies. The huge container of pennies had 12,386 pennies inside. So, those pennies, the contest funds and the store collection jars were all part of the $1,000 donation to Mental Health. 

While handing over the funds to the Canadian Mental Health Association, Mustard was already working on his next fund raising endeavor.

Until July 16th, fundraising efforts within the store are in support of Seaway Valley Crimestoppers. Mustard has been a supporter of Seaway Valley Crimestoppers since its inception. This year, the Seaway Valley Crimestoppers Golf Tournament, which raises funds for the local Crimestoppers program, is taking place at the Iroquois Golf Course.

As an incentive for customers to donate to the cause, those who donate $5 on the pledge sheets will have a chance to win five single scoop ice cream vouchers, a $10 donation gets the donor a chance at  winning 10 single scoop ice cream vouchers and a donation of $20 or more will get the donor a chance at winning an 11.4 litre tub of their favourite ice cream.  

[…]