“By sending this card which is printed on 100% ozone friendly paper, I am not only showing an interest in your Birthday, but in topical environmental issues as well! …So send it back when you get the chance and I’ll send it to you again next year!!” That was the message 20 years ago when…

It’s estimated that there are 2,500 people in Barrie whose first language is Spanish. That’s about the size of the town I grew up in. For people moving to build a new life in Barrie, people like Natalia and Max Fernandez and their wee daughter, there’s so much to learn. School systems, neighbours, culture, how…

 It’s been four and a half years since Bob Reid became an almost-millionaire. It was big news at the time; 27 employees at Powco Steel Ltd had their ticket come up and won $24.5 million. Three women, 24 men. Two from the office, the rest from the plant. Some really young. Some, like Bob at…

  And then I remembered these very days, only they occurred over a weekend in 1975. Barrie’s population was 31,399.  Eastview Arena was a new building on Grove St, surrounded by farmland. The south end ended at the top of Essa Rd, near what was CKVR Television. Ponderosa Steakhouse was a mainstay eatery on the…

Braydon Miller gets the wiggles.  When he was a little fella, doctors thought it was restlessness or ‘just being a boy’ but it turned out the wiggles became tics, uncontrollable tics, and finally, a year ago, Braydon was diagnosed with Tourette Syndrome. Stacie Miller, Braydon’s mom, is an Educational Assistant at a school other than…

In 1995 I wrote my first proposal to deliver the federal government’s self employment assistance program in this region. I had some questions and as I worked on my document I called the person named as contact in the newspaper ad. I got a soft voice, a bit clipped at the edges of her words,…

Twenty-two families are now home owners in the past 16 years, thanks to Habitat for Humanity Huronia. This is no hand-out, either. Families apply for a Habitat home, and they put in 500 hours of sweat equity as their home is being built. They also take an interest-free mortgage on their house and pay it…

At a baby shower for my daughter’s lifelong friend last week, I was surprised at how quickly women remember infants, pregnancies, funny times, challenging times. With the pull of a ribbon on a package, memories trigger back and group energy is there to catch the thought and cushion the blows. It used to be, in…

It was on my bucket list. One of many items. Join a book club. It would be likely the first activity I would take up when I retire. That was my plan, at least. In my mind’s eye it would be a gentle exchange of perceptions and ideas and challenges among kindly people who appreciated…

 It was almost an accident, really. A snowflake on a mitten and a guy with real curiosity. Don Komarechka came from Sudbury to Barrie at age 7 and loved winter. As a kid he loved snowflakes. He still does. And his interest in photography coupled with his father’s ability to infuse curiosity with research lead…