It’s Canada Day. The day when we enjoy fabulous weather. Blue skies. Hot. And if we live in the paradise called Barrie, we can swim or row or hike or bike or enjoy great fireworks. Our national symbol is the red Maple Leaf on our flag. And the Beaver. After helping Kid Two and partner…
A single split-second shift and a life change. We see this… on our highways, in a classroom, in a playground, on a jobsite. When Matt Goreski was 25, he chose to play the final game of his Arena Football League contract, before playing his first game as a Hamilton Roughrider. A split second injury ended…
You might see Jordan Downing offering you food samples at Costco on the weekends. Or, you might see him wheeling down Grove St on his way home when he was a student at Eastview Secondary School. You might have met him while he was working at the Y’s evening day care centre.These days he’s using…
On August 20, from an altitude of 12,500 feet, three generations of Sally Elston’s family will slip from a doorless aircraft, packs on their backs, and take a leap of faith! Inspired by the journey of Derek Walton, that fearless Barrie Banker whose battle with Lou Gehrig’s Disease (ALS) has spawned his own charitable…
So many books that captured kids’ hearts in the past wouldn’t make it to today’s bookshelves. Take a 1949 Wonder Book called The Surprise Doll. About 20 pages, with full colour pictures, it cost 59 cents when published. Sunday morning our daughter-in-law brought our grand-daughter for a visit, and I got out the book. She…
This past November, at a Cundles Rd plaza, a block from the police station, several dozen teenagers, some with cheering devices, and a camera, watched as a nearby high school student was beaten. They cheered. They threw him back for more. One person shot the whole thing on film. And then put it on You…
Past Saturday night, Stella Gan’s new Liberty North banquet facility was totally aglitter with one of its first major events. Stella was aglitter, too, as she should be. This dynamic business owner continues to provide Barrie with the best. Three hundred and fifty women (and a handful of smart men) were attending the fifth annual…
Jonathan Murray was five years old when he was diagnosed with a malignant brain tumour. Interwoven into the tissue in his brain’s thalamus, Jonathan’s lifespan was shortened to 18 months. He died at age six and a half in October, 2007 nearly five years ago. For his family, his sister Emily who was just a…
I’m hearing a lot of moaning about the ‘unnecessary GD election’ these days. Only in Canada would you hear complaints about the freedom to choose. Pick up an international newspaper, go online and look at current wars around the world, flip through slides of what’s happened in Japan, in Haiti, in New Zealand. Look at…
It started with a tremor in her right hand, a little tremor. And the loss of interest in books. For Erica, in her 60’s, with a history of physical activity–swimming, skiing, hiking, biking, the tremor was incidental. A nurse in her professional life, she paid attention to it. Finally, at the Toronto Western Hospital at…