On Monday, November 2, Jerome Parchment will climb the steps of Barrie City Hall and make his way into Human Resources. There for his first official day as a Barrie Firefighter. While the first couple of weeks will be training, he’ll be starting a new life. This twinkle of a light has hovered on his…
Imagine this! You’re standing in your party clothes, drink in hand, plate of delectables at your side and you’re looking up… way up! The guy wires are strung close to the ceiling of the second story at Barrie Public Library. A troupe of aerialists, 8 or 10 of them, swinging from wires, will add zing…
Sum up Stephanie Haskett in 200 words. Impossible. And she’s only 20! This young woman, a graduate of North Collegiate and a second year fine arts student at Georgian College, is hungry to learn about women’s issues around the world. When she hits any book store she heads for the feminist, humanitarian and Jewish sections……
When Kim Rowntree approached Ovarian Cancer Canada in 2008, it was to hold a Winners Walk of Hope, a traditional fundraiser for Ovarian cancer research and awareness. Ovarian Cancer Canada was reticent to approve a fullblown walk… after all, Barrie had never hosted such an event; there was no database of support. “Best to do…
In one month last spring I had three writers contact me wanting help with self publishing. Books are not my purview and I was of little help. I wish I’d known about David Edwards back then. If the Cookie Monster was the wordsmith for the Sesame Street crowd, then David Edwards is the publishing answer…
It was 1984 when a small group of women decided to leave their four-part acappella choir and become part of the Sweet Adelines International singing choruses. The newly minted Sweet Adelines changed their name to Barrie Huronia Soundwaves, and took a new direction under a very serious competition banner. Twenty-five years later, they are still…
Most of us have had this happen… job lost, income gone, belt tightens.Business start-up, income gone, belt tightens.Family tragedy, income loss, belt tightens. There are so many reasons why people find themselves with not enough to go around. When the financial belt gets tightened, dental care is one of the first things to go. If…
“Always leave something on the table for the next person!” This philosophy, compounded hundredfold, sums up Cyril Arthur Elston’s approach to life. And life in Barrie is fuller, richer, better, steeped in benevolence because Cy Elston chose to make his world a better, better place. On July 8, a huge tent stretched across the Elston…
I’m the oldest of four children. I have a sister four years younger and a brother six years younger. And we grew up fighting over the TV programs (3 channels, 3, 6, 9), playing cowboys and injuns in the back yard, and riding our bikes all over town til the street lights came on. As…
It was one of those watershed moments for Patti Smith. A Human Resources manager with a downtown Toronto Hospital, Patti worked with employees from 37 different countries, mostly eastern European. One night, when an employee passed away from a heart attack right at the hospital, Patti was tenderly trying to deal with the man’s wife….