Pay attention to these names. Bitna Park. Takeshi Honda. Ky Hynn Lee. Jennifer Robinson. Jacynthe Lariviere. Lenny Faustino. These are the names behind brilliant skating performances that started right here in Barrie. How many communities are sending six athletes from one discipline to the Olympics? I’d be willing to bet that little Barrie, Ontario is…
Albert Edstrom loves big vehicles. He’s an auto body guy, and from his Oro Township shop, he repairs, enhances, and paints trucks, cars and buses. And RV’s. But when it came to giving his corporate Christmas gifts, Albert was stumped. He turned the project over to an expert with only two instructions… make them for…
It was 1970 and Eve Cunningham and her husband had just moved to Barrie. After a lifetime of PMQ’s and six kids and a busy military career, Mr. Cunningham had retired from the Department of National Defence and the family moved into its very first “own” house, a century-old workers house of a farm on…
So, there I was, tucked in the back of Second Cup, meeting with Dale Biddell about potential board members for a wonderful new charitable foundation that’s being developed. Of course, we went longer than planned and when I reached Dunlop St and looked across to my car, a figure in the familiar blue coat, ticket…
It was a common thing for Evelyn Burton to be with her husband downtown or at a mall and be approached by a perfect stranger who’d shake Ernie’s hand and say, “I appeared before you. Remember me?” Ernie would always say, “did I let you off?” And in recent years he would not remember who…
Think of a fairy. What’s the image in your mind? Tinkerbell? A shapely little body, wings of gossamer, a twinkly light? Hmmm. Colette Mesdag threw all that to the wind when her March fairy walked past a wedding reception line. Colette, who owns Lasting Impressions Professional Photography, was “shooting” the wedding, but she had room…
It’s a bittersweet thing to apply for a Christmas Cheer hamper. For a family whose income doesn’t cover even the basics, Christmas is a heartwrenching time of embarrassment, fatigue, and running to catch up. For a family that’s succumbed to social assistance either through circumstance or to survive, applying for a Christmas Cheer hamper is…
A Christmas column. What can be said that hasn’t been written, spoken, felt and lived about Christmas? As I contemplate the importance of the season, for both Christians and those embracing spiritualities uniquely their own, it seems that love, peace, and the rightness of care, concern, compassion, and commitment are universal messages. And so… My…
“It’s the weekend to cut the tree,” I announced a fortnight ago. Husband, father-in-law, and remaining at-home daughter all ducked their heads, instantly invisible. “Aren’t you keen to climb onto Gillespie’s sleigh, listen to the bells, watch the steam lift from the backs of the horses, and enjoy a few hours finding the perfect tree…
It started out as an efficiency of business. And it’s turned into an indescribable bond of encouragement and respect. It was back in 1985 that a group of self employed women, anxious to serve our community in a business and charitable capacity, founded our own business organization, with the encouragement of the Greater Barrie Chamber…