For years I have wished that Barrie had its own Ten Thousand Villages store. Run completely by volunteers, it showcases the creative work of people in developing countries and sells their products at fair market value with most of the money going back to them. Barrie’s downtown has always seemed ripe for such a store,…
As we coast into our universal celebrations of peace and dignity and care of our humanity–no matter what our faith–I think most of us are troubled by the violence in our world. Some days it strikes close to home; others it’s oceans away in countries we don’t really know. But terror(ism) creates fear. And fear…
So I looked at my first husband about a year ago (obviously I’ve looked at him more frequently than that!) and talked about his dying. He’s not dying. I’m not dying, but I thought we should discuss it. “When you’re gone; when your brother’s gone, your family story will go with you,” I started. “Our…
Today is Tuesday. Tomorrow I will stand, with hundreds of others, at the Cenotaph in downtown Barrie. I’ll be thinking about the young men especially who, without warning and with little choice, went off to foreign countries and died on foreign soil and in foreign waters and skies, to maintain a democracy that they’d always…
It doesn’t seem that long ago, really. I was in grade eight when we stopped picking up the receiver and hearing Central say “Operator” and then we’d give the number and she’d put us through in some magic way. It doesn’t seem that long ago, really, when my country friends had party lines, up to…
Abby is 4 years old. She was at a day camp, struggling to get into her jacket, and having trouble. The camp leader, in an effort to divert her coat-focus, asked Abby to tell her something about herself. Before Abby could comment, the little girl next to her announced, “I can tell you something about…
For nearly six years now I’ve been lucky enough to spend one day a week babysitting delightful grandchildren. Wednesdays are Gramma D day and off I go to Grey County where five little munchkins in two different households are ready stealers of my heart. When you’ve raised your own kids, managed to change diapers (cloth)…
In two years since opening their hearts and their dancing feet to Barrie, Adam Spadafora and Ashley Wren have coaxed their fledgling dance studio into a full service, fun filled place where people find their comfort on the dance floor. In fact, Lakeside Dance Studio, which has been operating from a third-floor, shared space in…
A week from this Sunday is May 31. If you lived in Barrie in 1985, that date, near suppertime, is frozen in your memory. It’s right there with where you were when John F. Kennedy was killed, and when the towers fell on 9/11. Eight people, two of them young children, died that day. A…
Business relationships. Touchstone of the Barrie business community. Friends. Involvement. A voice for business. When Debbie DeCaire joined the Barrie Chamber of Commerce in 2002, those were her reasons. A particularly active business group, the Barrie Chamber has always ridden the waves of its membership. Strong leadership, exciting programs, lots of activity brings out the…