The Citizen - Oct. 11, 2024

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THIS WEEK 4 • Editorials 10 • Sports 13 • IPM 19 • Music

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Friday, October 11, 2024

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Volume 40 No. 41

Publications Mail Agreement No. 40050141 Return Undeliverable Items to North Huron Publishing Company Inc., P.O. Box 429, BLYTH, ON N0M 1H0

McIntosh crowned Junior Champion at IPM

By Shawn Loughlin The Citizen

The thrill of victory Young people from all over Huron County are back with their hockey bags and back on the ice as summer has turned to fall and, on Sunday, the U13 A Huron Heat hosted the Mooretown Lady Flags at the Central Huron

Community Complex in Clinton. The locals shutout the visitors by a score of 3-0, improving the Heat’s record to 5-2-3 in the young season. The team’s next game is on the road against the South Huron Sabres this Saturday. (John Stephenson photo)

Dugald McIntosh from the Seaforth area was crowned the Junior Champion at last week’s International Plowing Match (IPM) held near Lindsay, punching his ticket to next year’s Canadian Plowing Championship in Ayton, Ontario.

McIntosh was one of just three competitors in Class 2B, but he dominated the competition with a total of 487 points. That put him head and shoulders above Carson Little of Amaranth, who was the Reserve Junior Champion with a total of 426 points.

The three young men competed over the course of three days with one another and McIntosh ended each day as the leader, so, going into the third and final day, he was in a pretty good position to win it all. When he was told he was the Junior Champion, McIntosh said he was pretty proud of himself and was happy to represent Huron County on the provincial stage.

Beyond that, however, he said he was happy to get to know his fellow competitors. Since there were just Continued on page 16

County to investigate new museum storage facility

By Shawn Loughlin The Citizen Huron County Council is hoping to further investigate building a new storage facility for the overflowing collection of the Huron County Museum, which has only grown in recent years.

Council discussed the issue at its Oct. 2 meeting, spurred on by a report prepared and presented by Director of Cultural Services and Huron County Librarian Beth Rumble. This comes after she had reported that the county’s museum collection has been growing recently with the closure of museums in lower-tier municipalities and that proper, safe storage for artifacts was becoming more of a concern as a result.

“Currently, collections are housed in main storage at the museum, archives storage at the museum, as well as two off-site storage buildings located just outside of Goderich in Ashfield-ColborneWawanosh. The items stored at the

museum benefit from heating and cooling and humidity control. The off-site storage buildings (typically used for larger artifacts) are not climate-controlled, but do shelter items from the basic elements. All of these locations are at or close to capacity. Staff will be reorganizing main storage over the coming months to best utilize the space vacated by Corporate Records. It is anticipated the incoming North Huron collections will fill much of the space,” Rumble said in her report to council.

“In 2020, upgrades to one of the off-site buildings included adding a concrete floor, as well as improvements to the second-storey mezzanine. These improvements allowed artifacts to be more efficiently stored and also enhanced general conditions in the building.

These upgrades did not result in increased square footage.”

Rumble then presented council with a terms of reference for the issue, which included three potential options. The first option

was to do nothing and leave things status quo, while the second option was to investigate the cost associated with upgrading the current off-site storage facilities and the third option was to investigate the cost of a new off-site storage building.

Ashfield-Colborne-Wawanosh Deputy-Mayor Bill Vanstone and

Central Huron Mayor Jim Ginn both immediately spoke in favour of investigating the third option further. Ginn said he had been out to tour the off-site facilities in the past and he felt that attempting to repair them would be throwing good money after bad and that a new facility was the only way to proceed. That is, he said, if

the county wanted to remain in the business of running a museum. If the county wanted to have a museum, it should be done properly, he said.

Council then directed staff to prepare a report on the cost of a new facility to be considered in 2025 budget deliberations when the time comes.

County considers homes audit Huron County Council will be considering a third-party audit of its long-term care system in the county’s 2025 budget.

At its Oct. 2 meeting, council approved a recommendation from Chief Administrative Officer Meighan Wark to move forward with the process of an audit for the department. This came as a followup to the county’s “Long-Term Care in Huron County: A Changing Landscape” and some closedsession discussion by council.

The next steps, recommended by

Wark, would be to reach out to relevant agencies and municipalities to investigate potential costing for a long-term care study and audit. Costing will then be included in the 2025 budget for council’s consideration.

The components of evaluation would include compliance of staffing levels, efficiencies in program areas, a review of the organizational structure, evaluation of staff levels and agency and overtime figures. She added that the development of a staff committee

would be needed for oversight.

Huron East Mayor Bernie MacLellan spoke in favour of the audit, saying that it is such a large topic in the county and a large financial commitment and, as a result, it’s been almost impossible for council to receive all of the relevant information in one place or one sitting. Having all of this work done at once would be very helpful for council, he said.

Council agreed and directed staff to begin the process of costing for an audit ahead of the 2025 budget.

PAGE 2. THE CITIZEN, FRIDAY, OCTOBER 11, 2024.

Huron East delays decision on composition changes

By Shawn Loughlin The Citizen Despite the prevailing sentiment to keep things status quo, Huron East Council has stopped short of rubber stamping a decision on council composition until it hears from the ad hoc committee that recommended changes.

At its Oct. 1 meeting, council revisited the question of its own composition, looking at how many councillors should sit around the table and the future of the ward system.

Clerk Jessica Rudy prepared a report on the subject for council, recapping the recommendations of the five-member Public Advisory Committee as well as the results of community outreach on the issue.

The committee, which was formed in early 2022, recommended a nine-member council comprised of the mayor; a deputy-mayor to be appointed from within council; two representatives each from the Tuckersmith Ward, a new ward that combines Brussels and Grey, and a new ward that combines McKillop and Seaforth, and two councillors to be elected atlarge. Furthermore, the committee recommended that council consider eliminating the ward system by 2029, moving to an entirely at-large election.

Back in 2022, in the lead-up to the municipal election, council directed staff to gather public opinion at all-candidate sessions and by way of a community-wide survey. The survey showed that over half (51.4 per cent) of the 70 people who responded supported reducing the number of councillors to nine, while 30.5 per cent were opposed. Just over 18 per cent of

respondents were neutral on the topic.

Those who supported reducing the size of council cited their reasons as cost savings, more efficient decision making and streamlined council operations.

Those same people said that drawbacks could be the loss of diverse perspectives, an increased workload for remaining members and reduced representation for residents.

In regards to the ward system, 40.3 per cent of respondents supported either the combining or elimination of the ward system, while a relatively equal percentage, 37.5 per cent, were opposed. Just over 22 per cent of those surveyed said they were neutral on the ward system.

Those who supported change said it would make municipal governance more cohesive and simple, while providing equal representation for all residents.

Potential drawbacks, however, were cited as being a loss of localized representation and a risk of underrepresentation for the rural areas within Huron East.

In her report, Rudy then offered four options for change, in addition to a fifth option to keep things status quo.

The first option was the recommendation of the Public Advisory Committee: a ninemember council with the aforementioned structure. The second option was similar, but slightly different: a nine-member council with the mayor, a deputymayor appointed by council, two atlarge councillors, two councillors from the Tuckersmith Ward and one councillor each from the Brussels, Grey, McKillop

and Seaforth Wards of Huron East.

The third option is one that has been favoured by Mayor Bernie MacLellan for years. It would consist of an elected mayor and deputy-mayor and one councillor from each of the five existing wards. Under this structure, there would be no at-large members.

The fourth option for change would be a seven-member council with an elected mayor and appointed deputy-mayor with six at-large councillors. Rudy noted that, if council wanted a bigger body to represent the municipality, this structure could be expanded to a nine-member council, with eight at-large councillors, rather than six.

Rudy did note that if council wanted to make changes to the ward structure, she would recommend an official review.

“If council were to combine wards, as recommended by the

committee, it is recommended by staff that a ward boundary review be conducted. This would involve the use of a third-party consultant to conduct the review and should be accommodated in the 2025 budget.

This approach may result in further recommendations regarding ward boundaries, ward removal and size of council,” she said in her report to council. “Any ward boundary changes would need to be confirmed and reported to [the Municipal Property Assessment Corporation] by the end of March of 2026.”

Rudy noted that, based on council’s remuneration from last year, there would be an annual savings of $30,000 if council were to reduce its size by two. A fourmember reduction would result in annual savings of $60,000.

Deputy-Mayor Alvin McLellan and Councillor Dianne Diehl were

among the first to speak, both saying they were supportive of retaining the ward system.

McLellan also said he felt the job still takes two people if the workload is to remain reasonable.

Citing a recent busy week between Huron East and Huron County Council meetings and a committee meeting, he said that having one councillor per ward would bring it closer to a full-time job, which not only would eliminate some potential candidates from contention, but result in the expectation of greater compensation, negating any potential cost savings - at least in his opinion.

The mayor said he was supportive of a seven-member council, citing Huron East Council’s size relative to all of the other councils in Huron County. However, he said he’s Continued on page 3

Council opts for status quo on compensation for councillors

By Shawn Loughlin The Citizen Huron East Council has opted to stick with the status quo in regards to council compensation after being presented a number of options for change.

At its Oct. 1 meeting, council discussed a report presented by Clerk Jessica Rudy. She offered options that would see council’s honorariums increased, but meeting pay removed, as well as an option to decrease the number of meetings

held in each calendar year.

Council was quick to express its lack of interest in making any changes, with members saying they felt the system in place was working well.

Rudy noted that council had requested a report on compensation in June. Currently, the mayor’s annual honorarium is $12,477, followed by the deputy-mayor at $9,215 and councillors at $6,832.

Council meeting pay sits at $190.07 per meeting, while committee meetings are $91.70 each, and

anything else to represent the municipality is $122.27 for an event under four hours and $243.33 for an event over four hours.

Mayor Bernie MacLellan said he liked the current system because, as it stands now, council members “get paid when they work” and eliminating meeting pay would do away with that, so he was in favour of retaining the status quo.

Council was in favour too and voted to keep things the way they are in regards to council compensation.

THE CITIZEN, FRIDAY, OCTOBER 11, 2024. PAGE 3.

Deans calls for cemetery fee revisions in North Huron

By Scott Stephenson The Citizen On Monday, funeral director Dayna Deans came before North Huron Council to address some dramatic changes in the way that the township administered its cemetery fees last winter in the hopes that the situation can be quickly rectified before the coming winter.

Deans, who works at McBurney Funeral Home on Patrick Street in Wingham, explained to council why she had chosen to come and speak.

“Basically, I’m here today on behalf of all the families that I look after.

Obviously, people are not as wellversed in the cemetery bylaws as I am. They’re hopefully only dealing with it a couple of times in their life, but I feel it's my job to see that they’re looked after during a particularly vulnerable time in their life.”

She talked about the recent large increase in costs for all winter interments and inurnments, not just adult caskets. “Regardless of weather conditions, these fees are applied,” Deans pointed out. “Just for some context, a niche opening, which is taking four screws out of a wall, goes from $110 to $1,100. An infant casket opening goes from

Grave marker makeover The Cemetery Enthusiasts of Huron County hosted a well-attended event at the Brussels Cemetery on Saturday, Oct. 5. (John Stephenson photo)

$360 to $1,350, cremated remains in a ground plot would also go from $360 to $1,350, and then a casket opening would increase from $715 to $1,705. These fees are higher, of course, if you live in MorrisTurnberry, or anything outside of North Huron.”

She went on to explain that a winter burial fee has always been included in the cemetery price list, but that the winter fee had always been in lieu of the standard fee, not added to it as a surcharge. On the cemetery price list that North Huron currently has posted on its website, under its Ground Interment section, it lists the price of burying the casket of an adult North Huron resident as $715, plus HST. Under its Extra Fees section, it lists the cost of a winter burial for a resident as being $990, plus HST. “So, you would charge the $990 instead of the $715.” Deans asserted that residents are now being charged both fees, for a total of $1,705.

There is no separate price listed in the Extra Fees section for the cost of a winter burial for infant caskets or cremated remains to be buried or placed in niches, though they all have their own individual price line in the cemetery price list.

In Deans’ time as a funeral director, the $990 winter burial fee had not been applied to things like the placing of cremated remains in niches until last winter. “It was only ever applied to caskets,” she said.

“Not to every single type of burial.”

She did note that the township seemed to have brought these rules into effect the previous year.

“I guess North Huron became a little more strict on this surcharge

during the 2022/2023 winter. That was the first winter that I was, in my career, able to bury caskets all year round, so we had no extra fees.

That was the winter that we had the crazy Christmas with a ton of snow, so obviously, we just got kind of lucky on when we had burials.” She let council know that all parties involved, including families, her staff and the caretakers, had been satisfied with how that season had gone.

Deans also outlined the ways in which extra effort had been put in that winter to avoid unnecessary burial costs. “Every family, I let them know that burials had to take place within the Public Works [Department’s] working hours, because I believe, in the winter, they go onto a different schedule.”

In addition to avoiding overtime pay, they had also limited the number of vehicles allowed to go into the cemetery, for liability purposes, though she did point out that the roads in the cemetery are plowed throughout the winter anyway. “The other thing is, I made every family aware that if we booked the burial on Friday for Wednesday, and we got cold weather, or a ton of snow, there was always a chance that you might not be able to do the burial, and it would have to wait until spring.”

Another one of Deans’ climaterelated concerns is the mausoleum, where caskets are stored over the winter, for a fee, as they await spring burial. “Something to know about the mausoleum is that it’s not designed with refrigeration in mind, it’s not designed as cold storage. It is only as cold as it is outside. We

are not getting the winters that we used to get.” She also pointed out that it is often much easier to dig in November and December than it is in April, when the spring thaw has made the earth muddy and prone to cave-ins.

She also pointed out that the decision as to whether the fee needed to be applied or not had always been left to the discretion of the cemetery caretakers - if there were no additional costs incurred through equipment usage or overtime pay, no additional fee was charged to families. Last year, she said, that had changed. The surcharge is from Nov. 15, and we have not been able to have the Public Works Lead Hand use discretion on when that fee is charged. And, so, you’re having to wait six-plus months because of a date on a calendar, which makes it a little bit difficult... 2023 and into 2024 would have been the first year that North Huron was kind of set on charging this additional fee. I don’t believe any of my families paid it I know there were people in situations that they wanted to bury and, unfortunately, it comes down to ‘your mother should have died two days earlier and you wouldn’t have had to pay $1,000 extra’.”

There are other things about the new interpretation of the fee structure and bylaws that Deans believes are unjust. “That surcharge doesn’t guarantee that burials are going to be completed all winter.

Basically, North Huron has the right to say ‘O.K., Nov. 15, we’re charging you an extra $1,000, because. And it doesn’t matter what Continued on page 8

Council advocates for ward system, summons cmte.

Continued from page 2 changed course on the ward system and said he felt it should remain status quo.

Councillor John Steffler also spoke in favour of the status quo.

As a new councillor, just elected in 2022, he said he has leaned on his fellow Seaforth Ward councillor Bob Fisher immensely to learn and for local history on issues. With one representative per ward, he said, new councillors would lose that resource.

Councillor Larry McGrath agreed with Steffler, saying that, one day, he’ll retire from his decades-long career as a councillor and someone new will come in and need that history from a more seasoned veteran. Meanwhile, Councillor Ray Chartrand said that if the ward system was to be altered, the size of the wards, specifically Tuckersmith, by far the largest, should be taken into consideration in regards to representation by population.

As the conversation petered out with the consensus seeming to be the status quo on both council size and the ward system, the deputymayor said he would like to hear from the members of the Public Advisory Committee and hear their rationale for recommending changes.

Rudy said she could try to gather the members and gauge their interest in attending a future council meeting, but warned that the committee has since been disbanded with its mandate now complete for several years.

However, she said, she could try.

The mayor then urged council that, if members were going to ask these people to return to this issue

and come to a meeting, that they listen to them with an open mind, rather than already having their mind made up and wasting the committee members’ time.

Furthermore, he said that, between

the committee and the response from the public, council would be going against the wishes of the general public, as it’s been told to the municipality, though several councillors, in their discussions

with members of the public out on the street, that the desire was to retain the status quo.

Council will revisit the issue at a

later date with staff directed to reach out to the former committee members about a potential meeting with council.

Are you tired of getting a second-hand newspaper?

"Be thankful in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you who belong to Christ Jesus." 1 Thessalonians 5:18 In all circumstances! This comes as a surprise when one considers the vicissitudes of human life. Sickness and health, poverty and wealth, joy and sorrow-are all ingredients of the cup placed to human lips-so all must come within the scope of thanksgiving. Why be thankful for everything? Because God causes everything to work together for good to those who love Him. "Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift!" 2 Corinthians 9:15 For Christ who came from Heaven above, For the cross and His redeeming love, For His mighty power to seek and save, For His glorious triumph o'er the grave. For the lovely mansions in the sky, For His blessed coming bye and byeI give Thee humble thanks.

A godly farmer was asked to dine with a well-known gentleman. While there, he asked a blessing at the table as he was accustomed to do at home.

His host said jeeringly, "That is old fashioned; it is not customary nowadays for well-educated people to pray before they eat.

The farmer answered that with him it was customary-but that some of those on his farm never thanked God their food.

"Ah, then," said the gentleman, "they are sensible and enlightened! Who are they?"

"My pigs!" the farmer answered.

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Enclosed is $50.00 for a 1-year subscription I have heard of a holy old woman in a cottage, who had nothing but a piece of bread and a little water; and lifting up her hands in thanks, she said, "What! all this, and Christ too?"

"Give thanks not just on Thanksgiving Day, but every day of your life.

Appreciate and never take for granted, all that God has given us."

A Grace Gem Submitted by: Immanuel United Reformed Church Listowel, ON 519-291-3887

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PAGE 4. THE CITIZEN, FRIDAY, OCTOBER 11, 2024.

Editorials & Opinions

Founding Publisher: Keith Roulston Publisher & President: Deb Sholdice Editor: Shawn Loughlin • Reporter: Scott Stephenson Advertising Sales: Brenda Nyveld

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The price of a moratorium The Ford government placed a moratorium on school closures back in 2017, a move that was popular with parents weary of the constant fight to keep schools open. Now, on the heels of a letter from the Toronto District School Board begging to close under-utilized schools, comes an internal report prepared for the Minister of Education that highlights the high cost of maintaining schools that may otherwise have closed. The board points to several areas where schools could be consolidated, with an estimated savings of $600,000 annually per consolidation.

The report has found that the average age of schools in Ontario is 40 years and boards are finding it difficult to keep up. NDP Education Critic Chandra Pasma pointed out that growing deficits are forcing boards into difficult choices, such as cutting programming to balance the books.

Keeping kids in school in their home communities is a vital component of their education. While a moratorium on closing any school may not be the solution, the school boards of the past few decades certainly didn’t take any community’s needs into consideration when they were relentlessly closing and consolidating schools.

Of course, the government needs to ensure that the funding formula takes into account the increased facility costs as these buildings age to ensure that there are schools available in all communities and that consolidation doesn’t cause a community to lose a school because a 40year-old building needs some upgrades. – DS

The fight for farmland While there may not be a farmer among the three members of this editorial board, we feel safe in declaring that, for an International Plowing Match to go ahead, at a bare minimum, you need farmland.

It was heartening then to see reporters and protestors alike grill Premier Doug Ford at last week’s IPM over the 770 acres of farmland in Wilmot under threat of expropriation. Forget about food production and agricultural sustainability, if farmland goes, where will Ford mug it up for cameras while riding a tractor? That kind of photo opp just won’t have the same impact at a factory, nor will it make any sense.

Ford faced tough questions at the match about the controversial land assembly in process in Wilmot, but hey, fear not - it’s someone else’s fault. Ford passed the buck and blamed the Region of Waterloo for “mishandling” and, furthermore, said he didn’t understand the secrecy and lack of transparency. Takes one to be confused by one, Dougie!

Coming from one of the least transparent and secretive governments in Ontario history (anyone negotiated any 95-year leases recently?), how can anyone take Ford on this with anything but a grain of salt?

Even if what he said in Lindsay is true, it’s impossible not to draw a straight line between Ford’s development-obsessed governance and the brazen steamrolling we’re seeing ever more frequently, all in the name of building more. More houses, more factories, more everything.

If there was ever a place for Ford to face the music (to an extent), it was the IPM. Without farmland, agriculture will never be in a healthy, thriving position. If Ford is lying, we need brave reporters to expose him. If he’s not, perhaps Ford should get involved. He’s never had a problem getting involved in municipal politics before. – SL

A time to give thanks As Canadians gather to celebrate Thanksgiving, to appreciate the warmth of family and friends, we’ll reflect on the harvest, share a table laden with food and give thanks for the good things that are possible when people come together. Canadian Thanksgiving falls just after the anniversary of a terrible event that shook the world: the Oct. 7 attack on Israel. The violence unleashed that day was truly devastating and the aftermath has been filled with further horrors. This conflict is not an isolated tragedy, but part of a long-standing struggle that has caused deep divisions and immense suffering. Regardless of where one stands on the ideological spectrum, the human toll of this war is inescapable.

We are living through a period of heightened division, both globally and here at home. The political rhetoric of today, whether abroad or within our own borders, often stirs discord rather than promoting understanding. Even the traditions of Canadian Thanksgiving are not free from difficult history, as the holiday brings to mind the painful legacy of colonialism and the ongoing struggles faced by Indigenous peoples. Yet, as Canadians, we are fortunate to live in a country where dialogue is possible, where we can debate our differences with the aim of understanding. We mustn’t ignore the complexities of the world around us - the conflicts that continue to rage, the historical injustices that linger - but rather commit to the hard work of empathizing. We can engage with different perspectives and strive to listen deeply.

Thanksgiving is a reminder to us not just of the abundance on our tables but of the potential for unity amidst division. We should cherish the freedom we have to come together in peace and let it guide us as we navigate the many challenges beyond our tables. – SBS

Looking Back Through the Years October 15, 1969 A fire last Thursday afternoon ravaged a barn on John Shepherd’s farm, located southeast of Londesborough in Hullett Township.

Five sows perished along with the structure.

Blyth firefighters responded to the call, arriving with a pumper and tank truck. However, by the time they reached the scene, the fire had progressed so extensively that they could do little more than witness the building being consumed by the flames.

A well-known Blyth resident, Sidney Jane (Sadie) Cuming, passed away at Huronview on Friday, Oct. 10.

Born in Blyth, she was the daughter of the late Catherine and Richard Somers. She married Adam Cuming, who predeceased her.

The Blyth Lions Club decided to sponsor peewee and bantam hockey in the village this winter. This decision was made during their regular meeting at the Memorial Hall last Thursday night.

They also agreed to look into the possibility of installing a new time clock in the arena.

The Ladies Guild of the Anglican Church provided the meal, and thanks were extended to them on behalf of the club by Ralph Wareham.

October 12, 1977 Crop insurance payments to white bean producers in Huron, Perth and northern Middlesex Counties could have reached $12 million, according to Wally Bain, area manager of the Ontario Crop Insurance Commission.

This estimate was based on the assumption that up to 80 per cent of this year’s crop might have been unmarketable due to damage

caused by weeks of heavy rain.

After over a year of planning, fundraising and construction, the new Brussels, Morris and Grey Community Centre was officially set to open to the public on Saturday, Nov. 26.

The arena committee had organized a full day of activities to introduce the community to the new facility.

Despite some complaints circulating in Brussels regarding two subcontractors for the arena not being paid, there was no issue, according to Jim Prior, general chairman of the building committee. At last week’s Brussels Council meeting, two subcontractors raised concerns over non-payment.

Electrician Wayne Davison wanted to be paid earlier than scheduled, according to Prior, before the general contractor was due for payment.

The other subcontractor, plumber Ted Weishar of Listowel, also complained about non-payment, and his concern was being investigated, Prior stated.

October 11, 1989 The contract for the expansion of Blyth Memorial Hall was awarded to a company from Lambeth for $1,143,300, as announced by Blyth Festival officials the previous week.

Work was expected to begin in the subsequent few weeks and would connect the current Memorial Hall with the Festival’s administration building, which is located to the south and was formerly the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce.

The link would feature a new art gallery and box office, new washrooms, wheelchair access to

the basement of Memorial Hall and a handicapped lift, along with enhancements to the southern side of the Memorial Hall stage.

A decision regarding the location of the north unit of Huronview was postponed until the November meeting of Huron County Council while arrangements were made for a tour for the county councillors of the competing sites in Brussels and Wingham.

Thursday’s County Council meeting, where the site selection was scheduled to take place, began with tension in the council chambers but was quickly eased when Warden Dave Johnston informed the council that a meeting of the Huronview Committee of Management had been held the day before. The committee would be presenting a recommendation later in the meeting to defer the decision.

In an earlier meeting on September 26, the committee had voted 3-2 to recommend the Brussels site.

Students from Mrs. Lynne’s kindergarten class and Mrs. Joan Clarke’s Grade 1-2 class visited Mait-Side Orchard last Thursday.

Each child had the chance to pick an apple from a tree.

During their tour, they learned about the various apple varieties and their different uses.

October 14, 2004 The annual Belgrave Fowl Supper was a success, with the Belgrave arena once again filled to capacity as 1,000 people gathered to enjoy the delicious turkey and all the trimmings.

On Oct. 6, the Lake Huron Centre for Coastal Conservation, a nongovernmental organization with the goal of protecting Lake Huron’s coastal ecosystems, was honoured at a conference in Toronto.

THE CITIZEN, FRIDAY, OCTOBER 11, 2024. PAGE 5.

Other Views

We have so much to be thankful for

T

he other morning I was washing down the sink after breakfast, flushing close to a gallon of water to get rid of a few remnants left from the porridge pan. It got me thinking of the women in Africa who have to walk a couple of miles to get water, then walk home with a jug balanced on their head, careful not to spill an essential part of their daily consumption.

As we approach Thanksgiving, I realize we have so much to be thankful for, when we look at the whole world. Still, whether it’s the Americans south of the border, or our own government, we feel sorry for ourselves and seek leaders who will make our lives easier.

I live in an old farmhouse that is more than a century old, and I can see, everywhere I turn, how blessed we are, compared to the people who lived here earlier. Looking out my window I can see where there are the remnants of an old windmill which once pumped water to the house and the animals in the barn that used to be to the east of our house. Before that, the residents used to pump water and carry it by bucket. Later, with the coming of electricity, residents were able to get electric pumps that brought water to the house and barn.

When we first moved here, we had a shallow well just east of our house. Over the years, we had to be careful to conserve water in the heat of summer but, 26 years ago, the well ran dry.

It was just before our first granddaughter, only weeks old, was coming for a visit. We called in a drilling company to drill a more dependable deep well, and had to get a new pump to raise water more than 100 feet for our use.

In the kitchen is the odd scar in the floor where hot coals fell on it in the days when heating and cooking were still done on a woodburning stove. We’ve had an electric stove for

Keith Roulston

From the cluttered desk cooking for as long as we’ve lived here (50 years next summer).

The people who lived here before us and improved the house, installed a furnace that burned furnace oil. We kept that for nearly 40 years until we replaced it with a geo-thermal furnace that draws heat from the ground (who knows how we could explain that to pioneers), saving us from ever burning polluting furnace oil again and also saving us money, long-term.

Inside, “women’s work” has become easier.

Settlers likely hand scrubbed and hung laundry out to dry on a wash line. We have an automatic washer and an electric dryer. We still wash and dry our dishes by hand, but many people have a dishwasher. There’s no wood stove creating dirt, but we have a vacuum cleaner anyway.

Relatively few women stay home to look after their house as my mother did, because there’s not as much work to do and they want the stimulation and satisfaction of working.

Our health has changed so much even in the past 50 or 60 years as more men and women, assisted by computers and other tools, research diseases. One of the diseases that affected generations of residents before the mid-1950s was polio. A researcher back then came up with a vaccine which virtually rid the world of this plague.

When I was young, I suffered from

rheumatic fever, which has also virtually disappeared because of better antiseptics. I spent a winter in bed but seemed to have avoided damage to my heart from what doctors could see at the time. But 30 years or so ago a sharp medical doctor detected a heart murmur.

I was fine for years but five years ago, the leaky heart valve became so bad that I went to hospital and was operated on to replace that valve with an artificial one, something that would have amazed my childhood doctors.

Without the operation, I’d probably have died by now but I remain relatively healthy for an old guy.

The other day, the cash-cropper who rents the rest of our farm pulled in nearly 250 acres of soybeans with two huge combines, a tractor and grain buggy (so the combines could be unloaded without stopping) and a two-trailer transport truck to take the beans away.

As I watched them out my window while they harvested the whole crop in six or seven hours, I thought of the pioneers who arrived in Canada 180 years ago. They cleared the trees from the bush with an axe, about five acres per year and spread seed among the stumps by hand, harvesting it with scythes and flails.

After those days came binders and threshing machines to greatly speed up the harvest, then combines, at first tractor-pulled and then selfpropelled and getting bigger and bigger.

Even going shopping was a major thing in early years. Everyone travelled by horse and buggy. I imagine residents of our neighbourhood made the hour-long trip to Blyth and back. To the north, people would go to Westfield or Belgrave and to the west, Auburn.

We have come so far and need to appreciate that this Thanksgiving, not long for more!

The holiday that nobody wants is here! icking off Chaffsgiving, we welcome you to the most sacred holiday of all!

Gather ‘round a table of strangers not friends, not family, but people you barely know, because Chaffsgiving isn’t about the familiar. It’s about leaning into the unknown.

You haven’t lived until you’ve passed the racoon gravy to someone whose name you’re 80 per cent sure is Brian. Or maybe it’s Barry.

Now, let’s talk turkey - or something that might be turkey. On this day, the main course isn’t so much a bird as it is a mystery. Did it come from a farm? From the roadside? Who’s to say? And honestly, who cares? Fry it, roast it, or just throw it on the barbecue and hope for the best. If you’re lucky, it’s probably turkey. Got a skunk handy? Even better.

That’s the real centrepiece. Fry that little guy up and let its unique aroma linger in the house for days, perhaps even weeks.

Now, the real star of the Chaffsgiving feast is the stuffing. Yes, that’s right: the stuffing.

It’s not just a side dish; it’s the main event.

The goal? Eat enough stuffing that your pants start lobbying for elastic reform.

But Chaffsgiving isn’t just about gluttony.

It’s also a time to express how deeply, inexplicably “Chaff-ful” you are for everything happening in the world. This is your opportunity to stand tall, look around at your table of near-strangers and share your gratitude for the underappreciated things in life. Be thankful for the little wonders and quirks that keep the world interesting. And don’t forget scurvy. Yes, it’s making a comeback, and for that, we should all be grateful. This is your chance to spread a bit of wholesome misinformation around the table.

Did you know Canada was once the world leader in eating beavers? Well, now you do.

Your facts don’t need to be accurate - they just need to sound convincing enough to get a

K

Scott Stephenson The Chaff few confused nods from your companions.

Now, as any true Chaffs-giver knows, there is one final, solemn ritual to complete: the sacrifice. What Chaffsgiving giveth, it must also taketh away. This is not a day of idle gratitude. No, this is a day when something must be given up. And not just anything something important. Perhaps it’s your favourite toque, or your hope that winter won’t come early this year. Sacrifice is nonnegotiable. What will you sacrifice?

As you prepare to bundle up and head out into the crisp autumn air, let’s take one last moment to toast this most sacred of days.

May your Chaffsgiving feast be abundant, your stuffing never-ending, and your misinformation well-received. May you sit with strangers who, by the end of the meal, feel like distant cousins at the very least, and may your sacrifices be as bold as they are absurd.

As the remnants of your Chaffsgiving feast linger on your plate, there’s no time to waste before diving into another time-honoured tradition: Dark Heart Friday. This sick and twisted ritual takes place the Tuesday morning after Chaffsgiving. It’s when, full of stuffing and half-digested misinformation, we rise at the crack of dawn to chase the one thing we can still count on in these uncertain times: the cold, fleeting comfort of material goods.

In the grand tradition of Dark Heart Friday,

you’re not just shopping. No, on this day, you’re purchasing purposefully. It’s not about what you need, or even what you want. It’s about filling that strange, gnawing void that’s been growing ever-larger as glaciers shrink, forests burn and every second headline reminds you that the planet’s slow demise is somehow still up for debate. It’s about distracting yourself from the dread of the world outside your window with something shiny, new and absolutely unnecessary.

The rules are simple. You must find the one item that promises, however briefly, to shield you from the weight of global calamity.

Maybe it’s a television so big that you can’t see the world crumbling around you. For some, it’s a pair of noise-cancelling headphones, a necessary tool to drown out the howling winds of climate change and the ceaseless political shouting matches that follow you, even into your dreams and mosthorrible nightmares.

But let’s not kid ourselves. Dark Heart Friday isn’t just about buying stuff. It’s about buying time. With every pointless gadget, every half-price piece of tech that will be obsolete in six months, you buy yourself a few more hours of blissful ignorance. You wrap yourself in the comforting delusion that, while the environment decays and governments flounder, you’re doing fine, because you got a toaster for 50 per cent off that browns both sides evenly.

So, rise early and head out into the fray.

May you find a deal so distracting it carries you through until next Chaffsgiving. And as you clutch your overpriced, unnecessary goods, take solace in knowing that, for one fleeting moment, you’ve managed to consume your way out of existential dread. At least until the credit card bill arrives.

Shawn Loughlin Shawn’s Sense

On the road

L

ast week, through my daughter and her burgeoning career as a student at Hullett Central Public School, I was reminded of the magic of the field trip. A day away from school, out in the real world, with your friends, teachers and maybe a parent or two. No class, no recess, no bells or announcements - just a bus ride and a destination that, more often than not, you’ve never been to before.

For Tallulah, last week, this was certainly true and she went to the movies for the first time. In her four years on the planet, we had not yet taken her to the movies. So, by the time you read this, she will have been to see a movie with her entire school - munching on popcorn in the dark of the theatre with a movie playing on the big screen in Goderich.

It had me thinking back to some of the field trips of my youth and how excited we would all be when they came around. First off, as a relatively old dude, I was taken off guard when we paid for Tallulah’s trip through an app. No more cash in an envelope, I guess.

Going to school in Scarborough and then in Pickering, I was within the GTA, so many of our excursions were to spots in Toronto and the surrounding areas. I remember frequent trips to the Ontario Science Centre (one of my favourites - thanks for nothing Doug Ford), the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) and the Toronto Zoo, to name a few.

Having the world of entertainment in Toronto at our disposal also meant that we could go to shows in the city when it made sense to do so. I know we went and saw Phantom of the Opera in Toronto and then Swan Lake later on. We did, at times in high school, make the lengthy trip to Stratford to see Shakespeare productions by the storied theatre company when we were studying the work of “The Bard of Avon”.

I’m sure there were many more, but I can’t remember them all. One big one that sticks out is our graduation trip, which was a few nights away in Algonquin Park. We stayed at a very nice hotel with a hot tub, a pool and tennis courts and we planned for weeks in regards to all the junk we’d bring. We filled the drawers in our hotel room with bags of chips, pop and candy. In the days before drinking and doing drugs and acting out in any kind of a serious way, this felt like about as transgressive as it could get. Though, having said that, a few of us did get in actual trouble on the trip. There was a scheduled movie night for us within the hotel and a few of us skipped out to play night tennis. That didn’t go over well with the teachers, but it was nothing that couldn’t be fixed by a mild chewing out.

As a student at Humber College, I guess we took what could be considered a field trip when we took an overnight bus to New York City for some sort of student journalism awards ceremony that was taking place at the Roosevelt Hotel. This was, however, simply an excuse to go to Manhattan. We were dropped in the middle of the city in the early morning hours of St. Patrick’s Day. Depending on how much you had slept on the bus, seeing a bit of the parade was either exciting or a bit much.

Then we split up for a few days before the awards and the trip back. We saw the sights, played basketball on an old-school New York outdoor court and made the trip out to New Jersey to see a Nets game (they were still in New Jersey then) with my cousin Mike. I also went to the iconic CBGB before it closed, which is something I’ll always remember.

What field trips will await Tallulah (and Cooper, eventually) in the future is anyone’s guess, but was she ever excited for the theatre.

PAGE 6. THE CITIZEN, FRIDAY, OCTOBER 11, 2024.

Plane crash-lands in field near Brussels

Crisis averted Police, firefighters and paramedics swiftly responded after a pilot crash-landed in a farm field near Newry Road on Saturday morning. The 68-year-old pilot from Central Huron made a 911 call after the incident and was transported to hospital with minor injuries.

(Above - photo courtesy of OPP; right - photo courtesy of Grey Firefighters’ Association)

Huron County Ontario Provincial Police (OPP), the Huron East Fire Department and Huron County Paramedic Services responded to an airplane crash in Huron East on Saturday, Oct. 5, just after 11:20 a.m.

Police received a 911 call from the involved pilot after they had crash-landed in a farm field near

Newry Road in Huron East. The lone 68-year-old pilot from Central Huron was located inside the plane and transported to a local hospital for minor injuries.

The pilot was attempting to land on a grass runway in a nearby field and was unable to stop before crossing over Newry Road and impacting the ground on the other

side of the roadway.

Initially, emergency responders believed there were three other passengers on board the plane, but it was later determined that these individuals were good Samaritans who had stopped to assist the pilot.

The OPP extends its thanks for the assistance they provided at the scene.

Weather cools as days shorten A NOTE FROM BETTY

By Betty Graber Watson Call 887-9231 Moving towards Thanksgiving weekend, our weather has been true to the season; just a little cooler as the days shorten up.

By the way, my wayward pumpkin, the one that fell off the roof, is now snagged in a wee scrubby tree at the barn. It continues to grow in its hammock of vine on the branch, as do the other three orbs from the volunteer

vine. One will be large enough for a bit of dessert, some day - as for the other three, it’s not very likely.

The volunteers from the local Terry Fox Run need to be pretty pleased with the final tally for 2024. Reading about the 2004 run in The Citizen’s “Looking Back Through the Years” column, that year $8,500 was received and this year the pledges offered $15,000 to the Terry Fox Foundation. Good job - cancer does not stop for inflation.

The work day at the cemetery was excellent. Old headstones were checked and bases were secured.

Stones previously unseen for many years were located, dug out and tidied. Old markers broken with time were aligned and secured. The Cemetery Enthusiasts had a great day doing what they love to do.

They came from London, Angus,

At the Branch

Stratford, Listowel, Seaforth and many places in between to seek history in any cemetery.

Google, Find A Grave and GPS location have all made identifying and locating lost or abandoned gravesites possible. The Brussels Cemetery Board is thankful for all the work accomplished and were pleased to host this worthwhile day with Lori Carter taking the lead.

Several sponsors made this day very effective and really quite enjoyable.

I hope you are able to gather with family and friends some time this week. It’s time to stop and be truly thankful for the life that is ours.

This is a peaceful place. We have clean air, available nutritious food, a roof over our heads, care and support with a little love thrown in.

Yes, we need to be very, very thankful.

Bye now. Betty GW

Jarosz wins $236

By Jo-Ann McDonald It was a quiet week at the Branch for a change, giving everyone a chance to rest up and get ready for the Christmas season, which will soon be upon us.

The Catch the Ace draw on Friday evening saw Kelly McDonald Jarosz win $236. Her envelope choice was number 10 and the two of spades was revealed. The estimated jackpot for this week is $8,200. Get your ticket today. The trio of Deb, Kathy and Nanci were in charge.

The pub grub was chili and tonight it will be Oktoberfest sausage to celebrate October!

There were 12 Comrades attending Zone cribbage in Blyth on

Saturday. There were three teams playing, including Eric Ross, Cam Ross, Bob Richardson and Barry O’Krafka, who finished in fifth place; Sandra Brown, Kathy Burkholder, Chris Brown and Derek Douglas, who finished in ninth place, and Gerry Brewer, Mac Ingles, Linda Bird and Jo-Ann McDonald, who just missed the cut to go on to District play in January.

The Branch was also the venue for the celebration of the 70-year anniversary of the Brussels Horticultural Society. It was a lovely afternoon for folks to drop by and enjoy coffee and cake and look at displays. Congratulations to the group.

Brussels Legion 218 Catch the Ace Weekly Winner Winning Ticket: Kelly McDonald Jarosz, $236.

Envelope #10 found the 2 of Spades.

Estimated jackpot for the next draw is $8,200.

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NEWS FROM BRUSSELS

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THE CITIZEN, FRIDAY, OCTOBER 11, 2024. PAGE 7.

Community in mourning after tragic accident

Chow down Late last month, Huron Chapel in Auburn held a special barbecue and activity day at the church, bringing a good crowd to the small community. (John Stephenson photo)

The Reading Web with Cindy Norgate

T

his is the season for crispy, cold mornings, the crunch of dark red, orange, and yellow leaves under our feet, and pumpkins everywhere.

The U.S. Thanksgiving has always been my favourite fall holiday.

When I moved to Canada, I learned that Jeff and I would celebrate in October. I found that quite different, yet interesting. I’ve shared my feelings about the importance of adapting to a new location, and how important it is to involve yourself in the community. This, in my opinion, is crucial to feel like you are now a part of what is your new home, so that was what I wanted to do.

Jeff said we could now have two Thanksgiving meals; one in October and one in November for the U.S. Thanksgiving. I asked him to be responsible for planning what we ate in October. He mentioned a word I had heard but had never experienced: stuffing! When I share this with people around me, they usually ask, “You’ve never had stuffing?” The answer is, “No, not until 2017 at the age of 49 had I ever had stuffing that is put inside a bird.”

Jeff said not to worry, he would take care of it, and he did. I was quite taken with how he gathered a mixture of dried breadcrumbs and spices stuffed inside a bird. I find it quite delicious.

I wanted to add what I call “fixins” to the meal, so I inquired about this when I learned I needed to buy a turnip. I couldn’t find a turnip in the store, and Jeff was confused.

He went with me to look, and he picked up a rather large, hard, purple vegetable and called it a turnip.

Guess what? He also said I could call it a rutabaga. While Jeff was at work, I called my neighbour to ask her how you cook it. The only turnip I had ever eaten was small, white and purple, and it had a bitter taste to it, so my mother always added a bit of sugar. I soon discovered how much I truly love rutabaga, and I enjoyed telling my parents all about

the gentle buttery flavour, since they had never tried it.

Growing up in the southern United States, Thanksgiving was the holiday of all holidays. My childhood and young adulthood traditions were mostly the same on Thanksgiving. Mama got up early to put the turkey in the oven, then we gathered at my grandmother’s house to eat until we couldn’t breathe. It was a tradition in my family for the men and children to eat first, then the women ate. We all appreciated that order, because the women could relax and take their time to eat while the children played, and the men watched college football. Turkey, cornbread dressing, sweet potato pie, green bean casserole, football, the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, and large family gatherings that meant even larger tables of food was what I called Thanksgiving in Tennessee. It seemed to even overshadow Christmas. My husband has asked me why that is the case in the U.S., and I truly don’t know.

I don’t want to neglect to mention what comes next. You know, it’s the crazy day afterwards. Remember?

Black Friday! Having witnessed

NEWS FROM BLYTH

relatives on the living room floor after our Thanksgiving meal with sale flyers spread out while another family member is literally mapping out the shopping trip the next day on a piece of notebook paper sounds a little crazy even to me. If I recall correctly, I have only been Black Friday shopping once.

Picture it. I was standing in the KMart parking lot at 5:30 a.m. in 2001 on Black Friday because I wanted to buy my son a DVD player. The closer the time got to 7 a.m., (yes, I stood in line, in the unseasonably cold November weather, for an hour and a half by myself) police gathered at the door, and, on their bullhorn announced, “Any shopper breaking in line would be forced to

By Deb Hakkers The Hakkers family is in shock and deeply saddened by the sudden death of Jud. Our thoughts and prayers are with his wife Jenn as she begins a long road to recovery, his daughters Brooklyn and Mackenzie, who were truly the lights of his life, his parents Gerald and Nancy, and his brother Jesse, Alicia and their family. When one so young is so suddenly taken, the ripples of sorrow go through the extended family and also the community as a whole.

Mom continues with rehab in Huronlea Home for the Aged, she managed to stand again several times last week. They have also removed her footrests, so she can paddle with her feet, allowing her more mobility and some independence, which is great for her morale and another step towards her goal of walking again.

This week, we wish a happy go to the back. Everyone stay calm!”

The DVD players, you see, were supposed to be on sale, according to the flyer, but, as I got closer to the front, I soon realized from talking to others around me that the store probably only had a handful in stock. It occurred to me that some stores did this to lure customers in and, sure enough, once I got to the front there were none, and I vowed, to myself, to never do that again. I felt utterly ridiculous, but, for many, it is a family tradition and a lot of fun. To me, it is nerve-wracking and nothing I ever care to do again.

Now, having lived in this great country for seven-and-a-half years, I have found myself focusing more on what my new country enjoys on this holiday, and I’m so excited this year, especially because we are going to be able to celebrate the holiday with my husband’s sister from Vancouver and her son’s family in Mississauga.

We have always celebrated Continued on page 20

birthday to Kyle Martin on Oct. 12, Bill Hull on Oct. 16 and Bo Wharton on Oct. 17.

This week we also wish a happy anniversary to Tim and Maria Walden on Oct. 16. We hope they enjoy their special day.

The local Canadian Foodgrains Bank project has seen its beans harvested for this year and the wheat is now planted and ready for next year. Thanks to all those who volunteer their time and equipment to make this happen every year, as well as those who donate towards this worthy cause.

If there is anything special you would like to see mentioned in this column, please e-mail me at mcraig1@tcc.on.ca or call me at 519-525-8640.

Until next week, take care of yourselves and each other and enjoy time with family and friends this long weekend. Remember we have much to be thankful for!

1st Blyth Scouting

Apple Day Saturday, October 12 10 am - 2 pm

Scouting youth will be asking for donations to finance local scouting at the Blyth Food Market and Blyth Ultramar Express Thank You for your support

MAITLAND VALLEY CAMERA CLUB

Photography by Gail Jaycock

PAGE 8. THE CITIZEN, FRIDAY, OCTOBER 11, 2024.

Funeral director questions North Huron cemetery fees Continued from page 3 the weather is like. And then we’re going to stop burials whenever we deem it unsafe because of weather.”

She looked to North Huron Council and staff and put the issue to them directly. “I think if anybody sitting up here said that they agree with paying $1,000 more to take four screws out of a wall because it’s Nov. 20, I think you’re fooling yourself. I don’t think anybody can justify that.”

She urged council to put themselves in the situations that this strict surcharge enforcement has created. “In a perfect world, I would bury all 95-year-old men and women who had beautiful, long lives. But I deal with a lot of tragic circumstances, and, you know, if I have to tell a mother who just lost a child to suicide that we have to wait six months because of a calendar date, or to a mom that just lost her stillborn baby ‘you’ll have to wait six months until we can bury or pay $1,000,’ it’s pretty hard to justify.”

Deans also offered to provide council with some of her ideas on how this situation could be rectified going forward, using her understanding of the governmentdelegated authority that administers funerary services in this province the Bereavement Authority of Ontario (BAO). “It’s different than some of the stuff municipalities have to run into,” she explained. “I know a lot of you up here have loved ones buried in Wingham Cemetery, and I talk about Wingham mostly because I’m not in

Blyth as much, but it applies to both.”

Councillor Chris Palmer asked Deans how many winter burials she sees in an average winter. “So, in 2022/2023, me, just from my funeral home, had 18. We had five casketed remains, eight cremated remains in-ground, and five niches.

And then this past winter that we just went through, I had eight casketed remains, 11 cremated remains, and two in the niche.”

Palmer followed up by saying that he feels for those families. “We’ve all been in that situation, or will be.

So, if there’s a compromise we could agree upon, it would either be one where the person has discretion, or we extend the dates November, December, and call it at that point. We have to consider the labour side of it, and it’s really hard, because it’s that, and then the family side.”

Councillor Mitch Wright suggested that the cemetery caretakers be given the same discretion to close or open for the season that the manager of a golf course has. “I think it’s certainly something that should be fairly doable, is to, you know, postpone the start of the closure season if we’ve got good weather, and then therefore either we charge for closed rates or open rates but I don’t see that as being too hard of a call, to extend the open season.”

Councillor Anita van Hittersum asked McAllister if the cemetery bylaws could be changed by council alone, or if the BAO would need to

be involved. McAllister replied, “My understanding is that we would need to post it for a fourweek period, based on what the BAO says, like, in the newspapers, and circulation suppliers. From there, we’d have to have a proposal for a draft bylaw, which has to go to council, and then we have to take that draft bylaw to the BAO to review and provide their feedback.

And then it has to be updated through the bylaw. So there is a bit of a process to that.”

When Palmer asked him if they should start by proposing a bylaw first, McAllister redirected the question towards Clerk Carson Lamb. “If council is desirous of providing amendments, my recommendation would be that your motion direct staff to amend the required bylaws, and leave it vague enough that you’re capturing that process, whatever that process looks like.”

Deans then pointed out that, while changing a bylaw under the BAO, the price list is a separate document from the bylaw, saying “Just like a funeral home - I can change my price list, and so can you... I don’t know what it entails from the municipality’s standpoint, and what you have to do, but that’s something that could work.”

Lamb explained that Deans was referring to the Fees and Charges Bylaw, saying, “That’s where those extra charges are noted. As council is aware, you go through that process every year, and we’ll be going through it very soon here in

November, so you could update the fees there. The only thing I don’t have the answer to at this point is whether the Cemetery Bylaws establish that Nov. 15 to April 15.

Because if it is, if you’re changing the actual date, you may need to update your Cemetery Bylaws, because that might not be reflected in your Fees and Charges Bylaw. It really depends on what direction council wants to provide to staff whether you want to change those timelines, or whether you just want to change those fees.” McAllister put forth that those dates are set in the Cemetery Bylaw, not the Fees and Charges Bylaw.

McAllister did not read from a particular section of the Cemetery Bylaw to confirm this, but, according to Section E of the Cemetery Bylaws posted on North Huron’s website, it reads: “No interment shall be scheduled to take place between November 15th and April 15th of every year.” The passage then continues, stating, “However upon special request, an interment allowance can be made at the sole discretion of the cemetery manager and/or cemetery operator based on the site benefit, and resource availability. Interments scheduled from November 15th to April 15th can be subject to extra charges ontop (SIC) of the interment rates.”

Wright made a motion to direct staff to review the situation, and write a report with suggestions and options as to how things could be handled in terms of changing the dates, as they would be collectively reconsidering the fees in November.

McBurney seconded the motion, which passed. Only van Hittersum and Deputy-Reeve Kevin Falconer did not raise their hand to support the motion.

Falconer, who had raised his hand to comment prior to the motion, asked why it had been brought to vote before the discussion had come to a close. “I thought we were still in the comment phase - I didn’t realize that had expired and a motion was going to be made,” he said to Reeve Paul Heffer. “But do with it what you wish, Sir Captain.”

Leadership in energy and environmental design Leadership in energy Henry and Devon environmental design 84772 McDonald Line • Box 616 • Brussels

Devon Henry

devonjhenry@hotmail.com 519-505-2473 devonjhenry@hotmail.com 519-505-2473

84772 McDonald Line • Box 616 • Brussels

Belgrave Community Centre Board presents

4th Annual Belgrave Vendor's Market and

Silent Auction Sunday October 20, 2024 11 a.m. - 3 p.m.

Belgrave Kinsmen Food Booth

The Citizen n

Equine excellence A rider showcases impressive skill and speed during a thrilling barrel racing event at the Regional Equine and Agricultural Centre of Huron (REACH) in Clinton, which hosted the Ontario Barrel Racing Association’s final competition of the year over the weekend.

(John Stephenson photo)

Huron East forms committee to discuss health team rent

By Shawn Loughlin The Citizen Huron East Council has struck a special ad hoc committee to further discuss a request from the Huron Community Family Health Team for financial assistance, namely a rent reduction at the team’s Seaforth building.

The issue had been discussed at multiple previous meetings (see story on page 18) with Director of Finance and Treasurer Stacy Grenier eventually bringing this recommendation forward, handing it over to the committee to eventually direct council.

Grenier’s initial recommendation suggested a five-member committee consisting of Mayor Bernie MacLellan and DeputyMayor Alvin McLellan and three additional councillors. MacLellan suggested that he could represent Seaforth and McLellan could represent Grey and the other three councillors could be from the McKillop, Tuckersmith and Brussels Wards. However, as conversation progressed, council suggested a three-person committee consisting of MacLellan, McLellan and Councillor Bob Fisher.

In her report, Grenier recommended that the ad hoc

committee remain in place to further monitor the sustainability of the Huron Community Family Health Team.

She said that, if the team’s rent were to be reduced as requested, the reduction in revenue for the municipality would be $19,840 in 2025, followed by $20,240 in 2026 and $20,650 for 2027.

Several councillors said they would hate to lose the health care provider in the municipality over $20,000 per year, but agreed that more information was needed in order to make an informed decision.

Council approved the formation of the three-member committee.

will be closed Mondayy, y, October 14 for Thhanksgivingg Dead dlines will be

Tuesda u yy,, October 15 2 pm for the October 18 papeer

405 Queen St., Blyth 519-523-4792

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THE CITIZEN, FRIDAY, OCTOBER 11, 2024. PAGE 9.

OCNA’s Cameron on National Newspaper Week

By Gordon Cameron, executive director of the Ontario Community Newspapers Association Did you read the one about the German court reporter who was convicted of abusing children, conning widowers and escaping from a psychiatric hospital? Likely not, as no human editor would ever confuse the writer of an article with people about whom he was writing.

However, Microsoft’s Artificial Intelligence Copilot system did just that.

Now, unless you’re the poor German reporter, these sorts of “hallucinations” as they’re euphemistically called, may seem

funny or the natural growing pains of a new technology. However, how would you feel if an AI told lies like that about you, all the while touting how reliable its system is?

The truth is that, like a politician reading a speech in a language he doesn’t speak, AI doesn’t understand what it’s saying. It’s just a program that looks for patterns based on scanning billions of words of text.

To it, it’s a perfectly reasonable assumption that the reporter committed all those crimes, because his name was associated with all those stories. But should we really be trusting an algorithm to tell us what’s true and what isn’t,

when it has no way of knowing itself?

Misinformation aside, I’d never actually tested any of the generative AI programs to see if they could actually be useful for local news, so I asked three of them something I was asked many times during my reporting days: “What happened at last night’s council meeting?”

Copilot gave me a rundown on a vote that took place last night in Aurora… Colorado. After telling me it had no updates, ChatGPT suggested that I add the city I was looking for. I typed in my hometown, and it still returned no answers, but I suggested that I could “find summaries or highlights

on the city’s official website or local news outlets.” Gemini did actually pull up some local news, mostly because I had to login to Google to use it. However, the summary it spit out not only wasn’t for the most recent council meeting (which wasn’t actually last night), but after a quick search of a year’s worth of online minutes, I couldn’t find a council meeting that matched the AI’s result.

Now, if you asked a local

journalist the same question (even a tricky one) they’d give you an answer. Why? Because he or she was likely one of a very few people sitting there in the gallery observing the goings on. Was AI there? No. Did AI ask the difficult question that the mayor was hoping to avoid?

Not a chance. Can you rely on what AI tells you about local news?

Apparently not.

And you don’t need to be a German court reporter to see that.

Community Centre fundraiser coming PEOPLE AROUND BELGRAVE

Fundraiser silent auction on Oct. 20 contact Dana Weber at 519-5259555.

By Linda Campbell Call 357-2188

Back at it The Auburn Lions Club, after taking a break for the summer, restarted its monthly breakfasts at the Auburn Community Hall last Sunday. Members were hard at work feeding the masses and will be back monthly through the winter. (John Stephenson photo)

Canadian newspapers are powered by journalists, not AI. They check the facts so you can trust what you’re reading.

That’s why 4 in 5 people in Canada come back each week for more. Thanks for keeping it real with us.

Visit nationalnewspaperweek.ca to learn more.

Worship leader Rev. Colin Snyder welcomed the congregation of Knox United Church in Belgrave on Sunday, Oct. 6.

Rev. Colin read scripture readings from Genesis 2:14-18 and Mark 10:2-16. His reflection was entitled “Love and Marriage.”

Change Her World would appreciate any books for their sale in November. There is a box in the church where you can deposit them.

If you would like to donate to the Belgrave Community Centre

NEWS FROM BELGRAVE

PAGE 10. THE CITIZEN, FRIDAY, OCTOBER 11, 2024.

Sports Ironmen endure three-loss weekend, sit in fourth

Turning the page Despite beating the Goderich Flyers in Wingham on Sept. 27, above, the Ironmen couldn’t recreate that magic over the weekend, losing to Goderich by a score of 3-1. It was one of three games the team lost over the weekend, falling to the Mount Forest Patriots by a score of 6-2 on Friday night and then the Fergus Whalers on Sunday by a score of 6-1. (John Stephenson photo)

By Shawn Loughlin The Citizen After a dismal, three-loss weekend, in which their opponents outscored them 15-4, the Wingham Ironmen are now in fourth place in the North Pollock Division of the Provincial Junior Hockey League.

The Ironmen began the weekend in Mount Forest with a 6-2 loss to the Patriots, followed by a Saturday night loss to the Goderich Flyers by a score of 3-1 and then a Sunday matinee loss to the Fergus Whalers by a score of 6-1. All three weekend games were played on the road.

Marshall Nicholls won the Friday night game in the Patriots’ net, stopping 38 of the 40 shots he faced, while Noah Ricci stopped 35 of 41 shots for the Ironmen.

Mount Forest opened the scoring with the only goal in the first period. Devan Doig scored at 17:11, assisted by Connor Paige and Matt McLellan.

The teams both scored two goals each in the second period before it was all Patriots in the third period.

Luke Eurig scored for the Patriots at 6:50 of the second period, assisted by Gavin Downs and Jordan Leitch, followed by a goal

by Will Lewis for Mount Forest at 12:42 of the second, assisted by Eurig and Charlie McKenzie. Both goals were scored on the power play.

Wingham’s Logan Burnham then scored at 16:02, assisted by Tanner Dietz, followed by a power play goal for the Ironmen at 19:06 of the second, scored by Tayt Bramhill,

A little slip The U13 A Huron Heat were in action in Clinton last Sunday, defeating the Mooretown Lady Flags by a score of 3-0. (John Stephenson photo)

assisted by Burnham and Dietz.

In the third, Matt McLellan scored two of the three goals for the Patriots - first at 9:54, assisted by Cameron Lytle, and second at 12:27, on the power play, assisted

by Luke Eurig. Jaxon Gawel then scored the final goal of the game at 17:24, assisted by Will Lewis.

Both teams spent an identical amount of the time in the box, with each being assessed five penalties for 10 minutes.

The next night, the Goderich Flyers hosted the Ironmen and sent them home on the wrong end of a 31 score. This, despite Wingham scoring the first goal of the game when Micah Kraayenbrink scored his seventh goal of the season at 12:34 of the first period, assisted by Tanner Dietz and Jed KorsonSchmidt.

The second and third periods were then all Goderich. Kingston Powell scored for the Flyers at 6:13 of the second period, assisted by Carson Bromley and Kyle Smeltzer.

Then, 12 seconds later, Leland Weber scored an unassisted goal, pulling the Flyers ahead.

Trent Carter then iced the game for the Flyers at 19:19 of the third period, assisted by Carson Stutzman.

The Ironmen spent eight minutes in the box on four penalties, while the Flyers were called for five penalties and spent 10 minutes in the box as a result.

Kaleb Meyer stopped 38 of the 41 shots he faced in a losing effort for the Ironmen, while Goderich’s Brady Galbraith stopped 42 of 43 shots for the win.

On Sunday, the Ironmen were in Fergus and lost to the Whalers by a score of 6-1.

Boden Brimmell scored his fifth goal of the season for the Whalers

to open the scoring, finding the back of the net at 6:27 of the first period, assisted by Jacob Lesser and Henry Turner.

The Ironmen then equalized at 7:15 of the first when Micah Kraayenbrink scored on the power play, assisted by Tanner Dietz and Tayt Bramhill. It would be Wingham’s only goal of the game.

Ty Anselmini then put the Whalers ahead with a goal at 11:41 of the first, a power play goal assisted by Henry Turner and Sam Barry and the team never looked back.

Evan Ahearn scored the only goal of the second period for the Whalers at 14:18, assisted by Alex Demelo and Joshua Russell.

Then, just eight seconds into the third period, Andrew McClure scored for the Whalers, assisted by Alex Spencer and Tyler Ewald, followed by a Jacob Lesser goal at 1:58 of the period, assisted by J.J. Lavigne and Tyler Ewald on the power play and an all-Ewald goal scored at 5:13 of the third, scored

by Tyler and assisted by Justin.

The Ironmen served 22 minutes in the penalty box on eight infractions, while the Whalers were called nine times and served 18 minutes.

Bradley Boville stopped 39 of the 40 shots he faced, earning the win for Fergus, while Noah Ricci stopped 28 of the 34 shots he faced in a losing effort for the Ironmen.

After a disastrous weekend on the road, the Ironmen will perhaps be happy that they will be back in Wingham for the rest of the month.

They will take on the Mount Forest Patriots on Oct. 11, the Hanover Barons on Oct. 12, the Kincardine Bulldogs on Oct. 18 and the Fergus Whalers again on Oct. 25.

To begin November, the Ironmen will play the Mitchell Hawks on the road on Friday, Nov. 1, followed by a game with the Hanover Barons at home in Wingham on Sunday, Nov. 3.

The Fergus Whalers are now in first place in the North Pollock Division of the Provincial Junior Hockey League with 16 points thanks to eight wins and just one loss.

The Mount Forest Patriots are in second place with 14 points and a record of six wins, one loss, two overtime losses and one shootout win and the Hanover Barons now find themselves in third place with six wins, one loss and one shootout loss. They sit at 13 points on the season.

The Ironmen are now 5-4 and in fourth place with 10 points, followed by the fifth-place Mitchell Hawks with seven points and a record of three wins, four losses and one shootout loss, the sixthplace Goderich Flyers with six points and three wins and four losses and the seventh-place Walkerton Capitals with four points and a record of two wins, seven losses and one shootout win.

The Kincardine Bulldogs sit in last place with no wins, six losses and one overtime loss and just one point.

With his seven goals and 13 assists, Tanner Dietz of the Ironmen finds himself among the league’s points leaders. He is tied for third place with 20 points with Ty Anselmini of the Fergus Whalers and Kyle Maloney of the Hanover Barons. All three men, however, trail Luke Eurig of Mount Forest in second place with 22 points and Jordan Fuller of the Orillia Terriers in first with 29 points.

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SUDOKU Fun By The Numbers Like puzzles?

Then you’ll love sudoku. This mindbending puzzle will have you hooked from the moment you square off, so sharpen your pencil and put your sudoku savvy to the test!

Here’s How It Works: Sudoku puzzles are formatted as a 9x9 grid, broken down into nine 3x3 boxes. To solve a sudoku, the numbers 1 through 9 must fill each row, column and box. Each number can appear only once in each row, column and box. You can figure out the order in which the numbers will appear by using the numeric clues already provided in the boxes. The more numbers you name, the easier it gets to solve the puzzle!

THE CITIZEN, FRIDAY, OCTOBER 11, 2024. PAGE 11.

Sports

Huron Heat Day in Seaforth set for Oct. 18-19 Heat will play the Stratford Aces C in Goderich and the U13 A team will play the South Huron Sabres on the road.

The U11 HL Heat will welcome the Lambton Attack HL team to Seaforth, the U13 B Heat will play the Saugeen Shores Storm B team on the road, the U13 HL Heat will play Lucan/Ilderton HL on the road and the U18 BB Heat will welcome the Owen Sound Ice Hawks to Clinton.

There is one regular season game on the schedule for Sunday and it takes place at the Brussels, Morris and Grey Community Centre with the U13 B Heat playing the Owen Sound Ice Hawks B team.

The following weekend will be a special two-day Huron Heat Day event at the Seaforth and District Community Centre, expanding upon last year’s one-day spectacular.

On Friday night, the U13 A Heat will play the London Devilettes, the U15 A Heat will play the Stratford Aces in an exhibition game and the U18 BB Heat will play the Walkerton Capitals, all in Seaforth.

Also that night, the U13 HL Heat will play the Bluewater Hawks HL team in Hensall.

The next day, the U7, U9 C and U9 HL teams will all play exhibition games with Twin Centre Hericanes teams in Seaforth, while the U13 B, U11 HL, U11 C, U13 HL, U15 B and U18 C Heat teams will all play their Twin Centre Hericanes counterparts for Huron Heat Day. The U13 B Heat will play the Central Perth Predators B team and the U13 C Heat will play the Stratford Aces C in Seaforth that day, while the U13 A Heat will play the lone away game of the day, playing the South Huron Sabres.

There are then eight regular season games on the schedule for Sunday, Oct. 20. The U15 A Heat will play the Lakeshore Lightning and the U15 B Heat will play the Kincardine Kinucks B, both in Clinton, and the Senior team will play the Kitchener Lady Rangers in Hensall.

On the road, the U13 C Heat will play the South Huron Sabres C, the U18 C Heat will play the Twin Centre Hericanes, the U13 HL Heat will play the Bluewater Hawks HL, the U18 BB Heat will play the Owen Sound Ice Hawks and the U15 C Heat will play the Central Perth Predators.

Home Cooking for the Holidays

Dipsy-doodle Summer Shannon of Blyth put the moves on members of the Mooretown Lady Flags in Clinton on Sunday as her U13 A Huron Heat clashed with their neighbours from the south. The locals would go on to win the regular season game by a score of 3-0. The team is now 5-2-3 in the young regular season. (John Stephenson photos)

By Shawn Loughlin The Citizen On Sunday, the U13 A Huron Heat welcomed the Mooretown Lady Flags to Clinton’s Central Huron Community Complex and sent them home on the wrong end of a 3-0 score.

The regular season is now in full swing for a number of Huron Heat teams after the excitement of the Harvest Classic tournament in Oakville late last month.

Also on Sunday, the U15 A Heat hosted the Woodstock Wildcats in

Clinton, but the locals fell by a score of 5-1. On the road, the U15 B Heat beat the Lady Rangers B team in Kitchener and then the Wilmot Wolverines B team by a score of 31 later that night on their way back to Huron County.

On Saturday, the U9 B team hosted the London Devilettes at the Seaforth arena, but that game ended in a scoreless draw. The U11 C Heat were also in Seaforth, though to play the South Huron Sabres C team and that game also ended in a draw with both teams finding the back of the net five times.

Also that day, the U13 HL team played the St. Thomas Panthers on the road and won by a score of 2-0.

The U18 BB Heat played the Waterloo Ravens in Clinton, but a score for that game was unavailable at press time.

Over the weekend, a number of teams also played exhibition games, with their regular season schedules now on the horizon.

Looking ahead, on Saturday, the U9 B Heat will play the St. Marys Rock in Seaforth, while the U15 A Heat will play the London Devilettes on the road. The U15 C

Do your friends come to you for cooking advice and ask (or beg) you for your delicious recipes?

Well, we want your recipe too!

Send in recipes for your favourite holiday meals, desserts, appetizers, sides or cocktails, and be featured in The Citizen’s upcoming special section on November 29, Home Cooking for the Holidays. This section will feature tons of delicious recipes from talented readers like yourself, just in time for holiday entertaining!

Mail your recipe(s) to:

The Citizen PO Box 429 Blyth, ON N0M 1H0 or email them to info@northhuron.on.ca Be sure to include your name with your recipe.

Deadline for submissions is November 15

PAGE 12. THE CITIZEN, FRIDAY, OCTOBER 11, 2024.

Sports Thank h Y Yo ou With your generous and overwhelming support Huron HURON COUNTY County’s 96th Annual Ploughing Match was a huge PLOWMEN’S ASSOCIA AT TION success.

WOULD LIKE TO OFFICIALLY LY Y THANK……..

The finals The Ontario Barrel Racing Association held its 2024 finals in Clinton over the weekend at the Regional Equine and Agricultural Centre of Huron (REACH), featuring plenty of action. (John Stephenson photo)

CH seeks funding for pool from province

By Shawn Loughlin The Citizen Central Huron Council is applying for a pair of grants that, if successful, could improve the recreational landscape of the municipality and, perhaps, lead to the return of a public pool to Clinton.

Council sorted out the details of the applications at Monday night’s meeting, held in Clinton, deciding on a potential project for two streams of funding being offered by the provincial government through its Community Sport and Recreation Infrastructure Fund.

Central Huron will put forward an application in the first stream, earmarked for rehabilitation and repair, for Sloman Park. The stream will, if successful, provide up to 50 per cent of the project cost, up to $1 million.

The park is in need of new playground equipment, according to a report prepared by Facilities Manager Steve Duizer, at an estimated cost of $75,000.

For the second stream, focused on a new build, the municipality will be applying for a new Clinton community pool. This stream will be open for three years and will grant a successful project up to 50 per cent of the total costs up to $10 million. Duizer did say, however, that for the second stream, there is an additional grant stream that could increase the percentage paid through the grant to 70 per cent of the total project cost.

He noted, however, that, even if the municipality were successful, it would still cost Central Huron up to $2.5 million for its half, and $1.5 million if 70 per cent of the cost is covered by a grant.

While the decision was council’s Duizer had made some suggestions for both streams. Unsuccessful suggestions were tennis courts at Central Huron Secondary School

for the first stream and a new multiuse sports pad for the second stream.

Deputy-Mayor Marg Anderson, however, recommended improvements at the Auburn sports pad for the first stream, saying she had been there recently and noted its deteriorating condition and felt like the municipality needs to spend money on recreational opportunities in its smaller hamlets and villages and not just always in Clinton.

Duizer did say, however, that there are plans to improve the pad.

New basketball nets have already been purchased and are sitting in storage, he said, and improvements to the pavement are planned in partnership with the Auburn Lions Club.

The choices for the two streams were not made lightly either.

Anderson spoke against the tennis court project at the high school, citing ongoing accessibility issues to the courts, which are on school property and not available to members of the public when classes are in session.

Furthermore, in regards to the second stream of funding, Councillor Mike Russo spoke against the pool saying that, even if funding were procured, he didn’t feel the municipality had the funds to go ahead with the project.

He then made the motion to go ahead with applications for Sloman Park and a new sports pad at an estimated cost of $300,000 and it was defeated with just Russo voting in favour of it. A vote then went the other way, to submit applications on behalf of Sloman Park and a new pool in Clinton, which passed with Russo as the lone dissenting voice.

Mayor Jim Ginn said he just felt that a community the size of Clinton should have a pool and this level of funding may be the municipality’s only chance to pay for it.

THANK KY YO OU TO our HOSTS Koos, Na athalie and family VERMUE E FARMS FA LT LTD

ALL OF THE CASH SPONSORS IN-KIND SUPPORTERS

Their fam mily, friends and community came together and provvided a great venue for our Sodbusters and Junior Da ay, our ploughing competitions, our Princess of Furrow w competition and Queen of the Furrow competitiion.

LIVE AUCTION AND SILENT AUCTION DONA AT TIONS

**Speciial mention goes to Huron County Soil and d Crop Association!!

They worrked with our hosts to put on tillage demonstrrations and displays along with planting some covver crops.

Our Food contributors for the two days were thanks to: Tracey’s Ta Tasty Food Truck (lunch) Bayfield Berry Farms (breakfast) Cardiffff BBQ & Catering (Banquet)

Mun nicipality of Ashfield-Colborne-Wawanosh Mun nicipality of Bluewater Mun nicipality of Central Huron Mun nicipality of Huron East Mun nicipality of Morris-Turnberry Mun nicipality of North Huron

Albers Farms Inc. Albers, Pete & Leisa Aloette, Scarlett Swan Angela Smith Photograghy Artech Signs Ausable Bayfield Conservation Authority, ABCA Audrey Bos Axiom Insurance Barton Family Bayfield Berry Farm Ben Lobb M.P..

Bishop, Jacquie & Kevin Bles, Marlie & Alfons Brett & Laura Fischer – Pioneer Seeds Brian and Jill Wiersma Brucefield Fire Department Cardiffff Catering CKNX / Blackburn News Coastal Coffffee County of Huron Cowboy Loft Cow Folk Co. Dave Franken Concrete DeJong Auto Don Dodds Edge Mutual Insurance, Paul Brown Fear Family Farms Flynn Farms Foxhill Farms Inc. (Al DeVos) Freedom Syrup FS Fuel Partners Grace Hallahan Hallahan, Steve and Arletta Hensall District Co-op Hill & Hill Farms HJV Equipment Huron County Egg Farmers Huron County Federation of Agriculture Huron County Museum Huron County Warden, Glen McNeil Huron Feeding Systems Huron Grain Farmers Huron Ridge Greenhouses Huron Tire Huron To Toilet Rentals Huron Tractor Ltd. Hyde Brothers, Hensall

Ke enpal Farm Products Ke erry’s Sweet Treats KV V Customs/ Vanthygem Holdings Lee eming Farms Ltd. Lib bro Financial, Wingham Lissa Thompson, M.P.P. MG GM T To ownsend Tire, Londesboro Ma ackenzie Oke MA APLE LEAF Foods Ma aranda Klaver MccDonald’s Home Hardware, Brussels MccGavin, Marie MccGavin Family Me erner/McCann Construction Me elissa Veldman Mid dwest Co-op Mikke Scott/Scott Farms Trucking Mo onoway Farms Mu utual One Insurance Na abit – T Te eresa McCann Na ational Bank Pa arr Line Boutique Pe eavey Mart – Goderich Pio oneer – Claussen Farms Pio oneer Rep- T To ony DeCorte PT TMG Chartered Professional Accountants PW WN Seeds Ltd. - Wyatt McIlhargey R & B McIntosh Egg Farm Ltd. Ro obert’s Farm Equipment, Walton Ro ock Candii Ryyan Farms, Mark & Joan Sa am Klaver, Syngenta T Te erritory Rep Scotia Bank, Goderich Shannon McGavin So outhwest Dust Control Ste eve Corbett Sw weets and Treats, Wingham Sylvite The Backyard Flower Shop, Clinton The Well Community Collective Theo Bles, Re/Max Realtor Val Lea Farms Va VandenHeuvel Structures Va VanWyk Electric Va Vin nbro Farms Vin ncent, Neil & Joan VE ERMUE family We endt’s Jewellery

THE CITIZEN, FRIDAY, OCTOBER 11, 2024. PAGE 13.

BLYTH Y 519-523-4244

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519-523-4311

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Gras places fourth in Ont. Queen of the Furrow comp.

By Shawn Loughlin The Citizen

Royalty Former Huron County Queen of the Furrow Rachel Gras, right, made it to the top five in the provincial competition last week, which was a personal goal of hers. She’s seen here with Bruce County’s Taylor (Photo Legge, the new Ontario Queen of the Furrow. courtesy of the Huron County Plowmen’s Association)

The 2024 International Plowing Match (IPM) was a great one for Huron County. Not only was Seaforth’s Dugald McIntosh crowned Junior Champion, but Winthrop’s Rachel Gras placed fourth in the Ontario Queen of the Furrow competition.

Gras took the time to speak with The Citizen on Wednesday morning about the competition and achieving her goal by making the top five.

In the weeks leading up to the IPM, held in Lindsay, Gras crafted and practised her speech consistently. She wrote about the ongoing loss of farmland to nonfarming purposes in Ontario and says she would rehearse her words in front of anyone who would listen. She also worked with former Ontario Queen of the Furrow Maranda Klaver for tips and pointers and with her mother in mock interview scenarios.

Gras also spent some time out in the field for some plowing practice, three times to be exact, with her coach Dugald McIntosh, who would win the Junior Championship at the match. While she is familiar with agriculture and livestock, Gras says she has spent most of her 19 years actively avoiding tractors, so the practice was mostly to get her comfortable

with the machine. It worked and she placed fourth in the plowing portion of the competition.

Once the tractors sat silent, Gras said that she and McIntosh walked the fields and made an estimate as to where they thought she would finish and, with their guess of third place, they weren’t that far off.

As for the IPM itself, Gras said she arrived on the Wednesday night of the match, which included a quick meet-and-greet with her fellow Queen of the Furrow contestants and the judges.

The next day began with interviews and then proceeded into the aforementioned plowing competition.

For her interview, Gras said she was a bit nervous, but was quickly made to feel comfortable. As one of the last young women to be interviewed, she heard from others that the judges were largely asking questions based on the candidate’s resume, so she felt like she could handle questions about herself, rather than other topics with which she may not be as familiar.

The plowing competition went well, she said, and McIntosh is an excellent coach.

He was responsible for all of the plow adjustments and Gras said her job was to simply drive the tractor straight, turn it around and keep it straight once more.

The next day, the young women were on the stage for their speeches

and, despite her extensive practice regime, Gras said she was still a bit nervous, but she thinks she did a good job delivering her message to the judges and to those gathered to watch the competition.

When she found out she had made the top five, she was happy and relaxed for the rest of the competition. Gras said she had set a goal for herself of finishing in the top five and once she had done that, there was a certain ease to the rest of the competition. And while she says she can’t help but be a bit disappointed in not winning it all, she’s only 19 and there will be other opportunities.

Gras says she has her eye on some local fair ambassador competitions in the coming years and that she hopes to be back on the Huron County stage in no time.

The eventual winner of the competition was Taylor Legge of Bruce County, where the IPM will be held in 2026.

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BRUSSELS LIVESTOCK REPORT For the week ending October 4, 2024 Total Receipts: 1395 cattle; 850 lambs, sheep, and goats Tuesday – Fed cattle sold steady. Cows sold on an easier market.

Thursday – Veal sold on strong at prices $10 higher. Lambs sold $3 - $5 higher.

Sheep and goats sold steady.

Friday – Calves sold on a good active trade at steady prices. Yearlings sold on a higher market with grass yearlings selling at a premium.

Fed Cattle: There were 110 fed cattle on offer: Choice Fed Cattle: $245 – $257 Second Cut Fed Cattle: $231 – $244 Aged and Medium Fed Cattle: $180 – $220 Holstein Fed Cattle: $176 – $218 Allen Kistner of Monkton, consigned four head. Two red fed steers averaged 1,525 lbs. and sold for a price of $257.

Zetterdale Farms of Chepstow, consigned five head. Three red fed heifers averaged 1,508 lbs. and sold for a price of $250.

Cows: There were 150 cows on offer: Beef Cows: $150 – $215 Good Holstein Cows: $147 – $178 Medium Holstein Cows: $131 – $146 Bulls: $178 – $226 John J. Shetler of Auburn, consigned two head. One simmental cow weighed 1,485 lbs. and sold for a price of $212.

180 Dairy Ltd. of Dublin, consigned two head. One holstein cow weighed 1,480 lbs. and sold for a price of $178.

Mike Lyons of Londesborough, consigned two head. One charolais bull weighed 2,075 lbs. and sold for a price of $226.

Veal: There were 125 veal and 35 bob calves on offer: Beef Veal: $265 – $290 Good Holsteins: $280 – $294 SL Heavy Holsteins: $265 – $285 Heavy Holsteins: $235 – $267 Medium Holsteins: $260 – $279 Plain Holsteins: $245 – $259 Holstein Drop Calves: $275 – $1,075 / HEAD John and Cheryl Bennewies of Bornholm, consigned two head. One holstein veal weighed 695 lbs. and sold for a price of $294.

John Martin of Lucknow, consigned five head. One holstein veal weighed 745 lbs. and sold for a price of $288.

Cranbrook Farms of Brussels, consigned six head. One black bob calf sold for $1,075 / head.

Lambs: Under 50 lbs.: $340 – $367.50 50-64 lbs.: $320 – $347.50 65-79 lbs.: $290 – $335 80-94 lbs.: $250 – $322.50 95-109 lbs.: $250 – $270 110 lbs. and over: $240 – $255

Bruce Hicks of Centralia, consigned 14 head. Four simmental heifers averaged 704 lbs. and sold for an average price of $351.

Sheep: $170 – $265 William Ringgenberg of Walton, consigned 24 head. Eight lambs averaged 83 lbs. and sold for an average price of $322.50.

Brian and Craig Salverda of Londesborough, consigned 20 head.

Eight lambs averaged 91 lbs. and sold for an average price of $287.50.

Goats: Meat Kids: $400 – $485 Dairy Kids: $320 – $400 Mature Bucks: $300 – $400 Mature Does: $140 – $270 Jackie Shaw of Palmerston, consigned nine head. Eight kid goats averaged 62 lbs. and sold for a price of $485.

Jason Hoggart of Londesborough, consigned seven head. Five kid goats averaged 55 lbs. and sold for a price of $485.

Stockers: There were 975 stockers on offer.

Top Quality Steers: Under 400 lbs.: $320 – $550 400 – 499 lbs.: $325 – $525 500 – 599 lbs.: $342.50 – $490 600 – 699 lbs.: $375 – $440 up to $462.50 700 – 799 lbs.: $304 – $375 800 – 899 lbs.: $303 – $353 up to $362 900 – 999 lbs.: $286 – $343 1,000 lbs. and over: $284.50 – $320

John A. Miller of Lucknow, consigned 27 head. Thirteen charolais heifers averaged 864 lbs. and sold for an average price of $334.75.

Top Quality Heifers: Under 400 lbs.: $335 – $387.50 400 – 499 lbs.: $292.50 – $445 500 – 599 lbs.: $282.50 – $395 600 – 699 lbs.: $302.50 – $400 700 – 799 lbs.: $274 – $333 up to $351 800 – 899 lbs.: $271 – $334.75 900 lbs. and over: $255 – $292.50 up to $314.25

Edwin H. Weber of Wroxeter, consigned 28 head. Nine charolais heifers averaged 933 lbs. and sold for an average price of $314.25. Five charolais heifers averaged 961 lbs. and sold for an average price of $313.

Erik and Jim Wren of Douglas, consigned 26 head. Eleven charolais steers averaged 905 lbs. and sold for an average price of $340.

Division of Gamble & Rogers Ltd.

UPCOMING SALES

Raymond Martin of Linwood, consigned 10 head. Five black steers averaged 880 lbs. and sold for an average price of $353.

10:00 a.m.

Fed Cattle, Bulls & Cows

Kevin Horsburgh of Holstein, consigned 42 head. Twelve charolais steers averaged 1,028 lbs. and sold for an average price of $320. Ten charolais steers averaged 1,103 lbs. and sold for an average price of $314.

9:00 a.m. Drop Calves 10:00 a.m.Veal 11:30 a.m. Lambs, Goats & Sheep

Jon Merner of Clinton, consigned 16 head. Five charolais heifers averaged 601 lbs. and sold for an average price of $400.

Seven charolais steers averaged 625 lbs. and sold for an average price of $462.50.

BRUSSELS LIVESTOCK TUESDAYS THURSDAYS

FRIDAYS

10:00 a.m. Stockers Visit our webpage at: www.brusselslivestock.ca email us at: info@brusselslivestock.ca

Call us 519-887-6461

PAGE 14. THE CITIZEN, OCTOBER 11, 2024

Classified Advertising – RATES – 20 words or less only $9.00 + HST Additional words 25¢ ea. + HST

DEADLINE 2 p.m. Tuesday Phone 519-523-4792 e-mail: info@northhuron.on.ca

Articles for sale GERBERS FIREWOOD SERVING you for over 15 years. Your number one source of quality slabwood and bodywood. Delivery available. No Sunday calls. 519-274-1236, 519441-2085.

------------------------------------------Shade trees, Spruce, White Pine, Cedars, windbreaks and privacy hedges, Shrubs, Apples, Pears, Peaches, Plums, Sweet & sour Cherry Trees at (Emanuel E.M. Martin) Martin's Nursery 42661 Orangehill Rd, Wroxeter ON N0G 2X0 ------------------------------------------REPRINTS OF PHOTOS taken by Citizen photographers are available to purchase. All are in colour. 4x6 $5.00, 5x7 - $6.00, 8x10 - $10.00.

Phone to order 519-523-4792 or email info@northhuron.on.ca ------------------------------------------THE CITIZEN IS AVAILABLE TO purchase at these locations - Auburn Esso, Belgrave Variety, Blyth Food Market, Blyth Variety, Blyth Ultramar, Brussels Foodland, Brussels Variety, Clinton Convenience, Clinton Foodland, Fogal's YIG (Wingham), Seaforth Foodland, Fincher's (Goderich), Goderich Victoria St Shell, Goderich Petro-Canada Gas Bar, and The Citizen office in Blyth.

Coming events ETHEL HALL FALL SUPPER. Roast turkey and all the fixings.

Nov. 3 at the Ethel Community Center. Adults $20, kids 6 to 12, $10. 5 and under, free. 4 and 6 pm sittings. Tickets and information, call Brenda at 887-6153, and Sue at 291-8876.

------------------------------------------OCTOBER TAKE-OUT LUNCH, Tuesday, October 15, 11:45 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., Trinity Anglican Church, Blyth. Octoberfest Sausage lunch with dessert, $12 per person.

Ordering deadline: Monday, October 14. To order call 519-5239396 or email: mcgregor@ezlink.ca ------------------------------------------Please join us for our Famous Fish Fry at the Wingham Columbus Centre Friday October 18 from 12 p.m. - 6:30 p.m. Eat in $20 - choice of battered or grilled white fish and a buffet of garden and Caesar salad, French fries, baked potato, mashed potato, gravy, dinner rolls, also coffee and tea. Take out $18 - fish, potato, coleslaw and dinner roll. We also do chicken fingers for the 'non' fish lover. Butter tarts $2 or homemade cheesecake and other desserts $5 ea. Kids are 1/2 price.

Taxes are included. Call early to book your fish as we tend to sell out.

519-357-1270. Check out our web page for information about a Murder Mystery Show and Dinner on Nov 16th. winghamcolumbuscentre.com -------------------------------------------

Coming events Notices

Notices

Please join us in celebrating the 40th Anniversary of Don & Joan Deitner.

Come & Go, Sunday October 20. 2 to 4 p.m. at St Ambrose Catholic Church Brussels. Your presence is the only gift required.

------------------------------------------Londesboro & District Lions Club Old Tyme Country Breakfast Sunday, October 20, 2024, 8 a.m. to 11 a.m. Londesborough Community Hall. Adults $12.00, Children under 12, $6.00 Proceeds to Community Betterment.

------------------------------------------WINGHAM HOSPITAL RUMMAGE SALE at the Wingham Legion, Tuesday (note day change) October 15 2 to 6 pm and Wednesday, October 16 9:30 am to 11:30 am. Seasonal clothing can be dropped off Tuesday until noon at the Legion. Pickup of articles call Lois 519-357-3326. We need seasonal clothing, small household items, books, toys, puzzles, jewellery, etc. NO furniture or electronics please. Support your local Wingham Hospital Ladies Auxiliary.

THE VILLAGE BARBER will be CLOSED (for surgery) after Oct. 26.

Watch The Citizen for return date.

For rent Orlando Vacation Condo - Beautiful 5 star resort. Waterpark, spa, close to Disney, etc. Units sleep 4, 8 or 12.

Call 519-357-3622 ------------------------------------------10,000 bushel grain bin for rent.

Contact Mark at 519-357-8896

Garage sale Saturday, October 12 - Axes, sledges, cant hooks, Sawzall, 7" grinder, wood clamps, lumber, lawn mower and much more. 86424 London Road. 8am - noon.

Seaforth Optimist Club Monthly Cash Draw winners OCTOBER 2024 WINNERS Joyce Braecker ......................$2,100 Luke Janmaat ............................$100 Marlene Martin ..........................$100

WANTED: Someone to do books for approximately 2-3 hrs a week on Monday AM. Must Know Sage Accounting. Must come into the office in Walton to do this. Please send resume to ryantrans@ezlink.ca.

In memoriam RYAN. In loving memory of Mary Alice Ryan, who passed away October 15, 1984.

Nothing can ever take away The love a heart holds dear.

Fond memories linger every day, Remembrance keeps her near.

Forever loved and always remembered by Mom and Dad; Paul, Cheryl, and family; Chris and family; Mike, Kathy, and family.

CUSTOM APPLE PRESSING! Drop your apples off & pick up your fresh cider later ! Maitside Orchard, 23 Orchard Lane, Brussels 519-8352228.

------------------------------------------

Notice Brussels Cemetery The Municipality of Huron East has submitted a by-law to the Registrar of the Funeral, Burial, and Cremation Services Act, 2002. Any interested parties may contact Lissa Berard at Tel: 519-527-0160 ext. 35, or csd@huroneast.com for information, or to make copies. The By-law may be reviewed or copied at Huron East Town Hall, 72 Main Street, South, Seaforth, ON The by-law is subject to the approval of the Registrar, Funeral, Burial, and Cremation Services Act, 2002.

Telephone: Bereavement Authority of Ontario 647-483-2645 or 1-844-493-6356

Tenders f

Help wanted

Services

Tenders SCHILDER FARMS FOR SALE BY TENDER

Tenders are invited for the sale of farm properties near Blyth, Ontario comprised of: Caldwell Farm: Part Lot 14, Concession 2 96 workable acres more or less.

39773 Moncrieff Road, North Huron (East Wawanosh) Craig Farm: South ½ Lot 10, Concession 7 101.50 workable acres more or less.

41006 St. Michaels Road, Morris-Turnberry (Morris) For tender forms and other particulars contact: Murray McKercher Professional Corporation 32A Centennial Drive, Seaforth, Ontario N0K 1W0 Phone: (519) 527-0850 x. 234 Email: tsmith@murraymckercher.ca Tenders to be submitted by 12:00 noon on Monday October 21, 2024 Interested buyers are permitted to submit tenders for one or both of the properties.

Highest or any tender not necessarily accepted.

Happy Thanksgiving All word ads in The Citizen classifieds are put on our webpage at www.huroncitizen.ca

Swap shop Citizen-To-Citizen “SWAP SHOP” ad Call 519-523-4792 or email: info@northhuron.on.ca

• Free ad up to 25 words, person to person only (no businesses), items valued at $1,000 or less. Price must be included in your ad.Your ad will run three times unless it sells faster!

• The Citizen reserves the right to limit the number of items or ads per person.

FOR SALE - John Deere lawn mower, $200 or best offer. 519-357-6338. 41-3 -------------------------------------------------FOR SALE - Body Break tread mill, $40; child’s bed and mattress, $30; Mastercraft scroll saw 500-1700 SPM, $50; expanding steel bed frame on rollers, $10. Call 519528-5717.

41-3 -------------------------------------------------FOR SALE - Twenty-five pieces of wood 3”x3” square 29” long .75 each; 30 pieces wood 1 3/4” x 1 3/4” 29” long .50 each; 3 boards 14 3/4” (w) x 1”x69” $8. 519-8879083.

41-3 -------------------------------------------------FOR SALE - Nurmerous old yard sticks $3 each; Insurance and Trust company collector items (signs, stationery, pens, etc.) 519-887-9083 41-3 -------------------------------------------------FOR SALE - Two tires 235/65/R16.

Antares. Grip 20. $35 each; 60 ft. 1” plastic pipe. $25. 226-880-1689.

40-3 -------------------------------------------------FOR SALE - Four winter tires 225-55R 17 on rims - maybe driven 2,500 kms. Off of a Pontiac Grand Prix. Asking $350.

519-233-5010.

40-3 -------------------------------------------------FOR SALE - 2007 Buick Allure CX, as is, $1,000. or best offer; Honeywell Cool Mist humidifier, $15; Pond pump 800 gal/hr. $50. 519-345-0446.

40-3 -------------------------------------------------FOR SALE - Frigidaire 18” built-in dishwasher, like new, asking $295. obo.; Lifetime water distiller, efficient freestanding unit. $400 obo; Vegetable dehydrator, 1,000 watt, 10 trays, 110 v. unit, $50; European clothes dryer, stackable, 7kg. capacity, like new. Asking $200. 519-357-3622.

40-3 -------------------------------------------------FOUND - Ring, sentimental value, Call 365-994-0462 to identify.

39-3 -------------------------------------------------FOR SALE - Two new tire rims, white, 15 inches, 6 bolt holes. $30 each or best offer. Call 519-525-9304.

39-3 --------------------------------------------------

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S b ib Tod Subscribe day!!

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BUYING OR SELLING CHECK OUT THE CLASSIFIEDS

THE CITIZEN, FRIDAY, OCTOBER 11, 2024. PAGE 15.

Hullett food drive begins, TF Run makes $560

Pounding the pavement The Hullett Central Public School Terry Fox Run has been deemed a success, raising just under $560 for the Terry Fox Foundation. Doing their part at the storied event were Heather Bannon, left, and Kelsey Cressman. (Shawn Loughlin photo)

Obituaries

JUDADIA “Jud” HAKKERS Judadia “Jud” Hakkers, tragically, but doing what he loved, departed our lives on Oct. 4, 2024 in Huntsville, Ontario in his 43rd year.

The adoring husband of Jen for 16 years, Jud was the proud and amazing dad of Brooklyn and Mckenzie. He was the brother of Jesse and Alicia, the son of Nancy and Gerald and the grandson of Lois Rowe. He was the brother-inlaw of Kelly and Joseph Snively, son-in-law of Betty Andrews, and the uncle of Quinnlyn, Carlie, Thomas, Charlotte and Hudson.

Jud will be missed by many

aunts, uncles and cousins.

Jud loved his life! He loved his family more than anything, had love everlasting with his wife and was beyond proud of his children.

He loved taking care of his family, making sure that they were engaged with each other and teaching with each experience.

He taught his kids how to work on cars, play soccer and take care of horses. He was an inspiring parent and husband. Jud also loved being outside, he enjoyed being a fixer and his hands were always dirty.

Jud loved cars. He was always fixing cars and ran his own auto detailing business on the side to keep himself busy. Jud loved to work.

Starting out at Sparling’s/Parkland Propane, he worked his way to the top to become District Manager for Southwestern Ontario. His hard work and work ethic showed in every job he took on.

His patience was outstanding, and he had the sarcasm to match.

He loved to play soccer and baseball and was always involved in something. We will miss his hugs and tickle fights and watching thunderstorms together. We hope you are doing burnouts in your Grand National wherever you are.

A private family service will take place and a celebration of Jud’s life will take place at a later date.

Condolences may be left at riversidefuneralhome.ca

Whoa! Just where did September go? It seems like we just had the Labour Day holiday and now we are suddenly preparing for Thanksgiving. The great September weather lulled us into thinking it was still summer. But time needs to slow down a little.

This election for our neighbours to the south can’t happen soon enough as far as I’m concerned. I am so tired of the campaigning, if one can call it that. Politicians are like children on the playground, insulting and criticizing each other to such an extent that the policies and plans for each party get lost in the kerfuffle. And this style of campaigning seems to be finding its way north. Having said that, wouldn’t it be historic to have a woman in the White House?

According to Webster’s Dictionary, empathy is the ability to “enter into the feeling or spirit of others”. Empathy is the virtue being talked about at Hullett Central Public School this month. During the teachings around Truth and Reconciliation Day, the children would gain some understanding about this virtue. The phrase “every child matters” would resonate at some level for all the pupils.

Terry Fox said, “Even if I don’t finish, I need others to continue.”

He knew research was essential to finding cures for cancer. Hullett Central Public School held its own run again this fall and raised nearly

$560 for the Terry Fox Foundation.

Teaching and talking about this annual run would be another great time for children to empathize with others.

While many of us will sit down to tables laden with food to celebrate Thanksgiving with family and friends this weekend, there are many who have bare cupboards and rely on the empathy and generosity of others to feed their families.

Hullett held a Thanksgiving Food Drive this week. Students were asked to bring to school nonperishable food items to donate to the agencies that help families in need. Another lesson in empathy.

For quite a number of years, Meagan Anderson has been the ECE assistant in Mrs. Bell’s Kindergarten classroom. Kudos to her for advancing her own education enabling her now to teach full-time. Best wishes for her future. Ms. Rolph-Kicks has been hired to assist in that Kindergarten classroom presently.

NEWS FROM LONDESBORO Remembering your loved one

Honour your loved one by placing their obituary in

The Citizen.

This is a free service provided by The Citizen. We encourage you to share the story of your loved one in a special remembrance of their life.

Cards of thanks can be placed in our classified section, starting at just $ .00.

PAGE 16. THE CITIZEN, FRIDAY, OCTOBER 11, 2024.

Farmers see high level of moisture content in corn PEOPLE AROUND WALTON

By Jo-Ann McDonald Call 887-6570

It was another good week of weather and many more acres of crops are now off the fields. Some farmers started at the grain and corn harvest, but I hear that the moisture is fairly high. Corn is to be at 14 per cent moisture to go into storage and we hear some is at 28 per cent. A little high, but it can be dried, but the cost of propane to dry it is not cheap.

To combine or not to combine:

that is the question. It is hard to wait when the sun is shining and it is dry, but the sun is drying the corn naturally, so many will wait. Corn silage is different and can be at a higher moisture count, as it is the whole stalk that is taken and ground up, so you will see fields of corn being taken off. There is so much to know about farming. After many years on the farm, I still have to ask lots of questions.

Congratulations to Lori Carter and the Cemetery Enthusiasts of Huron County who had a very successful day at the Brussels Cemetery. The group of 37 cleaned nearly 50 gravestones and sprayed several hundred more with biocide cleaner that gently cleans the stones over time. They had special guests on hand who spoke to them on gravestones. The Brussels Leo Club, along with Glenda Morrison

and Catherine Edgar, supplied lunch for the group. Great job everyone.

Our sympathies are extended to the Hakkers/Rowe families on the sudden death of Jud Hakkers. He was critically injured in an accident near Huntsville. His wife Jenn is in serious condition in Sunnybrook Hospital. They have two small children, Brooklyn and Mackenzie.

Jud worked for Sparling’s Propane for many years and was well-known and well-liked. Our sympathies to Gerald and Nancy Hakkers and the families and our hopes for a full recovery for Jenn. Arrangements are pending.

For those who like to start early to get ready for Christmas, it’s time.

There are only about 10 weeks or so until the big day. There is Christmas shopping, Christmas parties, Christmas baking, bake sales, craft

McIntosh nationals-bound

shows, musical nights, decorating, putting up lights, concerts at school, parades and the lists go on and on.

We are pleased to hear that Albert Cardiff, son of Rob and Allyson Cardiff, is improving after suffering serious injuries in a four-wheeler accident in the north. Rob and Albert were up working on the cabin and decided to go for a short ride. Albert failed to make a curve and was injured two weeks ago. He was flown to Sudbury by helicopter and was in a coma for a week. He was then sent to London and now is at Parkwood Hospital doing rehab.

They report he is coming along, but will be a while yet in his recovery.

We send our best to the Cardiff family and hope for a full recovery for Albert.

It is Thanksgiving weekend and we hope everyone has a chance to be with family or friends. The long weekend means celebrating can be Saturday, Sunday or Monday. We hope the weather remains good and we can be inside and outside!

The town work crew was busy pouring cement and making a nice level pad at the main street park this past week. It is going to be accessible and have a picnic table placed, so I hear.

This is a repeat warning for drivers. Yellow flashing lights on a school bus mean it is getting ready to stop to pick up children. It does not mean you should speed up and pass the bus. There is, almost daily, a driver reporting on the bus radio that a vehicle has driven through the red flashing lights as a bus is stopped. Pay attention. Yellow flashing lights mean the bus is about to stop and the red lights will activate.

The same can be said when meeting large farm equipment on the roads. Everyone needs to slow down and be patient. Pull over, especially on narrow roads, or pull into a laneway to make sure there is room for the equipment to pass. A rollover in the ditch could be fatal.

It only takes a few moments to wait

and then you can continue on your way. Drive safe so everyone arrives home safely to their families!

The bus companies around our area are all looking for drivers.

Think about it. You may have some time to be a part of the team. Maybe you can commit to full-time, but maybe you can only do mornings or afternoons. The companies can work with you. The extra money can come in handy. Think about it and give your local company a call.

Companies have to cancel bus runs if they have no driver and then every parent has to take their children to school. Step up and help make sure all children get to school every day. We need drivers and that could be you. It is a dedication of time to drive full-time, but you will be off on all statutory holidays, P.A. days, two weeks at Christmas, a week at March Break and, of course, snow days! Please think about it!

Celebrating birthdays this past week are Bryce Shortreed, Matthew Shortreed, Paulene Bennett, Shaye Flaxbard, Paul Kirkby, Dianne McCallum, Kara Godkin, Joyce Hartman and Jared Kelso. Happy birthday to all!

NEWS FROM WALTON

Good Employees are hard to find

Plowing prodigy Dugald McIntosh of Seaforth was crowned Junior Champion at last week’s International Plowing Match in Lindsay, securing his spot in next year’s Canadian Plowing Championship in Ayton, Ontario. He also won the Barbara McAllister Memorial Scholarship Award. (Photo courtesy of the Huron County Plowmen’s Association) Continued from page 1 three of them, over the course of three days, he said they really got to spend a lot of time together and it turned into a friendly competition.

As far as his time out in the field was concerned, McIntosh said that despite his dominance, it was no picnic out there. He said he felt prepared and had practised all week leading up to the match, so he was

confident on the way to Lindsay.

However, when he arrived, the fields had plenty of stones in them and were often hilly, adding to his degree of difficulty. To combat the stones, however, he said he just tried to go slowly and get the plow back in the dirt as soon as he could to stay on his path.

Looking ahead, he says he’s proud to represent his county and

his province at the national competition next year.

Furthermore, he said he’s happy that he’ll be the first member of the Huron County 4-H Sodbusters Club to compete at the Canadian Plowing Championship in a while.

Something like that, he said, will be a real boost for the club and for youth plowing in Huron County as a whole.

Big Jobs Little Jobs Odd Jobs Even Dirty Jobs

Let us help you find the ideal person!

Place an ad in our classified section in

The Citizen

THE CITIZEN, FRIDAY, OCTOBER 11, 2024. PAGE 17.

From the Minister’s Study

God’s nurturing carries us through joys, sorrows

By Rev. Alex Jebson, Blyth and Brussels United Churches I remember when I was a kid that one of the first questions adults would ask me is, “What do you want to be when you grow up?” I’m sure you all remember facing this daunting question as well. When I was little, I wanted to be a space farmer when I grew up; I wanted to have the first dairy herd on the moon. Never mind the fact that Holsteins (and myself) need oxygen, I swore it was going to happen some day.

As I grew up, my goals changed.

At one time I wanted to be a meteorologist, another time a teacher, and even an opera singer.

And, I told myself in high school, if all else failed, I could be a minister.

Whatever our childhood dreams were growing up, they often had to do with being the best or first at something; the greatest, the most important. And whether your dreams were nurtured by the grown-ups around you or your space farmer dreams were dashed, chances are the grown-ups around you were having concerns with their own dreams and ambitions.

For they too were often wrapped up with concerns about being the greatest, the most important, successful and well-liked. The question is, though, is that what we should really be nurturing in our faith?

This is the question that the disciples faced in our Gospel narrative for today, found in Mark 9:30-37. It’s likely a familiar one to many of us. You can clearly picture the tired and confused disciples bickering and being disgruntled, trying to figure out the pecking order. Who was king of the castle?

Then you have Jesus chiding them and uplifting a child as one to be welcomed. “The first shall be last and the last shall be first.” It’s what I always say during church meals when I wait until everyone else has gone up first.

But perhaps we can be a bit more sympathetic to the disciples’ bickering and status-seeking. In the time of the Roman Empire, which occupied Galilee and Judaea, honour and status were some of the most important cultural aspects of the day. One’s value and importance were based on achievements, wealth and social connections. There was also an increased emphasis on hospitality, on the ability to host others and not be dependent.

For Jesus to turn around and say that the most important things were

the exact opposite would have been confounding for the disciples. Jesus then said that a child, someone with nearly no status or rights in biblical times, was needed to be welcomed as an important member of the flock. The ragtag group following Jesus clearly had some growing up to do when it came to being disciples, and they were starting to realize just how non-nurturing and unloving the world around them could be.

“What do you want to be when you grow up?” It’s a question that most of here haven’t had to consider in years or decades, but when it comes to faith, it’s one with which we are constantly faced and with which we constantly struggle.

Part of the trouble is that, quite often, the nurturing we seek out in life’s questions and goals isn’t based on the divine and loving wisdom of God, but rather that of power and status. Very quickly our questions turn to, “Who is the greatest among us?” nurtured by institutions that thrive off of competition and greed, that desire to rank us, use us up and see others as expendable.

And when we turn to the nurturing of the ways of power and status, we find it harder to live out our role as disciples, nurturing others in turn. Rather than offering compassion and care, we seek out ways to best one another, or leave people to their own demise. We don’t take seriously what they discern and want to be in their lives of faith.

This isn’t just about children, though Lord knows many children

in our own communities and around the world are often ignored or seen as not worthy of the nurturing love we as disciples are called to give.

Adults alike are suffering in a culture and systems that try to stymie God’s nurturing and caring ways. Many of us grown-ups still have a lot of growing and learning to do in faith and in nurturing others.

For those disciples, for that child, for all whom Christ encountered they would be blessed to receive a nurturing divine presence. A kind of nurturing that made them feel seen and valued far more than any kind of popularity contest could have offered, and that would also help them to discern what kind of disciple and person they wanted to be as they grew up in faith.

This nurturing would look different than what people had expected. The child that Jesus lifted up as worthy of a welcome felt a kind of divine nurturing that they had never experienced before.

Looking up at Jesus, you can just imagine the child saying, “I want to be pure, peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, without a trace of partiality or hypocrisy.” (James 3:17) O.K., maybe not that exactly. Perhaps the child simply and faithfully said, “I want to be like you.”

The disciples too would come to know the kind of nurturing that made the argument about who was the greatest a moot point.

Embracing this nurturing, they would turn from the things that would create greed and hatred and competition. They were not only

The Anglican Churches of Blyth, Seaforth and Wingham Welcome You to Sunday Service!

Trinity: 9:00 a.m. Parish of the Holy Spirit: 9:30 a.m. St. Paul’s-Trinity: 11:00 a.m.

66 Dinsley St. W, Blyth

21 Jarvis St. Seaforth 519-527-1522

revjoann@hurontel.on.ca

holyspirit@tcc.on.ca

stpauls@hurontel.on.ca

www.holyspiritseaforth.ca

www.regionalministryof hope.com

The Regional Ministry of Hope

Service Livestreamed Sundays at 11 a.m. on our facebook page

The Regional Ministry of

Bake Sale ~ Saturdaay October 12th 10:00-11:30 a.m.

Use frront entrance off King St.

Contact Alex at ministter.brusselsandblythuc@gmail.com y @g Website: brusselsandblythuc.ca brusselsandblythuc b ca P.O. Box 359, Brussels ~ 519-887-6259 P.

Interim Pastor Elwin Garland 250 Princess St., Brussels • 519 887 6388

Join us Su unday y,, October 13

Sunday, October 13 at 10 a.m.

BMG Community Centre (upstairs room) 800 Sports Drive, Brussels

Thanksgiving se ervice - Pastor Robert Datema will be leading g us in the 10:00 am service.

There will be no evening service.

Worship and Prayer Time Loving Fellowship Expository Preaching

Free supper and Bible study! 6 p.m. on Wednesday nights starting Oct. 16 More details at: brusselscommunitybiblechapel.ca

Blyth United Church Thanksgiving Sunday, October 13 at 9:30 a.m.

“I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.” John 10:11 Nursery & Sunday School during worship

On-site and online - live.huronchapel.com To talk to Pastor Mike please email pastormike@huronchapel.com

119 John’s Ave., Auburn 519-526-1131

Happy Thanksgiving!

Do you have something g to be thankful for?

COME TO THANKSG GIVING WORSHIP Sunday, October 13 1 at 11:00 a.m.

Services S ervices a are re llive-streamed ive-streamed a and nd c can an b be e ffo found ound b by ys searching earching ““Blyth “B Blly yth C Christian hristian R Reformed effo orrm med C Church” hurrc ch”

BLYT B TH CHRISTIAN REFO RE R EFO E RMED CHURCH Hwy. 4, Blyth 519-523-4743 www.blythcrc.ca

Evangelical Missionary Church

Sunday, October 13, 10:30 a.m.

23 John St E Wingham 519-357-4883

U United Chu ur urch

Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good. Psalm 106:1

Childcare and Sunday School provided for children 0 to 8 during the sermon

Guest speakers: Jono and Rachel Stanley

those who would find status before God will do so as they serve the needy - comes as a liberating word rather than an onerous demand…. It is sad for a person to be so consumed with what others think about him, to be so insecure in who he is that he must seek public recognition of his importance. We are truly significant when we welcome Jesus in the child who finds comfort and aid and security in the arms in which we enfold her.”

As we grow in faith, we can come to appreciate all of the ways that we experience God’s nurturing, just as the disciples did throughout Jesus’ ministry. We find the nurturing in the loving, kindness and wisdom that we get in our faith, the community that nurtures us and lets us nurture others, the Creation that sustains us, and in so many other ways.

This nurturing is something that we receive our whole lives long, and it carries us through in both the joys and sorrows of life. The nurturing we receive to be a people of love and service holds us up and Continued on page 18

BRUSSELS S

Brussels Mennonite Fellowship invites you to worship with us 10:00 a.m. Worship Service 11:00 a.m. Co ee Time 11:15 a.m. Sunday School

figuring out what they wanted to be as they grew up into disciples, but also finding the support and compassion of God to get there.

They weren’t necessarily destined for greatness; most of the disciples would end up imprisoned or hated as they grew up. But growing up in faith, they would know the true nurturing God that would sustain them in those times, and who promises a “Kingdom Come” in which people are nurtured and loved more greatly than any flashy title or object could be worth.

Some might think this doesn’t sound like the most nurturing and that it can feel limiting in a way.

When we think of nurturing, we might think of trying to avoid all harm or to push people to greatness.

But, in reality, it is a freeing and comforting reality, knowing that God nurtures us in ways of true love, helping us to grow in both the joys and challenges of life. The professor and writer Harry B. Adams explains this further: “…

The word of Jesus - that those who would be first must be last, that

The outreach program for October is the Christmas Bureau.

Contact Alex at: minister.brusselsandblythuc@gmail.com

th

MEL LV VILLE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH BRUSSELS

Sunday, October 13, 2024 9:30 a.m. (Please note time change) O give thanks unto the Lord! Praise His Name for evermoree!

We extend a loving welcome to all to join us this Thanksgiving as Dooug Sargent leads us in worship, prayer and praise to God. Soup S & More 2 Join us on Fridaay October 11 from 11:30 to 1 p.m. for a Thanksgivving meal with all the trimmings!

All are welcome!

Facebook: Blyth and Brussels United Churches blythunited@tcc.on.ca ~ 519-523-4224

For pastoral care co oncerns please call 519-524-7512 2

PAGE 18. THE CITIZEN, FRIDAY, OCTOBER 11, 2024.

Huron Family Health Team requests rent cut

By Shawn Loughlin The Citizen

Seaforth’s Huron Community Family Health Team (FHT) is seeking relief in the form of a rent decrease from Huron East Council in order to keep its organization viable and helping residents of the community.

FHT Executive Director Kelly Buchanan first spoke to council at its Aug. 13 meeting, presenting her request on behalf of the organization, as well as some comparative data for other area healthcare entities. She told council that Ontario Health has not raised the rent allotment for the FHT in 10 years, and yet, costs, salaries and rent are all going up. And, because of the structure of FHT agreements, they have to balance their budgets at the end of the year, meaning that FHTs such as hers have had to make tough decisions regarding staffing

levels and levels of service in order to balance that budget and appease the government.

“The Huron Community Family Health Team is funded by Ontario Health (formally the Ministry of Health). We receive yearly funding in the amount of $132,619 to cover the rent for both the Seaforth and Brussels locations,” Buchanan said in her delegation request to council.

“In the past, there was a building committee for the building at 32B 1 Centennial Drive where issues and concerns could be brought to for discussions by the tenants. This included requests to lower or forego the rent increase for a given year, request upgrades, improvements or renovations. As there is no longer such a committee, we have been instructed to bring the issue to the attention of council,” she said in her report. “After the most recent rent increase, our budget for rent for the last fiscal year was overspent by

$6,134. Although we are not exactly sure what our current rate per square foot is, this has not been provided, it has been calculated to be over $20 per square foot.”

She then compared the Seaforth situation to those of other area medical buildings. In Listowel, there is no cost to the FHT, while it’s just 85 cents per square foot in Hensall. In Wingham it’s $15 per square foot and $14.50 in Clinton.

In St. Marys, physicians pay $11.44 per square foot, she said, and the FHT pays $20.34, but receives an annual subsidy of $50,000 from the Town of St. Marys. In Goderich, physicians pay $16.40 per square foot, while the FHT pays just $1.23 per square foot.

“Although we can all appreciate that there have been increases in everything, the Family Health Team and the physician group that practises in this location are dangerously close to not being able to afford to stay at our current location in Seaforth,” Buchanan said in her report. “We would like to request that council consider a decrease in our rental costs to a rate that can sustain the expenses and costs of the building, but also fall in line with other comparable communities and allow us to remain at this location.”

Huron East Mayor Bernie MacLellan said he had been approached by representatives of the FHT on this issue, but insisted that they speak to council so a proper discussion with all members of council could take place. He also vouched for the FHT, saying that, serving as a member of the Huron Perth Public Health board, he knew

then place the financial burden on taxpayers,” McRoberts said in his report to council. “Currently, rising operating costs are reducing the amount of dollars available to cover the annual debt payments and for the annual contribution to the health centre reserve. This reduction to the reserve contribution is already resulting in insufficient funds being available to support the necessary planned capital projects. As such, either rent income needs to continue to increase annually or the ratepayers will need to begin to subsidize the health centre’s operation and capital costs.

“If council supports a reduction of rent to the Huron Community Family Health Team, the loss in funds will need to be covered by additional municipal taxes. This will ensure that the expenses are covered and reserve contributions are not further reduced so as to not jeopardize the sustainability of the facility,” McRoberts said in his report.

Councillor Larry McGrath agreed with Fisher, saying he too would like to see some more information and know just how much is being paid by Huron East ratepayers to help subsidize the arrangement and how much that would rise if the rent were to be lowered as requested.

Councillor Ray Chartrand said he was also on the same page, saying that costs for everything from wages to equipment were on the rise and it’s Huron East that’s absorbing that if the rent isn’t being increased or even decreased.

Council agreed and voted to table the issue and return to it once staff made more information available.

that similar challenges were being felt there. Over 13 people were let go, he said, so that the public health entity could make its budget, facing similar constraints as the FHT. Council requested a staff report to be presented at a future meeting and revisited the issue at its Sept. 17 meeting, which was held at the Brussels Library to coincide with opening night of the Brussels Fall Fair. However, council didn’t reach a final decision on the topic and instead asked for the issue to be tabled and returned at a later date.

At the Sept. 17 meeting, Councillor Bob Fisher was the first to raise the issue, asking that it be tabled so he could receive more information before making a decision. Specifically, Fisher said he would like to see the Family Health Team’s statements from 2021, 2022 and 2023, including the organization’s reserve levels, before proceeding any further.

In his report, presented on Sept.

17, Chief Administrative Officer Brad McRoberts said that operating costs for the Huron East Health Care Centre (wages, utilities, custodial services, repairs and maintenance, insurance and property taxes) rose by 13 per cent in 2022, 11 per cent in 2023 and that they are projected to rise by seven per cent this year.

“It is crucial for the Municipality of Huron East to ensure there is adequate space to provide health care services to the community. If the municipality does not adhere to the annual rent increase formula, it will be challenging to have the necessary annual surpluses to fund future capital needs, which will

Jebson dreams of space farms Flower power The Brussels Horticultural Society celebrated its 70th anniversary this year, marking the occasion with a special event on Saturday at the Brussels Legion. From left: Kathy Workman, Sandra Machan, Jane White and (John Stephenson photo) Jen Elliott.

Continued from page 17 keeps us going in the times when we feel small and insignificant, in the times when the world tries to tell us we will never achieve greatness.

We hear the question from Christ: “Who do you want to be when you

support and care for one another, and to nurture the world to act not in ways of malice and status, but in the ways of God’s Kingdom Come.

All that being said, space farmer still sounds like a pretty cool gig.

Thanks be to God. Amen.

grow up?” And in faith, our answer is, “Someone who is nurtured and helps nurture others.” Don’t seek to be the first, the greatest, the most powerful. Instead, may we be moved by Christ to nurture old and new relationships in the pews here, nurture our local community to

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THE CITIZEN, FRIDAY, OCTOBER 11, 2024. PAGE 19.

Entertainment & Leisure

Monkey Brains Records opens in Londesborough

Vinyl minded Alphonse Meloche has dedicated much of his life to pursuing a passion for music. Now he is transforming a space in Londesborough into a recording studio that he hopes will attract local musicians. (Scott Stephenson photos)

By Scott Stephenson The Citizen

There’s a new business in Londesborough that has its sights set on doing things the oldfashioned way. That’s right, Monkey Brains Records is planning on being Huron County’s latest manufacturer of vinyl records/ independent music producer.

While the project is still in the

process of getting off the ground, proprietor Alphonse Meloche has big plans for the future of his simian-themed studio.

“It’s probably a 10-year plan - just taking it slow,” he explained. “I’d like to do it as a whole package recording and production.

Mastering, I’ll send it off to somebody else - mastering is a whole different ball game. But we could do bed tracks, and all that

stuff right here... I want to be able to record people in this area. With roots music. Whatever they have.”

Meloche sees a lot of advantages to running a rural recording studio, and he’s betting that there are a lot of artists out there who will feel the same way. “My costs are going to be substantially lower than going to a great big studio. But I have all the tools, and the experience, and the equipment that these big studios

CHSS begins strings program

Strings oriented Students at CHSS are learning how to play stringed instruments as part of a new program at the school.

(Submitted photo)

From jazz to wind band and rock, the Central Huron Secondary School (CHSS) music department is starting a new “strings” program at the school.

“We were incredibly grateful to the community of Central Huron for donations of strings that helped get this program started,” says CHSS music teacher, Aaron Neeb.

“Our goal is to provide as much variety to our students as possible as instrumental music is linked to

Sudoku Solution

higher academic achievement and creativity.”

New additions to the music department include three violins, a viola and a cello. Students enrolled in music receive the opportunity to play these instruments as part of course work and a quintet has started at the school.

“Having a strings program compliments a lot of the work that our band program offers,” says string director, Cam Bowman.

“Playing a string instrument helps students learn many skills from self-discipline to focus and handeye coordination.” Bowman, a math teacher at CHSS, has played both viola and french horn with the Windsor Symphony Youth Orchestra and the Windsor Community Orchestra.

“Even though I teach math, I knew that music would always be a part of my life and this is just one way that I get to share my love of music,” says Bowman. “It is exciting to get to make music and share what I have learned with young adults.”

The CHSS music department is seeking any additional donations of stringed instruments including violin, viola, cello and double bass.

Any community members that have donations are encouraged to contact Aaron Neeb at aaron.neeb@ ed.amdsb.ca or Central Huron Secondary School at 519-482-3471.

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have.” In addition to almost 52 years of experience as a guitar player, Meloche has worked in many other facets of the music industry. He has experience as a teacher, a music producer, an album designer, a sound engineer; he’s even been a piano repairman! “I quit doing all that to work more on making this a studio,” he said.

At this point, Monkey Brains Records will not be pressing records on site, but they’ve been working with a company that does.

“If you want albums, I can have all the music that you have made into an album... I took a look at presses, and the newest, latest model is $250,000, which I don’t see as achievable right now. Take it one step at a time - we gotta get people

in here. That's the step that I’m in right now.”

Perhaps it was being born during the golden age of album art that led to Meloche’s lifelong affinity for vinyl. He certainly isn’t alone in his love of records - there have oft been declarations through the years that vinyl has been made obsolete, usurped by the cassette, CD, or mp3, but through it all, the record has not only survived, but thrived.

Vinyl still remains the preferred format by music fans all over the world, including Meloche. “When you get an album, when you make vinyl - you own it. It’s yours. You never have to go to The Cloud, or nothing. You just go over there, pick out an album, put it on the turntable, and play it.”

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PAGE 20. THE CITIZEN, FRIDAY, OCTOBER 11, 2024.

Members vote to sell Wingham Golf Club

By Shawn Loughlin The Citizen The Wingham Golf and Curling Club will soon be up for sale, as members have authorized its sale by a vote of 96-19.

Scott Miller of CTV News is reporting that the club, which would have marked its 75th anniversary in 2025, has been marred by years of financial struggles and that those are the main reasons for moving ahead with the sale. This also comes after

a vote to discontinue curling at the club one month earlier due to needed repairs at the facility.

The club has been operated by a volunteer group of community members, as a non-profit organization, for years.

Miller is reporting that it is believed that the final days for the club will be this weekend. He also wrote that members are hoping that a buyer will come forward who will continue to operate the property as a nine-hole golf course and curling facility.

Marking the occasion Last Saturday, the Brussels Horticultural Society marked its 70th anniversary with a special day at the Brussels Legion to look back at all the organization has accomplished, while also enjoying one another’s company. (John Stephenson photo)

Thank Canada for first Thanksgiving Continued from page 7 Thanksgiving alone, so this will be a special treat for us.

As I was preparing for this article, I discovered something intriguing.

Canada celebrated Thanksgiving before the United States. According to Old Schoolhouse Magazine, “The first Thanksgiving celebrated by European settlers in North America took place in 1578 in what is now Nunavut. The settlers ate a meal to celebrate and give thanks for their safe arrival after their trip across the ocean. They celebrated communion at this time, and there is record of religious speeches being given.

On Nov. 14, 1606, Samuel de Champlain hosted a feast where the Indigenous people of Canada and the European settlers were able to dine together as part of the, “Order of Good Cheer” series to keep the colonists eating and drinking enough to keep scurvy away and survive their new land.”

“The first large, national Thanksgiving in Canada was celebrated in 1859 in what was then called the province of Canada. The province of Canada was developed when Upper Canada and Lower Canada were united by Britain in 1841. These two groups became the Province of Canada and were governed jointly by Britain until confederation in 1867. This first Thanksgiving was intended for the ‘public and solemn’ recognition of God’s mercies.”

I also found some interesting trivia for us, too. According to the same article in Old Schoolhouse Magazine, “April 5, 1872 - This was the first Thanksgiving after confederation. It was held to celebrate the recovery of the Prince of Wales from an illness. Dec. 6 was the latest known day for Thanksgiving to be celebrated.

Beginning in 1921, Thanksgiving was celebrated on the Monday of Nov. 11 week and was celebrated jointly with Armistice (now known as Remembrance Day). However, to give more recognition to veterans, these two days were separated in

1931 and Remembrance Day became official.

“At that time, Thanksgiving went back to being decided annually and was typically held on the second Monday in October. Jan. 31, 1957, was when Parliament officially made the second Monday in October Thanksgiving. It was said to be ‘a day of general thanksgiving to Almighty God for the bountiful harvest with which Canada has been blessed.’”

This is the date we still celebrate today, although it is not a statutory holiday in all provinces. This was all very exciting for me, a new Canadian citizen, to discover.

I want to mention a discovery I have recently made for which I am thankful: a local Canadian children’s author! She is also the sister of our principal at Huron Christian School.

Her name is Linda Yolanda Kloosterhof. Her latest book is Goodness All Around (2024), and, according to Amazon, “Whether you find yourself in the midst of childhood or reminiscent of it, this delightful tale shares the goodness of it, with just a hint of the groovy 70s. So, with happy hearts, let's run barefoot through tall grasses, counting gophers and chasing butterflies along the way.”

Linda is also the author of I See What You’re Saying (2022) and It’s the Little Things (2024) all of which can be purchased on Amazon. These would make great Christmas gifts for your children, grandchildren, or neighbour. It is my belief we should celebrate the contributions of our local talent.

As my husband and I sit down for our Thanksgiving meal this weekend, I want to extend to you and your family a warm wish of happiness and love. It is my pleasure to be able to share just a few things about my childhood but also to share the excitement I felt discovering the wonderful Thanksgiving facts about my new home: Canada. I do love this land so much.

“Gratitude is the memory of the heart.” - Jean-Baptiste Massieu

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