Hello Country Magazine: January 2023

Photo:

Robert Iantorno

www.robertiantorno.ca (Mind Over Motor)

Jason Todoroff www.jtlawyer.ca (Family Matters)

Kevin Arthur Land

www.speakingvolumesbooks.ca (Arts & Culture)

Candace

PUBLISHER’S NOTE

Welcome to our first edition for 2023!

Every year, we print an issue dedicated to Mental Health & Wellness. There’s so much we could touch on here, in fact, we could probably publish this content all year long. Maybe I should.

I’d like to thank our Editorial Contributors for another job well done. I’d also like to introduce two new writers; John van Goch and Kira Bauer. Thank you for joining us and thank you for your contributions!

I’m excited for the new year and I hope it brings you much happiness, health, and prosperity.

Well if this isn’t the coolest idea on wheels, I don’t know what is!

Introducing Candace McIntyre and her Shine-1-1 Mobile Dental Hygiene. This converted ambulance (hence the “Shine-1-1” instead of “9-1-1”), is making kids smile all over Grey-Bruce, Dufferin, and Simcoe Counties...literally!

A Registered Dental Hygienist, McIntyre loves being able to service the community where she grew up.

“I love our small-town community in Markdale,” she explains. “Being born and raised here, it’s rare to walk down the street and not see someone you know; though our “little” town is growing! That’s what I want for my children. Grey County and the surrounding area have so much to offer and I know we made the right choice to “stay” here to start a family and launch my mobile dental hygiene business.”

Always interested to know what inspired

local business owners to do what they do, I asked Candace why she started Shine-1-1.

“I’ve been a Registered Dental Hygienist (RDH) for over 16 years now, working in a traditional dental office setting for the first 14 years. It was always in the back of my mind to become an independent dental hygienist and go on my own but it didn’t feel like the right time until the Covid shutdown in 2020,” McIntyre explains. “Dental hygienists in Ontario were restricted from working for about 5 months and once allowed to return I knew it was time for something different. There was an RDH with a small mobile van in the city and it seemed like a great idea to get to people who either can’t get to dental offices or prefer not to (dental anxiety). At the time, I couldn’t find any high-roof vans as everything was bought up by the delivery companies during the pandemic, so the retired ambulance became an even better option. My husband came up with the name “Shine-1-1” as we were driving home from Niagara EMS and it stuck. It definitely was

Candace McIntyre, RDH

a process setting up a mobile practice that most people hadn’t heard of, but again, with the help of trusted locals, I was successful and launched Shine-1-1 Mobile Dental Hygiene.”

With some obvious advantages, like convenience and a kid-friendly experience, Shine-1-1 offers a handful of other benefits.

Shine-1-1 Mobile Dental Hygiene clients don’t have to travel at all AND they skip the waiting room. They go directly from their home or office into the opratory.

“This has been a great modality for those young and older with dental anxiety,” says McIntyre. “No triggers like weird noises or smells - just one dental hygiene room, steps from the comfort of their home. Kiddos (and adults) are encouraged to wear their comfy clothes (even jammies) and bring anything out with them that keeps them calm (sometimes a blanket or stuffy), then they pick their fave show to stream on the big iPad during their treatment. The at-

By: Roger Tumminieri

mosphere in the shine-bus is also loved by many kiddos because they get to hang out in a decommissioned ambulance!”

A lot of people appreciate the convenience of this service for their entire family to be seen. They can carry on with their day at home and just send out one child at a time to the shine-bus for their dental hygiene care.

Shine-1-1 also visits businesses to provide care for their employees ON LOCATION, reducing the amount of time off required for employees when they don’t have to leave the premises. Reach out to Candace if you are a business owner or employee interested in this service!

Although most clients are treated in the mobile clinic, the equipment itself is mobile. Candace can head into a home or long-term care facility to see clients who are immobile.

Shine-1-1 Mobile Dental Hygiene direct bills to your insurance. Paying upfront can be a hassle, especially for large families when the total cost can add up. Children under 12 without dental coverage could be eligible for the new government dental program and Dental Hygienist fees are included! Ask Candace for more details!

Shine-1-1 Mobile Dental Hygiene uses the current year Ontario Dental Hygienists’ Association fee guide to bill for services and provides oral hygiene instruction, scaling and polish (cleaning), fluoride treatments, pit and fissure sealants, professional teeth whitening as well as OMT (orofacial myofunctional therapy).

Referrals to a local dentist can be done if clients don’t have one. Emails / pictures of concerns can also be sent to the client’s own dentist at their request. Shine-1-1 works collaboratively with other health care professionals to ensure clients receive the optimal care and operates within a 70km radius from their home base in Markdale.

You can reach out to Candace directly to ask questions or book an appointment: (519)373-3519 or info@shine-1-1.ca www.shine-1-1.ca

MENTAL HEALTH & WELLNESS

TOXIC

By: Amanda Kirkland

Your values can trap you in toxic relationships. Life is too short to waste your time on people who don’t support, respect, and value you!

As a caring person you... - are generous - have honesty - believe in affection - are compassionate - are giving and loving

When it comes to toxic people, none of this holds true. For them, the toxic person’s value system is completely different from yours.

A toxic person... - believes in being powerful - is completely self-absorbed - must be in control - is opportunistic

TRUST YOUR GUT

By: Kira Bauer

Do you suffer from headaches? Joint pain? Skin issues? Digestive problems? You might be surprised to know that all of these symptoms are connected.

My name is Kira, I am a Holistic Health Coach and IBD warrior specializing in anti-inflammatory nutrition and healthy habit formation.

In the recent explosion of scientific re-

What traps you is assuming they have the same value system as yours. So, you keep giving in to this problematic relationship, but they are unable to receive it. The things that are important to you are not significant to them.

Just some food for thought.

search that looks at chronic conditions that plague our modern society, we now know that 95% of all chronic disease has a root cause of inflammation. The majority of these conditions are preventable and reversible with nutrition and optimal lifestyle choices.

Your gut is connected to every system in your body. This is why food has the extraordinary power to dictate our level of health and how we feel! Three things you can do to optimize your gut and decrease inflammation in the body are by eating whole foods, eliminating ultra processed foods and seed oils, and cooking at home.

Working with a health coach can exponentially increase your success in managing your disease and health outcomes. If you are seeking extra support, let’s chat! I am offering complimentary discovery calls this January for entrance into my 1:1 health coaching program and would love to work with you. You can reach me at:

kbauercoaching@gmail.com

Every day, we take actions that affect the world around us and these actions originate with thoughts and decisions that start in our minds. Fully understanding the mind can seem like a complicated undertaking, but to know how the mind works in a practical way that can enhance your day-to-day life can be rather simple. I will present to you a simple model that we will explore in depth in this series on the human mind.

The human mind can be divided into two parts, the conscious and the unconscious mind. The conscious mind is what we are aware of in any given moment. It is the part of the mind that is aware of our thoughts and perceptions, making sense of what we perceive. It is responsible for where we choose to focus our attention, and can be used to direct our intention.

The unconscious mind is everything outside of our conscious awareness. It is where our memories are stored and our emotions originate. Many of our driving forces in our daily life originate from the unconscious mind. It is a powerful force that can drive our actions and behaviours.

While some people may believe that the conscious mind is the strongest part of the mind, the reality is that the unconscious mind is much more powerful. The unconscious mind is responsible for processing all input that we receive, and generating the output of our physical bodies and minds. The unconscious drives the automatic processes, such as breathing, digestion, heart function, and posture. In addition, it is constantly deleting and distorting sensory input to make sense of it.

Even though the unconscious mind has all the processing power, the conscious mind has an important role. By directing our attention, the conscious mind can produce the filters that direct the unconscious processing power to our own advantage. Understanding this interdependent relationship is key to personal growth and discovery.

When you have been stuck on a problem, often times thinking consciously about the problem limits your solutions because of the limited power of the conscious mind.

When you are able to identify the problem and hand over processing to the unconscious mind, the solution will come easier. This is the reason that often taking a break from your work will give you the space to find the proper next steps.

At this point, it is important to understand that everything I will present in this series is simply a model - a representation of reality that may be useful to you. The test of a model is its usefulness, so take time to reflect on how this model can apply to your life.

In the rest of this series, I will break down the conscious and unconscious mind and by the end of this set of articles, you will have a model of the mind that you can apply to find balance and harmony for better mental health.

FLESHERTON CALLING KEVIN LAND

The month of January, it is held, was named after the Roman god Janus, who had the ability to see forwards and backwards at the same time. Despite all the difficulties 2022 had to offer, it did give me the opportunity to move my bookstore from Flesherton to Markdale, which has turned out to be a very good one.

However, it is an initiative which began in the old store over which I will always remember most favourably. The war in Ukraine had had just begun and I decided to donate half of the store’s sales for the month of March to the Red Cross for Ukrainian relief. Unfortunately, as I recalled from math class, half of not much is not very much at all, and in April I came up with the name “Grey County Cares” and enlisted the help of my friends Stewart Halliday and Lynn Silverton to grow the idea. Both felt that the focus should shift to helping those Ukrainians who had fled their homeland and were starting to come into our community. Stewart was already involved in bringing a couple in to stay with him and his wife until they got settled. Lynn brought Susanne von Torne, who was already providing support to Ukrainians, to be part of our efforts. She also suggested I contact Don Kopplin to see if he might be willing to serve as the group’s accountant. He readily agreed, and proved a key addition, despite his being an Argos fan.

Lynn agreed to chair the committee, and her good name brought other community leaders aboard.

John Butler, Gerald Bartley, Kitt and Dieter Brand. Ron Barnett and Barbara Pearn of South Grey News provided marketing support and a terrific logo (thanks Barbara). Ron and Barbara also provided “Grey County Cares” pins at cost and, in no time at all, we had boxes in 17 locations in Grey Highlands. If you don’t have your pin yet, you can pick one up with a minimum donation at your local library, Jolley’s, Highland Grounds, Maxwell Meats, the Market Shoppe, Top of the Rock, Murray’s Print Shop, Grist Mill, Speaking Volumes Books and other spots.

We found a great charitable partner in the Markdale Rotary, and a supportive and

caring bank branch at TD Markdale, and to date, have raised over $70,000, most of which has been dispensed to more than 35 newcomers. The largest contribution this success was made from community corporate sponsors, many of whom prefer to remain anonymous. It should also be noted the great support the Ukrainian community has received and is receiving from Heiner Philipp and RuralNet.

Looking forward, this year “Grey County Cares” will be expanding our charitable efforts. Some of the funds raised will go towards bringing a woman and her two daughters, who have been abused and targeted by the Taliban, here from Afghanistan. My wife, Mary-Jo Land and I were involved in the writing of sixteen peace stories entitled “Journey of Peace” 450,000 copies of which were published and distributed to schools throughout Afghanistan in the early 2000’s. Mary-Jo made 4 trips to Kabul from 2005 to 2009 teaching a curriculum she developed for primary grades to teachers who would then return to their communities to teach their colleagues. If you would like to read the stories, you can find them at journeyofpeace.ca.

By: Kevin Land

TALK WITH TYSON RIER

John Deere has a full range of skid steers and compact track loaders that will work for any job big or small. When we think about construction equipment, we think rough and tough. While they are no doubt tough, they have many creature comforts and technology available. Features such as adjustable sensitivity for the controls allow for precision based on the operator’s preferences. Self level and ride control are also a couple great features that make operation a breeze. We also carry a wide variety of attachments such as trenchers, breakers, and landscape rakes just to name a few.

Backed by a 2 year 2000 hour warranty, the possibilities are endless. The compact size and incredible capability of a John Deere are second to none in the industry. With great incentives and financing there has never been a better time to get into a new John Deere skid steer or compact track loaded.

TYSON RIER, Salesman

Huron Tractor - Chatsworth (226) 668-2063

FAMILY MATTERS WINTER CAMPING

Winter brings with it things that we don’t like, but it also brings a lot of fun activities such as camping. No, that is not a typo.

Most people associate camping with summer time. Isn’t winter camping cold, you ask? The answer is yes and no.

There are two types of winter camping; cold tent camping and hot tent camping. I have enjoyed doing both. Cold tent camping involves a very warm set of clothes and a winter rated sleeping bag ie. -38C rating. I have a cutoff of -15C for cold tent camping. Hot tent camping is done with a tent that has a stove jack and utilizes a small tent wood stove. My cutoff for hot tent camping is -30C.

Winter camping presents some dangers that you need to be aware of. If you are new to this type of camping it is important to be safe. Don’t start off going out in -30 degree weather. Start at -5 or -10. Find out what works for you and what doesn’t. Always give yourself an out. I started off testing my equipment in the front yard. That way if things went bad, I could just go inside and warm up. The use of a wood stove in a tent

can also be dangerous if not used properly.

Nothing is more peaceful than a full moon reflecting off freshly fallen snow together with that sound of a gentle breeze through the pine trees.

Best of all, no mosquitoes.

THINKING OUTSIDE THE BLUE BOX

Smile!

Using the “Waste Wizard” on your municipality’s website, you’ll be made to believe that empty tubes of toothpaste are garbage. THIS IS MISLEADING! Crest and Oral-B will recycle these items, FOR FREE, as well as any other oral care products such as toothbrushes, flossers, floss containers, and all other “non-recyclable” oral care products. This is done via a company called Terra Cycle Canada.

The government has no infrastructure in place to recycle or collect these products. Imagine a private entity such as a drugstore willing to take these items back. What a great marketing tool! Imagine, the “ONLY PLACE” that facilitates recycling these products. This could increase foot traffic. This establishment could offer a discount on a next purchase which quite likely could lead to increased sales, increased profit, etc.

Make no mistake. Doing this for the environment IS WORK! The argument is that it’s not hard work and the reward is well worth it.

In today’s day and age, I believe that we can’t rely on the government to do everything for us. Private individuals and businesses can step up and do more. I’ve named three companies who are doing it. Will you be the fourth?

By: John van Goch

JASON TODOROFF