Heather Woodyard, owner of Verona's yarn shop, Ewe can Knit, is enlisting the help of local knitters for a good cause. In an effort to give comfort to youngsters who are undergoing medical procedures at Kingston’s KGH and Hotel Dieu hospitals, Woodyard has launched a community blanket- making project. “The idea is get the community together to give these kids a sense of comfort and something nice to hang on to while they are in the hospital,” Woodyard said. She is inviting knitters to knit or crochet 7x8 inch squares, which she will then sew together to create blankets. This is an ongoing project and those interested can drop off their finished squares at Ewe Can Knit in Verona, which is located at 6667 Highway 38 just beside The Verona Convenience store. Store hours are Tuesday through Saturday from 10am-5pm. If you have any questions please contact Heather at 613-374-3000 or visit Ewe Can Knit on Facebook

Editor’s note: This article by Teresa Shevchenko was written in 2006 and we are republishing part of it as a tribute to Don Lavery, who passed away last week.

One of the joys of spending time at the cottage is stepping back in time to discover some of the old-fashioned general stores that are still operating in the area. These rural gems are an important part of Canadian heritage.

The concept of the general store actually dates back to fur-trading days when customers could buy everything from a shovel to cod liver oil all at the same place. They are however, rapidly becoming an endangered species. Big box stores, urban sprawl and changing lifestyles are making it difficult for general store owners to stay in business. Once the thriving heart of small communities, many general stores in cottage country stand empty and forgotten, a reminder of a different, simpler way of life.

This summer, cottagers in North Frontenac will surely miss a landmark. James General Store in Plevna, closed up shop in August 2005.

Proprietors, Don and Jessie Lavery moved from the Toronto area to the rural village of Plevna 16 years ago when they bought James General Store, named after previous owners. The store that had already been serving area residents and cottagers for many years was much more than a place to pick up the essentials. The business doubled as the only gas station within 50 kilometres, village post office, snack bar, butcher shop, bakery, book exchange, hardware and fishing supplies store and internet café. But most importantly it was the hub of the community - a place to buy the newspaper, have a cup of coffee, enjoy the smell of bread and homemade pies fresh out of the oven, and chat a while with the friendly staff.

”It was always my dream to run an old-fashioned general store. We really got to know our customers over the years and made many friends,” says Jessie. “We loved sharing stories with our customers. Saving newspapers for our regulars and remembering how they like their coffee was all part of the fun.”

While Jessie could usually be found at the front cash, Don spent most days behind the butcher counter at the back of the shop. Calling out to customers by name, he always made sure to save their favourite prime cuts and threw in an occasional bone for their dogs. If there was an item that a customer needed, but it wasn’t in stock, Don wouldn’t hesitate to find it in his own kitchen.

The Laverys, who lived in an apartment above the store, would open after hours for people who found their gas tank on empty or just needed some emergency cottage supplies. This small town helpfulness was one the charms of James General Store. Keeping up with the times, the couple designated a corner of the store as an internet café, during their last few years in business.

While the Laverys depended on the busy summer season, they felt a responsibility to stay open during the slower winter months for local residents, snowmobilers passing through and the occasional cottagers who braved the cold. But last summer when a larger, modern grocery store opened in Plevna, they realized that they could not compete, even though their customer base remained faithful. Sadly they closed the store, but not before throwing a party at the village community centre to thank all their customers for years of business. People came from far and wide to wish them a great retirement and to let them know that they will be missed.

“Now we’re enjoying the rest, but we will definitely miss the store and the people this summer,” says Jessie.

Diane Gray, owner of Battersea General Store, just 15 minutes outside of Kingston on Battersea Road, has been running the business with her husband Glenn for eleven years. “The store has been open for over a hundred years. We always try to carry a little bit of everything,” she says. “Our busiest time is cottage season.”

Discover these stores and others in the Kingston region and experience an integral part of Ontario history right on your doorstep.

Cottagers can do their part to help preserve the general stores that are scattered throughout cottage country. Here are a few suggestions.

If you generally bring in your supplies from larger urban supermarkets, but there is a general store near your country retreat, try to make a point of picking up some of your everyday purchases such as fresh milk, bread, eggs and your favourite paper. Every little bit helps.

Many general stores sell ice cream, coffee, desserts and snacks. Stop in and treat yourself and your family

Tell other people about your country store experiences. Word of mouth is one of the best advertisements and others will also want to step back in time and savour the old- time atmosphere.

Many general stores offer souvenirs like t-shirts, postcards and locally made crafts and gifts. Pick up a memento. It could be a collector’s item one day.

What kid - and for that matter, what adult - doesn't love a kid goat?

That was the motivation for a “Kidding Around” event on March 12 at Food Less Travelled in Verona, when the Perry children of Perry Farm in Harrowsmith, brought the latest four-legged members of their family farm to the grocery store, which is operated by their parents, Kim and Dave Perry.

Grant, Mason and Kaitlyn Perry hosted the event, which attracted kid goat lovers of all ages from near and far. Many who enjoyed meeting the goat and human kids were already doing their regular Saturday shopping at the store, while others were just passing by and noticed the lively commotion.

The four Nubian goats are cared for by the Perry children and the two oldest, Kaitlyn and Grant, are experienced at the task, having both worked at a goat farm in Harrowsmith. The goats, the youngest of which was just four days old, are still being milk fed and are mostly pets for the Perry kids, but requests have recently come in at the store for goat meat, which has the Perry parents wondering if expanding their operation to raising meat goats is an option for their farm.

“The thing with goats and other smaller animals like sheep is that it is hard to get meat on the bone and you really have to work at it to be proficient,” Kim Perry said. “Farmers who specialize in raising goats and sheep know how to do it and while we know how to do it with our beef, pork, turkeys and now chickens, we will likely just wait and see what happens with the goats, which right now are pets.”

Perry also updated me on the many recent changes at the Verona store, which will be celebrating its 10-year anniversary this June. The store has recently expanded and added chicken to its regular inventory of beef, pork and turkeys, which is something new. “This year is the first in the history of Ontario that we are now allowed to sell our own free-range chickens at the store instead of just at the farm gate,” she said.

The kitchen area has also been expanded and Perry has added a number of new pies to their inventory, such as bumbleberry/rhubarb. She and her staff will continue making last year’s popular grape pie. She also makes a wide variety of quiches, all with Perry Farm meats, local cheeses and vegetables.

The indoor dining area, now open all year round, has also been expanded with a new kitchen access, where Perry offers up weekly specials of hot and cold lunches that include entrees like shepherd’s pie, Irish stew, quiches, a wide variety of home-made meat and vegetable soups and salads. Her home- made pies are served with Kawartha Dairy ice cream.

On the store’s shelves is an eclectic selection of fresh and frozen meats, cheeses, veggies and a wide assortment of other Canadian food and cooking products all of which are either grown and/ or locally processed. They include snack foods, dressings, sauces, condiments, sweet treats, grains and flours and much more, with an emphasis on products and groceries that are organic, gluten-free and non-GMO.

“I choose suppliers who either grow locally or process locally, which means they are small manufacturers for the most part that are using as many local ingredients as they can. My aim in doing so is to help ensure diversity in our food supply,” Perry said.

For more information visit foodlesstravelled.ca or local family farms/foodlesstravelled on facebook.

David Yerxa has once again taken to the pool in Perth in an effort to raise funds for the annual Swim-a-thon fundraiser for the Clifford Bowey School in Ottawa. The school, which caters to students aged 4 to 21 years who have developmental disabilities, teaches them independence, and helps them develop their communication and mobility skills to their maximum potential so that they can live and participate to the fullest extent possible at home and in their communities.

The annual fundraiser is close to David's heart since as a young adult he attended the school for three years. He said that there, he learned how to cook for himself, learned computer skills and also about the school’s recycling program. The latter has since become a focal point and a big part of his own Sharbot Lake Office Supplies business, which he currently operates from his home.

This is the third consecutive year that David has participated in the swim-a-thon and he said that he begins training in October every year leading up to the event. He also swam in the summer months this past year in Maberly at the pool of former Community Living-North Frontenac staff member Tamatha.

The swim-a-thon took place at the Perth pool on February 17 and David raised $927. He swam a total of 22 laps in half an hour, the maximum time permitted for the swim. Last year David raised $1300 for the cause and the year before, $570. Also, every year in June, David returns to the Clifford Bowey School to hand out a recycling award to one of the students.

Anyone who has met Rick Law knows that he is a pretty sociable guy. This is likely what inspired his newly-launched Godfrey Social Club, the coffee shop and gas bar that he owns and operates in Godfrey. The establishment held its official grand opening on March 5 and Law hopes to see it become a popular gathering spot for locals who like to meet and greet and enjoy a beverage.

Law bought the historic building and property in April 2013. He has 35 years under his belt working as an auto-body mechanic, which he continues to do in his present location. His creativity shows in the painting aspect of his work, and he especially enjoys restoring collectible cars.

The retro-inspired coffee shop fronts onto the Westport Road at Road 38. It was unofficially open last summer and in recent months, Law has been working to expand it. The property now has a high-test gas bar (with regular gas coming soon) and inside, there are tables and chairs, comfy couches and loungers where guests can enjoy satellite TV, Wi-Fi internet access, and play vinyl records to boot. There are retro popcorn and candy machines and the space is bright and friendly, made more so by a wide array of 1940s and 50s collectibles that include antique signs, a variety of hanging car/motorcycle parts, and one old chopper in the corner painted with an old A&W sign.

“I want people to come by, fill up with gas and come in, sit down and relax, enjoy a coffee, tea, hot chocolate, pop, or ice cream (in the summer months). If they just want a place to work on their screened devices or to meet up with friends, I want this to be a place that they think of.”

Law is busy most days working in his body shop, so he has enlisted the help of his daughter, Stephanie, who hails from Windsor and who will be working in the coffee shop. Law said that he also hopes to be able to employ a few summer students when the fairer weather arrives and the local traffic picks up.

He admits to having lived a pretty rough life in the past, but said that despite that fact, he has been warmly welcomed into the community. “This community has really accepted me for who I am; I really enjoying being here and I just love this place. Seeing people enjoy the place as much as I do is great and the idea is not so much about making a ton of money - I know that I'm not going to make a million dollars here - but more about making people happy and seeing people get excited by what they see here”.

Another draw to the shop is Law’s gorgeous husky, a dog named Skydancer that he rescued, which he brought out to meet with the guests at the opening. Law has a number of ideas up his sleeve for the future of the shop and hopes to hold movie nights and other special events. “I want people to tell me what they are interested in, and if I can swing it I definitely will try.”

Another project he mentioned is to build a rat rod to have on display for guests. Law said he also hopes to also put in a second sink so that, in the future, he will be able to serve an assortment of snacks as well.

The shop and gas bar will be open from 7am – 7pm and in the summer from 7am - 11pm. The Godfrey Social club is located at 16 Westport Rd.

It's been two months since Brenda Bonner retired after working for eight years as a Nurse Practitioner (NP) at the Sharbot Lake Family Health Team.

At 64, she was feeling that it was time to take a step back from full time work in a clinic. She saw patients at the clinic four days a week, often working through lunch and into the early evening, and she did a lot of paperwork at home.

“All in all it was a full time commitment,” she said this week from her home in Perth. Her work as a nurse practitioner, which came after a long career as a registered nurse, was some of the most rewarding in her career, and after taking a step back for a few weeks she has thought about her own future, about the future for nurse practitioners in general, and about their role in a reformed healthcare system in Ontario.

For her own part, Bonner has been considering a number of options.

“I would like to keep working, but with more balance in my life, more time for family,” she said.

She is considering taking on patients for house calls.

“For various reasons, including transportation issues, there are patients who require care in their own homes, so I might do some of that work. It is not covered by OHIP, but some supplemental health insurance policies will cover it,” she said.

She might be doing relief work in a community health centre in the vicinity of her home in Perth, and also some in-service education to health care organisations, to promote and maintain health knowledge and skills.

“I didn't have any of these ideas when I left Sharbot Lake, but over the last couple of months I have been considering how I can continue to work on my own terms by setting these things up. It is different for me since my whole career has basically been as an employee at only two jobs, as an RN in one location for 30 years and as an NP for eight years in Sharbot Lake. It's a change to be setting up a business of my own at this time,” she said.

Bonner has also spent time, before and after she left the Sharbot Lake Family Health Team, considering potential changes in the role that nurse practitioners play in the heath care system.

She supports some of the initiatives that are being promoted by the Nurse Practitioners Association of Ontario (NPAO).

“When the NPAO made submissions to the Ministry of Finance for the upcoming Ontario budget, they highlighted a few items that would make a difference for NPs and save money for the system as well,” she said.

One item that was featured in the submission is to deal with the pay and benefits gap between NPs who work in hospitals and those who work in primary care clinics.

“Salaries have been frozen since 2006 in clinics, which has led to a $30,000 pay gap, plus, NPs who work in hospitals enjoy the pension and benefits plans in the hospitals. This means that when positions in hospitals come open, NPs leave clinics, often rural clinics, for those jobs,” said Bonner.

The NPAO also supports the “right care in the right time in the right place, by the right provider”, an initiative of the ministry that intends to redirect healthcare dollars so they start to follow the patients and not the providers.

Bonner cited a case that illustrates how this is not happening currently. Public health units that were running sexual health clinics led by nurse practitioners have been switching to contracted clinics run by doctors. This has been done for financial reasons. The health units pay the NPs out of their own budgets, whereas the doctors can bill OHIP directly for the service. This is a financial benefit for the cash-strapped health units, but since the doctors’ billings are higher than the cost of clinics led by the nurse practitioners, ultimately there is a greater cost to the healthcare system as a whole and the ratepayers who fund it.

Finally, the NPAO is supportive of an initiative to locate NPs on a full time basis in long-term care facilities.

“Acuity level is increasing in long-term care facilities. Seniors are staying at home longer, and they are older and sicker when they go into long-term care. Nurse Practitioners on staff save doctor visits and visits to emergency units at hospitals,” said Bonner.

Those who attended this year's Frontenac Heritage Festival variety show on February 12 may recall one new and notable performer who took to the stage. Jen Argyle performed an impressive five-song set at the festival opener, which included a number of classic country and original tunes.

In both her sound and stage presence, she seemed the epitome of a seasoned performer. Appearing relaxed, and comfortable in front of a full house, she sang with such ease and naturalness that one would have thought her a veteran. Surprisingly, that is not the case.

Argyle first started singing publicly this past August, and she said that in fact she suffers from incredible stage fright. “I have been working really very hard to overcome it and it is still something that I have to consciously fight every time I get on stage to perform.”

Argyle, who teaches at Clarendon Central Public School in Plevna, has been singing in private for most of her life. She said she began singing and playing guitar in front of her students as an initial first step in playing publicly. Next, she was encouraged by friends to play at an open mic event in Kingston, where she was received very positively. “I was absolutely terrified and incredibly nervous when I did it but I had some friends there supporting me, which made it a bit easier and when I saw the positive response, it egged me on to keep trying.”

She has since performed at the Cove in Westport alongside Shawn McCullough and has made a number of videos of herself performing, which are now public on her own YouTube channel.

No stranger to music, Argyle studied classical guitar for years as a high school student in London, Ontario where she grew up but it was just this year that she decided to bring her talents to the public eye.

At the Heritage Festival show she nailed her covers of Merle Haggard's “Today I Started Loving You Again” and “The Way I Am” and Johnny Cash's Ring of Fire”. She also sang two of her own originals, “The Old Cowgirl in Me” and “One Silver Bullet at a Time” which were equally impressive.

Argyle says, “I always smile and try to convince myself that I am okay and I use a lot of positive self talk and visualizations before I get on stage to help me out.” She said her motto is, “Fake it till you make it”, a modus operandi that seems to be doing the trick. Argyle also practices on average two to three hours a day, which no doubt is a confidence builder.

Coming up is her first full length solo performance, which will take place at the Snow Road Community Centre on Thursday, February 25 from 7-9pm. She plans to sing more of her favorite country standards including traditional old country classics by George Jones, Loretta Lynn and others. She will also be performing 10 of her own original tunes.

Her family will be in attendance, something that Argyle says she finds nerve-racking but judging by her first local foray into the public spotlight at GREC, no doubt she will overcome. Her advice to other musicians/performers who may suffer from stage fright is, “ I always like to remember what my friend and fellow teacher Katie always tells me....'You can do hard things.' Believe it or not, it is true.”

Argyle is hoping to bring her talent to other musical venues in the area. Tickets for her Snow Road concert are $10 in advance or $12 at the door. For advance tickets call Don at 613-278-0958

It is no surprise that numerous phone calls came in to the newspaper office following the glaring error I made in an article I wrote in last week’s paper, where I erroneously misquoted Central Frontenac Fire Chief Bill Young by stating that all of the fire halls in Central Frontenac, until recently, had been considered “a gentlemen's club”.

In actuality, Fire Chief Young was referring only to the Sharbot Lake fire hall and the error deserves not only an apology and a correction but also the following story.

Debbie Allison was deservedly offended by the error and made a call to the newspaper office stating that the Parham fire department is not now nor has ever been thought of as a gentlemen's only club. Debbie's 23-year-old daughter Suzanne has been working as a volunteer firefighter in Parham since the age of 16, when she joined the department in October 2008 as a junior fire fighter. Her mandatory two-year probation period included observing at calls, rolling hoses and cleaning trucks and other equipment. Two years later when she turned 18, she became a full-fledged member of the force and has since become a valued member of the Parham team and someone the other firefighters regard as an asset.

Suzanne herself credits her dad, Paul Allison, who has been a volunteer fire fighter with the Parham department for 22 years, as the person who encouraged her to take the training. “He knew of my background and my previous training as a life guard; that I cared about making a difference in the community and thought I would make a good fire fighter.”

When I spoke with Paul Allison earlier in the week, he was adamant about the fact that the Parham department has never been considered a gentlemen's only club. “Dawn Hansen, who is our current dispatcher and who has been with us for over 20 years, is an integral and valuable member of our team”, Paul said. “And we can look back even further to Sue Veley, who was one of the founding members of the department. She was a pillar of the force here for decades and a woman who pretty much ran the place”. Paul said he took offense when he read last weeks article stating, “I have been around the department here for 22 years and during that time women have always been integral and very much respected part of our team. I would not have encouraged my daughter Suzanne to join up if I had felt in any way the place to be a gentlemen's only club. If that had been the case, I never would have encouraged her to join up nor would have tolerated that fact myself.” Other female members of the department include or have included over the years Susan Peters, Melissa Shanks, Brooke Raymond and Stacey Rochetta and to this day Paul says that women are “an integral part of this close knit group many who have been here for a very long time and who all get along with each other very well.” Suzanne agreed with her dad stating “ I have never felt uncomfortable with the guys. I have always felt welcomed and comfortable and have always been treated as an equal.” Not only that, Suzanne said that she is a proud member of the Parham Fire department and someone who likes to encourage other women to get involved. “I like to let women and men in the community know that I am a fire fighter and tell them that if that if I can do it, they can do it too.”

Look forward to more upcoming stories about local women firefighters.

Q. What do grandfather clocks and bees have in common?

A. Virgil Garrett

This past summer there was a construction project on Road 38 at the northern edge of the village of Sharbot Lake. For a time there was a stoplight for southbound traffic in front of Virgil and Beryl Garrett's house. One afternoon while a half dozen cars were waiting for the light to change (an unwelcome novelty in this part of the world) Virgil Garrett was standing on the sidewalk, waiting for all the cars to clear the scene before slowly and serenely walking across the road to get his mail, just as he has done since 1949.

In the rear view mirror driving away, Virgil was in the foreground and the sun lit up the landscaped north end of the Garrett property, where Virgil has spent hours trimming, mowing and planting for so many years. Whether on his own property, or in groups such as the Masons, the Sharbot Lake 39ers, the farmers’ market or the school, Virgil and Beryl have been fixtures in the community for longer than anyone, other than Virgil, can remember.

Virgil Garrett was born on April 3, 1922, on a farm on the Zealand Road in what is now Central Frontenac Township. The Zealand cemetery is located on the Garrett farm.

He was the “center” child as he puts it, between older brother Roscoe and younger sister Billie.

Virgil’s grandfather was in the British military and was offered a land grant in Bathurst Township in Lanark County in the 1840s. He eventually moved to Zealand, which was a community at that time, later in the 19th Century. Since that part of Frontenac County was settled up to 50 years later than nearby communities and farms in western Lanark County, the Garrett homestead, which is in the former Oso Township, is one of the oldest in Central Frontenac.

Virgil's father was raised on the farm, did some work in the lumber trade in his youth, and eventually settled down to farming. His mother was a Drew from Long Lake, one of a long line of teachers, a profession that was eventually taken up by Virgil and his wife Beryl.

As a child, Virgil helped out on the farm as much as he could, and attended school at SS #3 Oso Township, about a half mile from his house.

Not only was there no electricity in the school, there was no well on site either, and students had to go to a nearby farm to ferry back pails of water. The school had a woodshed and two back houses, which were stocked with Eaton's catalogues for student use (there was no Frontenac News in those days).

The only light in the school was provided by three small windows on each side of the building, and coal oil lamps. Virgil was a small boy, which came in handy on occasions when the school was accidentally locked by the teacher. A couple of bigger boys hoisted him up and he climbed through the small window on the side of the school porch. He then unlocked the door from the inside.

One of Virgil's first jobs was as the school's caretaker, for which he was paid $11 a year. His responsibilities included daily routines such as cleaning blackboards, sweeping the floor, filling ink bottles on students' desks, and keeping wood available for the stove, as well as keeping the fire burning throughout the day when needed.

In 1937 Virgil was sent off for a summer to Napanee to help out a beekeeper, and that got him started on keeping bees at the farm in Zealand, which he continued even after moving to Sharbot Lake in 1949. At one time he was producing as much as 1,000 pounds of honey in a season, “But at a price of ten cents a pound I never became that rich from it. I don't think I know a single wealthy beekeeper,” he said. Although he only keeps a small operation going now, he has kept bees almost continuously for about 78 years. Virgil has supplied honey to local stores and markets for most of those years, and has apprenticed many beekeepers over that time. When the Sharbot Lake Farmers Market started up a few years ago, he was one of the first to sign up, and although he does not sell a lot of honey any more, he still frequents the market. This past summer he served as a celebrity judge at the first ever Great Butter Tart Challenge at the market.

When the Second World War came along, Virgil was the Garrett who stayed home on the farm because his parents were quite elderly. His brother Roscoe and sister Billie both joined the armed forces. After the war he worked for the railroad in Toronto and elsewhere, coming home on the weekends.

He married Beryl and they built their house in 1949, but Virgil kept working on the railroad for a few years, and Beryl began teaching. In the mid-1950s Virgil went back to high school at the new school in Sharbot Lake near his house, and then took a teaching course in Toronto. In 1959 he took on a job that combined his love of wood-working with his interest and training in education. He became the Industrial Arts teacher at Sharbot Lake High School, a position he would keep for 25 years until he retired in 1984, partly because the dust in the shop had begun to affect his lungs after so many years.

During his years as a teacher, one of his major goals was to find projects for his more advanced students that would motivate them to develop more wood-working skills.

One year he decided to spend the spring break building a small grandmother clock.

“When the students came back to school after the holiday there was the clock, standing on the floor. They asked me where that came from and I said 'when you were on vacation I was doing some work'. About six of them asked if they could learn to make one, and that's what they spent the fall doing when they were in grade 12.”

Virgil and his students became known for the grandfather clocks that were made in the shop, and he has a number of them in his house to this day. Other advanced cabinetry projects followed, and thanks to Virgil the school developed a reputation for craftsmanship.

“Once a student got the idea that they were capable of making something and they wanted to get it made, nothing was going to stop them,” Virgil said of the students he taught in the 1960s and 1970s.

He takes pride in the fact that a number of the best carpenters in the region got their start in his class.

After he retired in 1984, Virgil carried on with his beekeeping and his activities with community groups and the local Masonic lodge, where he has served in a number of leadership roles.

He also, almost accidentally, acquired a 1916 Canadian-made Ford Model T in the 1990s. It tweaked his memory of packing into Model Ts to get to ball games and other events when he was young and he was compelled to get this one on the road. He spent years finding parts in “old barns, flea markets, garage sales” and got the Model T in running order. Although it hasn't been driven recently it still sits, intact, in Virgil's garage.

With some support from family and home help, Virgil is still a fixture in the local community, and, as always, he is as quick with a joke as anyone else.

About 1,000 people attended a wake at Loughborough Public School on Friday evening, November 6 for Travis Babcock, a 12-year-old grade 7 student at the school who died after a car accident on November 1.

The accident took place at the junction of Road 38 and McIvor Road, just north of Hwy. 401. Travis's parents, Jamie and Leanne, were in the car with him. Leanne suffered a hip injury and broken ribs and Jamie was uninjured, but Travis's injuries were more serious and he was rushed to the hospital in critical condition. He was taken off life support the next morning, after his organs were donated.

The family was headed to the nearby Invista Centre to see a cousin play hockey that fateful Sunday evening.

Karl Hammer, a family friend who teaches at Sydenham High School, said that all the friends and neighbours of the Babcocks have come together, with help from the staff at Loughborough and the Limestone District School Board, to help the family and the students in Travis's grade 7 class.

“One of the most powerful things about the service that was held on Friday evening was the way Kaitlyn [Travis's sister] spoke about her brother,” said Karl Hammer, whose own son and three other boys from Travis's class also spoke at the ceremony.

Travis loved outdoor sports, including fishing, hockey and Eisstock, the Austrian game that has become popular in the Sydenham/Harrowsmith area.

In fact, on the day of the accident he did a little fishing, played Eisstock in the late morning and hockey in the afternoon. He even made the winning shot in the Eisstock game and scored during the hockey game.

Since his death all the sporting communities he was involved with have been reaching out to the Babcock family, delivering food to the door, and checking in with Jamie as he keeps the home fires burning since Leanne is still in the hospital.

“You learn that a group like our little Eisstock league is about more than sports when something like this happens. It really is a second family,” said Karl Hammer.

Scott Morency, principal of Loughborough Public School, wrote to parents last week, “Travis’s death has affected many people in our school community, the Sydenham community, the greater Kingston community, other schools in the Limestone District School Board, and the greater minor hockey community. Our thoughts are with everyone who knew Travis, and we offer our deepest sympathy to his family and friends. School and board staff will continue to watch over our students and ensure that those who might be affected by this tragedy will receive the support they need. Student support will be available as long as needed.”

A Gofundme campaign was started up late last week by Travis's grandparents to help the Babcock family financially.

“In a split second our life changed and our family is broken. Our little hockey player was taken from us. How the days ahead will be handled is yet to be seen but at this time, financial stress is something Jamie, Leanne and Kaitlyn do not need. As grandparents to this special boy, we would be so grateful for any help you can provide. Please keep our family in your thoughts and prayers as we try to come to the new reality of our lives. We love you Travis and you will always be only a memory away,” is the testimonial on the site.

The campaign had raised $31,000 by Tuesday of this week. It is at this url: https://www.gofundme.com/5k8dyxgs

The accident is the second fatal car accident affecting students in Sydenham this year. In late June an accident on Rutledge Road led to the death of one local youth and serious injuries for another.