Frontenac Heritage Festival Highlights

Feb 21, 2013

There was something for everyone at this year's 7th annual Frontenac Heritage Festival, which ran from February 15 to 18 and included a plethora of events in Central Frontenac put on by various community groups. The festival was moved to Family Day Weekend this year in the hopes of attracting out of town visitors as well as the local community. The festival attracts roughly 1200 people every year.

The breakfast kick off on Friday opened with a blessing by Chief Doreen Davis and included a presentation by Wayne Harris about the history of the K&P Trail. The Strong Women Drum Circle performed along with students from St. James Major Catholic School, who sang the national anthem.

Friday's highlight was the evening variety show at St. James Major Hall in Sharbot Lake. It opened with a wide variety of local musical talent, courtesy of the Center Stage Café House Band; Renee, Dan and Alyshia Richard of Arden (with 16-year-old Alyshia demonstrating her promise as a young and upcoming original country music talent); and second time to the stage, local crooners Rob and Nancy Moore with their selection of mellow covers.

Headliner Roger James, a Detroit-born comedian who worked for years alongside Nancy White in the Three Headed Trio, tickled the funny bones of the capacity crowd with his musical comedy. He demonstrated his prowess on guitar, banjo and bodhran drum, and his clever and witty antics poked fun at the metric system in his tune 500 Kilometers. His interactive show delighted the crowd and he easily managed the two young hecklers in the front row.

On Saturday at Oso Hall the Sharbot Lake Farmers Marketeers offered up their wide range of goods and services along with numerous heritage displays, including quilting. The Crow Lake School House as usual was a popular destination both for busloads of local school students, and a handful of brave young winter campers who experienced a night of winter camping and typical pioneer life. Other heritage enthusiasts enjoyed numerous heritage displays, including hand-made heritage guns and other implements courtesy of Bob Miller; an upholstery demonstration by Josh Amlin; rug hooking with Sandra Moase; spinning & weaving by Beth Abbott; soaps and knitting by Kathy Martin; tomahawk tossing with Mike Procter; and on the menu, hearty turkey soup, apple pie and samples of fresh goat cheese. Visitors were also treated to the festival's special campfire-cooked Crow's Feet donuts.

Photo above:  members of the Sharbot Lake Farmers Market, Janet, Pat, and Mary at Oso hall with festival chair Central Frontenac Mayor and market and festival enthusiast Lyla Duggan.

Photo below:  at the Crow Lake School house l-r, Earl Bain, Peter Boudreau, Bob Miller and Laura Michels handle locally made heritage guns.

Polar Plunge

Photo: ballerina Jen Farnum was a graceful plunger

On Sunday over 100 people gathered in the -20 degree temperatures and a fierce biting wind at the Sharbot Lake Marina to witness dozens take the Polar Bear Plunge to raise funds for the Child Centre, the Sharbot Lake High School council and the Alzheimer's Society. Since the event's inception plungers have raised over $20,000 for a number of local community groups and causes.

Antique lovers got their fill at Dr. Bell's historic log home on the Fall River Road where Gordon Wright from Kennebec Lake entertained visitors on banjo and bagpipes, and a young bonneted and aproned Tilda Bron served up home-made biscuits. Visitors had a chance to explore Bell's amazing collection of heritage antiques and implements. The second storey of the house was open this year and a tour through it revealed four large bedrooms, each boasting interesting pieces, including a quilting frame, numerous settle beds or beggar's benches, as well as examples of typical domestic art pieces mounted in shadow boxes. One, an intricate hair wreath, was made from human hair.

Bell was pleased with the turnout and said he is happy to open the home to visitors. “I have a passion for old things and the old way of life and I think there's kind of a universal attraction to it. You can see people's faces light up when they are here and you can see the place and antiques grab them.”

Central Frontenac Mayor Janet Gutowski initiated the festival seven years ago and she continues to act as chair. She was pleased with how everything came together this year. “This is one of the few events where we have the participation of the whole of the township and beyond. Our goal with the festival is to make it a self-sufficient, community-driven event and we have been very successful in achieving that, thanks to all of the community groups who recognize the event as a way to fund raise and to create awareness of what they have to offer.”

Winter Fun on Kennebec Lake

Members of the Kennebec Lake Association made a sunny section of the lake a destination for family fun on February 16 as part of the 7th Annual Heritage Festival. The second annual event gave local residents a great excuse to get out on the lake and to enjoy some snowshoeing and skating on a rink that volunteers had prepared a week before. Volunteers not only supplied the snowshoes, hockey sticks and pucks but also offered up a hot snack of chili and hot chocolate. Back by popular demand was association member Howie MacKenzie's famous home-made fish chowder, which boasts five different types of fish including shrimp, basa, scallops, salmon and clams- it alone was more than enough to attract visitors to the Kennebec event, which is fast becoming a popular one for local residents during the Frontenac Heritage Festival weekend.

The Heritage Festival's Family Run/Walk

Photo: The family relay winners, the Pickard family with Mayor Janet Gutowski.

The Heritage Festival's Family Run/Walk was held on the Sunday, Feb 18. The results are: 2K Walk/Run (First Local Trophy given by the Rising Bun): Male - Ben Lusk; Female - Annika Putnam. 5K Walk/Run (Trophy given by the Heritage Committee): Male: Kyle Kinkly-Dale; Female: Sarah Armstrong. 10K Walk/Run (Trophy given by St. Lawrence Employment Centre): Male: Jim Steele; Female: Anne Marie Carter-McAuslan. Family Relay 10K (Trophy given by Oso Rec Committee): The Pickard Family - Lesley, David, Sam, Ben. There were over 50 participants and $400 was raised for Fitness stations on the Trans-Canada Trail