The winter weather has arrived, and just in time for the 6th Annual Frontenac Heritage Festival Polar Plunge, to be held on Valentine’s Day – February 14, 2016 at the Sharbot Lake Marina. Patrick O’Conner, our Town Crier, will open things up at 12 noon and the first plunger will hit the water shortly after. For the sake of the participants and the audience the action will be fast and furious and should wrap up within 30-45 minutes. Through the generosity of St. Lawrence College Employment Center, Karen McGregor will join Mayor Frances Smith to present the trophies for our award winners just before the plunge.

Last year was our best ever with about 40 plungers taking place.  We hope to beat that mark this year. Come!! Plunge with us - but if (for some reason) you can’t - why not sponsor a plunger? Funds raised this year will go to assisting

• Children’s and Youth programs at the Child Center (unfunded programs)
• Granite Ridge Educational Centre (Council of students, teachers and parents)
• Alzheimer Society
• Central Frontenac Volunteer Firefighters

Thank you in advance for all your generous donations.  When making cheques out to plungers, please make them payable to: Township of Central Frontenac with a notation of “Polar Plunge” at the bottom. If you want a receipt for your generous donation please include your postal address info on the pledge form so we can get the receipt to you!!  Our thanks again to Richard Struthers and his staff at the marina for hosting the event; Cox Bus Lines for making a “Warm Up” bus available; Bill Young and the firefighters for being in the water right there with us, the Emergency Services personnel for being on hand (just in case!); and the many volunteers that make this event possible.

For information or pledge forms, or for info on available plungers to fund, please contact Art Holloway at 613-985-2895 or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

If you walk by Cardinal Café in Sharbot Lake on the evening of January 30, you might find yourself thinking you're in Leipzig, Germany, transported back almost 300 years, to where famed German composer Johann Sebastian Bach is previewing his newest creations to small groups in a coffee shop there called Café Zimmermann.

A concert of baroque chamber music is happening at 7pm on Saturday, January 30th 2016. The evening will feature Edwin Huizinga on violin and Phillip Fournier on harpsichord, performing mostly Bach compositions, such as his G Major Sonata and his E Major Partita, which features some of his most famous music. They'll also be performing a piece by French composer Jean-Marie Leclair.

“We love this piece,” Huizinga said about the Leclair sonata they will be performing. “It is very different than Bach and gives us a window into Germanic baroque versus French baroque.”

The pieces that Huizinga and Fournier have chosen to perform feature some solo violin, some solo harpsichord, as well as multiple pieces that feature both instruments together.

“I'm dying to hear solo harpsichord in that space” Huizinga said enthusiastically.

The harpsichord, similar to a piano in many ways, has a very unique sound as the strings of the instrument are plucked as opposed to struck with hammers like the piano.

Huizinga said that they are planning to talk a little about the history of the pieces they will be playing so it's a great opportunity for those new to classical music to get their first taste of it live.

“Large concert halls can seem inaccessible for some” Huizinga said about his ambition to bring this music outside of its traditional performance spaces. “Tickets starting at $145 and a four-hour concert doesn't make it easy for people looking for an entry point into classical music” Huizinga said regarding playing large concert halls. “Also, it's not nearly as  people.”

Huizinga has done both though, playing to audiences large and small, and reminisced warmly about getting the opportunity to play in Stevie Wonder's band at the Air Canada Centre last year to a packed house.

“The highlight for me happened when he played Imagine by John Lennon, for Lennon, on his birthday, and at the end of the song he was in tears. It was so powerful. 25,000 people singing along.”

“One of my goals in life is to bring the music I love to the people,” Huizinga mentioned.“Whether that's in cafés in Toronto, to underprivileged kids in Big Sur, or small communities in the country.”

Huizinga is a founding member of Classical Revolution, a group of musicians from San Francisco that started playing music at a café every Sunday in 2003 and which blossomed into a cultural and musical movement of professional musicians performing chamber music in non-traditional spaces. There are currently over 50 versions of Classical Revolution happening throughout the world.

“Cardinal Café is the most ideal spot to hear and play chamber music,” Huizinga said. “It's very similar to how it would've been
presented originally in Leipzig. Also, it has the lake, frozen, on both sides and it's going to be so beautiful.”

“Playing music in smaller rooms like this is the best!” Huizinga said. “It's unpretentious, raw, and real!”

Huizinga has a Bachelor of Music degree from Oberlin Conservatory and a Masters of Music from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music.

Philip Fournier is Organist & Music Director of the Toronto Oratory.

The concert starts at 7:00 pm; tickets are $20 and are available at Cardinal Cafe and online at cardinalhandmade.com.

Many who have heard of the mind boggling capabilities of 3D printers had a chance to better understand the technology thanks to a public service offered by the Kingston Frontenac Public Library. Derek Fenlon, a tech tutor with the KFPL's Central branch in Kingston, was in Sharbot Lake on January 9 sharing the wonders of the Ultimaker 2GO printer with patrons. “I want to show people the potential of 3D printing services that we offer with the hopes that they will utilize this service that is offered to all of our patrons.”

Patrons of the KFPL are being invited to find 3D designs for models online or, alternatively, they can use a number of free online design tools like Tinkercad to design their own 3D objects. These can in turn be emailed to the library’s main branch where tech staff will print the objects for a minimal materials fee and make them available for pick up at the patron’s own branch.

Fenlon said that patrons can also meet with techs at the library's main branch, who will assist them in designing their own objects for printing.

When I visited the Sharbot Lake library branch, Fenlon was explaining to visitors that the printer works by feeding a thin line of plastic filament through an extruder, which heats up the plastic to a temperature of 200 degrees Celsius. Once the plastic has reached the proper temperature, the nozzle at the end of the extruder then moves rapidly and precisely back and forth, and left and right, building up tiny layers of the object. A small silver knight measuring about 2 inches in height, which was in the process of being printed, took the printer about two hours to print. Fenlon explained that the time required for printing depends not only on the size of the object but its density as well. For example, a seven-inch and considerably more dense skull of a T-REX that was on display took 12 hours to print.

Fenlon had brought other printed objects to show to patrons, included an intricate interlinking bracelet, a Terminator head, a rocket ship and a cookie cutter. He also had on display a reference book titled “High Tech DIY Projects for 3D Printing”, which introduces children and adults to the basics of 3D printing and shows them how they can create their own objects.

The technology has been around since the 1980s, and Fenlon said that over the years the printers have become less expensive and more streamlined, and eventually will likely be more affordable to average people. Fenlon himself designed and printed out a miniature replica of the iconic yellow submarine from the Wes Anderson film “The Life Aquatic”. Regarding practical applications of the technology, he said he helped one patron design two replacement knobs for his barbeque and another patron, an engineering student at Queen’s University, used the printer to print out a prototype for a surf board fin.

Fenlon said that 3D printing extends well beyond hobbyists and DIYers and spoke of edible food items and useable objects in wax and metal that are being made. Scientists are currently exploring the possibility of printing human organs using live cells. To date the technology has also been used to print skin grafts and to make prosthetics for amputees. Fenlon said that the technology is also currently being used by business people who use the hobby printers to make various saleable plastic objects and he also knows of full body scanners used in Walmarts in the US by customers who use the scans as the basis for designs.

The technology also lends itself to the need to create objects in remote locations, like in outer space or in the military, Fenlon said. However, regarding the issue of printing guns, Fenlon said that tech staff will refuse to print any dangerous or inappropriate objects.

Fenlon said that while many people have heard about 3D printing, that it is not until they see the printer and how it works that they begin to understand its potential. That proved true when one visitor to the Sharbot Lake branch, Bryan Biondi of Mississippi Station, wondered if Fenlon could create a cookie cutter in the shape of his beloved pet shepherds. Librarian Sara Carpenter quickly found silhouettes of the specific dog breed online, which Fenlon said could be used as the basis to create a design for such an item. “I have a lot of time on my hands”, Biondi said, “and I love to bake and I thought, wouldn't it be great to bake cookies in the shape of my dogs.”

For those who missed the presentation at Sharbot Lake, future presentations will take place at the Storrington branch on Thursday, January 21 from 6 - 8pm; the Hartington branch on Saturday, February 13 from 1 - 3pm, and in Sydenham on Saturday, February 27 from 11am –1pm. For more information about this service visit the KFPL's website at www.kfpl.ca or call 613-549-8888.

Brown and Martin appeal to CF council for Pine Meadow funding

In separate delegations to Council, Rev. Jean Brown and Brenda Martin made a request to put aside $50,000 in their 2016 budget to help cover the estimated $112,000 cost of replacing 11 windows at Pine Meadow Nursing Home (PMNH) in Northbrook.

Their request came about because Frontenac County Council turned down a request to fund the $112,00 project back in November of last year. North Frontenac Mayor Ron Higgins and Central Frontenac Councilor Tom Dewey both voted no to the request, as did the representatives from Frontenac Islands. At a later meeting of North Frontenac Council, $25,000 was allocated to help fund the project, after being proposed by Mayor Higgins. Brown and Martin are both hoping that that Central Frontenac Council will follow suit.

“North Frontenac Council has voted to fix their mistake and we are here requesting that Central Frontenac Council do the same”, Brown said, adding that “Central Frontenac has given nothing to the PMNH and it's time that we get started here.”

Brown said that 50% of residents of the home come from North and Central Frontenac.

She further asked the council to “examine their budget with regards to nursing homes that are supported” and to publish the report in the Frontenac News. Lastly, she asked Council to encourage County Council to re-table their no vote on the issue. Prior to the meeting Brown had sent 600 letters out to local residents of Central Frontenac outlining the issue and inviting readers to write letters to CF council members asking for their support in the matter.

Brenda Martin, chair of the family council at the PMNH, then addressed Council. She said, “The decision at the county table has spurred the family council to take action as well”. Martin said the request to the county represented “a very reasonable 0.014% of their 2016 budget”.

Councilor Tom Dewey said he had not supported the project at the county level “for fear of setting a precedent”.

After the presentations were complete, Dewey put forth a motion to support the project as a one-time expense and to consider the request at Council's upcoming 2016 budget deliberations. Councilor Bill MacDonald agreed. Councilor Victor Heese said that senior care is the responsibility of the county and not of the lower tier councils.

“My concern is that if we support this, which is not in our mandate, we will get similar requests all of the time”, he said.

Reverend Brown replied, “We are asking for this as a way to fix a mistake made at the county level”.

Mayor Frances Smith said that although she agreed with Heese that seniors' care is the responsibility of the county, “municipalities do have the ability to make a grant to anybody, anywhere for anything.”

Mayor Smith closed the discussion by requesting that Brown and Martin make their presentation to South Frontenac and the Islands and make a presentation as well to County Council again in the new year.

In a motion following the delegation, Council agreed to consider the $50,000 request in their 2016 budget deliberations.

Proposals for Tipping Fees on Hard Plastics

Public Works Manager John Badgely recommended that Council consider introducing tipping fees for hard plastics at the township waste sites. Hard plastics would include lawn furniture, toys, laundry baskets and more. Currently there are no tipping fees required for these items. Badgley said there has been a build up of them at local waste sites as the result of a weakened market in hard plastics because low oil prices are making these items cheaper to make new than to recycle.

“Tipping fees would allow us to look into options like grinding these items down and making more room in our landfills,” Badgley said.

Councilor Dewey wondered how the fees would be charged and Badgely suggested making one fee across the board, which would “make things simple and avoid arguments”. Bagdley said that because a grinder could be costly (Dewey estimated anywhere from $50,000 - $80,000), he would look into meeting with public works managers in North and South Frontenac to see if they would be interested in sharing the costs of one.

Council passed a motion requesting that the waste management committee bring more information on the matter back to Council.

Badgley proposes ending the Amnesty Load Program

In his report regarding the 2015 amnesty load program, Public Works Manager John Badgley recommended that Council reconsider a decision they passed last March that will see the program extended until November 2019. He reported that there were 800 amnesty loads in 2015, representing $20,000 in wasted revenue and a shortened life for local landfill sites. Badgley said his aim in ending the program is to extend the life of the township's waste sites by either diverting or charging for these materials.

“The fact is that many residents here, many of whom are summer residents, are using the program to clean up their homes and yards, so really what is happening is that we are taking Toronto's garbage, Ottawa's garbage and everyone else's garbage in our sites.”

Councillor Bill MacDonald said he is on side for canceling the program “I have never used the program and I know what it costs to close a landfill and how difficult it is to open a new one. I also know that once these sites are full we may have no choice but to pay to ship our waste elsewhere.”

Councilor Dewey said he supports the program. “I am not buying the fact that summer residents are taking advantage of this. I know of summer residents who bring their garbage back to the city with them and I also think that the taxes they pay easily balance out the cost of running this program.”

Badgley's recommendation was received for information.

Ad Hoc committee formed for 150th Anniversary

A motion was passed to create a committee to get plans started for a Canada 150 celebration in the township.

“If we are going to do something for this we need to start planning now”, said Mayor Smith. Councilor Victor Heese volunteered to sit on the committee and a second member will be appointed once plans are under way.

School purchases and associated costs hit $400,000

Central Frontenac Council has decided to spend $2,000 to secure all salvageable items in the former Sharbot Lake Public School. They also have authorized Chief Building Officer Jeremy Nevens to prepare an RFP for demolition of the building. Nevens estimates the net cost of the demolition at $150,000.

At a special meeting held on December 21st, Central Frontenac Mayor Frances Smith told Council about a site visit to the school she took a few days earlier with Neven, Fire Chief Bill Young, and other staff and two other members of Council.

“We found that the building has deteriorated, and that the asbestos issue is pretty extensive. As Jeremy will tell you, re-purposing that building for another use is not viable,” Smith said.

“The cost of removing the asbestos would be high, and as soon as the building is being altered it would have to adhere to the current building code and accessibility regulations,” said Neven, “so you would be looking at over a million dollars to get anywhere with it.”

Smith explained that she wanted to meet before Christmas because it will cost $30,000 to heat and carry the building through the winter, and a decision on buying more oil for the beginning of winter needed to be made right away.

“I don't see us spending $30,000 if we are just going to tear down the building anyway,” she said.

The alternative Jeremy Neven proposed was to invest $2,000 in blowing out all the plumbing lines to make sure that none of the cast iron or plumbing fixtures, which can potentially be sold as salvage, will be damaged.

Demolition companies deduct the amount of money they realize from salvaging copper, metal and other marketable materials.

The only question raised by Council was about the timing of the demolition.

“With the cost of the purchase and the increase in OPP costs, perhaps we can wait a year or two before spending the money to tear the building down, because none of wants to see a tax increase if 8 or 9 per cent this year,” said Councillor Brent Cameron.

Councillor Bill MacDonald raised a concern about vandalism if the building is left standing and the message having a derelict building in place gives out to the public.

Treasurer Michael McGovern said that there is over $300,000 in a reserve fund that could be used to finance the demolition and then be replenished “over 2 to 3 years.”

In the end Council decided to defer the decision about when to demolish the school until the cost is better known. They passed a motion to “decommission the building and prepare it for demolition” without putting any time-line on the project.

Jeremy Neven has volunteered to co-ordinate the distribution of useable supplies in the school that do not have a cash value for salvage. These include desks, chairs, equipment, slates, white boards, etc.

“We will contact the not-for-profits in the area to see if they can use some of what is there. There was a lot left behind when the school board left and moved over to Granite Ridge,” Smith said.

Council also decided not to demolish Hinchinbrooke School at this time.

“The asbestos issues at Hinchinbrooke may not be as extensive,” said Neven “although we don't know for sure, but the building is newer.”

Frances Smith said that the community group that was looking at possible uses for the building a couple of years ago is still interested.

“There is also some commercial interest in the property,” she added.

It will cost $30,000 to maintain Hinchinbrooke School through the winter. With a purchase price of $220,000 for the two properties, $2,000 for decommissioning Sharbot Lake Public School and an estimated $150,000 in demolition costs, the entire project now has a $402,000 price tag.

The 12th annual Sharbot Lake Community Christmas Dinner & Celebration was held on Christmas Day at the St. James Major Catholic Church hall, with approximately 90 people attending. The turkey and ham dinner was a sumptuous feast and almost all the guests took home extra meals for subsequent days and for other family members and friends. Dinners were also delivered to those who could not attend. The dinner happens every year thanks to amazingly generous donations from local businesses, churches, organizations and individuals, and to the hard work of the many volunteers who set up the hall, prepare and serve the meal, wash the dishes, play music, and do countless other tasks. Organizers felt especially lucky this year to be joined by new volunteers, Dean and Jennifer of Primitive Catering, who contributed their considerable culinary skills and delicious casseroles to the dinner. The MC was Trina Wilson, who led the audience in singing favorite Christmas songs, and in playing ingenious games that everyone thoroughly enjoyed. A huge and heartfelt thank you to everyone who attended, who donated and who helped in any way.

It is disconcerting that Central Frontenac Council purchased Sharbot Lake Public School on November 24 for $110,000, and five weeks later had to hold an emergency meeting just four days before Christmas to decide to tear down the building.

The emergency meeting was needed because after a site visit the week before, politicians and staff saw that the building was not viable and felt they needed a council decision before putting any more oil into the fuel tank of a building that needs to be torn down.

The decision they made on December 21 seems prudent enough, but why did they not pay this kind of visit to the building before they bought it on November 24.

Before spending $110,000 they should have made this determination. They should have known that they were facing an extra $150,000 in costs to clear the building and create a lot with a septic system and a well in the middle of Sharbot Lake.

No sense harping on the past, however.

With a quarter of a million dollars now sunk into that property, the council will consult with the public and then must decide how to make good use of the publicly owned property. The easiest thing to do would be to put in a five-unit housing project. Anything larger would put the property in a different category under the Ontario Safe Drinking Water Act, and will require an expensive water and waste water system to be installed and maintained over the long term.

However, given the amount of public money already sunk into the project, anything that is built should have a public use. Just building a five-unit townhouse to be sold on the open market would be difficult for the public to swallow.

It would perhaps be acceptable to Central Frontenac ratepayers to build seniors’ housing to add to the stock of low-income housing in the township. However it still seems that if the lot is worth $250,000 in public money to purchase, it needs to be turned into something that will serve the population of the township, not just five individuals or couples.

It behoves the township to look into the possibility of a larger, multi-use building on the property, one that incorporates a public use, perhaps even a commercial use, as well as seniors’ housing.

That would involve looking at the regulations for a large water system and determining how much it would cost to put one in. Before any of this can be decided the township needs to find out if it is even possible to put up a two or three-storey building in that location, given the size of the lot and its proximity to both basins of Sharbot Lake.

No matter what is built on the site, it will require money from at least one other level of government and/or the private sector, because the township doesn't have the money to build.

The township will also ultimately want to turn whatever is built over to an outside body, perhaps a for profit or not-for-profit corporation, to be responsible for maintenance.

Council does not want to saddle future generations with maintenance costs for a new facility.

All of this underlines the fact that the current council has made a leap into the unknown by buying the two public schools.

The same issues that apply to Sharbot Lake Public School apply to Hinchinbrooke Public School in Parham, although the details are different since the Hinchinbrooke School building is not being torn down, at least in the short term.

All of this is to say that this council will be defined by these purchases and what becomes of those two properties.

In general when townships build things; fire halls, municipal offices, garages, trails, municipal halls etc., they turn out to be community assets that are of value over the long run even if they are controversial at the time.

In 10 years will anyone remember that the township paid $250,000 for a lot?

Only if nothing of lasting value comes of it.

School purchases and associated costs hit $400,000

Central Frontenac Council has decided to spend $2,000 to secure all salvageable items in the former Sharbot Lake Public School. They also have authorized Chief Building Officer Jeremy Nevens to prepare an RFP for demolition of the building. Nevens estimates the net cost of the demolition at $150,000.

At a special meeting held on December 21st, Central Frontenac Mayor Frances Smith told Council about a site visit to the school she took a few days earlier with Neven, Fire Chief Bill Young, and other staff and two other members of Council.

“We found that the building has deteriorated, and that the asbestos issue is pretty extensive. As Jeremy will tell you, re-purposing that building for another use is not viable,” Smith said.

“The cost of removing the asbestos would be high, and as soon as the building is being altered it would have to adhere to the current building code and accessibility regulations,” said Neven, “so you would be looking at over a million dollars to get anywhere with it.”

Smith explained that she wanted to meet before Christmas because it will cost $30,000 to heat and carry the building through the winter, and a decision on buying more oil for the beginning of winter needed to be made right away.

“I don't see us spending $30,000 if we are just going to tear down the building anyway,” she said.

The alternative Jeremy Neven proposed was to invest $2,000 in blowing out all the plumbing lines to make sure that none of the cast iron or plumbing fixtures, which can potentially be sold as salvage, will be damaged.

Demolition companies deduct the amount of money they realize from salvaging copper, metal and other marketable materials.

The only question raised by Council was about the timing of the demolition.

“With the cost of the purchase and the increase in OPP costs, perhaps we can wait a year or two before spending the money to tear the building down, because none of wants to see a tax increase if 8 or 9 per cent this year,” said Councillor Brent Cameron.

Councillor Bill MacDonald raised a concern about vandalism if the building is left standing and the message having a derelict building in place gives out to the public.

Treasurer Michael McGovern said that there is over $300,000 in a reserve fund that could be used to finance the demolition and then be replenished “over 2 to 3 years.”

In the end Council decided to defer the decision about when to demolish the school until the cost is better known. They passed a motion to “decommission the building and prepare it for demolition” without putting any time-line on the project.

Jeremy Neven has volunteered to co-ordinate the distribution of useable supplies in the school that do not have a cash value for salvage. These include desks, chairs, equipment, slates, white boards, etc.

“We will contact the not-for-profits in the area to see if they can use some of what is there. There was a lot left behind when the school board left and moved over to Granite Ridge,” Smith said.

Council also decided not to demolish Hinchinbrooke School at this time.

“The asbestos issues at Hinchinbrooke may not be as extensive,” said Neven “although we don't know for sure, but the building is newer.”

Frances Smith said that the community group that was looking at possible uses for the building a couple of years ago is still interested.

“There is also some commercial interest in the property,” she added.

It will cost $30,000 to maintain Hinchinbrooke School through the winter. With a purchase price of $220,000 for the two properties, $2,000 for decommissioning Sharbot Lake Public School and an estimated $150,000 in demolition costs, the entire project now has a $402,000 price tag.

In an effort to spread awareness about addiction and mental health services that are available to residents in North, Central and South Frontenac, and Lennox and Addington, Melissa Switzer-Ferguson, an addictions counselor with Addiction & Mental Health Services of Kingston Frontenac Lennox and Addington (AMHS-KFLA), wants rural residents to be aware that she is currently offering a number of services in Sharbot Lake and in Verona. Ferguson, who is currently working with the Sharbot Lake Family Health Team at the medical center in Sharbot Lake, said that she hopes to make residents aware of the wide variety of free and confidential services that she offers. These include individual counseling for substance and behavioral addictions; group counseling services; rural mental health outreach; and other treatment groups for both mental health and addiction. Staff at AMHS-KFLA also partner with other community organizations to bring their services to those in need of them. All of these services are free of charge and confidential, and appointments can be made either through self-referrals, through family doctors, or by concerned significant other family members. While addiction services are easily available to urban dwellers, residents in rural areas, who can often tend be isolated, also face other challenges to accessing services like a lack of transportation, which can make getting the help they need an obstacle. Ferguson said that the goal of the rural outreach services are to make the services more available, while reducing stigma and letting residents know what sorts of programs are available to them.

“The ultimate goal,” Ferguson said, “is not only to raise awareness of the services that are available but to provide rural residents with equitable and accessible addiction and mental health services.” With the holiday season approaching, many people can find this time of year particularly difficult, and Ferguson said that her organization also has a crisis hotline that operates 24/7 and can be reached by calling 613-544-4229. Anyone wanting additional information about the many and varied supports and services offered through AMHS-KFLA can call 613-544-1356.

Prior to their annual Jingle Bell Walk at the Granite Ridge Education Centre in Sharbot Lake on December 4, students and staff gathered in the school courtyard to celebrate their two-week-long fundraising efforts for the North Frontenac Food Bank. Over the last two weeks students have been collecting donations and this year over 1000 food items were collected. To celebrate that fact, students and staff from the school gathered in the outdoor courtyard, where students from the school’s Lakers program loaded a pick up truck with the boxed food donations and then accompanied it to the food bank in Sharbot Lake.

This is the second consecutive year that the students in the Lakers program have been fundraising and volunteering with the food bank. Lakers program teacher, Ms. Kacur, said the students have also been volunteering every week throughout the year at the food bank, where they have been busy stocking shelves and organizing the donations. Kacur said that the efforts of the students allow them to understand that they are part of the local community and that their efforts are not only much appreciated but are also a way for them to give back to their local community.

Grade 10 student, Franky Badour, is in the Lakers program and is a regular weekly volunteer at the food bank. He said he likes helping out and explained that his efforts are also a way of acquiring his school community volunteer hours.

Part of the fundraising event also included a toy donation drive for children in need in the community. GREC teacher Ms. Kirby, who teaches French and physical education to the high school students, headed up the toy and food drive this year. She said that a school-wide competition was set up, awarding a prize to the class that raised the most food donations.

This year it was Mr. Flegal's grade four class who collected the most - close to one quarter of the overall donations - and his students will be celebrating their efforts with a special treat of hot chocolate and cookies. Congratulations to all the students and the donors. Their efforts will go a long way in assisting those in need in the community. The toy drive continues on until the year-end and to date 20 toys have been collected.