by Joan Hollywood

Twenty-one brave souls toed the line and took off running when the town crier rang the bell.

On this Family Day, the first family was the Melkmanaters, Liam, Elizabeth, and Derek. Two k winners were: 1. Hazuki Ono, 2.Natsuki Ono, and 3. Macy Whan for the girls; and 1. Graham Melkman and 2. Victor Heese for the men. The 5k was all ladies with Sandy Robertson 1st, Naomi Ono 2nd, and Christine Patterson 3rd. Donna Larocque was first in the lady’s 10k race, while the men’s 10k was hotly contested by Rudy Hollywood 1st, Jeff Green 2nd, and Karl Kent 3rd. Erik Zierer from Flight Centre Associates presented First Local trophies to Charlotte Hilder and Victor Heese. $160 was raised for future exercise equipment to be placed outside for the use of Sharbot Lake and area families. Polar bear cookies were enjoyed by all.

Family and Children’s Services or Frontenac, Lennox and Addington (formerly known as the Children's Aid Society) has announced this year’s winner of the annual Family Advocacy Award – Maribeth Scott, the Manager of the Ontario Early Years Centre at Northern Frontenac Community Services (NFCS).

The award, given every year to celebrate Family Day, recognizes an individual, group or organization for their contribution making the lives of families in KFL&A better. She was chosen out of a field of more than 21 nominees because of her work in the community.

“We received many worthy nominates from across the community,” said Steve Woodman, Executive Director of Family and Children’s Services for Frontenac, Lennox and Addington. “Maribeth Scott was selected because of her outstanding service to families in Northern Frontenac and her commitment to working together with other agencies to help families in need, including our agency.”

Scott has been working at NFCS for 19 years, and throughout those years she has been a part of a team that has developed a family counselling program that is geared to the families in the NFCS catchment area of North, Central, and parts of South Frontenac Townships.

“When I started here as the supervisor of the play groups that we run, I noticed that some families were less engaged in the group activities than others,” she recalled from her office on Tuesday as she prepared to head to Kingston for the 3 pm awards ceremony. “It's like the old adage goes: When there is no food in the fridge, there is no time for the ABCs.”

As the NFCS/Early Years staff worked more closely with families, the needs became apparent. Families dealing with divorce and separation, financial challenges, addictions and a host of other issues are all part of the community that Scott and her colleagues serve, and supports they offer range from counselling to help in finding and accessing services.

“We provide specialized care to families with challenges, families that fall through the cracks. We support them in getting services they need and make sure their voices are heard,” she said.

Sometimes that involves engaging Family and Children's Services for support, and that can lead to children being removed from the home. In those cases, the Early Years staff do not walk away from the families, either,

“Family and Children's Services provides attention to children, and when that involves the children being removed from the home, the family still needs support. We stay engaged with them to help families deal with their issues and deal with the system,” said Scott.

Over the years she has developed her skills as a counsellor through experience and specialized training, including learning how to work through such taboo subjects as sexual abuse. Through it all, the goal of working with families has remained a constant.

“We work with families. At the end of the day everybody agrees they want the best for their kids. It is a whole team effort. We might have fewer services here in the rural area, but we are bigger problem solvers. It's all about being respectful to families that are in very difficult situations.”

The family support services offered at the NFCS/Early Years Centre in Sharbot Lake were developed locally and are not common across the province, but they are now offered as well in Lennox and Addington County.

“I can think of no one who better fits the spirit of this award than Maribeth, “said Steve Woodman. “On behalf of our entire agency and the community, we thank Maribeth and her colleagues at Northern Frontenac Community Services for the work they do. It is very much appreciated.” said Woodman.

“This award comes as a great surprise and represents the dedication of the many team players at Northern Frontenac Community Services who support families with young children to succeed,” said Scott.

More information on the Family Advocacy Award and Family and Children’s Services can be found online at www.FamilyandChildren.ca.  

Have you enjoyed the market experience and considered applying to be a farm vendor yourself? If so, you’ll want to know that Sharbot Lake Farmers Market (SLFM) is offering an information session for potential farm vendors on Wed. Feb. 25, 6:30-8 pm at

St. Lawrence Employment Centre, 1099 Garrett Street, Sharbot Lake. This is your opportunity to meet and ask existing vendors your questions and discover the benefits of vending at Sharbot Lake Farmers Market.

Do you or does someone you know grow or raise mushrooms, sunflowers, berries, other fruit, ancient grains, beef, goat or duck? These are just some of the products that would complement what is offered at our market. It’s a good time to start garden and seed planning for the spring, or to think about raising livestock.

SLFM also promotes vendor farmgates through its brochure, its website, and other media so your sale opportunities would not be limited to market days.

Did you know that you can apply to be an Occasional Vendor so you can try out the Market before joining? The fee is only $25 per Saturday up to three Saturdays. (If you decide to apply for membership after your third Saturday and your application is accepted, your fees paid to date would be applied towards your membership fee.)

SLFM will be entering its fifth season in 2015 and is located on beautiful Sharbot Lake Beach. SLFM offers local products from within 100 km of Sharbot Lake. Our Market season runs from Victoria Day Weekend through Thanksgiving Weekend.

To pre-register (free), please contact Mary de Bassecourt, Market Manager, at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

The Frontenac Heritage Festival this year kicks off on Friday evening, February 13 in Sharbot Lake at a new location, the cafetorium at Granite Ridge Education Centre. Not only will the Town Crier be on hand, Sir John A. Macdonald will be there as well, in addition to dignitaries from the First Nations and other communities. The ceremonies will get underway at 6:30. Before that, both the Sharbot Lake Country Inn and the Sharbot Lake Legion are putting on dinners, starting at 5:30.

The annual Heritage Festival Variety Show follows at 7:30, featuring music, dance, comedy and more with host Rob Moore.

Saturday will be a big day in the Arden area.

At the community centre, the Kennebec Trappers will be on hand, and the popular fur trader re-enactors, Mike Procter, Bob Miller and their sidekick Ray Fletcher will be cooking, throwing axes, demonstrating tools and making Crow's feet.

Rob Deruchie will be showing Wolf Creek Carvings, and the Arden Potters will be holding an empty bowls event in the all. Buy a bowl of soup or chili and keep the bowl, with all proceeds to the food bank.

There will also be games for the kids put on by the firefighters. Just north of Arden at the Henderson Road boat launch, the Kennebec Lake Association is presenting their 4th annual winter fun day; featuring skating, hockey, ring toss games, food and more. In the evening a fish derby and dance is slated for the Arden Legion (Branch 334)

Sharbot Lake will also have a full set of events on Saturday, including the popular Snow Drags at the beach. This event attracts hundreds of snowmobile enthusiasts from near and far.

For those who prefer the great indoors, the Artisan/Crafters Show & Sale runs from 10-4, with lunch available from Johnston Lake Organic's. The Craft show runs on Sunday from 12-4 as well.

The CF Railway Society is opening the Caboose at the Railway Park on Elizabeth Street for visitors, and over on the Fall River Road, Peter Bell is opening up the log home that he brought over several years ago from Brooke Valley and restored and furnished with authentic period antiques. Weather permitting, there will be a horse drawn wagon available at the junction of Fall River Road and the Trans-Canada Trail to bring people to the property.

In Tichborne, a broomball tournament, hosted by the Granite Ridge grade 8 graduating class, will take place at the rink.

On Saturday Night, the Sharbot Lake Country Inn is hosting a Valentine's Dinner and the Sharbot Lake Legion is hosting a dance.

Sunday is Polar Plunge Day at the Sharbot Lake Marina, starting at 11 am, where dozens of colorfully costumed Polar Plungers will descend into the icy waters of Sharbot Lake - and come out just as quickly!

This will be followed by snow shoeing on Fall River Road.

Finally, the Heritage Festival walk/run starts at 1 pm on Family Day Monday.

Empty Bowls, the quarter-century-old fundraiser that started up in Michigan as a grass roots organization, was founded with the goal of fighting hunger through the sale of hand-made pottery bowls. It has been uniting potters in communities all over the world since 1990.

Begun by Michigan teacher John Hartom and his wife Lisa Blackburn as a way to support a local food drive, the group made pottery bowls and served a soup and bread lunch in them. Following the meal, diners were invited to keep the bowl for a donation.

Since its inception the Empty Bowls event continues to take place today all across Canada and the US as well as in 12 other countries around the world. To date it has raised millions of dollars for various hunger fighting organizations.

In 2002 Perth area potter Jackie Seaton brought Empty Bowls to eastern Ontario. He is remembered here with the words he used to describe what Empty Bowls meant to him. “Food scarcity means not just a scarcity of calories but a scarcity of the life-affirming joys that good food provides. Empty Bowls reminds us all never to take food for granted but to celebrate and share what we have.”

Local potters will be carrying on the Empty Bowls tradition at this year’s Frontenac Heritage Festival at two separate locations. In Arden, potters Joanne Pickett, Aileen Merriam, Diane Nicholson and myself (Julie Druker), will have a wide variety of handmade bowls available for a $15 donation. Soup and chili will be provided by volunteers from the local community. The Arden event will take place at the Kennebec hall on Sat. Feb. 14 from 10:30am –4pm.

In Sharbot Lake, potter Johanna Jansen will be heading up the Empty Bowls event there and will be offering up bowls created by herself and Long Lake potters Tracy Bamford and Sharon Matthews of Water's Edge Pottery, and Dawn Burnham of Maberly. The Sharbot Lake Empty Bowls fundraiser will be included as part of the Frontenac Heritage Festival craft show, which takes place at St. James Major Catholic hall on Sat. Feb. 14 from 10am - 4pm and on Sunday, February 15 from noon until 4pm. All of the proceeds from both events will be donated to the North Frontenac Food Bank located in Sharbot Lake.

Andrew Kovacs had an idea, and the former Sharbot Lake Seniors’ Home is where he is turning that idea into a reality.

Kovacs is a Certified Professional Accountant who worked for years in supply chain finance. However he has wanted to make a change and has been looking for a suitable property to turn into a residence where seniors can be active but not have to worry about property upkeep, cooking or cleaning, among other responsibilities.

“I spent over a year looking for the right opportunity and looked at a number of properties, at least eight, but nothing was suitable. Then one day my broker called me and said his daughter had seen the seniors home here when she was driving to Toronto from Ottawa, where she works for Health Canada, and she told her father to check it out,” he said last week from his makeshift construction office/living room in what is fast becoming Sharbot Lake Retirement and Retreat.

That was in late September, and when he came up and saw the building and the location he was instantly sold on it.

“The lake sold it for me; it's gorgeous,” he said.

As we talked last week, the lake was frozen in its winter stillness, but the building was full of activity. All of the rooms have been completely gutted, down to the studs. The furniture, which had been accumulated over the years by the former owner of the property, Dr. Bell, has been or is being refurbished and is stacked in one room under cover. It is in this bare-bones state that Kovacs can see how he wants to set up the building for the 20 or so residents that he will be able to accommodate as permanent residents.

“The rooms are all 250 square feet in size, and we are putting walk-in tubs and showers in each of them. We plan to create what I call a 'boutique hotel experience' here. All the meals will be included of course, plus tray service to the room upon request, and other services such as a hair salon. In a lot of residences that are out there, the initial rent is only a part of the cost; everything comes with a charge. Here, everything will be included.”

One of the changes that came about from looking at the building once it was gutted is that the former dining room, which has large windows and the best view of the lake in the entire building, will be used as an activity lounge instead.

“While it was a beautiful room for eating in, it was not used for the rest of the day,” said Kovacs, “so we can move the dining area over and make this room a focal point for the residents.”

One of the basic improvements being made to the building is the installation of an elevator to help with mobility in the three-level structure. Further down the road, the strip of land between the building and the lake is to be landscaped and made fully accessible to the residents in the home.

“What we are going to be offering is a beautiful location, handy to all the services in the village, at a competitive price,” said Kovacs, who said he sees the region between Ottawa and Kingston as the market for the residence.

“When we are all done renovating this will be a beautiful place to live. The building has really good bones. It is solid and has an approved sprinkler system. What we will be doing is making all the residents’ rooms and all the common rooms look and feel attractive and comfortable. When people come here with their parents they will be wanting to move in themselves; that's what we are after,” he said.

A local crew is now working on the construction project as are local tradespeople, and when the residence is opened there will be employment for cooks and cleaners, personal support workers and other staff.

“Our success will bring jobs and a higher profile to the local community,” said Kovacs, who hopes to make the Sharbot Lake residence the model for others in the coming years.

Once the renovations are complete, Kovacs said he intends to bring the local public in to view the space.

Thanks to professional drum facilitator and instructor, Leo Brooks, and a grant from Blue Skies in the Community, grade 7 and 8 students at Granite Ridge Educational Centre in Sharbot Lake are now able to keep the beat on their very own hand made drums.

The students just completed a four-week art/music project they began with Brooks early in January where each student built a hand drum using a section of sonotube that the students first primed and painted in a design of their own making. Once the tubes were completed Brooks returned to the school to show the students how to stretch a piece of wet goat skin over one end of the tube, which was then stapled in place and left to dry and tighten overnight. The drums were ready to play the very next day.

The long-term project gave these intermediate students the opportunity to spend many hours on a single project, and their perseverance and determination really paid off. Their drums are as nice to look at as they sound – and they sound just great.

The project culminated in a drum workshop on January 27 led by Brooks, where the close to 50 students learned how to play their drums. Brooks began by teaching the students basic drum care, for the short and long term. He then showed the students the many different ways to create various sounds on the drum either first by using their hands which depending on their placement and delivery can greatly affect the sound produced. Similarly he demonstrated how the drum can be struck with a small stick either on the skin or its side to give different sounds as well.

He spoke of the history and origins of various rhythms, many originating from African countries, and taught the students how to create them first by giving the individual beats words and then by inviting the students to play the beat while saying their corresponding words. Once the students were able to memorize and play one distinctive rhythmic pattern, Brooks would add his own different beat under their unified rhythm, showing how a multi-layered rhythmic effect can be created. The students were transfixed. The musical element of drumming is a real draw for students who seem to delight in being able to come together in one single rhythmic whole. “When the students are drumming in time and creating one strong single rhythmic pattern you can really see the delight on their faces. Playing perfectly in time with one another can really help bring the students together as a group,” Teacher Julia Schall said following the workshop. “Learning to drum as a group is not only about being able to play yourself but it also depends on really listening to one another”.

Student drumming at GREC will not end with the workshop and Ms. Schall said she would be incorporating the drums into her bucket drumming music class at the school. “The beauty of now having these drums here is that we will be able to take them out any time, learn new rhythms and play together.”

Perhaps as the weather warms up, passers-by might hear the magical unified beat of the drum thanks to these GREC students and their fearless drum guru, Leo Brooks, who showed these students not only how to build their own drums but also how to keep the beat.

The Central Frontenac Volunteer Fire Department often provides bartending services for public events at the Oso Hall in Sharbot Lake. They provide a selection of two or three brands of beer, rum, vodka, rye whiskey and mixes, soft drinks, water, etc and the profits all go to the department.

Last Saturday night, Jan. 24 it was the same story, except this time there was a number of large bottles of single Malt Scotch Whiskey on the front counter; smooth, sweet Highland Glenmorangie and Singleton, and smokey, peaty Islay Laphroig Quarter Cask among them.

That, along with the preponderance of kilts and tuxedos, as well as the odd bit of Scottish brogue flowing off the tongue in some cases but clearly put on in others, testified to the fact that the celebration of Burns night was on.

The local Masonic Lodge were the hosts for the evening, which was dedicated to Keith Hawley, who became both a Freemason and a volunteer fireman in 1951, and has served both organizations with distinction for almost 64 years.

A number of Masons from further afield also attended. If everyone is Irish on St. Patrick's Day it seems, even those of Irish descent, as is common in Frontenac County, declared themselves Scottish for the evening.

The ceremonial start came with the arrival of the Haggis, which was piped in by Jeff Donnelly. Bill Robertson delivered Burns' “Address to a Haggis” with considerable flourish. I can't say I caught much of the meaning of the invocation, but the spectacle of the steam rising from the Haggis after it was sliced open, which was then followed by a toast and a sip of whiskey from a silver chalice, struck the chord of tradition in much the way ceremonies do in ancient cultures.

While the meal was being finalised, Ross Morton performed the famous Burns poem Tam O'Shanter, with much aplomb. Again, I cannot say what the plot was all about, nor its resolution, but I could say with some confidence that Tam O'Shanter drank a bit too much and paid the price. In fact he ends up being chased home by witches and only escapes because the witches cannot cross the River Doon - at least that’s what the Wikipedia entry on the poem says. The joy of Burns poetry comes from the rhythm and the rhyme and the sense that his poems invoke, that there is always a battle or a party - or both - around the corner.

Tam O'Shanter was followed by a roast pork dinner, served with the usual fixings as well as the haggis, of course, and then the Blue Skies Community Fiddle Orchestra performed a set of mostly Celtic tunes as an after-dinner treat.

The toast to the Lassies was delivered by Ian Reid and the toast to the Laddies by Janet Gutowski, who delivered a poem herself in her best brogue, which sounded a bit like her imitation of Queen Elizabeth and was well received by the audience, some of whom were by then a bit into their cups of single malt.

It was all good fun for the Masons and all their guests, and with care everyone was returned home safely through a clear and cold winter's night.

A number of the professional staff members of the up and coming website Fisherman.ca spent three days braving some cold weather on local lakes last week. They were fishing and filming on Kennebec, Big Gull and Sharbot Lake, among others, with a camera crew in tow, preparing a series of videos that will debut on their site and on the Youtube channel FisherManCanada starting in early February.

“This is a hugely attractive part of the country for fishing, said Fisherman.ca founder Brian Ineson after spending time on the lakes, “and the fishing, as you will see in the videos, is particularly good around here. Of course it helps that we have some experts along for the ride.”

Ineson was referring to the fact that he brought along some of the site's pro staff contributors with him, and they were hosted by the local member of the Fisherman.ca team, Cezar Spirala of Springwood Cottages on Kennebec Lake (located within 500 metres of the junction of Hwy. 7 and Henderson Road near Arden).

Springwood is one of the few lodges in the region that remain open year round, and Spirala's enthusiasm for fishing not only on Kennebec Lake but on all the lakes nearby became a catalyst for the rest of the Fisherman.ca crew to come to the Land O'Lakes.

The appeal of fishing for a new generation and for women is part of the theme of the videos that were being made in the Land O'Lakes, and Cezar Spirala's wife, Jola Nowakowska as well as a teenager from Arden, Christina Blackburn, who are avid fishing enthusiasts (are they fishermen? are they fishers? - we leave it to readers to settle the fishing gender question), were more concerned about catching fish than worrying about the cold.

The videos being filmed, which will be released as 10 - 20 minute episodes in the coming weeks, are designed to bring a higher profile to both the website and the Land O'Lakes region.

“It is all about creating a higher profile for the region as a destination for tourists, showing all that the Land O'Lakes has to offer, both in winter and in summer; that's what this is all about. When more people know about the fishing and everything else there is, the trails and the accommodations that are available, more people will come and enjoy it,” said Brian Ineson.

“There is really great fishing on these lakes, and you will see that in the videos” said Cezar Spirala,

Aside from showing the surrounding area and the ice huts and equipment that was supplied by the supplier Rapala for promotional considerations, the filming also included underwater video of fish by virtue of some fancy tracking equipment that fisherman.ca has acquired.

“Land of Lakes was a great adventure and we plan on coming back soon,” said Brian Ineson. He added that a spring visit to film future episodes is a distinct possibility.

Gary Hawley celebrated 65 years as the church organist at St. Andrew's Anglican Church in Sharbot Lake last summer. He didn't have far to go to get to church on that day or any other of the Sundays when he has provided music for the worshippers at the church.

Hawley lives with Helen, his wife of 57 years, in a house on Road 38 just south of the causeway in Sharbot Lake. The house where he was born in 1931 is just next door to where he lives now. He was in the 4th generation of Hawleys to live on or around Sharbot Lake. His great grandfather, William Hawley, was one of the early immigrant settlers on Sharbot Lake, coming from England, working his way through Quebec on farms until he came to Sharbot Lake in “the middle 1800s” and established a farm on Sharbot Lake, on what is now known as Hawley Bay.

His son, Gary's grandfather Robert, established a farm on the east side of Road 38, near the spot where both the K&P rail line headed south to Kingston and the Canadian Pacific line turned east towards Toronto.

Gary's father built a house on the other side of the road, where Gary was born and raised.

“Sharbot Lake was a lumber and railway town when I was young,” he recalls, “and our lives were made up of family and our neighbours.”

Road 38 was a dirt road in the 1930s but the floating bridge that had been built in the 1880s was replaced with a causeway and in the 1940s the road was paved.

Although there was little money available in the 1930s, everyone in the area still went out every Saturday night to the Oso Hall for dances.

“They did square and round dancing and the band came from Perth to play for us. My mother invited the piano player to have dinner with us before the dance and asked if he could give me some lessons to see if I liked it. I was about 6 or 7. I liked it well enough that she bought a piano, which I still have, and he taught me how to play,” Gary said.

When it came time to go to high school, it meant a 90-minute bus ride each way to Sydenham High School where he made some lifelong friends.

“Our grade 11 class has met for a reunion once every five years, because we got along so well,” he said.

He was still in high school when Sharbot Lake High opened and he attended there for grades 12 and 13.

In the 1930s and 40s, the Sharbot Lake kids played hockey all winter, at a rink that was maintained on the west basin of the lake just off the beach, the location of the Sharbot Lake Snow Drags these.

“Every day we shoveled off the snow and played hockey; that was the winter activity,” he said, “and in the summer there was baseball. Each village had a team or more and we played against the other villages. I was a pretty good pitcher; no one seemed to be able hit my slow pitch.” he said.

A few major events took place in Gary Hawley's life in the late 1940s that set the stage for the rest of his life, a life that still includes family, work and church responsibilities.

In 1947 or '48 he started playing the old pump organ at the church. For a year or two he learned the songs and how to squeeze the bellows with his thighs, work the pedals with his feet and press the keys with his hands - “It was a full body effort” and in 1949 he became the official organist at the church. Even though the pump organ is long gone, and 18 ministers have also come and gone, Gary Hawley is still playing the organ each and every Sunday.

“It is a fair bit of effort preparing the music each week and being ready to play, but it is something I really enjoy, and I've sort of gotten used to doing it,” he said.

Also in the late 1940s he started working for J.R. (Jack) Simonett, who eventually became the MPP for the local riding and became a long serving member of the provincial cabinet between 1964 and 1971. In the early 1950s, however, his attention was taken up running his car dealership and repair shop.

The business was based at a former creamery in Sharbot Lake, and it included a showroom and a repair shop as well as a body shop. Gary Hawley came on as an assistant in the parts department, and worked in various jobs at Simonett's for over 20 years.

Eventually Jack Simonett put up a new building on Hwy. 7 and 38 before closing the business in the 1970s. The original building is now the offices of The Robinson Group Financial Management Company.

Gary Hawley moved on from Simonett's to work for a car dealership in Napanee, and he still works there a couple of days a week. He is someone who likes to stay on the job for a long time, and is now in his 65th year working for GM.

The next milestone for Gary Hawley is another big one. In three years he will have been married for 60 years.

“We certainly want to hang in for that one,” he said.