Signs point to the main entrances at Peterborough Regional Health Centre, including the Emergency Department. (Photo: PRHC)
Peterborough Regional Health Centre (PRHC) declared a “code black” after a person made a bomb threat against the hospital at 11:15 a.m. on Tuesday morning (October 31), but police have since determined the threat was unfounded.
“While we have no evidence to verify the threat, we do have a responsibility to take all threats seriously,” reads a media release from the hospital.
As part of the PRHC’s emergency procedure, the hospital immediately declared a “code black” — an emergency code in response to a bomb threat.
Advertisement - content continues below
“Police have been notified and are on site,” reads the media release. “A perimeter lockdown has been initiated. Patients are able to access the hospital only through the emergency department and are being screened prior to entry.”
The hospital asked all patients and family members to delay coming to the hospital until the situation is resolved.
“We understand how frightening this news will be for all those impacted including their family, friends and loved ones,” the media release states. “We will keep the hospital and broader community informed as more information becomes available.”
At 12:11 p.m. on Tuesday, Peterborough police posted on X (formerly Twitter) that they have investigated the threat and determined it was unfounded.
“There is no concern for public safety,” police added.
Police have responded to a threat reported at Peterborough Regional Health Centre. Through investigation it was determined the threat was unfounded. There is no concern for public safety.
At 2 p.m., PRHC issued an updated statement that police had conducted a full search of the hospital building and the situation has been resolved. The perimeter lockdown at the hospital has been lifted and normal activities have resumed.
“Our thanks to patients, families and the people of our community for patience, cooperation and support as we have worked to respond to and resolve this situation,” reads the statement.
The original version of this story has been updated with a statement from police and an updated statement from PRHC.
Trent Excalibur men's lacrosse team celebrating winning the Baggataway Cup at Justin Chiu Stadium at Trent University on November 6, 2022. The team will be defending their national university championship title during the 2023 Baggataway Cup, which will again be held at Justin Chiu Stadium at Trent University from November 3 to 5. (Photo: Trent University)
The Trent Excalibur men’s lacrosse team will be defending their national championship title during the Baggataway Cup at Justin Chiu Stadium at Trent University this weekend (November 3 to 5).
Last year, after an undefeated season, Trent Excalibur captured their first championship since the team’s inception into the Canadian University Field Lacrosse Association in 2007.
This season, while remaining undefeated at home, the team finished tied with Carleton University for first place in the East Division with an 8-2 record but dropped to second after a tie-breaking procedure.
Advertisement - content continues below
The Baggataway Cup — lacrosse was originally an Indigenous game called baggataway — begins with two quarter-final games on Friday. The Guelph Gryphons will take on the McGill Redbirds at 4:30 p.m., and the Trent Excalibur will compete against the 2021 champion Brock Badgers at 7:30 p.m.
The winner of Friday’s first quarter-final game will take on the Carleton Ravens at 1:30 p.m. on Saturday, with the winner of the second quarter-final taking on the Western Mustangs at 4:30 p.m. The winners of Saturday’s semi-final games will play in the Baggataway Cup final at 2 p.m. on Sunday. An awards presentation will immediately follow the game.
The Baggataway Cup is a family-friendly event with an alcohol-free concession stand and Donia’s Donair food truck on site all weekend. BeaverTails will be available on Sunday from noon until 4 p.m. Baggataway Cup gear will also be for sale.
Advertisement - content continues below
Passes for the Baggataway Cup cost $30 for all five games, $15 for Sunday’s championship game, and $10 for either Friday’s or Saturday’s games. All games are free for Trent University students with a valid ID, children under 12, and youth who wear their Trent Excalibur Summer Camp shirts.
Passes are available now at the front desk of the Trent Athletics Centre and will also be available on site. Gates open daily 90 minutes before the first game.
All five games will also be broadcast live on Lacrosse TV at laxsn.com.
The Ashburnham Memorial Stewardship Group hosts a bi-annual volunteer clean-up of Ashburnham Memorial Park, best known to locals for Armour Hill, in spring following tobogganing season and in November in advance of Remembrance Day. The group is hosting this year's "before the snow flies" fall clean up on November 4, 2023, beginning at 10 a.m. (Photo courtesy of Ashburnham Memorial Stewardship Group)
A stewardship group is seeking volunteers to join the “Before the Snow Flies” clean-up of Ashburnham Memorial Park in Peterborough’s East City being held on Saturday (November 4).
The 15-acre park is best known for Armour Hill which, as the highest point in Peterborough, is a summer destination for its views of the city and sunrises and a winter destination for tobogganing. As a year-round attraction, the park — featuring memorial to locals who died during World War I — is often left victim to large amounts of litter and waste.
That’s why, twice a year, the Ashburnham Memorial Stewardship Group hosts a clean-up in the park to benefit residents, visitors, and wildlife. The group was formed in 2021 to advocate for positive change in the park by increasing stewardship and respect for its historical and environmental significance while decreasing the harm, including speeding and reckless driving, garbage dumping, and illegal firework use.
Advertisement - content continues below
The bi-annual clean-up is organized each spring at the end of tobogganing season and in early November ahead of Remembrance Day.
Rain or shine, this year’s November 4th clean-up will begin at 10 a.m. with volunteers meeting at Heritage Pavilion at the top of the hill, behind the Peterborough Museum of Archives. The fall clean-ups tend to focus on the upper park around the parking lot, where trash often ends up in the surrounding forests.
The morning will kick off with a land acknowledgement and orientation, with snacks and hot beverages provided for all who volunteer. Garbage bags and supplies will also be provided, though volunteers are encouraged to bring their own mugs, water bottles, and work gloves, and are reminded to wear weather-appropriate attire.
Volunteers who arrive after the orientation are asked to check in with the organizers so the group can accurately record the number of volunteers for funding purposes. The most successful clean up since the Ashburnham Memorial Stewardship Group formed in 2021, the April 2023 clean-up saw 27 bags of garbage and recyclables collected, as well as empty paint cans and more that 1.3 pounds of cigarette butts for the Butt 1 Community non-profit initiative. (Photo courtesy of Ashburnham Memorial Stewardship Group)
This past April’s clean-up was the most successful to date, with more than 60 participants turning out to volunteer their time to collect 27 bags of garbage and recyclables in addition to other miscellaneous waste products, like several empty paint cans. Over 1.3 lbs of cigarette butts (which equates to more than 500 butts) were collected for Butt 1 Community non-profit organization, to be stored, dried, weighed, packaged, and sent for recycling.
Located on the traditional territory of the Mississauga Anishinaabeg, the hill gets its local name from European settler Reverend Samuel Armour, who purchased the land from the Crown in 1833. When it was being dissolved in the early 1920s, 35 acres on the hill was offered to the City of Peterborough for purchase, but after much debate and a public vote, the city declined.
The following year, a group of 35 local women formed the Women’s Patriotic League of Ashburnham, gave a down payment for the land and, over the course of 14 years, raised the remaining funds through bake sales, bazaars, and teas. Under their possession, the group arranged and paid for the planting of 4,000 Scotch Pine and 2,000 Jack Pine trees and commissioned the roadway and parkway which is now Museum Drive.
Advertisement - content continues below
In 1937, the group donated the park to the people of the City of Peterborough, and on June 24, 1959, the memorial cairn and plaque was erected in remembrance of the Peterborough men who died during the World War I.
In addition to the bi-annual clean-ups, the Ashburnham Memorial Stewardship Group has encouraged respect for the park by hosting bird walks and tree planting and have started the Ashburnham Memorial Park Project on iNaturalist to record the park’s flora and fauna species.
For more information about the Ashburnham Memorial Stewardship Group, visit ashburnhamstewardship.com.
Formed in 2021, the Ashburnham Memorial Stewardship Group was created to support positive change with respect for the environmental and historical significance of Peterborough’s Ashburnham Memorial Park. The group has hosted bird walks and tree planting, and is the organizer of the Ashburnham Memorial Park Project on iNaturalist where the public can add to a species inventory. (Photo courtesy of Ashburnham Memorial Stewardship Group)
Applications open on November 1, 2023 for the City of Peterborough's 2024 community grants program, which will be modified in 2025 in part to better address the funding needs of arts organizations. In June 2023, The Theatre On King's artistic director Ryan Kerr (pictured with property manager Kristi Dick at Cherney Properties) renewed a two-year lease for the organization's 171 King Street location following a successful community fundraising campaign. The future of Peterborough's only black-box theatre had been thrown into doubt earlier in the year when city council decided against providing a community investment grant to the organization, even though the theatre had received the maximum grant the previous year. (Photo courtesy of The Theatre On King)
On Wednesday (November 1), applications open for the City of Peterborough’s 2024 community grants program — the final year of the program as it is currently designed.
The community grants program provides financial assistance to local not-for-profit and charitable organizations that provide direct programs, services, or activities that enhance the quality of life for Peterborough residents in the areas of social services and health, arts, culture, heritage, recreation, or the environment.
More information about the program is available at peterborough.ca/communitygrants, where an online application will also be available at noon on Wednesday. The deadline for grant applications is noon on Wednesday, December 6th.
Advertisement - content continues below
The community grants program has provided almost $250,000 each year to local not-for-profit and charitable organizations through two grant streams: the community project grant and the community investment grant. For community project grants, the city provides $250 to $1,000 for specific projects. For community investment grants, the city provides $1,000 to $15,000 for projects, events, programs or operating budgets. Grant applications are reviewed by an assessment committee of two city councillors and 11 citizen appointees.
For the 2024 community investment grants, multi-year funding will no longer be an option as the city is transitioning to a new community grants program beginning in 2025. The city will honour applications previously approved for multi-year funding in 2022 and 2023.
Last Monday (October 23), Peterborough city council approved a change to the community grants program in 2025. Instead of the existing two funding streams, the program will have three streams: community well-being grants, services delivery agreements, and an art investment fund to be administered by the Art Gallery of Peterborough in collaboration with Electric City Culture Council. The art investment fund would include existing funding for individual artist grants, Artsweek, and the city’s poet laureate program and, beginning in 2025 as a two-year pilot project, a new $60,000 professional arts organization grant program.
The Theatre On King’s artistic administrator Kate Story addresses Peterborough City Council on March 27, 2023 to appeal the decision to deny the arts organization a community investment grant for 2023 after providing them the maximum grant in 2022. (Photo: Sebastian Johnston-Lindsay)
The change to the program followed a public survey about the community grant program earlier in the summer, after city council at its March 27th meeting had unanimously directed city staff “to ensure the integrity and fairness of the community investment grant’s program, and report back to council with any recommended changes.”
At that same meeting, councillors had voted 7-3 against providing funding for two community arts organizations — The Theatre On King and the Artisans Centre Peterborough — that had appeared before council to appeal an earlier decision by an assessment committee to deny the organizations’ applications for 2023 grants. In 2022, The Theatre On King had received the maximum grant of $15,000 and the Artisans Centre Peterborough had received $9,250. In 2023, neither organization received any grant funding.
For The Theatre On King, the change from a $15,000 grant to no funding at all from the city threatened their financial viability (the organization has since fundraised to cover its operating costs). Several delegations appearing before city council in March had raised concerns about the process used for determining grants for arts organizations.
Advertisement - content continues below
“If your assessment process has led to the severing of funding for this essential part of our community, then your assessment process needs to change,” said Peterborough family physician Dr. Laura Lawson, speaking in support of The Theatre On King at the council meeting.
Concerns about how the city’s community grant program is delivered are not new. In 2017, former city councillor Dean Pappas had a motion passed to review the program, but no action was taken. The city’s arts and culture advisory committee, which includes members of the arts community, has also expressed concerns about how the city funds arts organizations.
In 2020, the Electric City Culture Council called on the city to align its processes for community grants for arts organizations with those of the federal government, most provincial governments, and many municipal governments.
When Peterborough resident Ashley Webster was facing mental health challenges following an ADHD diagnosis at 36 years old, she turned to gardening as her therapy. Now with the launch of her business Braidwood Blooms, Webster is using social media to share tips for beginner gardening while also sharing stories about mental health. She has also launched an online store with products aimed to support individual mental health while donating to mental health initiatives in the community. Braidwood Blooms will be selling cut flowers in the spring and summer of 2024. (Photo courtesy of Ashley Webster)
“You’re no good to anyone if you’re having a nervous breakdown, so you better relax and take care of yourself.”
So were the words Peterborough resident Ashley Webster’s grandmother said to her after a family gathering during a particularly difficult time in Webster’s life. The words have since become her motto to live by, reminding her to take care of herself, and now she’s encouraging others to the same by launching a small business centred around mental health and flowers.
Named after the street Webster lives and works on, Braidwood Blooms is an online store and social media presence with mental health care as the focus. On her TikTok and Instagram accounts, Webster provides tips and tricks as a beginner gardener, while sharing her experience with mental health, 25 years of navigating the health care system, and being diagnosed with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) as an adult.
Advertisement - content continues below
Share on Bluesky
Budding quickly, Braidwood Blooms has just launched a third product — a notebook that helps with emergency room visits — and will be continuing to grow until next spring, when Webster plans to sell some of the cut flowers she is growing in her garden.
“I’ve always just loved gardening — it’s just something I do for my own mental health,” explains Webster, adding that it comforts her by reminding her of important people in her life.
“Yellow roses always make me think of a very special person in my life, because one time she told me that it symbolizes friendship. Now that she’s passed, every time I see yellow roses, I think of her. My grandma, too, always had tiger lilies in her ditch, so it was always the about memories of gardening connected to people I love.”
The first item for sale from new business Braidwood Blooms is the “Therapy in Session” T-shirt, created by own Ashley Webster with the idea that customers will put on the shirt and take the time to focus on their own form of therapy without feeling guilty for prioritizing their well-being. One dollar from each T-shirt sale is being donated to mental health care at Peterborough Regional Health Centre. (Photo courtesy of Ashley Webster)
Webster says moving into her Braidwood home four years ago was the first time she was able to really begin her own garden and put effort in learning how to take care of it, though she jokes that she only stopped killing everything a couple years ago.
But in the past year, with the combination of being diagnosed with ADHD at 36 years old, postpartum from her first child, being out of a job following a “stressful” role with the City of Peterborough, and being unable to work at the same capacity, the business owner really began to see the value in focusing on gardening as her therapy.
Similarly, after her ADHD diagnosis, Webster also found herself doing a lot of “mindless scrolling” on TikTok where she was feeling comforted by videos from creators sharing their experiences with ADHD and mental health. However, she says there was only one kind of video she was seeing.
Advertisement - content continues below
Share on Bluesky
“I found it all very sad, with a lot of people crying on camera and sharing their experiences,” Webster recalls. “For a while that was good, because it made me feel like I’m not the only one that feels this way, but then it got to just be really heavy. It felt like I was just getting stuck in that heavy space, so I started actively searching out accounts where I could still feel less alone, but that were more positive and looking at the upsides.”
In her first “Garden Chat” video series, where Webster invites guests to share their own mental health stories, she spoke to her brother Tyler, who was diagnosed with ADHD and autism at a very young age. Webster explains that, with boys presenting hyperactive and impulsive traits in comparison to girls’ more internalized traits, it’s not uncommon for girls to be diagnosed much later in life.
“They say ADHD for boys shows up in the classroom and for girls it shows up on the playground,” says Webster, adding that it made it hard to diagnose her own autism, especially in comparison to her brother. “My brother was wild while I always got good grades, so no one noticed the other things. It was just kind of brushed off because it wasn’t as severe as his.”
VIDEO: Ashley talks to her brother Tyler on her “Garden Chat” series
As someone diagnosed later in life, Webster, who is labelled as high masking, says she often feels a lot of “grief” in thinking about what might have been different in her past had she had an earlier diagnosis.
“You start looking back at times in your life and seeing it in a different way,” she says. “You see the times where someone with a diagnosis would have been supported and loved and you were told bad things about yourself for the exact same thing.”
In sharing some of her own experiences and supports, Webster hopes to create a community where people are more open to talking about their mental health.
Advertisement - content continues below
Share on Bluesky
“As hard as it is, (getting diagnosed) is such a privilege,” she says. “People that are struggling without a diagnosis, not only are they not getting the meds they need or the support in their day-to-day life, but they’re probably being shamed, corrected, and made to feel bad about who they are without even realizing that it’s actually not in their control at all. That’s why I’m so driven to be open about it because it’s just a horrible, lonely place to be. Even though so many people go through it, it just feels like you’re alone sometimes.”
The products currently available from Braidwood Blooms are designed to navigate mental health care, with the T-shirts encouraging customers to prioritize taking the time to heal themselves through their own form of therapy, as Webster does by gardening.
“There are a lot of forms of therapy and a lot of other things we can do to bring joy and peace and calmness into our lives,” says Webster. “It’s important to do that and calling it therapy takes the guilt away.”
New business Braidwood Blooms’ most recently launched item is a notebook intended for use during emergency room trips during a mental health crisis. Designed by owner Ashley Webster while thinking about the supports she wished she had during her own crisis, the notebook includes prompts to record key information like medical history, medication, emergency contact, and preferred hospital, as well as guiding questions to help a person think about their coping strategies and communication needs. (Photos courtesy of Ashley Webster)
One dollar from each shirt sold goes to mental health services at Peterborough Regional Health Centre.
The newest item for sale by Braidwood Blooms is a notebook specifically designed for those living with ADHD.
“It’s extremely beneficial for people with ADHD to always carry a notebook, because the trouble they have is they try to do six things and they freeze and then nothing gets done.” explains Webster. “Having a notebook, they can get the immediate thoughts out and can trust they won’t forget.”
Advertisement - content continues below
Share on Bluesky
What makes the notebook unique is that it is intentionally designed for people with ADHD to prepare in advance of emergency trips to the hospital. Developed from her own experiences of receiving inadequate care because she was unable to voice what she needed during a time of crisis, the notebook includes prompts for writing out key information like diagnoses, family medical history, current and past medications, emergency contact information, preferred hospital, and backup plan.
On the back cover, Webster has included guiding questions for the user’s note taking, with questions like ‘What has helped me in the past?’, ‘How am I coping with daily life?’, and ‘What are my communications needs?’
“Maybe you have the notebook at home and you can just look at it when you have the capacity or when you’re feeling okay, and have the information written in advance so that if crisis hits, you’re ready to go,” she suggests.
As owner Ashley Webster continues to grow her garden and expand her new business Braidwood Blooms, she plans to sell her cut flowers next spring and summer. (Photo courtesy of Ashley Webster)
Share on Bluesky
“Even if you just have the notebook with nothing in it, you’re going to be sitting in that emergency room for a long time, and your brain is not going to be thinking clearly at all,” Webster adds. “Writing can be a way to kind of centre yourself and use that time to make sure that, when you get your chance with the doctor, you make the most of that time.”
As Webster continues to grow her business with more resourceful products, and with the hope of selling cut flowers next spring and summer, she explains that Braidwood Blooms is a “win-win” because not only are people prioritizing their own well-being, but they’re creating a community by encouraging others to do the same.
“The products are meant to make you feel good because you are doing something positive to help your own self-care, but also you’re helping your community and helping other people like yourself. It’s not selfish to take care of yourself. It’s actually critical.”
At a garden party at her home where she runs Braidwood Blooms, Ashley Webster recently celebrated her brother Tyler’s graduation from the Community Integration through Co-operative Education program at Fleming College, designed to provide individuals with exceptionalities and other significant learning challenges the opportunity to experience college life and strengthen essential skills for work, life, and learning. Gardening and flowers often remind Webster of the important people in her life, which is why it has become a therapy for her mental health. (Photo courtesy of Ashley Webster)
The suspect in a residential break and enter in Colborne on October 28, 2023. (Police-supplied photos)
Northumberland Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) are asking for the public’s help in identifying a suspect in a break and enter incident in Colborne on the weekend.
On Saturday (October 28), officers responded to two residential break and enters on Elgin Street in Colborne.
Security footage revealed a suspect broke in during daytime hours. Police have released photos of the suspect.
Advertisement - content continues below
Anyone who witnessed the suspect or has any information that would assist in the police investigation, including video surveillance footage, is asked to contact the Northumberland OPP at 613-475-1313 or the non-emergency line at 1-888-310-1122.
If you wish to remain anonymous, you can call Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-TIPS (8477) or submit your information online at stopcrimehere.ca. You will not have to testify in court and your information may lead to a cash reward of up to $2,000.
“As we move into Crime Prevention Week, Northumberland OPP wish to highlight the importance of being aware of suspicious persons, engaging with police, and working together to prevent crime,” reads a media release.
Indigenous choreographer Sophie Dow will perform "Journals of adoption" at "Zaagi'idiwin: Our Mothering Heart" on November 3 and 4, 2023 at Trent University in Peterborough. Presented by Public Energy Performing Arts and Nozhem First People's Performance Space, the program by Vancouver-based contemporary Indigenous dance company O.Dela Arts also features "Slip away" by Samantha Sutherland and "Rematriate XX23" by Olivia C. Davies. (Photo: Chris Randle)
Public Energy Performing Arts in Peterborough-Nogojiwanong is kicking off its 30th anniversary season in November with works by three important female Indigenous choreographers from one of Canada’s premiere producers of contemporary Indigenous dance.
Founded in 2018 by artistic director and choreographer Olivia C. Davies, Vancouver-based O.Dela Arts will present Zaagi’idiwin: Our Mothering Heart on November 3 and 4 at Nozhem First People’s Performance Space at Trent University. The program features works by three dance artists: Sophie Dow, Samantha Sutherland, and Davies herself.
All three artists are leading figures in the world of contemporary dance in Canada, with their works presented Canada at numerous festivals and stages, including the National Arts Centre, where their unique festival of female choreographers called Matriarchs Uprising was presented earlier this year. O.Dela Arts and the Matriarchs Uprising festival are both based on the unceded Coast Salish Territories of the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Watauth First Nations in Vancouver.
Advertisement - content continues below
Presented by Public Energy and Nozhem First People’s Performance Space, Zaagi’idiwin: Our Mothering Heart is described as “weaving powerful stories of love and loss, and revealing matriarchal legacies coursing through blood memory and the living body.”
One of the sacred Seven Grandfather Teachings of the Anishinaabe people that demonstrate what it means to live a good life, “zaagi’idiwin” is loosely translated as meaning unconditional and mutual love. Zaagi’idiwin: Our Mothering Heart includes Dow’s “Journals of adoption,” Sutherland’s “Slip away,” and Davies’ “Rematriate XX23.”
Choreographed and performed by Dow, “Journals of adoption” is sourced from two journals of origin. One text is from Dow’s birth mother Caroline C., about her experience of pregnancy and the process of offering Dow up for adoption. The other text is Dow’s own reflections, queries, and rumination as an adopted child.
VIDEO: “Journals of adoption” trailer
Created and performed by Sutherland, “Slip away” explores themes of loss and hope relating to the endangered state of the language of the Ktunaxa people, who have occupied the lands adjacent to the Kootenay and Columbia Rivers and the Arrow Lakes of British Columbia for many thousands of years. In 2012, Indigenous scholar Christopher Horsethief found only 24 fluent speakers of the Ktunaxa language remain, and all are over the age of 65.
VIDEO: “Slip away” excerpt
Choreographed by Davies and performed by Sutherland, “Rematriate XX23” seeks to articulate potential pathways to peace and presence that are grounded in contemporary Indigenous feminism, in response to the systems that hold society hostage to continual technological advancement and an ever-growing disconnection to reality. Rematriation is work led by Indigenous women to restore sacred relationships between Indigenous people and their ancestral land, honouring their matrilineal societies, and opposing patriarchal violence and dynamics.
VIDEO: “Rematriate XX23” trailer
Advertisement - content continues below
Performances of Zaagi’idiwin: Our Mothering Heart will take place at 7 p.m. on Friday, November 3rd and Saturday, November 4th, with an additional 2 p.m. matinee performance on Saturday, at Nozhem First People’s Performance Space located in the Enwayaang Building at 1 Gzowski Way on Trent University’s Symons Campus.
Admission to each performance is on a sliding pay-what-you-can scale from $5 to $25, with cash only at the door. To reserve a spot for one of the three performances, visit www.eventbrite.ca/e/722194492167.
Public Energy’s 30th anniversary season continues in January with spoken word artist Jon Hedderwick’s Bubie’s Tapes at The Theatre on King. For more information about the 2023-24 season, visit publicenergy.ca/performance-season/2023-2024/.
kawarthaNOW is proud to be a long-time media sponsor of Public Energy Performing Arts.
The second annual Cancer Takedown fundraiser, hosted by Linda Kash and Megan Murphy, takes place on November 9, 2023 at Market Hall Performing Arts Centre in downtown Peterborough. The intimate and uplifting evening features live music, surprises, and stories shared by those touched by cancer. All proceeds from the event will support cancer care at Peterborough Regional Health Centre. (Supplied graphic)
The second annual ‘Cancer Takedown’ event is returning to Peterborough’s Market Hall on Thursday, November 9th for an evening of raising spirits and raising funds for cancer care.
Hosted by comedians Linda Kash and Megan Murphy, Cancer Takedown is described as a spirit-raiser for anyone touched by cancer, uniting people through song, comedy, and storytelling. All proceeds from the event, which begins at 7 p.m., will go towards cancer care at Peterborough Regional Health Centre (PRHC).
“I’ve never really experienced anything like Cancer Takedown,” says Kash. “It feels like one of the most intimate evenings I have ever had, with people who are so willing to speak their truth about something that is not easy to share at even the best of times.”
Advertisement - content continues below
Share on Bluesky
With Kash and Murphy leading the night, audiences are guaranteed an evening of laughs, surprises, and maybe even some audience participation. Performers include Melissa Payne, Kate Suhr, Anthony Bastianon, Rob Phillips, and Pol Coussée. Some of the performers, as well as members of the community, will be sharing their own cancer stories throughout the night.
While cancer is obviously a serious issue, Kash says the show itself will not be a sombre experience for the audience — in fact, it will be the exact opposite.
“The truth is that the show is extremely uplifting,” she explains. “We are there to be together as a community. We lean into the discomfort of the stories that aren’t easy to hear, but there’s this crazy celebration of resilience and that’s an amazing feeling in the room. It’s about that connection and that positive energy.”
Local performers Linda Kash and Megan Murphy are returning to the stage at Market Hall Performing Arts Centre on November 9, 2023 to host the second annual Cancer Takedown fundraiser. Called a “spirit-raiser,” the evening will feature live music, surprises, and stories shared by those touched by cancer. All proceeds from the event will support cancer care at Peterborough Regional Health Centre. (Supplied photo)
Kash and Murphy are bringing the hilarity as hosts for the second year, following the success of the inaugural show, which was originally meant to be a one-off event. Founded by husband-and-wife duo Rick and Amy Kemp, the idea for the show came from the Rick’s first-hand experience receiving cancer care at PRHC.
He was first diagnosed with metastatic kidney cancer at the end of 2018, before then being diagnosed with a second cancer, primary central nervous system lymphoma, in 2021.
With Rick’s two cancer diagnoses impacting the couple’s lives, including limiting Rick’s mobility, the couple wanted to create an event that was different from other cancer fundraisers that are focused on physical movement, like cycling races and marathons.
Advertisement - content continues below
Share on Bluesky
“The physical battle is massive, but so is the mental and emotional battle,” Amy explains. “In our experience, on a lot of days that (mental and emotional battle) takes over, and that’s where the real durability and stamina needs to come.”
Amy adds that why it’s important for all those touched by cancer — including family members and social circles — make their mental and emotional health a priority.
“The Cancer Takedown event is bringing attention to the mental burden of cancer,” she notes. “There’s amazing care that’s available and done every day in Ontario and in Peterborough on the physical parts of this disease, but a lot can be done to match that level of care on the mental and emotional burden of the disease as well.”
VIDEO: 2023 Cancer Takedown
With both Amy and Rick coming from a professional background in advertising, the show was ultimately a way for each of them to continue being creative and have something to focus on while dealing with the physical and emotional impacts of illness.
“It’s really been an outlet because it helps you put those brain muscles to better use, and to more meaningful use, and you get to do it with great people in the community,” Amy notes. “Both Rick and I are really overwhelmed with the response we’ve gotten.”
With the positive feedback, Amy adds, there’s even the hope the event will encourage other communities to host similar fundraisers.
Advertisement - content continues below
Share on Bluesky
“The reason we’re back for year two is because of that support and feedback we got from the people in Peterborough — the people who performed, the musicians, the people who attended,” Amy says. “It really inspired us to go beyond just a one-off event and that’s why we’re back, and trying to think a bit bigger and aim a bit higher and reach more people this year.”
According to Kash, one of the reasons last year’s fundraiser connected with so many people is because of how universal stories of cancer are.
“Each and every one of us has a story, either directly or peripherally, that relates,” Kash says. “It’s not only about the people who have experienced cancer, but it’s for the caregivers and the people who love people who have gone through this journey.”
The second annual Cancer Takedown fundraiser, hosted by Linda Kash and Megan Murphy, takes place on November 9, 2023 at Market Hall Performing Arts Centre in downtown Peterborough. The intimate and uplifting evening features live music, surprises, and stories shared by those touched by cancer. All proceeds from the event will support cancer care at Peterborough Regional Health Centre. (Supplied photo)
For Kash, her story is about watching her father battle cancer. She recalls that, when he was diagnosed, “the world stopped turning.”
“Any kind of illness has a loneliness to it, and (Cancer Takedown) is our way of saying ‘You are not alone’,” Kash explains. “It takes a load of courage for people to tell their story and their struggle. I just applaud them like no other hero, because we know the journey.”
She says it’s important to add some laughter to that journey, which is exactly what Cancer Takedown aims to do.
Advertisement - content continues below
Share on Bluesky
“There’s nothing like humour to cut across a tough time,” Kash points out. “I know you’re going to laugh and everybody’s going to be moved as well. It’s a combo of feelings and they’re all valid, but you’re not going to leave disheartened. You’ll leave absolutely filled with this crazy sense that we human beings are bloody resilient. Especially in these political times when there’s so much fracturing going on, it’s really nice to feel that we’re together.”
Tickets for Cancer Takedown are $35 for general admission and are available online at tickets.markethall.org. Note that video recording will take place during the event.
Those who are unable to attend the show but would like to support cancer care at PRHC can do so at the PRHC Foundation website at prhcfoundation.ca.
Held during October 2023, the 13th annual Pure Country 105 and MOVE 99.7 "Bras Around the Building" campaign, in conjunction with Merrett Home Hardware Building Centre, has collected 6,842 bras and raised $13,584 for breast cancer research. (Photo courtesy of Pure Country 105 and MOVE 99.7)
The 13th annual “Bras Around the Building” campaign in Peterborough has raised $13,584 for breast cancer research.
The campaign, organized by local Bell Media radio stations Pure Country 105 and MOVE 99.7 in partnership with Merrett Home Hardware Building Centre, collected 6,842 gently used bras from the community over the past four weeks. This year, the bras are hanging at Merrett Home Hardware Building Centre at 1460 Lansdowne Street West.
The funds were raised thanks to Merrett Home Hardware Building Centre, which donated $1 per bra collected, along with monetary donations from local businesses — including Cindy King and Canada Life, Sobeys Towerhill, Shirley and Rebecca Smith from Port Hope, Kawartha Lakes retirement residence in Bobcaygeon, the Lakefield Ladies Hockey Association, and more — as well as monetary donations from individuals.
Advertisement - content continues below
The $13,584 raised will be donated to the Canadian Cancer Society for breast cancer research.
Staff at Merrett Home Hardware Building Centre helped raise the bras on the building, where they will remain until Monday (October 31) as a symbol of support for women battling breast cancer, to honour survivors, and to remember those who have lost their battle.
People are encouraged to stop by and take pictures while the bras remain on display,
Peterborough multidisciplinary artist Kate Story is bringing her one-person show "Anxiety" back to the stage for one night at The Theatre on King in downtown Peterborough on October 29, 2023. The performance will be broadcast live to air on Trent Radio at 92.7 CFFF FM to kick off the Radio from the Stage initiative. Story debuted the production at the theatre last year and recently performed it at the Festival for New Dance in her hometown of St. John's, Newfoundland. (Photo: Andy Carroll)
Fresh off the plane from St. John’s in Newfoundland and Labrador where she was born and raised, multidisciplinary artist Kate Story is being welcomed back to her other home at downtown Peterborough’s The Theatre on King as the black-box theatre’s executive director.
Solidifying the title, Story is taking to the theatre’s stage this Sunday (October 29) to present her one-person show Anxiety, which first premiered at the theatre at the end of last year. This time it will be broadcast live to air for Trent Radio’s Radio from the Stage initiative. The production is framed by Peterborough/Nogojiwanong poet laureate Ziysah von Bieberstein, with a closing music set by Benj Rowland.
In Anxiety, Story weaves the epic poem Beowulf into an exploration of the English language, the roots of white supremacy, and Story’s own experience being raised by a lexicographer father. She performed the show at the Festival of New Dance in St. John’s earlier this month.
Advertisement - content continues below
Share on Bluesky
With so much focus on her own upbringing and past in the show, Story says she’s still processing just how “super moving and super significant” it was to be able to perform the critically acclaimed show in the very same theatre she had performed in as a teenager. Only back in Peterborough for a few weeks, Story is already longing to return to the east coast — a longing that has never faded.
“The second I left Newfoundland, I became really homesick and had a physical pain in my chest, and that’s never stopped,” Story says. “That was an unexpected thing that stays with me, and I think informs a lot of my artistic output.”
An author, dancer, choreographer, performance artist, actor, and director, there’s no limit to Story’s creativity and, as with Anxiety, her work often involves a collaboration of art forms and artists. In her previous role as artistic administrator of The Theatre on King and now as executive director, Story has become an advocate and organizer for artists in the community, having also founded Peterborough DanceWorks and served on the board for the Electric City Culture Council.
Born and raised in St. John’s, Newfoundland, Kate Story always has harboured a longing to return home since she first left at 16 years old. This pull often works its way into her writing and performance pieces, including her show “Anxiety” which weaves the epic poem Beowulf into an exploration of white supremacy, the English language, and Story’s own experience being raised by a lexicographer father. (Photo: Andy Carroll)
Though Story now expresses she is torn between her two homes — the Southside Road home in St. John’s built by her great-great-grandfather and her Peterborough home — she didn’t always harbour this attachment to her hometown.
“I look back and I understand a lot of this now through the lens of being genderqueer,” Story explains. “In my generation, being gay or lesbian was hidden, so I didn’t have a lot of models — I just knew I didn’t belong. And when you grow up on an island, I think it’s pretty easy to imagine that if you got off that island, everything would change.”
Ironically though, when Story finally left the east coast at 16 years old, she went straight through the mainland and ended up on another island: Vancouver Island. There, Story attended the pre-university school Pearson College — Canada’s only United World College, a movement encompassing 18 global schools dedicated to uniting cultures and countries around the world through education — that held a pathway that led her to study at Trent University.
Upon completing a degree in cultural studies, Story spent an additional year in Peterborough, where she threw her heart into performance at Union Theatre before moving to Toronto for graduate studies. Though she knew right away her heart wasn’t in it, it wasn’t until Story was in a bad car accident that she figured out what was most important. At 24 years old, she and some friends were driving back from Newfoundland when their car hit black ice and flipped off the road and into a ditch.
Advertisement - content continues below
Share on Bluesky
“It’s a miracle we weren’t killed,” Story points out.
That near-death experience had a significant impact on her mindset, and Story de-registered from the graduate program while she was still in the hospital.
“It sounds dramatic, but I felt very calm, like I just had this really great perspective,” Story recalls. “Nothing bothered me because we were alive and that’s all that mattered — we had survived, and I had this Zen-like calm.”
With a new perspective, Story returned to Toronto and did every bit of theatre she could, from production assistant roles to performance. In the meantime, she was still assisting at Millbrook’s 4th Line Theatre and, in always feeling a disconnect from Toronto, found herself eventually returning to the comfort of Peterborough.
“I drifted back in the mid-90s and it did remind me of the St. Johns I’d grown up in and the arts scene I’d been aware of as a young person,” she says. “It was very multidisciplinary.”
Kate Story reading from her young adult novel “Urchin” during a book launch event at The Theatre On King in fall 2021. “Urchin” was a finalist in the English language young people’s literature category of the 2022 Governor General’s Literary Awards. Story has published seven books, including six novels and one collection of short stories that were previously published in anthologies. (Photo: Andy Carroll)
Story credits “really amazing artists” in Newfoundland like Gerald Squires, Lori Clark, Lois Brown, and Andy Jones as being large inspirations for her because they were each very experimental in nature, not limiting themselves to one style of art.
“Peterborough was really like that,” Story notes. “You can collaborate and — maybe because of my dance background and because my mother was a musician — I just like interdisciplinary collaboration. Peterborough was a place I recognized that I could do the work I wanted to do and there was a space for me.”
It comes as no surprise then, that when she was seeing Ryan Kerr as he was opening the Theatre on King, Story became immersed in it too.
“There is still a yearning for experimental regionally produced performance and Ryan’s always had literary events, visual art exhibits for youth, radio drama, DJ events — there’s been pretty much everything,” Story says. “It’s not just a theatre space. It’s a space I have a lot of passion for, and I’ve seen some pretty magical things happen.”
Advertisement - content continues below
Share on Bluesky
Adding another art form to the mix, Story has published six novels, including Urchin which was a finalist for the 2022 Governor General’s Literary Award for young people’s literature. She also has a short speculative fiction collection, Ferry Back the Gifts, which was a short fiction finalist for the 2023 ReLit Awards, which have celebrated the best titles released by independent presses in Canada for 23 years.
“That’s a big honour,” Story says. “The ReLit Awards are wonderful, and I’m really sad to hear they’ve been struggling.”
Story is referring to the recent announcement by ReLit Awards organizers that the awards have gone on hiatus, after three years of submitting unsuccessful applications to funding agencies — a familiar situation for Story.
Kate Story performing with Curtis Driedger in “Myrmidon,” a 2015 production at The Theatre on King written by Bernie Martin and directed by Ryan Kerr. As a multidisciplinary artist, Story has worked in various theatre roles, including as a writer, performer, director, and choreographer. She is also a tireless advocate for artists and arts organizations. Story and Ryan Kerr organized the “Precarious” multi-arts festivals that shone a light the economic insecurity of working artists. (Photo: Andy Carroll)
Earlier this year, The Theatre on King was denied funding from the City of Peterborough’s community grants program, despite having received the maximum $15,000 allocation the previous year. Following an unsuccessful appeal at a city council meeting in March — despite seven community delegates speaking eloquently in support of the theatre — the theatre launched a fundraising campaign and, in June, Kerr renewed the organization’s lease for the theatre’s space.
“I am so moved whenever I think about it,” says Story of the fundraising campaign’s success. “It just was way beyond anything I would have ever expected, and we got all that support so we’re good for this year. But that doesn’t solve the long-term problem of where our funding is going to come from next year.”
Earlier this month, the City of Peterborough approved realigning the community grants program in 2025 into three funding streams, including a new arts investment fund. Administered by the Art Gallery of Peterborough in collaboration with Electric City Culture Council, the fund would include existing funding for individual artist grants, Artsweek, and the city’s poet laureate program and, beginning as a two-year pilot project, a new $60,000 professional arts organization grant program.
Advertisement - content continues below
Share on Bluesky
While Story is “happy to hear” the arts stream will fund professional arts organizations, she says not enough is being done.
“It has to stop being thought of as a handout when you give money to the arts and artists,” Story explains. “It’s an investment in a sector and, in the same way you invest in roads and sewers and waste collection, you invest in (the arts sector) as well. We need more investment from the city than the small amount of money that has been proposed.”
Though Story notes that a “shadow has been cast” over The Theatre on King since the appeal was denied, she and Kerr have received huge support from the community. Despite these reminders of the lack of funding to the arts, Story encourages artists to continue doing the work they love and finding their audience.
“If you’ve got stories inside you that have to come out, you have to do it and find a way to bring those stories into the world,” she says. “There are places where you can do readings, cafes that have exhibits, (and) the internet can be used for good. You can find people, but you must get those stories out of you.”
Kate Story in May 2023 during an open rehearsal “Project Baroness.” Directed by Ryan Kerr, the production is slated to premiere at The Theatre on King in downtown Peterborough in fall 2023. (Photo: Andy Carroll)
Share on Bluesky
Story says while the smallest reason is to make art is for your own sake, the biggest reason is that the world needs “unity.”
“Find what your thing is and where you could connect, and what’s easiest for you to connect,” Story explains. “Find other people who are doing stuff, and just keep doing it, because people were making art before there were literary magazines and theatres. Just try to keep the faith, just do the work — doing the work now includes looking around and asking, ‘How can I get this out there?’.”
Practising what she preaches, Story is continuing to work on her next projects, including penning another novel — which she describes as a “comedy-horror for adults” — and an ensemble production called Project Baroness coming to The Theatre on King this fall.
For now, you can see Story perform Anxiety on Sunday, October 29th beginning at 8 p.m. with a live-to-air studio audience at the Theatre on King at 171 King Street in downtown Peterborough. Admission is free or pay what you can, but seating is limited. If you can’t attend in person, you can listen live at 92.7 CFFF FM (channel 287 on Cogeco).
This story has been updated to clarify the nature of Pearson College, to correct a misspelling of Lori Clark’s name, and to correct a typo in a quote.
kawarthaNOW.com offers two enews options to help readers stay in the know. Our VIP enews is delivered weekly every Wednesday morning and includes exclusive giveaways, and our news digest is delivered daily every morning. You can subscribe to one or both.
Submit your event for FREE!
Use our event submission form to post your event on our website — for free.
To submit editorial content or ideas, please contact us.
