Lang Pioneer Village Museum in Keene will be lit by the warm glow of candles, lamps, and lanterns and decorated with pine and cedar garlands and freshly made natural centerpieces during 'Christmas by Candlelight' on December 2 and 3, 2023. The event features horse-drawn wagon rides, live music, historical stories, readings, games, visits with Santa, photos in a winter sleigh, and more. (Photo: Heather Doughty Photography)
You and your family can experience a 19th-century Christmas at Lang Pioneer Village Museum in Keene when the annual “Christmas by Candlelight” event returns on Saturday and Sunday (December 2 and 3).
Running from 4 to 8 p.m. each day, the event includes horse-drawn wagon rides around the historic village which will be lit by the warm glow of candles, lamps, and lanterns and decorated with pine and cedar garlands and freshly made natural centrepieces.
You can see how pioneers celebrated their first Christmas in the wilderness by visiting the Fife Cabin, where chestnuts will be roasting over an open fire. You can find out about traditional holiday treats in the Milburn House, where you can sample some Turkish delight, and join a traditional toast to the holiday season at the Fitzpatrick House.
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As the Carpenter Shop, you can learn the history of the toy maker and, at the Cider Mill, find out about the nutcracker and why it has its iconic shape and sample some sugar plums. You can visit the Cheese Factory to listen to the story of the mammoth cheese ball. In the Aabnaabin Gallery, you can discover how the Michi Saagiig survived and thrived in the winter months.
Live music includes the Note-a-Bells performing Christmas tunes with hand bells in the Jacquard Loom Interpretive Centre, hymns and carolling in the Glen Alda Church, and traditional shanties and Christmas songs performed by Glen Cardus and Fiddling Jay, who will also share the story of the Flying Canoe.
You can also listen to a reading of the traditional Christmas tale “Twas the Night Before Christmas” in the Print Shop. On Sunday only at 7 p.m., there will be a live nativity scene complete with animals and a choir presented by the Keene United Church.
Visit with Father and Mother Christmas during ‘Christmas by Candlelight’ on December 2 and 3, 2023, at Lang Pioneer Village Museum in Keene. (Photo: Heather Doughty Photography)
A selection of early Christmas gift ideas will be on display at the General Store, and you can find unique tree ornaments and gifts at the Museum Shop. Tickets will be available for a Christmas raffle with items including a one-of-a-kind Jacquard carpet bag made on Lang’s own Jacquard loom.
You can visit with Father and Mother Christmas and have your family Christmas photo taken in a winter sleigh. You can also participate in some reindeer games including wooden tandem skis, snowshoes, and sled races.
You can warm up by the wood-burning stove in the kitchen of the Keene Hotel, which will be serving treats and hot drinks. Stop by the Peterborough County Agricultural Heritage Building for ham and savoury on a bun, or get some freshly popped kettle corn from Ben’s Kettle. Food and drink items are available for an additional fee.
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Admission for Christmas by Candlelight is $15 for adults, $10 for students and seniors 60 and older, $7 for children and youth aged five to 14, and free for children under five. Family admission is also available for $40 (for two adults and up to four youth ages two to 14). You can purchase tickets in advance from the museum’s online shop, but advance tickets are not required.
In the spirit of the season, Lang Pioneer Village Museum is asking visitors to bring one or more non-perishable food items to donate to the Otonabee-South Monaghan Food Cupboard, which you can drop off in the Museum Shop.
The most-needed non-perishable food items include peanut butter, macaroni and cheese, canned plain pasta sauce, canned pork and beans, canned soup (both hearty and condensed types), canned vegetables, pasta, rice, canned tuna, and cereal.
The Trinity Community Centre at 360 Reid Street includes beds donated by Peterborough Regional Health Centre to One City Peterborough, which is operating the winter overnight drop-in space for up to 45 people every night from 8 p.m. to 8 p.m. until the end of March with funding from the City of Peterborough. The centre will also offer a daily daytime drop-in space from 1 to 5 p.m. year-round beginning December 1, 2023. (Photo: Paul Rellinger / kawarthaNOW)
Just in time for the cold weather, a new community hub in Peterborough for people experiencing homelessness opened on Tuesday night (November 28).
The Trinity Community Centre, located at the former Trinity United Church at 360 Reid Street, provides a winter overnight drop-in space for up to 45 people every night from 8 p.m. to 8 p.m. until the end of March. The new winter overnight drop-in space replaces the City of Peterborough’s 30-bed overflow shelter program, which was operating at the Peterborough Public Library.
One City Peterborough is operating the Trinity Community Centre, which will also offer a daily daytime drop-in space from 1 to 5 p.m. beginning Friday (December 1). The daytime service, which will be available year-round, will replace the One Roof Community Centre daytime drop-in program at 99 Brock Street that will close on November 30.
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Open to anyone, including those who need access to resources or connections to community programs, the daytime drop-in space will initially provide light snacks with the goal of developing a full meal program in the near future. The Trinity Community Centre will extend its hours during severe weather events to provide people experiencing homelessness with shelter from the elements.
The Trinity Community Centre is a collaboration between the City of Peterborough, One City Peterborough, the United Way Peterborough and District, and the Peterborough Poverty Reduction Network (PPRN).
The City of Peterborough is providing One City with $900,000 each year for three years to operate the winter overnight drop-in space and the year-round daytime drop-in centre. The United Way Peterborough and District provided One City with $200,000 in federal homelessness funding for renovations to the building.
Washrooms and showers being installed in the Trinity Community Centre on November 1, 2023. They are located in the stage area of the auditorium at the former Trinity United Church at 360 Reid Street in Peterborough. (Photo: Paul Rellinger / kawarthaNOW)
PPRN bought the church property last year after the church congregation, experiencing low attendance numbers and facing severe repair costs for the building, voted to disband. While the property wasn’t publicly listed for sale, PPRN learned of its availability and entered negotiations to purchase it.
“Both the Peterborough Poverty Reduction Network and former members of the now disbanded Trinity United Church are pleased with the progress made by One City Peterborough, as they work to realize the vision of a community hub, serving those without a place to call home,” says PPRN chair Steve Kylie in a media release from the City of Peterborough.
“The centre not only offers short term respite from the challenges of living without shelter, employment, and the resulting lack of well-being, but also provides help in finding more permanent shelter, employment opportunities, and holistic support on a path to increased re-integration and participation in the community,” Kylie adds. “The Peterborough Poverty Reduction Network, working closely with the former Trinity United Church congregation and more recently with One City Peterborough, has resulted in the former church property becoming available for transformation into its new life in service of the community.”
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The Trinity Community Centre includes new washrooms and showers as well as a new HVAC system, along with beds donated by Peterborough Regional Health Centre.
Other resources to be offered include a small storage option for personal belongings, on-site laundry facilities for the cleaning of bedding, harm reduction and safer use supplies, and an outdoor gathering space with privacy fencing. Hygiene items, wound care kits, and food and drink will also be provided as they’re available.
The winter overnight drop-in space will run until the end of March, and will reopen again next October 1 for the 2024-25 winter season. In addition to the winter overnight drop-in space, the city’s emergency shelter network operated by community partner agencies offers 127 shelter beds.
The Instagram reel posted by Nectar Co. founder Rose Terry that went viral with over 10 million views featured a Goddess Oval Ring in gold, holding pieces of a pregnancy test cap and gold flakes. With the reel's wide viewership, the Peterborough-based business has doubled its number of orders for custom keepsake jewellery, with orders coming in from acround the globe. With the business growth, Terry is planning to outsource more of her product and hire additional support. (Photo courtesy of Nectar Co.)
Peterborough keepsake jewellery business Nectar Co. recently had an Instagram reel go viral with more than 10 million views in just a few short weeks, keeping founder Rose Terry busy to meet the new demand with orders coming in from around the globe.
In the reel, Terry smashes the lid of a pregnancy test, before showing off a custom gold band ring with gold flakes speckled in the blue stone that was crafted out of the lid. At the time of this writing, the reel posted in early October had over 10 million views, over 460,000 likes, over 33,000 shares, and over 600 comments.
“It’s a testament to how universal the symbol of a pregnancy test is,” Terry says. “Whether someone carried that pregnancy to full term or had a miscarriage or an abortion, so many people can relate to the moment of seeing a positive pregnancy test.”
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Pregnancy tests are not the only mementos Terry transforms into jewellery on the Otonabee hobby farm where she runs Nectar Co. She creates costume earrings, pendants, rings, and beads using preserved breastmilk (even if it is expired), locks of hair, cremated ashes, umbilical cords, placentas, dried flowers, or other materials that document a time, place, or memory.
The viral reel — which Terry notes has doubled the company’s orders — comes just after Nectar Co. celebrated one year in business in October. Though Terry, a young mother of two, has always been an artist and jewellery maker, she explains that she only began thinking about keepsake jewellery after the birth of her second child.
Completely self-taught, Terry began by crafting pieces made from her own breastmilk by using a preservation technique to turn it into a powder. It then gets ground and mixed with a jeweller’s resin to make the stone.
“For so many women, breastfeeding is about so much more than feeding,” Terry says. “It’s about the connection with your child and all your hard work, energy, effort, and the experience. Whether that’s a week or four years, it’s a really important experience for a mother and their child. I definitely resonated with it, and I think that’s why so many other women resonate with it as well.”
After crafting a piece for herself, Terry had more and more friends reaching out to request their own breastmilk jewellery. In grieving the loss of a friend who was very close to her, Terry felt it important to also offer memorial pieces, using ashes to create the stones.
Though it might seem a niche product and certainly not something you can find in just any jewellery shop, breastmilk jewellery has been around as long as at least two decades and is increasingly growing in popularity. But Terry, who has an education in art history, knows that keepsakes themselves are not a new phenomenon.
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“If you look back hundreds of years, keepsakes — memorial keepsakes specifically — have been around for such a long time,” Terry says. “People would keep a lock of hair in a ring with the date of a death on it, and that is not unusual if you look back in human history. It is completely human nature to have keepsakes and to wear it like jewellery.”
Art history is not the only experience Terry draws from in running Nectar Co. Now a professor of business at Fleming College, Terry spend eight years working with the Innovation Cluster Peterborough and the Kawarthas, where she has not only held positions in marketing and communications but also developed programs and delivered workshops for local entrepreneurs and business owners.
“That was an excellent foundation for me because I was able to see a lot of the behind-the-scenes, so I knew what I was getting myself into when launching this business,” she says. “Because I had created so many programs for entrepreneurs and start-ups, I was able to use the things I had already done and then anticipate the next steps.”
A Halo Heirloom Charm Necklace created with cremation ashes. Nectar Co. founder Rose Terry explains that her collection is not about the product and jewellery so much as it’s about the memories those keepsakes hold and the stories that they symbolize, whether joyful or sad. Being trusted with her customer’s stories is one of the most special aspects for Terry. (Photo courtesy of Nectar Co.)
Even before the viral reel introduced Nectar Co. to a wide audience of new clients, Terry used her business and marketing knowledge — and worldwide shipping — to attract customers from as far as the United States, the UK, Switzerland, and Germany.
The customer sends Terry their valued keepsake, she crafts it, and sends it back within 12 to 20 weeks. Her customers can shop from Nectar Co.’s curated collection of styles and stone shapes, then customize the pieces with their keepsakes and include elements like shimmer or colour flakes. Customers can detail a very specific design they have in mind, or they can simply pass along the keepsake for Terry to come up with an original, one-of-a-kind creation.
“I’ve had women tell me that just the act of gathering the ashes and designing the keepsake was healing for her after losing her loved one,” says Terry. “It’s not like jewellery where you just pick a ring up off the counter. You’re designing it from beginning to end, so it’s a very intentional process that can be very healing for people.”
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Stories of healing are just some of the many stories Terry is trusted with when creating the custom pieces. Though a lot of the stories are joyful, with customers documenting their first pregnancies or preserving flowers from their wedding, others are more emotionally challenging.
Terry recalls an especially powerful one from a mother who combined the breastmilk from feeding one child and the ashes of another.
“Keepsakes oftentimes are about the story or the emotion, and it’s not actually about the physical object,” says Terry. “It’s about the story behind it or what it means.”
A mother of two, Rose Terry founded Nectar Co. after the birth of her second child. An artist her whole life, Terry was inspired to create keepsake jewellery after her journey of breastfeeding and from her grief in losing a close friend. She began by making breastmilk jewellery for herself, before friends began asking for their own. Terry is wearing the Mini Halo Round Stone Pendant Necklace. (Photo: Elbonita Photography)
Customers are also able to send other items that are meaningful to them, like sand or stone from a special place. One customer chose to include breastmilk and crushed SickKids Bravery Beads to document their stories.
“I truly believe that keepsakes are one of the most important things that you can ever own because it’s so personal,” Terry says.
Alongside her own jewellery, each day Terry wears her grandmother’s ring, so she also appreciates the value of having a story to pass on between loved ones.
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“We like to have memories and stories to pass down to our children,” Terry says. “I think that’s what’s so powerful about keepsakes — people can have them and wear them, but then they can pass them down and they can tell the story behind it, and then that can be an heirloom in their family.”
With Nectar Co.’s pregnancy test cap Instagram reel going viral (which encouraged Terry to celebrate with a bespoke cake from Millbrook’s Heck Yes! Cake), Terry is looking to hire another hand to support the influx of business.
In its growth, Nectar Co. will also be responding to the most common inquiry by expanding the collection to feature more unisex pieces, like a more “masculine” pendant and rings with a thicker band.
Nectar Co. founder Rose Terry celebrated 10 million views on her Instagram reel by getting a custom cake from Millbrook’s Heck Yes! Cake and showing off her Goddess Dangle Oval Earrings made from her own breastmilk. Nectar Co. jewellery can also be made using locks of hair, cremated ashes, umbilical cords, dried flowers, and more. (Photo courtesy of Nectar Co.)
Terry recognizes that the healing or pride one gains from keepsake jewellery is not exclusive to women, and the process of designing the keepsake can be just as empowering for male customers.
“Truly my goal is to help someone heal or to empower them in their journey and so it feels amazing that I can be a small part of that journey for them,” says Terry.
A custom Celeste Pear Stone Twist Ring holding dried flowers and silver flakes. With Nectar Co., customers can customize their keepsake jewellery in various shapes, styles and designs, choosing exactly how they want their memories held in the piece, or they select the details they want included and founder Rose Terry can design the one-of-a-kind keepsake. (Photo courtesy of Nectar Co.)
Drummer and harmonica player Al Black (left) with the house band for the Jethro's Blues Jam on November 26, 2023, featuring Sean Daniels on keyboards, Jeremy Spencley and Bryan Landry on guitar, Richard Connolly on bass, and Pineapple Frank Barth on trombone. Along with fellow musicians Rob Foreman and Brandon Humphrey, Black has been hosting the free blues jam every Sunday afternoon at Jethro's Bar + Stage in downtown Peterborough. (Photo: Paul Rellinger / kawarthaNOW)
The problem with best-kept secrets is they should never have been a secret in the first place. Take, for example, the weekly late Sunday afternoon Blues Jam that regularly sees Jethro’s Bar + Stage at 137 Hunter Street West in downtown Peterborough filled to near capacity.
Those in the know come to Jethro’s around 3 p.m. each Sunday, vying for a coveted seat. Over the next three hours, their diligence is rewarded in the form of a live music experience that, while wholly unrehearsed, is a refreshing treat rooted in the inevitable spontaneity that results. No judgment — just unabashed joy.
The Jethro’s Blues Jam is not without its Pied Piper. Al Black has been the guy since he, along with fellow Peterborough musicians Rob Foreman and Brandon Humphrey, was asked by owner Kayla Howran to organize and host the event on a weekly basis.
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Besides playing drums with a host band of seasoned musicians and serving as emcee, Black is in perpetual motion, arranging for any music performance newbies that darken the door to take a turn on the stage.
“When I was young, I dreamed of playing with the older guys and that happened,” says Black, adding “Now I’m one of the older guys.”
“Getting up in front of people was the scary part for me. When I was in school, we did public speaking. I was terrified. It takes a few times for you to forget about that and just play. A lot of people can’t do it. They can’t get over that hurdle and they never get to play in front of an audience.”
The Jethro’s Blues Jam is a weekly opportunity for novice performers both young and old to get on stage. William MacCurdy and Maddy Hope, both 15 years old and both drummers, show up on a regular basis at the Jethro’s Blues Jam and provide the backbeat for a few songs. (Photos: Paul Rellinger / kawarthaNOW)
Getting novice performers over that hurdle is one of the goals, and benefits, of the Jethro’s Blues Jam.
“What’s really great is everybody on stage is so supportive of one another,” Black says. “I tell the young people that get up to play ‘We’ve got your back. We’re going to make it as easy as we can for you’ and we do that.”
William MacCurdy and Maddy Hope, both 15 years old and both drummers, show up on a regular basis and provide the backbeat for a few songs.
“I’m pretty sure my dad (guitarist Mike MacCurdy) read something on Facebook about it — he brought me here,” says William, adding he “watched at first” but soon, buoyed by Black’s encouragement, he was in the onstage mix.
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Maddy, meanwhile, followed her music teacher’s advice “to get exposure. I just love everything about it. I was really nervous but you get used to it.”
Both William and Maddy have a huge fan in Black.
“Sometimes it’s a little rough, sometimes it’s amazing, but that’s how it works,” Black says. “You’ve got to stick your neck out and take some chances. It takes a lot of courage to get up and perform. I admire the young people that get up to play. The same with older players who come out, be they retired or whatever, and say ‘I’ve always want to do this.’ It’s the same deal.”
Trent University student Maggie Sabyan has been coming out to the Jethro’s Blues Jam for a few months now, relishing the opportunity to sing in front of an audience. (Photo: Paul Rellinger / kawarthaNOW)
Trent student Maggie Sabyan has been coming out to the jam for a few months now, relishing the opportunity to sing in front of an audience.
“Whenever I can find someone else to play with me, I’ll sing,” she says. “I live in student housing and I have roommates. This is the only time I get to fully perform. This is the only time when the noise is acceptable. To get to do this every week is incredible.”
“I’m terrified every single time,” Maggie admits. “I’m horrified at the fact that people are going to witness it but, at the same time, it’s incredible to get to play with people experiencing the same moment.”
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Caitlin O’Connor, meanwhile, is a singer of the more seasoned variety, having performed with different local bands. Gifted with a singing voice that lends itself to the blues, she’s been coming to the jam “for months now” for the opportunity “to spread out and play with different people.”
“You learn to pick up and hold on and get through,” she says, adding “You learn to wing it and go with whatever happens on stage. It might not be the most perfect thing, but it’s real.”
“It’s magic. You get to share the stage with legends and with people who are just beginning — all different levels of experience, from one to 10. If you’re not having fun, you are not doing it right. If you’re too focused on the perfect note, this shows you that it’s more about connecting with your audience. Look around. This is community driven. It’s family.”
Along with novice performers, seasoned musicians like Caitlin O’Connor also frequent the Jethro’s Blues Jam for the opportunity to perform with other musicians. (Photo: Paul Rellinger / kawarthaNOW)
Lynn Morris has been part of that family since the Blues Jam started. The widow of the late Al Kirkcaldy, who booked acts for the Holiday Inn’s gazebo patio and brought many American blues acts to Peterborough, says she is “a huge music fan.”
“I like afternoon things (as opposed to evening shows) but it’s the calibre of the entertainment that brings me out,” she says. “You never know who’s going to show up. Some days are really good, some not quite as good, but it’s very well supported. Some days it’s even busier than this.”
Morris is referring to the November 26th jam, where the house band opening and closing the proceedings was comprised of Black along with Sean Daniels on keyboards, Jeremy Spencley and Bryan Landry on guitar, and Richard Connolly (who made the trip from Lindsay) on bass. On trombone — yes, there’s a trombone — was Pineapple Frank Barth.
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Also taking a turn on stage were brothers Rico and Marcus Browne (who perform with Sam and Ryan Weber in The Weber Brothers, with Marcus also a member of Emily Burgess & The Emburys), playing guitar and drums respectively. Previous jams have seen similar seasoned musicians and singers join in, including Kim Doolittle, Nicholas Campbell, Carlos del Junco, and Black’s Jackson Delta bandmates Rick Fines and Gary Peeples, to name a few.
No one is paid. At the foot of the stage was a tip jar — “The difference between margarine and butter” as Black put it — that, by 6 p.m., was stuffed with bills. While the cash is appreciated, the musicians aren’t there for the money — Black in particular.
“This has been a labour of love for me,” says Black. “When younger players started coming out, I was blown away by the talent. I always have been but here I am, at ground zero. Maddy and William are talented beyond their years and there are so many singers that have incredible potential. It has been a joy.”
The Jethro’s Blues Jam every Sunday afternoon at Jethro’s Bar + Stage in downtown Peterborough is a labour of love for organizer Al Black, a well-known drummer and harmonica player in Peterborough’s music community. (Photo: Paul Rellinger / kawarthaNOW)
Black is hoping he can spread the word about the Jethro’s Blues Jam and get even more local talent on the stage.
“The jam has always been word of mouth,” he points out. “I want more people to know about it.”
Opened by Kayla Howran in April 2022 at the location of the former Sapphire Room, with Ennismore fiddler Melissa Payne headlining the first show, Jethro’s Bar + Stage has been a good news story during a time when so many Peterborough live music venues have closed, the Historic Red Dog being the latest to shut its doors.
A musician herself, Howran saw a void and moved to fill it, with the pub home to regular live music from Thursday to Saturday night along with the Sunday afternoon blues jam. To stay up to date on who’s performing when, visit Jethro’s Facebook page at www.facebook.com/jethrosbar.
Musician Kayla Howran opened Jethro’s Bar + Stage in April 2022 to provide another live music venue in downtown Peterborough. The venue features regular live music on Thursday to Saturday nights, along with the blues jam on Sunday afternoons. (Photo: Paul Rellinger / kawarthaNOW)
With a capacity for 675 students, Kaawaate East City Public School at 250 Hunter Street East in Peterborough opened its doors for the first time on September 7, 2021. (Photo: Kawartha Pine Ridge District School Board)
It’s only been open for a little over two years, but Kaawaate East City Public School in Peterborough is already facing overcrowding, with the Kawartha Pine Ridge District School Board proposing moving some of the students to another school as of next September. The school board also has a proposal to manage expected overcrowding at both Crestwood Secondary School and Crestwood Intermediate School.
“We continue to experience significant growth across our schools in the City and County of Peterborough,” reads a message to affected families. “While we are pleased that our schools continue to be a destination of choice for families, our growth within schools has been uneven. This has led to critical overcrowding in some schools and extra space in others.”
While the school board will begin “a broad review of secondary and elementary school boundaries and family of school groupings in the new year to identify long-term strategies to manage this growth,” the board says it needs “to manage immediate enrolment pressures” at the affected schools.
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The school board is forecasting that Kaawaate East City Public School, located at 250 Hunter Street East beside the former King George Public School it replaced, will have 847 students next year, and it only has capacity for 675 students. The original capacity was based on the Ontario Ministry of Education’s funding model for new schools when it was built.
Although a fourth portable classroom was placed at the school to accommodate increased enrolment this year, the school board says there is no more room for portables and all special-purpose rooms in the school, other than the library, have already been converted to regular classroom spaces. While there is space in the now-closed King George and Armour Heights Public School buildings, the school board says those buildings aren’t an option.
“The King George and Armour Heights Public School buildings have been empty for several years and would require significant investment to bring them to necessary standards for students,” reads a school board document.
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Located in the same building at 1885 Sherbrooke Street West, Crestwood Secondary School and Crestwood Intermediate School are both forecast to be over capacity next year.
Crestwood Intermediate School (Grades 7 and 8) is forecast to have 320 students next September with capacity for 184, while Crestwood Secondary School (Grades 9 to 12) would be at 101 per cent capacity with 769 expected students.
The school board says the costs of installing two portable classrooms at the site to address capacity issues would cost around $540,000 because of required electrical upgrades.
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As a short-term measure to address the capacity issues at Kaawaate East City Public School, which are expected to continue over the next 10 years, the school board is recommending the school’s Grade 7 and 8 French immersion students attend Adam Scott Intermediate School effective next September.
For Crestwood Secondary School and Crestwood Intermediate School, the school board is recommending that Grade 7 students from Kawartha Heights Public School and Grade 7 students from Westmount Public School in the English stream would attend James Strath Public School for Grades 7 and 8 effective next September.
Grade 7 students currently attending Crestwood Intermediate would remain at the school and then attend Crestwood Secondary School.
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For the proposed changes affecting Kaawaate East City Public School, the school board held a public meeting at the school last Thursday (November 23). For proposed changes affecting Crestwood Secondary School and Crestwood Intermediate School, the school board is holding public meetings at Westmount Public School at 6:30 p.m. on Thursday, November 30th and at Kawartha Heights Public School at 6:30 p.m. on Monday, December 4th.
After gathering community feedback, a summary report and recommendation for Kaawaate East City Public School will be presented to school board trustees at their meeting on Tuesday, January 23rd, with a summary report and recommendation for Crestwood Secondary School and Crestwood Intermediate School to be presented to school board trustees at their meeting on Tuesday, February 27th.
More information about the proposed changes is available at the Kawartha Pine Ridge District School Board website at www.kprschools.ca.
The Peterborough Symphony Orchestra will perform its annual holiday concert at Showplace Performance Centre on December 2, 2023 with "Believe" featuring award-winning Canadian soprano Ariane Cossette singing beloved classic arias and the orchestra performing popular arrangements of Christmas carols and holiday favourites. (Photo: Huw Morgan)
The Peterborough Symphony Orchestra will be celebrating the holiday season with “Believe” at Showplace Performance Centre in downtown Peterborough at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday (December 2).
Award-winning Canadian soprano Ariane Cossette will join the PSO for the annual holiday concert, which will feature seasonal tunes receiving the full orchestral treatment as well as beloved classic arias.
Tickets are $40 for adults and $12 for students for all seats and are available in person at the Showplace box office from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday to Thursday and 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Friday, at the door one hour before the concert begins, or online anytime at showplace.org (student tickets are only available online).
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“We will be including lots of music for the season, including popular arrangements of Christmas carols and holiday favourites as well as some great music by opera composers,” says the PSO’s music director and conductor Michael Newnham.
That includes “Je Veux Vivre” from the 1867 opera Roméo et juliette by French composer Charles Gounod, “Musetta’s Waltz” from the 1896 opera La bohème by Italian composer Giacomo Puccini, and “Ah, fors’è lui” from the 1853 opera La traviata by Italian composer Giuseppe Verdi.
The PSO will be welcoming soprano Ariane Cossette to join them for “Believe.” Originally from Trois-Rivieres in Quebec, Cossette is currently a member of the Canadian Opera Company’s Ensemble Studio in Toronto.
Award-winning Canadian soprano Ariane Cossette performing in the Canadian Opera Company’s Free Concert Series at the Richard Bradshaw Amphitheatre in Toronto. (Photo: Karen E. Reeves / Dragonfly Imagery)
Cossette is a graduate of Conservatoire de musique de Montréal and Université de Montréal. She also holds a Bachelors in Voice Performance from Conservatoire de musique de Montréal.
“Her aerial and powerful timbre with a tight vibrato, her stage presence, and her dynamic vocal lines immediately catch the viewer’s attention,” wrote Benjamin Goron about Cossette’s performance as Micaëla in La tragédie de Carmen at Université de Montréal in April 2022.
In early 2023, she won second prize in the Louis and Christina Quilico Awards and, more recently, first prize at the National Capital Opera Competition in Ottawa. As a concert soloist, she has performed with the Conservatoire’s Orchestra, with Choeurs Eternels in France, and with Orchestra Toronto.
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“I was fortunate to meet and work with Ariane last spring in Toronto,” Newnham says. “She is most certainly a talent to watch and I am very happy that she accepted our invitation to appear with us.”
The PSO will also be performing holiday-themed pieces including Christmas Overture by British-Sierra Leonean composer and conductor Samuel Coleridge-Taylor — not to be confused with the 19th-century English poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge, after whom he was named.
Coleridge-Taylor is believed to have written the piece in 1911, the year before his tragic death at the age of 37 from pneumonia, but it wasn’t published until 1925, when Sydney Baynes arranged the piece for orchestra. A grand and festive overture with prominent brass, the composition mixes the Christmas carols “God Rest You Merry, Gentlemen,” “Good King Wenceslas,” and “Hark! The Herald Angels Sing” with some original melodies Coleridge-Taylor is believed to have written for a children’s play called The Forest of Wild Thyme by Alfred Noyes, although it was never staged with the music.
VIDEO: “Christmas Overture” by Samuel Coleridge-Taylor – Orchestre La Fosse Ô Lyon
Other pieces will include the overture to the 1841 opera Nabucco by Italian composer Giuseppe Verdi, British conductor Leopold Stokowski’s orchestral arrangement of “Sheep May Safely Graze” by Johann Sebastian Bach, and Canadian composer Kevin Lau’s lively and festive arrangements of Christmas carols including “It Came Upon a Midnight Clear” and “Jingle Bells.” “Believe” will conclude — as is the PSO’s tradition — with an audience sing-along.
“The PSO’s holiday concerts are among my favourites every year,” Newnham says. “This is due to the very special atmosphere in our orchestra amongst the musicians, as well as our always very warm and enthusiastic audience.”
“Believe” begins at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday, December 2nd at Showplace Performance Centre at 290 George Street North in downtown Peterborough. Note: there will be no pre-concert “Meet the Maestro” chat before this concert.
kawarthaNOW is proud to be a media sponsor of the Peterborough Symphony Orchestra’s 2023-24 season.
Police closed the tunnel under the Peterborough Lift Lock for over an hour on Sunday afternoon (November 26) while they negotiated with the suspect in a domestic assault.
At around 4:10 p.m. on Sunday, police received calls about an assault at a residence in the Hunter Street and Armour Road area.
After arriving, officers learned that a verbal argument between the male suspect and a woman had escalated, and the woman had been pushed, dragged by her hair, kicked, and punched. The man fled the residence when a neighbour came to help the victim, who was taken to Peterborough Regional Health Centre for treatment.
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After police learned the man was going to the top of the Peterborough Lift Lock, they closed the tunnel under the Peterborough Lift Lock and Ashburnham Drive between Old Norwood Road and Maniece Avenue.
Through negotiation, police convinced the man to move to a place of safety, where he was taken into custody. He was taken to Peterborough Regional Health Centre for assessment and released back into police custody.
As a result of the investigation, a 26-year-old Peterborough man was arrested and charged with spousal assault. The accused man is being held in custody and will appear in court on Monday (November 27).
The first significant snowfall of the season is expected to hit much of the greater Kawarthas region on Monday night (November 27) into Tuesday.
Environment Canada has issued snow squall warnings for northern Kawarthas Lakes, northern Peterborough County, and Haliburton County, with snow squall watches in effect for southern Kawarthas Lakes and southern Peterborough County.
Lake effect flurries and snow squalls are expected to develop off Georgian Bay as the day progresses. Snow squalls are forecast to begin later Monday afternoon and intensify in the evening before shifting south of the region overnight or early Tuesday morning. Of particular concern is the potential development of a very intense band of lake effect snow with snowfall rates of 5 to 10 cm per hour.
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Northern Kawarthas Lakes is expected to receive the brunt of this weather in the greater Kawarthas region with local accumulations of 20 to 35 cm. Isolated higher amounts are possible, and an intense band of lake effect snow may affect this area with of 5 to 10 cm per hour.
In northern Peterborough County and Haliburton County, total accumulations of 10 to 20 cm are expected. In southern Kawartha Lakes and southern Peterborough County, total accumulations of 10 to 15 cm are expected.
Strong westerly winds followed by northwesterly winds will accompany these snow squalls, resulting in significantly reduced visibility at times in heavy snow and blowing snow. Consider postponing non-essential travel until conditions improve, as travel may be hazardous due to sudden changes in the weather. Visibility will be suddenly reduced to near zero at times in heavy snow and blowing snow. In some area, road closures are possible.
Kawartha Lakes Haliburton Ontario Health Team has launched an online platform to help to help residents of Kawartha Lakes and Haliburton County find local health and well-being services. (Graphic: kawarthaNOW)
The Kawartha Lakes Haliburton Ontario Health Team has launched a new online platform to help residents of Kawartha Lakes and Haliburton County find local health and well-being services.
When residents visit the website at www.klhoht.ca/find-services, they can enter their home address and find nearby available services. For some services, residents can self-refer or book an appointment directly through the platform.
As well as focusing on programs and services for older adults, mental health and addictions services, and child and youth services, the online platform also provides a means supporting referrals between local service providers to residents have access to all available supports and services.
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Along with the new online platform, residents can also call 705-934-1439 if they have any questions about accessing health services.
“The launch of this platform continues the Kawartha Lakes Haliburton Ontario Health Team’s work towards increasing navigation support and our goal for our communities is to ensure that everyone has access to supportive community resources,” says the team’s executive director Stephanie MacLaren in a media release. “The new service navigation platform provides better access to those points of care and furthers a ‘no wrong door’ approach in accessing supports and services.”
The online platform uses technology created by Caredove, an Orillia-based company launched in 2012, that is used by more than 800 organizations across Canada, including Ontario health teams, to give the public a way to search for services and send self-referrals.
Peterborough's Camila Duarte has always had a passion for helping people, which has led her into her new role as executive director for the Innovation Cluster Peterborough and the Kawarthas. Having moved to Canada from Colombia at the age of 18, Duarte is no stranger to resilience and perseverance to get her to where she is now and uses her stories of strength to help others in her coaching business FoundHer. (Photo courtesy of Camila Duarte)
Peterborough’s Camila Duarte has always had a passion for helping people. It’s the drive that led her to move to Canada, led her to start her coaching business, and led her into her new role as executive director of the Innovation Cluster Peterborough and the Kawarthas.
It was also the drive that helped her stay resilient through the hardships, hurdles, and obstacles she faced on the journey to getting to where she is today.
Having grown up in what she calls a “conservative” family in Colombia, South America, Duarte moved to Canada when she was just 18 years old. At the time, she was attending university and studying engineering at the insistence of her family, but she knew it wasn’t what she wanted.
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“I didn’t think I had options,” Duarte recalls. “I went to engineering school, but I knew deep down that I wanted to be in service of people. I’ve always been a people person and oriented to help people.”
When her boyfriend at the time announced he was moving to Montréal, Duarte took a chance at adventure despite having very little knowledge of Canada. With Spanish as her native language, she says she faced a huge shock when she first arrived as she didn’t know English or French and had to quickly catch up, all while studying social sciences as an international student at Montréal’s Collège LaSalle. Despite the linguistic challenges, she appreciated her new home.
“I felt like I could do whatever I wanted in Canada in terms of studying,” she says, adding that she loves to learn. “Culture-wise, I felt I fit in. It’s more liberal, not conservative like in Colombia. It was rich and full of culture, full of adventure.” In November 2023, Camila Duarte was the guest speaker at the Women’s Business Network of Peterborough’s monthly member meeting. Two years after joining the Innovation Cluster Peterborough and the Kawarthas, she was appointed the non-profit economic development organization’s executive director. Duarte is also the owner of a life and career coaching business called FoundHer. (Photo courtesy of Camila Duarte)
But when the relationship with her boyfriend didn’t work out, Duarte had to start out all over again. Never telling anyone back home that she was now on her own, she began taking on three to four jobs at a time while she was learning English and French. Those years of determination led Duarte to attend Concordia University to study human planning and urban development.
“Those first three years in Canada were the biggest lessons of my life and the years that shape who I am today,” she explains. “I hit rock bottom in so many ways, so many times. I think I made all the mistakes you can imagine as a 19 year old going through big, traumatic experiences. It could have gone one way or the other, but I started to make a difference for myself.”
The resilience paid off and she says it was “one of the best feelings” when she graduated from Concordia with her bachelor’s degree — extra rewarding, because she was thinking about the words her former boyfriend had said to her when they broke up.
“He told me he was going to buy me a ticket back to Colombia because I could not do it without him,” she says. “I will never forget that.”
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Despite the hardships, Duarte recalls those years fondly because of where they led her.
“I did it on my own and it’s something that gave me a lot of confidence,” she says, adding that it inspires much of her work today. “I’m very grateful for those lessons and I’m a better person for it.”
Still eager to learn, after graduation Duarte started her master’s in business at Concordia. Upon completion, she began her next adventure: travelling to several continents before eventually working in start-ups and non-profits in Australia.
“I live for travelling and that is my biggest passion — to understand the world,” she says, noting that it carries into her work today. “That has also shaped me as a leader, because being exposed to the different worldviews, I think, is the richest thing you can do.”
An avid adventurer, Camila Duarte believes travel has helped her leadership skills by exposing her to different worldviews. She began the biggest adventure of her life when she left her home in Colombia, South America at 18 years old to pursue an education in Canada. (Photo courtesy of Camila Duarte)
Just as she was about to set off on a new adventure by leaving Australia for New Zealand, she learned that her partner’s father was diagnosed with a terminal illness. The couple moved to Lindsay to support him, before then permanently settling in Peterborough.
With the family illness and the pandemic both being additional “transitional experiences” for Duarte, she reached another point in life where she was feeling lost and unsure. As she often does when she’s stuck, she says, Duarte started researching and reading and became interested in relationships between illness and quality of life.
When she came across an exercise in one of her books that suggested each day she make a list of 10 things that she wanted in her life and do it in six months rather than five years, she found that starting a business was always on the list.
“I didn’t know what type of business I wanted to pursue but everything I wrote down was about helping people, helping women, and coaching,” she says. “The biggest was helping women on a journey where they’re stuck because I understand that — I lived it and it’s so hard. It takes a toll on yourself, your partner, your family, your work, your world.”
And so she got certified as a coach and started FoundHer, a life and career coach counselling service.
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“I love helping women and I want every woman to be happy and feel good,” Duarte says, acknowledging she was also thinking a lot about her transformative years in Montréal. “It gives me purpose.”
While Duarte labels herself a feminist, she assures it’s not in the often-misconstrued perspective that defines feminism as “hating men.”
“It’s about equality,” she explains. “Because the balance (between genders) has always been so off, I always wanted and have tried to bring a perspective of what we can do to make this balance work. There’s still so much work to do, so I’ve always been inclined to really help women have a voice and to be encouraged and empowered.”
Soon after moving to Montréal from Colombia at the age of 18, Camila Duarte found herself on her own. She worked multiple jobs while learning English and French and obtaining an undergraduate and post-graduate degree from Concordia University, before working in Australia and later settling in Peterborough, launching her life and career coaching business called FoundHer, and working for the Innovation Cluster Peterborough and the Kawarthas. (Photo courtesy of Camila Duarte)
As she continued to grow her own business, Duarte also began her journey at the Innovation Cluster, beginning in 2021 as an innovation specialist and programs director before being appointed as executive director this past September.
With Duarte taking the lead, her team has recently released a new strategic plan to lead the non-profit economic development organization into its next three years of supporting entrepreneurs in the region.
“It’s called Mindset Shift, because we want to be part of the transformation that Peterborough needs,” Duarte explains. “We’re working very hard and doing so much work to bring Peterborough to the next level and to be part of the economic impact change. We’re passionate about business. We’re passionate about transforming and change, and we want to make it happen in Peterborough.”
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Duarte says the Innovation Cluster was a natural draw for her because it combines her passions for technology, business, working for a non-profit and, most of all, helping people.
“FoundHer and the Innovation Cluster let me do what my purpose is and, to be able to do that, I feel extremely lucky.”
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