A 47-year-old Kinmount man has died in a motor vehicle collision near Kinmount in the City of Kawartha Lakes early Tuesday evening (April 18).
Shortly after 7 p.m., the Kawartha Lakes Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) and emergency services responded to a collision on Pinery Road near Kinmount.
The lone occupant of the vehicle, a 47-year-old man from Kinmount, was pronounced dead at the scene. Police have not released the identity of the victim.
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Pinery Road was closed near Watson Road for several hours while police documented the scene.
The cause of the investigation remains under investigation.
Anyone who may have witnessed the collision or has video/dash camera footage of the collision and who has not spoken with police is asked to contact the City of Kawartha Lakes OPP Detachment at 1-888-310-1122.
Northumberland OPP have released a video on social media about their search for 30-yaer-old Tianna of Brighton, who has been missing since April 18, 2023. (kawarthaNOW screenshot)
The Northumberland Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) are asking for the public’s help in locating a missing 30-year-old Brighton woman.
Update – At 3 p.m. on April 19, 2023, police announced that Tianna has been located and is safe.
Tianna (no last name given) was last seen at around 8:30 p.m. on Tuesday (April 18) on Raglan Street in Brighton.
She is described as female, white, 5’10”, approximately 140 lbs, with blonde hair, possibly worn in a ponytail. She has a tattoo of a cat on her right shoulder.
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Tianna is possibly wearing a red, blue, and white plaid shirt, with jeans and dark running shoes.
She is known to frequent Northumberland County, Quinte West, Prince Edward County, and the Bancroft area.
Police are concerned for her well-being and are asking anyone who may have information on her whereabouts since Tuesday evening to contact the Northumberland OPP detachment at 1-888-310-1122.
Randy Read, Sergio Di Zio, Megan Murphy, and Jade O'Keefe will perform in a staged reading of Rick Chafe's comedic drama "The Secret Mask" on May 7, 2023 at Market Hall Performing Arts Centre in downtown Peterborough. (kawarthaNOW collage)
It’s purely coincidental that Randy Read, who is himself still recovering from a serious injury, will perform as a man recovering from a stroke in New Stages Theatre Company’s staged reading of The Secret Mask on May 7 at Market Hall Performing Arts Centre in downtown Peterborough.
The 70-year-old founder and former artistic director of New Stages is returning to the stage for the first time since he suffered a devastating pelvic fracture last November after being knocked off his bicycle by a truck. He will read the role of Ernie in Canadian playwright Rick Chafe’s comedic drama about a man who, after a debilitating stroke leaves him with a speech disorder and memory loss, is reunited with the estranged son he abandoned decades before.
New Stages announced the staged reading, where the actors perform the script without sets or costumes, last September as part of its 25th anniversary season. The Secret Mask, which premiered in 2011 at Prairie Theatre Exchange in Winnipeg, Manitoba, was a finalist for the 2014 Governor General’s Award For Drama. The Ottawa Citizen called it “alternately hilarious and touching” and “a poignant triumph.”
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Joining Read for the staged reading will be Gemini-Award winning actor Sergio Di Zio, performing as Ernie’s estranged son George, and Megan Murphy, performing as Ernie’s patient speech therapist Mae. Jade O’Keefe, fresh off her successful run of Gibson and Sons at the Peterborough Theatre Guild, will round out the cast.
In this heartwarming and often hilarious play, Winnipeg resident George is contacted out of the blue by a Vancouver hospital to come help his father Ernie, who has suffered a stroke leaving him with memory loss and aphasia, a speech disorder for which he is receiving treatment from speech therapist Mae.
George hasn’t had contact with his father for almost 40 years, ever since he walked out on his family when George was a toddler. But while George feels hurt and betrayed, Ernie can’t remember his words or where he lives.
Randy Read (left) with actor Shawn Wright at the Market Hall on March 26, 2023, when New Stages presented a staged reading of Daniel MacIvor’s “New Magic Valley Fun Town” featuring Wright. It was Read’s first outing to the theatre since he experienced a devastating pelvic fracture last November after being knocked off his bicycle by a truck. Read will be taking to the stage on May 7, 2023 to perform in a staged reading of Rick Chafe’s “The Secret Mask.” (Photo courtesy of Randy Read)
Faced with the reality of caring for a father he never knew, George struggles to make sense of their past and to move on with their newly entwined future. The two men must work through their mutual distrust, fractured memories, and a broken looking glass of language.
Playwright Rick Chafe, who was born in Toronto and raised in Winnipeg, based part of The Secret Mask on his experiences with his own father, who developed aphasia after suffering a stroke.
Aphasia is a disorder affecting speaking, understanding speech, or reading or writing as a result of damage to the part of the brain that is responsible for language processing or understanding. The 67-year-old actor Bruce Willis was diagnosed with aphasia last spring (his condition has since worsened with a diagnosis of frontotemporal dementia).
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After Chafe’s father suffered a stroke, Chafe and his four siblings took turns visiting their father. During that time, Chafe took notes of both his and his siblings’ observations.
“That is all rolled into one character in the play,” Chafe explains in a 2015 interview with the Prince George Citizen. “I kept feeling like it was exploitative, and I couldn’t do that to my father. But I kept some notes anyway, just to have them later when I could think it over from a place of greater distance.”
While his father’s stroke informed that aspect of the play, Chafe relied on the experiences of a friend who had been abandoned by his father at a young age to develop the tension between George and Ernie.
Playwright Rick Chafe based “The Secret Mask” on his own personal experiences after his father suffered a stroke resulting in aphasia. (Unattributed photo)
“He would verify things for me, and gave me the authenticity I needed in the reactions and behaviours of the son in the play,” Chafe says.
The staged reading of The Secret Mask takes place for one night only at 7:30 p.m. on Sunday, May 7th at Market Hall Performing Arts Centre in downtown Peterborough.
General admission tickets are $22 ($11 for arts workers, students, or the underwaged), available in person at the Market Hall box office at 140 Charlotte Street from 12 to 5 p.m. Monday to Friday or online anytime at tickets.markethall.org.
kawarthaNOW is proud to be media sponsor of New Stages Theatre Company’s 25th anniversary season.
The New Stages staged reading of “The Secret Mask” will be performed on May 7, 2023 at at Market Hall Performing Arts Centre in downtown Peterborough. (Poster courtesy of New Stages)
For Pam, giving back to Five Counties Children's Centre as a volunteer is personal. She holds the distinction of being the very first child that Five Counties served at its inception in 1974. (Photo courtesy of Five Counties Children's Centre)
Bob is a former educator who volunteers at Five Counties Children’s Centre because he loves helping kids. For five years, he’s given his time and talent to support our work and — even in retirement — still has a lesson to share.
“Volunteering is rewarding,” Bob says. “I know a lot of people who volunteer, and they get as much fun out of it as they give. Seeing smiling faces when you volunteer makes you feel good to know that you’re helping.”
Every month, Five Counties Children’s Centre provides a story about the work of the charitable organization. This month’s story is Linsey Kampf, Annual Giving Coordinator.
Bob’s tireless efforts to support Five Counties make us smile too and that’s appropriate during National Volunteer Week (April 16-22).
It’s the time we celebrate the contributions made by millions of Canadians, who, according to Statistics Canada, contributed five billion volunteer hours in 2018 alone.
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While COVID-19 severely curtailed volunteering, Five Counties is fortunate to again have dozens of volunteers supporting our clinical services and fundraising efforts. On the fundraising side over the past year, our volunteers contributed 710 hours — equal to working every minute for an entire month!
For Pam, volunteering at Five Counties is personal, as she was the very first child that Five Counties served at its inception in 1974.
“Five Counties was the outlet for me to gain confidence and get used to socializing with other children my own age,” Pam says. “It helped me so much when I became an adult.”
Volunteers make all the difference at Five Counties Children’s Centre, including Bob (third from right) who was among the many volunteers who helped out at the Santa’s Breakfast fundraiser for Five Counties at Lansdowne Place in Peterborough in November 2022. (Photo courtesy of Five Counties Children’s Centre)
A childhood connection is part of the reason why Jackie is a donor, volunteer, and fundraiser for Five Counties. As a young child, she used leg braces to help with mobility issues.
“The work that Five Counties does is incredibly important and valuable to help the children they serve,” Jackie notes. “With the help of the various programs and services offered… children are able to live enriched, full lives.”
For Judy, the “seed of interest” to volunteer at Five Counties was planted in seeing her niece receive care and support in the early 1990s from a Toronto-based children’s treatment centre.
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“The ordeal of watching my niece struggle and face each day of pain and suffering with bravery and determination was life-changing,” Judy recalls. “I have seen many sick children in my life and they have a certain bravery that is unique to them. It’s as if they were born with an extra dose of courage.”
It’s inspiring to work with Bob, Pam, Jackie, Judy and others who volunteer for many different reasons.
Volunteers tend to downplay their role and work, but what they do is significant — as demonstrated at the Winterfest event that Five Counties organized in February.
Dozens of volunteers support clinical services and fundraising efforts at Five Counties Children’s Centre. Volunteers contributed 710 hours towards fundraising efforts alone, which is equal to working every minute for an entire month. (Graphic courtesy of Five Counties Children’s Centre)
While each volunteer contributed three or four hours apiece at the event, the sum total of their efforts was providing enjoyment to hundreds of families, raising awareness about Five Counties programs and services, and netting more than $30,000 to support our work.
Canadian curler Sherry Anderson was right on target in noting, “Volunteers don’t get paid, not because they’re worthless, but because they’re priceless.”
At Five Counties, we greatly value our volunteers who are worth their weight in gold!
Volunteers pick up garbage during a past Super Spring Cleanup Week. For the past 15 years, the three Rotary Clubs in the Peterborough area have organized the annual event during Earth Week in April to encourage everyone within the community to become a steward and protector of the environment by taking part in a garbage cleanup. (Photo: Rotary)
For as long as humans have roamed the planet, we have created garbage. Way back when, it might have been a pile of animal bones, vegetables rinds, or worn clothes, whereas for the last 100 or so years, we have created piles of plastic, glass, paper, rubber, and metal all littering our environment.
This opinion column was submitted by Günther Schubert, a Peterborough resident and member of the Rotary Club of Peterborough Kawartha.
As the planet is speeding towards a climate breakdown with unseen disasters to follow, we find ourself fighting wars on many fronts. One of them is the war against pollution, with garbage being the most visual, often right under our noses.
Researchers are telling us there are now microplastics in water, soil, and even in the air on every continent of the planet. Traces of various levels of plastics are found in animals and humans alike.
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Whole islands of garbage are floating in the oceans gaining in size, only to be broken up by mega storms and then wash up on our beaches. Marine life is greatly endangered through ingesting particles and entanglement. Meanwhile on the continents, many waterways, forests, fields, meadows, cities, towns, roadsides, and parks are contaminated with all sorts of garbage.
Our landfill sites are overflowing and expanding to new pristine farm land, to then be covered with a few feet of dirt and left to rot and ferment while contaminating the soil, groundwater, and air for many years to come.
Wealthy countries have been dealing with the ever-increasing garbage by shipping their trash across oceans to poor and corrupt countries, often causing contamination and poisoning of their own environment.
There are many factors causing all that garbage. Overpopulation, consumerism, convenience, packaging, making profits, poverty, lack of education and awareness and funding, or just blatantly not caring for the environment.
Those of us who have travelled in developing countries will have seen much unsightly trash only a few steps away from hotels and tourist sights. It always pains my heart to see people allowing their community to turn into a garbage pit. Lack of funding to establish systems for collection and disposal, as well as not educating the citizens about the hazards, are mostly to blame.
Here in North America, garbage contamination is not due to the lack of infrastructure to dispose of it. Neither is there lack of education, as most children will participate at one point at a school-organized cleanup.
For many, there seems to be a disconnect with nature and a lack of awareness of the impacts of garbage contamination. There seems to be an inherent habit to disrespect nature and fellow citizens. Selfish and careless individuals who will do whatever they want continue to litter the environment with coffee cups, wrappers, or dog poop baggies.
Billions of cigarette butts are discarded every day, with their plastic fibre filters leading the list of garbage found in the environment worldwide. The breaking down of these filters in time will allow small particles to be absorbed by water and soil — a slow and deadly process.
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To prevent a total and fatal plastic contamination of the entire planet, a major shift needs to happen:
Industries have to produce quality products that last longer and have to reduce and recycle packaging.
Industries need to stop making kitsch and useless junk. It all ends up to be garbage and needs to be disposed.
Governments need to educate and regulate production of consumer products. If it’s junk, don’t allow it to be made, imported, or sold.
Retail must reduce packaging, sell quality products, and introduce refunds. Just imagine if a Tim Hortons coffee cup had a $1 deposit. Surely there would be no more coffee cups scattered all over the place.
As consumers, we must reduce our hunger for buying inferior and useless stuff. It all ends up in the garbage dump and costs a lot of money. Of course the production and shipping of all that material consumes huge quantities of energy and raw material.
To save our planet from poisoning, humanity needs to recognize the damage caused by garbage.
Citizens of all stripes must get involved in cleaning up the environment. By taking part in a cleanup, we get a sense of ownership and responsibility for the planet. We must start right outside our own homes and in our neighbourhoods, then move on to county roads, ravines, creeks, lakeshores, and beaches.
Seeing garbage anywhere must not be acceptable to anyone anymore. If you see it, get rid of it — for only then will the land we walk on, the water we drink, and the air we breathe be clean and healthy for a long time to come.
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Municipalities and organizations in many countries are calling on their citizens to help with spring cleanups.
Here in Peterborough, mayor Jeff Leal issued a Rotary-prompted proclamation calling on all citizens to participate and help clean our community during Earth Week at the end of April. Several community organizations such as the Ashburnham Stewardship group, Friends of Jackson Park, Crawford Rail Trail, Rotary clubs, and church groups as well as businesses are coming out to clean up trash accumulated throughout the winter months.
Join a group or start your own initiative with family, kids, friends, or colleagues and be part of a solution. Adopt a section of a park, a path, a ravine, a beach near you and keep it clean throughout the year. Your connection to that piece of land will change you from a frustrated bystander into a participant and steward.
Remember to bring a plastic bag with you on your walks — you’ll need it. Happy cleanup!
Peterborough mayor Jeff Leal has proclaimed the week of April 22 to 29, 2023 at Rotary Super Spring Cleanup Week. (Photo: Günther Schubert)
On April 17, 2023, the City of Peterborough provided a demonstration of the new collection trucks for the city's new green bin program for organic waste coming this fall, including the automated equipment that will be used to pick up and empty the large green bins during curbside collection. (Photo: City of Peterborough)
In advance of Earth Day on Saturday (April 22), the City of Peterborough provided a first look at the city’s green bin program for organic waste coming this fall.
At a media event in the parking lot of Eastgate Park on Ashburnham Drive on Monday morning, the city demonstrated the new collection trucks, including the automated equipment that will be used to pick up and empty the large green bins during curbside collection.
All eligible households will receive one of the heavy-duty pest-proof bins, which include wheels and a locking mechanism on the lid, as well as a smaller container for use in the kitchen.
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The green bin program is being rolled out to most residential properties, except for multi-residential and condominium properties that receive private waste collection services.
The city will begin delivering the green bins to eligible households in September and expects delivery to be completed by mid-October, with weekly curbside green bin collection beginning on October 31.
The green bins can be used to dispose of all food waste (whether cooked, raw, or spoiled, as well as bones), soiled paper products (including tissues, paper towels, cardboard, and pizza boxes), and pet waste and kitty litter (as long as it is is not contained in plastic liners or plastic bags).
VIDEO: City of Peterborough green bin collection demonstration
Items that will be disposed of in the garbage include non-recyclable product packaging, coffee pods, diapers and wipes, feminine hygiene products, and plastic bags and film (overwrap).
Organic material collected in the green bin program will be processed at the city’s Green Resource Organics Works (GROW) centralized composting facility. At full capacity, the facility could accept up to 40,000 tonnes of organic material per year from the city and county of Peterborough.
According to a media release from the city, diverting organic material from the landfill for composting will reduce methane gas production at the landfill and will reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 1,943 tonnes of carbon dioxide in 2030 and by a total of 79,305 tonnes between 2023 and 2050.
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As organic material makes up about 40 per cent of residential waste in Canada, diverting organics away from the current garbage generated by Peterborough households into the new weekly green bin program means the city’s garbage collection can shift to an every-other-week schedule.
Along with the green bin program and the shift to every-other-week garbage collection, the city will require the use of clear bags for curbside garbage collection beginning October 31.
Waste audits in Peterborough in 2020-2021 found that about 10 per cent of material in curbside garbage bags was recyclable material.
A new exhibition opening at the Peterborough Museum & Archives on Saturday (April 22) will feature Indigenous birch baskets gifted to the Prince of Wales in 1860 that are returning for a visit to their ancestral lands in Nogojiwanong-Peterborough.
In 1860, His Royal Highness Albert Edward, Prince of Wales — the eldest son of Queen Victoria who was heir apparent for almost 60 years until he became King in 1901 — toured North America. During a stop at Rice Lake village (now Hiawatha First Nation) on September 7, 1860, Michi Saagiig women presented him with gifts of quilled birch bark baskets called ‘wiigwaasii makakoons’ (pronounced ‘weeg-wah-see mah-ka-coons’).
Through a partnership between Hiawatha First Nation, the Mississauga Nation, the Peterborough Museum & Archives, and Royal Collection Trust, 13 of the makakoons will be on exhibition at the Peterborough Museum & Archives from April 22 to November 19, 2023.
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The exhibit, called ‘To Honour and Respect: Gifts from the Michi Saagiig Women to the Prince of Wales, 1860’, will explore the cultural knowledge, love, respect, and diplomacy that went into the makakoons.
The makakoons are on loan from Royal Trust Collection in England, which cares for the Royal Collection and also manages the public opening of the official residences of His Majesty King Charles III. Since 1860, the makakoons have been part of the Royal Trust Collection and housed at Osborne House on the Isle of Wight.
“Hiawatha First Nation and the Mississauga Nation communities are coming together to welcome these Ancestors home for a visit,” says Chief Laurie Carr of Hiawatha First Nation in a media release. “We know that the makakoons have the names of women makers attached, and there are descendants of these women in our First Nations.”
Peterborough Museum & Archives will provide a safe and accessible home for the ancestral items while they are in Canada, with Hiawatha First Nation leading all associated programming, such as workshops on quillwork provided by Hiawatha First Nation artist Sandra Moore and the Michi Saagiig language provided by Curve Lake member Jonathan Taylor.
“While the Ancestors are with us on Michi Saagiig Territory, the Peterborough Museum & Archives will create space for everyone to visit, and we will share knowledge about this art through viewing, workshops, and language classes,” Chief Carr explains. “We will sit with the Ancestors and acknowledge their spirits and what they have to teach us. Each of the makakoons will add to our cultural knowledge and strength as Michi Saagiig Peoples.”
The exhibition has been made possible in part by the Government of Canada, the Canada Council for the Arts, the Ontario Arts Council, the Peterborough Museum & Archives, and the City of Peterborough, and with the support of the Mississauga Nations, including Mississaugas of the Credit, Mississaugas of Alderville, Mississaugas of Scugog Island, Mississauga First Nation, Curve Lake First Nation, and Hiawatha First Nation.
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“Royal Collection Trust is delighted to exhibit this group of gifts presented to the future King Edward VII during the landmark first royal meeting with the Michi Saagiig in 1860,” says Rachel Peat, curator of decorative arts at Royal Collection Trust.
“Since then, these outstanding works of art have been displayed within the royal residences as a symbol of relations between Mississauga Nation communities and the Crown. Today, this project offers an important opportunity to reconnect with Michi Saagiig knowledge holders and affirm links with this community.”
An exhibition opening will take place from noon to 4 p.m. on Saturday, April 22nd at Peterborough Museum & Archives (300 Hunter St. E., Peterborough). Themed crafts will be set up in the multi-purpose classroom for children and adults. Admission is by voluntary donation.
Eryn Lidster is the new creative director of the ReFrame Film Festival. (Supplied photo)
Eryn Lidster is the new creative director of the ReFrame Film Festival.
Lidster, who will be responsible for implementing the creative and artistic vision of the annual festival, has a strong background in programming and project management with an emphasis on
film, media art, and theatre.
In 2018 and 2019, Lidster was awarded the Gregory R. Firth Memorial Prize for their film work, which has been screened internationally. Lidster is a founding member of Canadian Images in
Conversation screening collective, currently serves as chair of the board at Artspace artist-run centre, and “is a passionate supporter of local arts organizations, artists, and arts workers,” according to a media release.
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Lidster was recently project manager of the 2022 Erring at King George Festival with Public Energy, and has supported the production of over 40 performance works in Peterborough-Nogojiwanong since 2016. They hold an Honours BA from Trent University in cultural studies with a specialization in image, sound, and performance from Trent University. Lidster has also served as a guest lecturer in documentary film and a media technician at Trent’s cultural studies and media studies departments.
“I am eager to bring my love and deep curiosity for film and media art to the organization, and to come together with the community around a shared passion for the vital work of environmental
and social justice,” Lidster says in a media release. “I am deeply grateful to the dedicated ReFrame staff, board, and volunteers, past and present. I will endeavour to uphold the high standards you have set. I look forward to everything we will accomplish together.”
Lidster was hired following an extensive search process for a successor to Amy Siegel, who has served as creative director since 2018. Lidster joins festival director Kait Dueck in the co-leadership of the ReFrame Film Festival. Dueck was hired in October 2022 to replace Jay Adam, who was in the festival director role since 2018.
“We are very pleased that Eryn is joining our team,” says ReFrame board chair Jim Hendry. “Their commitment to film, the power of art to make change, and their deep connections with
Peterborough’s artistic community will ensure that ReFrame’s vision continues to be reflected in the festival’s film offerings and our community work.”
Madeleine Hurrell (right), Manager of Peterborough & the Kawarthas Economic Development's Business Advisory Centre, and Ella Fischer-Slack (left), Business Advisory Centre Coordinator, cut the ribbon at a recent event that showcased 24 entrepreneuers who participated in the Starter Company Plus program during the pandemic. Applications for the spring 2023 intake of the entrepreneurial training program close on April 30. (Photo courtesy of Peterborough & the Kawarthas Economic Development)
As Manager of Peterborough & the Kawarthas Economic Development’s Business Advisory Centre, Madeleine Hurrell has had the opportunity to work with a lot of entrepreneurs and discover what motivates them to launch a new venture or take their existing business to the next level.
“One overall theme is that they are all problem solvers, and they’re all what I would term helpers,” Hurrell says. “A lot of them have worked in certain industries or fields but saw a niche or a gap. And they’re driven. They have an idea, they have a passion to help, but they may not have all the answers.”
That’s one of the reasons behind Starter Company Plus, an entrepreneurial training program funded by the Ontario government and offered locally by the Business Advisory Centre. Applications are now open at investptbo.ca/starter until April 30th for the spring intake of the program, which will help 12 Peterborough-area entrepreneurs learn how to make their business ideas a reality and see six of them each receive a $5,000 microgrant.
VIDEO: Starter Company Plus with Peterborough & the Kawarthas Business Advisory Centre
Since the Business Advisory Centre began delivering Starter Company Plus in 2017, the program has helped over 215 local entrepreneurs and more than 174 small businesses succeed, creating over 200 jobs in the local economy. During the pandemic alone, there were seven Starter Company Plus intakes that helped 86 entrepreneurs achieve success despite the challenges of the pandemic.
Hurrell says applications for Starter Company Plus typically come from aspiring and established entrepreneurs representing a wide range of both services and products. Still, she notes, there are some typical applicants.
“We have a lot of businesses that I would classify as those in the health and wellness, including practitioners who received their training elsewhere and relocated here and are looking to start their own practice,” Hurrell explains.
“We also see a lot of makers and creators — people who had a side hustle or a passion project they were doing outside of their corporate 9-to-5 job. Pandemic downtime allowed them the opportunity to explore that a little bit more.”
“Because we cover Peterborough County, there have also been a number of applicants who have an agricultural or rural component to their business idea.”
Hurrell says entrepreneurs who apply to participate in Starter Company Plus must already have an initial idea for what they want to do and must have completed some basic market research.
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“We’re not asking for a fully developed idea, but you need to know enough about what it is you’re looking to do and where you’re looking to go,” she notes.
“You need to understand what it is that makes your idea for your product or service unique, or unique for Peterborough and the Kawarthas. You also need to have a sense of what it’s going to take to launch the business — a sense of the costs involved but also a sense of any permitting or licensing required, and what it is going to take from a marketing perspective.”
VIDEO: Why A Small Business Should Apply to Starter Company Plus
To help entrepreneurs develop their business idea, the Business Advisory Centre offers a series of live online workshops called “Business Fundamentals.” Delivered weekly, the workshops cover topics such as business planning, using the “Lean Canvas” business model, and market research. The Business Advisory Centre also offers the Small Business Toolkit, a downloadable step-by-step guide that describes what entrepreneurs need to consider before launching a business.
From there, Starter Company Plus will provide entrepreneurs with the training and assistance they need to create a detailed business plan through a series of five all-day virtual workshops over five weeks. After they successfully complete the program, entrepreneurs will submit their final business plan and pitch their business idea for a chance to receive one of six $5,000 microgrants.
Hurrell points out one of the great strengths of Starter Company Plus is the networking and relationships the program facilitates between like-minded entrepreneurs — which, she says, can be as beneficial as the microgrant itself.
VIDEO: What Starter Company Plus Entrepreneurs Learned From the Program
“They are put together in a class format, and that first class is like the first day of school — no one wants to mess up and no one wants to say the wrong thing,” Hurrell explains. “But five weeks later, especially once they’ve completed their business plan and their pitch, they are very close and continue to bounce ideas off of each other. Once they go on to finish the program and launch their business, many of them stay connected.”
The Business Advisory Centre also stays connected with the program participants. As Hurrell notes, support doesn’t end after entrepreneurs have completed Starter Company Plus.
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“Everyone who is part of the program can continue to meet with us at the Business Advisory Centre,” Hurrell says. “We meet weekly with participants as part of the training and also meet afterwards for one-on-one consultations. We stay in touch for a determined period with those who secured a microgrant. We want to see what they’re going to do, what they’re going to be using those grant dollars for, and where their business is going.”
As one example, Hurrell visited Roxanne McDonald-Brown, the owner of Renew Medi Spa, on the day of this interview. A graduate of the first Starter Company Plus cohort six years ago, McDonald-Brown has continued to grow her business and has hired team to support her.
“We want to see what happens next,” Hurrell says. “We want to see when you make that first hire or move into a brick-and-mortar location if that’s part of your plan. We stay in touch with all our participants.”
VIDEO: What Inspired Starter Company Plus Entrepreneurs to Apply
Hurrell smiles when she talks about the value of Starter Company Plus for both entrepreneurs and the local economy.
“I get a lot of satisfaction when friends and family visit Peterborough and the Kawarthas and they drive through the community and they ask ‘What’s going in there?’,” she says, referring to the opening of a new business.
“Knowing that Peterborough & the Kawarthas Economic Development and Team Ptbo had a part in that store opening and somebody’s dream is incredibly rewarding … even more so when the entrepreneur makes their first sale and moves forward with their first hire.”
VIDEO: How the Starter Company Plus microgrant benefits businesses
Entrepreneurs in the City and County of Peterborough who are launching a new business or expanding an existing one that has been operating for five years or less are eligible to apply for Starter Company Plus.
To learn more and to apply, visit investptbo.ca/starter. Applications close on Sunday, April 30th.
For those who are unable to apply or who are not selected for the spring intake of Starter Company Plus, another intake will take place in the fall.
This is one of a series of branded editorials created in partnership with Peterborough & the Kawarthas Economic Development. If your organization or business is interested in a branded editorial, contact us.
Peterborough native Chloë Black meets two dogs during a stint with Ukrainian Patriot in early 2023, when she helped deliver humanitarian aid packages to frontline soldiers and civilians in Ukraine. Her volunteer work in Ukraine followed a trip to Romainia in April 2022 when she volunteered with a group building a shelter for 800 animals displaced by the Russian invasion of Ukraine. (Photo courtesy of Chloë Black)
Parents are no doubt familiar with the uneasy feeling associated with one of your children being away from home, whether that’s for one night or an extended stay of several weeks or months.
Knowing that, it’s easier to appreciate the feeling of relief washing over Peterborough’s Al Black these days. You can see it in his face and you can hear it in his voice — his daughter Chloë is back home and all is as it should be.
For the better part of the past year, Al fretted while Chloë sweated, initially in Arad, Romania where she helped rescue and house animals from war-ravaged Ukraine, and then in Ukraine where, as a volunteer with Ukrainian Patriot, she helped deliver humanitarian aid packages to frontline soldiers and civilians living with the constant threat of shelling.
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“When she told me she was going to Ukraine, I tried to talk her out of it but, after five minutes, I realized I’m not going to win,” recounts Black, a lifelong musician best known for his time with twice Juno Award-nominated Jackson Delta.
Now, as Chloë ponders a possible future return to Ukraine, Al is helping her continue her work by organizing ‘Blues For Ukraine’, a live music-based event that will be held Sunday, April 30th from 2 to 5 p.m. at Showplace Performance Centre’s Nexicom Studio in downtown Peterborough.
General admission tickets cost $30 and are available at showplace.org, with proceeds going to Ukrainian Patriot as well as the continuing effort to rescue animals abandoned or lost amid the chaos of the past year.
A fundraising concert for relief efforts in Ukraine, Blues for Ukraine takes place on April 30, 2023 at the Nexicom Studio at Showplace Performance Centre in downtown Peterborough. (Poster: Kristal Jones)
The stage lineup will feature Al Black and the Steady Band (with Gary Peeples and Andy Pryde), Nicholas Campbell and The Two-Metre Cheaters (with Rob Foreman and Matt Greco), Dave Mowat, Dennis O’Toole and his cousin Michael O’Toole, and Jim Usher.
As well, Chloë will give a video presentation detailing her trips and the important relief work she has been involved with.
“I wanted to do something, but what do I ever have to offer but some music?” says Al. “Dennis (O’Toole) said ‘You should do something for Chloë and for her mission.’
“I don’t like to go back to the well too often. I had a little discomfort about it, hoping somebody else might step up, but it’s up to me. I put the word out to some musicians and here we are.”
“What’s going on over there is affecting everyone on the planet but it gets pushed back in the news. We should be paying close attention.”
Chloë has certainly done that, from the perspective of someone with a special place in her heart for animals. On Easter Sunday of last year — just a few weeks after Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine — she answered a Facebook plea for volunteers to build an animal shelter and care for animals evacuated from war zones.
“I wanted to do something but I didn’t know what I could do,” says Chloë, who was living in Arizona at the time. “When the call out came on social media for people to help, I felt it was something I could reasonably do. I’m not a skilled labourer, but I have worked on a job site before and I know how to handle myself.”
Once in Arad, Chloë helped the volunteer group build a shelter capable of housing some 800 animals, the hope being they could be reunited with their humans or, barring that, have homes for them in other European countries.
Peterborough native Chloë Black (right) with Ukrainian Patriot in Kharkiv, Ukraine in March 2023. Founded by Saskatoon native Lana Nicole Niland, the group is comprised of Ukrainians and internationals working to aid volunteers defending Ukraine and civilians caught in the crossfire. (Photo courtesy of Chloë Black)
“Come September, Canada had a ban in place on the mass import of animals from Ukraine — certainly dogs anyway,” notes Chloë. “They called out for volunteers to go to Ukraine to help take care of animals they could no longer evacuate. That’s when I decided to cross the border and go (from Romania) into Ukraine. It was supposed to be five weeks but it ended up being eight weeks.”
Once back home from that trip, the pull to return was too strong for Chloë.
“Once didn’t feel like it was enough,” she says. “I’m not in any way comparing what I experienced to what a soldier experiences, but you do feel very disconnected from what you once felt very connected to. Now I had this perspective of what’s happening there, not just from the television. It’s actual people you know and places you’ve been.”
Chloë returned twice more, hooking up with Ukrainian Patriot. Founded by Saskatoon native Lana Nicole Niland, the group is comprised of Ukrainians and internationals working to aid volunteers defending Ukraine and civilians caught in the crossfire.
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Chloë, an accomplished competitive cyclist and Peterborough Sports Hall of Fame inductee who has represented Canada on the international stage at numerous track and road events, admits to “the worst case of nerves” before each trip that was well beyond anything she experienced prior to competing.
“Once I got there, half the battle was what was going on in my head. That’s not to say there wasn’t danger, but it was the what-ifs that made it really terrifying. There were enough situations that happened where I realized I am in a war zone and this is actually happening and I have no control over it.”
“One night we were being bombed in Kharkiv. We had bombs around us on a couple of occasions, but at four (o’clock) in the morning, it’s terrifying. It was close and it was loud. The people around you become your family at that moment. What hit me at is you think it (injury or death) is not going to happen to you. Curled up in a fetal position, I was pretty naive to think that.”
During her time in Ukraine, Peterborough native Chloë Black has witnessed the physical and human devastation from Russia’s invasion of the country, including this father who walks an hour every day to this bombed building where his son lost his life. As part of the Blues for Ukraine benefit concert on April 30, 2023, Chloë will give a video presentation detailing her trips and the important relief work she has been involved with. (Photo courtesy of Chloë Black)
For the most part, Chloë was in Kyiv, the home base for Ukrainian Patriot, but relief provision excursions took her to points well east in the embattled and very dangerous Donetsk region of the country.
“I just followed the van in front of me. We’d get instructions — ‘Now you have to put your vest on. We want your helmet in the front seat. Keep the windows cracked and heads on a swivel.’ When I came home and was looking at the route we were on, I was like ‘Wait a minute. That’s Bakhmut right there.’ We were in Kostiantynivka. I didn’t realize how close (to Russia) we were.”
Reflecting on her motivation for making the trips and putting herself in harm’s way, Chloë says she couldn’t “shut off” was happening to both people and animals. At the time, as COVID restrictions lessened, she says she had a hard time with that “after two-and-a-half years of listening to people complain about being out of chocolate chip cookies.”
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Asked if she will return to continue volunteering with Ukrainian Patriot, Chloë isn’t ruling that out, admitting she felt “very emotional” leaving to return to Canada and her relieved family.
“Seeing people older than my parents living in these buildings that have no running water and no heat … they’re grateful that we’re handing them bags of rice and cans of fruit. It’s so heartbreaking.”
“The things that drew me to sports (are) feeling like you’re part of a team and having a common goal. This felt like that on steroids because you’re doing something that’s so much more important than winning a championship.”
Now, as Al pulls together plans for Blues For Ukraine, he’s left with one inescapable thought.
“I’m proud of all our kids, but I never knew I’d have a daughter like this.”
Chloë Black (left) back home in Peterborough when her niece Lydia met Dottie, a rescue dog from Kramatorsk in Ukraine that Chloë brought to Canada after much effort. She first met Dottie in 2022 when she volunteered with a group building a shelter for 800 animals displaced by the Russian invasion of Ukraine. (Photo courtesy of Chloë Black)
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