Kawartha Lakes Museum & Archives is in the process of digitizing historical issues of Lindsay newspapers along with 4,000 Lindsay Post negatives that belonged to the late journalist, author, and historian Alan Capon.

Over the course of this year, project staff Jenna Locke and Har-Leigh Arsenault are scanning newspaper issues from 1915 to 1973 and uploading them to the Internet Archive where members of the public can view them and search them by keyword.

So far, over 2,000 pages have been uploaded from issues of The Lindsay Daily Post, The Lindsay Post, The Evening Post, and The Watchman-Warder published from 1917 to 1928, with new issues added daily. They can be viewed at archive.org/details/klma_newspapers.

Locke and Arsenault will also be digitizing 4,000 Lindsay Post negatives that belonged to Alan Roy Capon. The English-born Capon came to Canada in 1957, where he worked in the Peterborough Examiner’s Lindsay office, was editor of the Lindsay Daily Post, editor and publisher of the Picton Gazette, a staff writer for the Kingston Whig-Standard, and wrote a column for the County Weekly News for 14 years before he died in Prince Edward County in November 2014.

Also an historian, Capon authored around 25 non-fiction books, including his final book, a posthumously published biography of Senator Billy Fraser.

“In recognizing the historical gap present in Kawartha Lakes’ history after 1914, this project seeks to fill this history for researchers in our area that hasn’t been made available before,” says Zac Miller, archivist with Kawartha Lakes Museum & Archives, in a media release. “When looking at the negatives that have been scanned, many are of events and individuals that people today will remember and reminisce about fondly.”

According to Miller, that includes events such as the Academy Theatre being renovated, Prime Minister John Diefenbaker visiting Lindsay, Lindsay Little Theatre shows, the Kinmount Fair, and many scenery photographs of Fenelon Falls and Fenelon Museum.

“Digitizing and describing these negatives is rewarding because so many of these events and moments captured would not be written about in the history books, but document important fragments — big or small — of our history not seen before,” Arsenault adds.

In early 2024, Kawartha Lakes Museum & Archives is planning a virtual exhibit on Alan Capon on its website at www.klmuseumarchives.ca that will detail his life and highlights some of the negatives representing the history of Kawartha Lakes in the 1960s and 1970s.

Organizers of the Nogojiwanong Indigenous Fringe Festival (NIFF) have announced they will be hosting a family day during the festival, which returns to Trent University with five days of theatre, dance, and music performed by independent Indigenous artists from June 21 to 25.

From 12:30 to 5 p.m. on Saturday, June 24th, the festival will host a number of free family activities outdoors by the Enwayaang building (Gzowski College) on the East Bank of the Trent University campus. There will be music and stories, games and craft vendors, information booths, food, and fun.

“Family day activities at NIFF provide an opportunity for the younger ones to experience Indigenous storytelling and music,” says NIFF artistic director Joeann Argue in a media release. “These are the folks in your neighbourhood, sharing the stories, songs and games that Indigenous kids are growing up with today. We invite you to step out of history and discover Indigenous culture as you might not have experienced it before.”

NIFF’s family day begins at 12:30 p.m. with NIFF favourite “Tiger” Will Mason performing songs and sharing stories for the whole family.

At 1 p.m., 3 p.m., and 4 p.m., Tota Tayohseron:tye — a Kanyen’keha:ka (Mohawk) grandmother — will engage with children through interactive stories and songs that encourage the learning of Kanyen’keha (Mohawk language). While her show is geared towards young children and their parents, everyone who is interested in learning Kanyen’keha can attend.

Throughout the afternoon, games and craft activities will be offered by groups such as Sage and Sunshine School.

VIDEO: Tayohseron:tye Nikki Auten – Kanatsiohareke Mohawk Community (2016)

Children 12 years of age and older and their adults are encouraged to stay on for performances of “The Cave that Hummed a Song” at 3:30 p.m. and “Reclaiming in Motion” at 5 p.m. Although the rest of the family day activities are free, these indoor performances at Nozhem First Peoples’ Performance Space are ticketed events.

A powerful and intense one-woman play written and performed by Trina Moyan and directed by Jill Carter, “The Cave That Hummed A Song” was inspired by the philosophical musings of Moyan’s mentor Lee Maracle on life, on being a woman, on blood memory, and on women taking their rightful place in society.

Local artist Kelli Marshall’s new written word and dance performance “Reclaiming in Motion” brings together her love of movement and passion for cultural reclamation.

Tickets for “The Cave that Hummed a Song” and “Reclaiming in Motion” are $12 plus fees in advance or $12 cash only at the door depending on availability. To purchase tickets, visit www.indigenousfringefest.ca.

The first and only Indigenous fringe festival in the world, NIFF was founded by a collective including Joeann Argue, Lee Bolton, Drew Hayden Taylor, and Muriel Miguel. A member of the Canadian Association of Fringe Festivals, NIFF is an unjuried and uncensored festival where participants send in applications and are chosen by lottery. Performers receive 100 per cent of the box office proceeds.

The City of Peterborough is inviting informal quotes for the annual sale of bulk wood from trees removed from municipal property by the city’s forestry staff.

This sale includes around 250 to 300 trees of various sizes, averaging 18 inches in diameter. The successful bidder will purchase all the wood for the year, and is required to take all the wood and not just selected parts. The bulk wood sale excludes the ash trees in accordance with the city’s Emerald Ash Borer program.

The award of the bulk wood sale will be based both upon the distance from the city’s Public Works Yard at 791 Webber Avenue to the bidder’s drop-off location (the drop site will be cleared of wood once a week) and ease of access to the bidder’s drop-off location (including summer and winter road conditions, with any laneways to be maintained by the successful bidder).

The city reserves the right to renew the contract for up to an additional two years.

For further details or to submit a quote, email Sean Adey, Manager of Parks, Forestry & Sanitation in the city’s Public Works Division, at sadey@peterborough.ca.

The submission deadline is 4 p.m. on Friday, July 7th.

Six Peterborough swimmers competed at the 2023 Speedo Canadian Masters Swimming Championships in Alberta from May 26 to 28, collectively taking home six medals and 17 ribbons.

Chris Heffernan, Joel Simmonds, Stephanie Dancey, Renee Oake, Amanda Devlin, and Lisa Oelke — representing the Trent Torpedoes Masters of the Peterborough Swim Club — competed in a total of 16 races at the MNP Community and Sports Centre in Calgary.

They were among 622 competitors, ranging in age from 18 to 99, who participated in the national-level event. The Trent Torpedoes Masters swimmers range in age from 43 to 60, with Heffernan and Simmonds participating in the men’s events and Dancey, Oake, Devlin, and Oelke participating in the women’s events.

Swimming in eight races, Renee Oake took home four gold medals, in the 50-metre, 100-metre, and 200-metre backstroke and in the 100-metre medley, as well as three ribbons.

In nine races, Joel Simmonds captured bronze medals in the 50-metre butterfly and 100-metre breaststroke, along with four ribbons.

Devlin captured five ribbons in eight races, Heffernan three ribbons in six races, Dancey two ribbons in five races, and Oelke two ribbons in four races.

Heffernan, Simmonds, Oake, and Devlin also received a ribbon in the 50-metre medley relay for their sixth-place finish.

Less than two weeks after the Minden emergency department permanently closed, Haliburton Highlands Health Services president and CEO Carolyn Plummer has gone on a medical leave of absence.

Haliburton Highlands Health Services (HHHS) announced on Monday (June 12) that, effective immediately, Veronica Nelson will be acting president and CEO during Plummer’s medical leave.

Nelson is being seconded from her position as vice president and CEO at Ross Memorial Hospital in Lindsay.

“The HHHS board of directors would like to thank CEO Plummer for her hard work and dedication, particularly during the past few months, and we recognize the importance of looking after her health,” says HHHS chair David O’Brien in a media release. “We wish her all the best as she addresses her medical issues.”

While no details have been released about Plummer’s personal health issues, the announcement of her medical leave comes less than two weeks after the Minden emergency department was permanently closed on June 1.

Plummer and O’Brien had announced the closure on April 20, which was followed by six weeks of intense opposition from local residents and politicians, with Plummer and O’Brien attending several municipal and county council meetings to explain the rationale for the closure, which they said was made because of ongoing staffing shortages. After Plummer and O’Brien presented a plan to consolidate the Minden and Haliburton emergency departments to Haliburton County council on May 26, Minden Hills Township mayor Bob Carter called on the board to resign.

HHHS acting president and CEO Veronica Nelson will be responsible for all aspects of the role during Plummer’s absence, according to a media release, and will work closely with
the HHS board and leadership team on the continued delivery of all services at HHHS.

Nelson, who worked at HHHS as a medical radiation technologist earlier in her career, has more than 30 years of health care and has been on Ross Memorial Hospital’s executive leadership team since 2015, including serving as interim president and CEO from March 2019 to April 2020.

Currently co-leading the Kawartha Lakes Haliburton Ontario Health Team, Nelson has been overseeing the diagnostic imaging and laboratory departments at both HHHS and Ross Memorial Hospital and will continue to do so during her role as HHHS acting president and CEO.

“Ross Memorial Hospital and Haliburton Highlands Health Services are both organizations that mean a great deal to me,” Nelson says. “I am excited to bring my skill set and experience to working with the HHHS board of directors and team members throughout the organization. I know how incredibly important HHHS and its services are to patients, residents, and the community.”