Oshawa-based Trademark Homes, a member of the Peterborough and the Kawarthas Home Builders Association since 2022, won a national award for housing excellence from the Canadian Home Builders' Association for this custom-built home on Balsam Lake in the City of Kawartha Lakes. (Photo courtesy of Trademark Homes)
A member of the Peterborough and the Kawarthas Home Builders Association (PKHBA) has won a national award for housing excellence from the Canadian Home Builders’ Association, and a past president of PKHBA has been named to the Canadian association’s executive board.
The National Awards for Housing Excellence were handed out in February in Banff, Alberta, at an awards gala at the culmination of the Canadian Home Builders’ Association’s Home Building Week in Canada. Oshawa-based Trademark Homes, a PKHBA member since 2022, won the award for best custom home over 5,000 square feet for “The View on Balsam”, a custom home built on Balsam Lake in the City of Kawartha Lakes.
Nearly 800 entries were submitted into 48 categories, with the finalists and winners selected by a group of almost 150 industry professionals from all over Canada. PKHBA members Dietrich Homes and Linwood Homes were also award finalists.
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A new executive board for the Canadian Home Builders’ Association was also announced during the conference.
Garnet Northey, PKHBA past president and a current board member, was named as the Canadian Home Builders’ Association new treasurer. Northey is also owner of Spotlight Home & Lifestyle Inc. near Buckhorn.
Northey’s presence on the Canadian Home Builders’ Association’s board will help give Peterborough and the Kawarthas representation and a voice at a national level, according to a PKHBA media release.
“Garnet and myself attended the full conference program and promoted the beautiful Peterborough and Kawartha Lakes Regions to colleagues from across the country,” says PKHBA executive officer Rebecca Schillemat.
Rebecca Schillemat, executive officer of the Peterborough and the Kawarthas Home Builders Association, with past president and current board member Garnet Northey, who was recently named as treasurer of the Canadian Home Builders’ Association. (Photo: Rebecca Schillemat)
Pickleball has become one of Canada's fastest-growing sports because it's easy to learn and play, has low startup costs, and appeals to a wide range of ages and fitness levels. (Photo: Delta Pickleball Association, British Columbia)
Port Hope will have its own pickleball courts later this summer thanks to a $141,300 capital grant from the Ontario Trillium Foundation, an agency of the Ontario government.
Northumberland-Peterborough South MPP David Piccini and Port Hope Mayor Olena Hankivsky made the announcement on Tuesday (March 14) at the Town Park Recreation Centre in Port Hope.
“With this funding, everyone in our community will have a new, exciting way to stay active,” MPP Piccini says in a media release. “Port Hope residents will benefit greatly from these new courts, and I’m looking forward to getting shovels in ground in the coming months.”
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Three new outdoor courts pickleball will be built by late summer, with a decision on the location to be made soon. They will be available seven days a week from dawn until dusk from May to October.
“We are thrilled to announce the addition of three new dedicated outdoor pickleball courts for our community and we thank the province for their generous support,” Mayor Hankivsky says. ” The new courts will help us to continue to promote safe recreation and social engagement in the community, particularly for our older adult residents. We welcome this new addition to our recreation offerings and look forward to the grand opening of the new space later this year.”
Pickleball was invented in 1965 on Bainbridge Island near Seattle, Washington by three fathers whose kids were bored with their usual summertime activities. Combining many elements of tennis, badminton, and ping-pong, the game is played with a paddle and a plastic ball with holes.
Over the past few years, pickleball has become one of the fastest-growing sports in the United States and Canada, largely because it’s easy to learn and play, has low startup costs, and appeals to a wide range of ages and fitness levels.
Canadian-Argentinian pianist Alexander Panizza will join the Peterborough Symphony Orchestra during "Welcome Spring" on April 1, 2023 to perform Russian composer Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky's "Piano Concerto No. 1 in B flat minor, Op. 23". The orchestra will also perform works by Canadian composer Alice Ping Yee Ho and Jean Sibelius. (Photo: Charles Maurer)
The Peterborough Symphony Orchestra is inviting you to celebrate the return of spring on Saturday, April 1st at Showplace Performance Centre in downtown Peterborough with “Welcome Spring”, a concert featuring works by Canadian composer Alice Ping Yee Ho along with iconic composers Tchaikovsky and Sibelius.
Welcoming audiences back to the Peterborough Symphony Orchestra is a recurring theme of all of this season’s concerts, since the 2022-23 season is the first one since the pandemic began where the orchestra is performing a full slate of five in-person concerts.
“Welcome Spring”, the fourth concert of the season, will also welcome Canadian-Argentinian pianist Alexander Panizza to the Showplace stage as the orchestra’s guest artist.
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The evening’s program will open with a performance of Jubilation of Spring by Canadian composer Alice Ping Yee Ho. Born in Hong Kong and now living in Toronto, Ho is considered one of Canada’s most important living composers. She has received numerous national and international awards, and was twice nominated for a Juno for classical composition of the year.
“This is a lyrical but energetic piece, based on folk tunes about spring that Alice remembered from her youth in Hong Kong,” says Michael Newnham, the Peterborough Symphony Orchestra’s music director and conductor. Ho will be in the audience for the orchestra’s performance of her piece.
Ho’s nine-minute composition is based on the 4,000-year-old legend of the origins of Chunjie, also known as the Chinese Spring Festival or the Lunar New Year, in which people warded off a demon called Nian preyed by putting red paper streamers on their gates, setting off firecrackers, and beating bamboo sticks and gongs.
AUDIO: “Jubilation of Spring” performed by Montreal Chamber Orchestra (2015)
“The festive and uplifting spirit of the composition depicts the various old traditions celebrating hard work, bringing good tidings and prosperity,” Ho says. “My intent is to incubate non-Western elements into a Western ensemble with a personal childhood nostalgic reference to Cantonese folk style. The composition also symbolizes the coming together of different cultures and traditions embraced by our metropolitan society.”
Based on an earlier piece for strings and timpani Ho created for the Toronto Chinese Youth Orchestra in 1992, she expanded it in 2014 for the Montréal Chamber Orchestra, which performed the piece for the first time in 2015 at Bourgie Concert Hall in the Montréal Museum of Fine Arts.
“Its sunny disposition and beauty is perfect for getting us ready for the on-your-sleeve Romanticism of the other two pieces of the evening,” Newnham notes.
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That “on-your-sleeve Romanticism” includes a performance of Piano Concerto No. 1 in B flat minor, Op. 23 by Russian composer Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, one of the best known of the Romantic composers.
Tchaikovsky was the first Russian composer whose music would make a lasting international impression, with some of his compositions — including the ballets Swan Lake and The Nutcracker, The Year 1812, Solemn Overture, Op. 49 (commonly called the 1812 Overture), Violin Concerto in D major, Op. 35, and Romeo and Juliet, TH 42, CW 39 (commonly called the Romeo and Juliet Overture-Fantasy) — remaining the most popular in the current classical repertoire.
Canadian-Argentinian pianist Alexander Panizza will join the Peterborough Symphony Orchestra to perform Piano Concerto No. 1.
VIDEO: Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No. 1 performed by Alexander Panizza (2012)
“When I approached Alexander about performing with the orchestra, he requested that we do Piano Concerto No. 1,” Newham says.
Born in Toronto, Panizza began his musical education at the Royal Conservatory of Music. As a teenager, he moved to Argentina with his family and was soon recognized as one of the most talented young musicians of his generation. He won several first prizes in competitions and received scholarships to further his studies in Geneva, Barcelona, Paris, and London. Moving back to Toronto in 2017, the award-winning pianist remains in high demand as a recitalist and soloist with orchestras, participates regularly in chamber music festivals, and offers master classes throughout the Americas.
Tchaikovsky composed Piano Concerto No. 1 in 1874 and 1875, revising it in 1879 and again in 1888. The piece was first performed in Boston in 1875 with pianist Hans von Bülow, after Tchaikovsky’s desired pianist Nikolai Rubinstein criticized the piece, calling it “bad, trivial, and vulgar.” Rubinstein later recanted his criticism and championed the composition, which remains among Tchaikovsky’s best known and most popular works.
A 37-year-old Tchaikovsky in 1877, two years after he composed “Piano Concerto No. 1”, with his bride Antonina Miliukova, a former student. The disastrous marriage ended after only two and a half months. (Public domain photo)
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“This piece has been a favourite of audiences for as long as it has been around, and it’s one that I love collaborating on,” Newnham says. “This music has the perfect combination of fiery virtuosic bravura and broad, unforgettable themes. This work is, without question, one of the most recognizable pieces for piano and orchestra that was ever written.”
The evening’s program concludes with a performance of Symphony No. 2 in D major, Op. 43 by Finnish composer Jean Sibelius, widely regarded as Finland’s greatest composer.
Sibelius began writing his second symphony, which he called “a confession of the soul”, in 1901 while the 36-year-old composer was wintering in Rapallo, Italy. He completed the piece back home in 1902, when it was first performed by the Helsinki Orchestral Society with the composer conducting. After three sold-out performances, Sibelius made some revisions.
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The four-movement Symphony No. 2 is Sibelius’s longest symphony, and it received mixed reviews from critics after it premiered. However, the Finnish public admired the symphony, especially its grandiose finale, with some calling it the “Symphony of Independence” as it was written during a time when Russia had imposed sanctions on Finnish language and culture.
“it is unabashedly romantic in style, even though it was written during an era when many composers were trending toward a more modernist flair,” says Newnham, adding he is “really looking forward” to performing the symphony with the orchestra again.
“This is one of the greatest Nordic late-romantic pieces that exists,” he explains. “Sibelius always creates atmosphere. He is also the master of spinning the music through repetitive rhythms and small motivic ideas. It’s generally a very happy piece, since it was conceived when he was on holiday in Italy. It is very much about bringing the sun from the southern climates to the North, which is our basic theme for this concert.”
VIDEO: Sibelius’s Symphony No. 2 performed by Frankfurt Radio Symphony
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“Welcome to Spring” begins at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday, April 1st at Showplace Performance Centre at 290 George Street North in downtown Peterborough. A pre-concert “Meet the Maestro” talk takes place at 6:45 p.m., where Newnham takes the Showplace stage for an intimate chat about the evening’s program. All audience members are also invited to a post-concert reception downstairs in the Nexicom Studio to meet Maestro Newnham and members of the orchestra. The reception will feature treats from reception sponsor The Pin.
Single tickets are $33, $48, or $55 depending on where you sit, with student tickets $12. Tickets 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, or online anytime at showplace.org. Student tickets are only available online.
New this season is a “rush ticket” option, where seats are available on the day of the concert for only $20 (online only, depending on availability).
kawarthaNOW is proud to be a media sponsor of the Peterborough Symphony Orchestra’s 2022-23 season.
Alice Williams and Nadine Changfoot at the ReFrame Film Festival's in-person opening night event at Showplace Performance Centre on January 26, 2023. Peterborough city council is recommending a three-year $15,000 community investment grant for the festival, one of 48 community groups and not-for-profit and charitable organizations approved to receive community grants from the City of Peterborough in 2023. (Photo: Ziysah Von Bieberstein)
Peterborough city council has endorsed a total of $169,483 in community grants to 48 community groups and not-for-profit and charitable organizations in 2023 — with the ReFrame Film Festival, Kawartha Sexual Assault Centre, Kawartha Youth Orchestra, and the Elizabeth Fry Society of Peterborough to each receive over $10,000.
City council endorsed a staff recommendation for the 2023 grants at its general committee meeting on Monday night (March 13). Final approval of the grants will take place at the regular council meeting on Monday, March 27th.
A total of $20,655 will be provided to 28 community groups under the community project grant stream, which is intended for smaller organizations and smaller programs and events from $250 to $1,000. A committee of six city staff reviewed 41 grant applications, double the number received in 2022, which exceeded the available funding by $31,785.
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A total of $148,828 will be provided to 20 local not-for-profit and charitable organizations under the community investment grant stream, which provides supports for projects and special events, specific programs, or operating budgets from $1,000 to $15,000. A committee of two city councillors and 11 citizen appointees reviewed 25 grant applications, more than double the number received in 2022, which exceeded the available funding by $118,102.
Another $67,000 in previously approved multi-year funding will flow in 2023 to eight organizations. Out of the 12 organizations that requested it in 2023, four are being recommended for multi-year funding.
Below are the organizations and grant amounts.
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Community Project Grants
Social services
Community Fridge Nogojiwanong/Peterborough – $775
Dalhousie Youth Support Services – $400
Hearts 4 Joy Skills Development Project – $675
Kawartha Haliburton Children’s Foundation – $1,000
Operation Catnip Peterborough – $1,000
Peterborough Gleans – $1,000
Peterborough Veterinary Outreach – $1,000
Arts
Creepy Doll Museum – $650
Kawartha Potters Guild – $675
Nogojiwanong Indigenous Fringe Festival – $1,000
Peterborough Friends in Music Community Band – $750
Show and Tell Poetry Series – $775
The River Magazine – $800
Environment
Ashburnham Memorial Stewardship Group – $450
Bird Friendly Peterborough (BFP) – $430
Kawartha Wildlife Centre – $700
Sheet Seven Community Garden – $750
Trent Vegetable Gardens – $900
Sports
FairPlay Sports – $625
Kawartha Lakes Lightning Athletic Club Inc. – $600
Peterborough City Soccer Association – $750
Peterborough Swim Club – $475
Health
Food for Kids Peterborough and County Student Nutrition Programs – $1,000
ME/FM Association of Peterborough & District – $350
Quilts for Cancer Peterborough County – $900
Culture
Peterborough Chinese Community Organization – $775
Ukrainian Community of Peterborough and the Kawarthas – $675
Recreation
Peterborough Pickleball Association – $775
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Community Investment Grants
Arts
ReFrame Film Festival – $15,000 (three-year grant)
Indigenous actor and musician Cheri Maracle will perform in the one-woman musical "Paddle Song", which tells the story of the celebrated late 19th-century trailblazing Mohawk poet and performer Emily Pauline Johnson, at Nozhem First People's Performance Space at Trent University for three performances on March 24 and 25, 2023. (Unattributed photo)
A fir tree rocking its lullaby,
Swings, swings,
Its emerald wings,
Swelling the song that my paddle sings.
– “The Song My Paddle Sings” (Emily Pauline Johnson)
Paddle Song, a one-woman musical starring Cheri Maracle that tells the story of the celebrated late 19th-century trailblazing Mohawk poet and performer Emily Pauline Johnson, is coming to Nnogojiwanong-Peterborough for three performances only on March 24 and 25.
Presented by Public Energy Performing Arts and Nozhem First Peoples Performance Space, Paddle Song was co-written by Dinah Christie and Tom Hill, with music by Tom Hill. Since its world premiere in 2016, the show has toured across Canada and the world, including in New Delhi and Norway.
Although she was famous in her day, many modern-day Canadians may be unfamiliar with Emily Pauline Johnson. The daughter of a respected Six Nations Mohawk chief and his English wife, she was born in 1861 at Chiefswood, an imposing residence (now a national historic site) built by her father at Six Nations of the Grand River near Brantford. Raised in a privileged middle-class family, Johnson was mainly tutored as a young child, where she learned to embrace her Indigenous heritage and culture. She began composing poems at the age of 10.
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At the age of 22, Johnson published her first full-length poem in a magazine. After her father died the following year, the family moved out of Chiefswood for financial reasons and Johnson turned to writing as a means of supporting herself. But it was not until 1892, when the 31-year-old Johnson was invited to participate in an evening of poetry at the Young Men’s Liberal Club in Toronto, that she found success. Over the next seven months, she performed around 125 times in 50 towns and villages across Ontario.
She soon adopted her stage persona of “Tekahionwake” — her great-grandfather’s Mohawk name which means “double wampum” or “double life” — and would wear traditional Mohawk dress during the first act of her performance before changing into Victorian women’s clothing for the second act. Her shows became wildly popular, and she went on multiple tours in Canada, the U.S., and England for over 30 years.
She continued writing poems and published various poetry collections, including The White Wampum in 1895, Canadian Born in 1903 and Flint and Feather in 1912, along with her collections of stories Legends of Vancouver in 1911 and The Shagganappi and The Moccasin Maker in 1913. Emily Pauline Johnson performed under the stage name “Tekahionwake”, her great-grandfather’s Mohawk name which menas “double wampum” or “double life”. (National Gallery of Canada / Public domain)
Acclaimed by audiences and literary critics alike, Johnson was dubbed the ‘Poetic Princess of the Mohawks’. Through her poetry, she brought attention to the struggles of women and First Nations people. Johnson died of breast cancer in 1913 at the age of 51.
In Paddle Song, Johnson’s story is brought to life by veteran Indigenous actor and musician Cheri Maracle, who is also a member of Six Nations and, like Johnson, has a Mohawk father and European mother.
“She spoke for Indigenous rights, women’s rights, children’s rights,” Maracle said in a 2021 interview with the Aboriginal Peoples Television Network (APTN). “She was a trailblazer, she was enigmatic, she was gutsy. She traversed this countryside over and over again, just she and her stage partner, which back then was really rare. She was a household name in her time.”
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Maracle is best known for her roles in the television series Blackfly (Global), Moccasin Flats (APTN), The Coroner (CBC), Tribal (APTN), and Degrassi: Next Class (Netflix, Epitome). She has also appeared in various stage productions including Ernestine Shuswap Gets Her Trout (Western Canada Theatre), The Unnatural and Accidental Women (The National Arts Centre), The Rez Sisters (Belfry Theatre), and The Road to Paradise (Crow’s Theatre).
She performed in the world premiere production of Paddle Song at Calgary’s High Performance Rodeo in 2016, where she was nominated for Best Solo Performance. She also performed Paddle Song in 2021 at the Firehall Arts Centre in Vancouver, where Gail Johnson of Stir praised Maracle’s portrayal.
“Maracle keenly conveys Johnson’s vulnerability, courage, and confidence as her career starts to take off,” Johnson said. “With heart, she exudes the hope and hurt Johnson experienced, whether buoyed by glowing reviews by even the toughest critics or heartbroken by the humiliation her one love imposed on her. Maracle’s performance is emotional without being melodramatic, gentle but assertive. Hers is a powerful and beautiful portrayal of an extraordinary individual whose story needs to be told anew — and shared with this kind of care.”
Like Emily Pauline Johnson, actor and musician Cheri Maracle is a member of Six Nations of the Grand River and has a Mohawk father and European mother. (Photo: Benjamin Laird Arts & Photo)
Maracle will perform Paddle Song at Nozhem First Peoples Performance Space at Trent University for three shows only, at 7 p.m. on Friday, March 24th and Saturday, March 25th with a 2 p.m. matinee performance on Saturday. The all-ages show runs for 75 minutes, including a 15-minute intermission.
Tickets are available at the door, cash only, on a sliding pay what you can scale from $5 to $25. To reserve seats, visit eventbrite.ca/e/512021820047. You can also reserve seats by emailing admin@publicenergy.ca
or calling 705-745-1788.
Paramedic students at Fleming College's on-campus simulation lab in 2019 participating in a simulation where a "groom" at a wedding (actually a high-fidelity manikin) was experiencing an anaphylactic response while surrounded by rowdy bystanders (played by graduates of the paramedic program). The students had to assess the groom and the scene to determine the appropriate treatment protocol. These scenarios help students prepare for real-world situations where they must act quickly under pressure. (Photo: Fleming College)
If you see emergency vehicles and people who appear to be injured at Fleming College in Peterborough on Tuesday (March 14), don’t be alarmed.
Students in multiple programs at the college will be participating in a mass-casualty incident simulation at the Sutherland Campus off Brealey Drive.
“This simulation is a valuable, hands-on learning experience for our students,” reads a media release from Fleming College.
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Led by students in the college’s paramedic program and involving students in the pre-service fighter education and training and pre-health sciences programs, the exercise will involve students and volunteers dressed up to appear distressed or injured.
Emergency vehicles will also be on site.
Set-up for the simulation will begins at 8:30 a.m., with the exercise running from approximately 9:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.
Most of the activity will take place in the Oak parking lot and in the B Wing of the main campus.
Lucy Dorsett stars as the young independent orphan Anne Shirley in the St. James Players production of the musical "Anne of Green Gables", based on the classic Canadian novel by Lucy Maud Montgomery. The play runs for five performances at St. James United Church in Peterborough from April 20 to 23, 2023. (Graphic: St. James Players)
St. James Players will be taking to the renovated stage at St. James United Church in Peterborough in April to present five performances of the family musical Anne of Green Gables, based on the classic Canadian novel by Lucy Maud Montgomery.
Following a successful fall production of the Disney musical Beauty and the Beast at Showplace Performance Centre, the April show is the community theatre group’s first spring production since the pandemic began.
Anne of Green Gables will be staged at St. James United Church at 221 Romaine Street from Thursday, April 20th to Sunday, April 23rd, with performances at 7 p.m. from Thursday to Saturday and matinee performances at 1 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday.
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General admission tickets are available now at www.stjamesplayers.ca/tickets, and cost $20 for adults, $15 for seniors and students, and $10 for children eight and younger.
Doors open 30 minutes before the performance. For an additional $5, you can order priority seating that gives you early access for the best seats.
With first-time director Waverly Porter at the help, the St. James Players production features Lucy Dorsett as Anne Shirley, the young independent orphan who is mistakenly sent to live with plainspoken and warm-hearted farmer Mathew Cuthbert (Peter Cain) and his stern spinster sister Marilla (Erinn Burke), who originally intended to adopt a boy to help them on their farm in the fictional Prince Edward Island town of Avonlea.
“Anne of Green Gables” will be performed on the renovated stage in the sanctuary at St. James United Church, which now has maple hardwood flooring and a ramp for accessibility. (Photo: St. James Players)
The story follows Anne as she meets the Cuthberts’ nosy neighbour Rachel Lynde (Leslie Ernsting), who has warned Marilla that adopting orphans is a risky undertaking and then spreads vile rumours about Anne around town.
When Anne goes to her new school for the first time, she meets new best friend Diana Barry (Gillian Coons), whose mother Mrs. Barry (Katherine Hiltz) is good friends with both Rachel and Marilla. Anne also meets her charming academic rival Gilbert Blythe (Enrico Emmenegger) and the abrasive popular girl Josie Pye (Lily Smit), and together they endure the dull lessons from their strict schoolteacher Mr. Phillips (Brad Crough).
The play follows Anne and her friends as they face hardships, death, and graduation — with Miriam Clysdale playing the older Anne, Juliet Martin the older Diana, Rachel Johnson the older Josie, and Dylan Duffy the older Gilbert.
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Published in 1908, Montgomery’s novel Anne of Green Gables has been translated into at least 36 languages and has sold more than 50 million copies, making it one of the best-selling books worldwide. The book has been adapted many times to film and television, with multiple plays and musicals (and even a ballet) also produced.
St. James Players will be performing the one-act 2007 off-Broadway musical commissioned by Theatreworks/USA, a not-for-profit professional theatre for family audiences, with music by Nancy Ford, book and lyrics by Gretchen Cryer, and orchestrations by Dave Hab.
Songs include “Around the Bend”, “A Pretty Kettle Of Fish”, “It’s The Strangest Thing”, “Kindred Spirits”, “Making Up For Lost Time”, “It Was Not Because Of Gilbert Blythe”, “The Graduation”, and more.
There are five performances of “Anne of Green Gables” at St. James United Church in Peterborough from April 20 to 23, 2023. (Poster: St. James Players)
Police are investigating a snowmobile collision in Haliburton Highlands on Saturday night (March 11) that left one person with serious injuries.
At 11:23 p.m. on Saturday, officers with Haliburton Highlands OPP received information about a collision involving a snowmobile that reportedly struck a tree.
The collision happened in a forested area north of Little Millward Lake in the Township of Minden Hills.
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The injured person was subsequently transported to a trauma centre for medical attention.
The collision remains under investigation, and OPP technical collision investigators were at the scene on Sunday morning.
This story has been updated with a correction issued by the police on March 14, 2003. The collision happened in a forested area north of Little Millward Lake in the Township of Minden Hills, and not on Ontario Federation of Snowmobile Clubs Trail B112 off Highway 118 as police originally reported.
These four Peterborough entrepreneurs overcome pandemic challenges to launch businesses with a focus on helping people. Each particpated in Starter Company Plus, an entrepreneurial training program offered locally by the Peterborough & the Kawarthas Economic Development Business Advisory Centre with funding from the Ontario government. Left to right, top and bottom: Michelle Godfrey of Discover Trager, Kate Griffin of Mental Wealth Counselling, Caitlin Smith of ReCreate Space, and Ineke Turner of Turner & Pooch Dog Training. (Photos: Jenish Odigski)
While pandemic restrictions challenged all of us, they were particularly daunting for small businesses — but four Peterborough-area entrepreneurs have overcome those challenges to build successful businesses with a focus on helping people.
During the pandemic, ‘pivot’ became the new buzzword as existing business owners searched for innovative ways to serve their customers despite a rollercoaster of on-and-off-again lockdowns, and entrepreneurs preparing to launch their start-ups suddenly had a massive wrench thrown into their business plans.
However, the pandemic met its match with the power of the entrepreneurial spirit. Where some only saw challenges, many local entrepreneurs also saw opportunity. Opportunity to learn. Opportunity to plan. Opportunity to offer a new product or service. Opportunity to reinvent. Opportunity to finally bring a long-held business dream to life.
Four Peterborough-area entrepreneurs passionate about helping people — Michelle Godfrey, Kate Griffin, Caitlin Smith, and Ineke Turner — took the courageous leap to either launch or expand their businesses.
During the pandemic, all four participated in Starter Company Plus, an entrepreneurial training program offered locally by the Peterborough & the Kawarthas Economic Development Business Advisory Centre with funding from the Ontario government.
Now, with lockdowns finally in the rear-view mirror and leveraging what they learned through Starter Company Plus, Michele, Kate, Caitlin, and Ineke are continuing to grow their businesses and realize their dreams of helping people.
Find out about their businesses, in their own words, below.
Michelle Godfrey, owner of Discover Trager. (Photo: Jenish Odigski)
My business is teaching through movement. The Trager® Approach created by Dr. Milton Trager applies gentle non-invasive movements to increase mobility throughout the body, and facilitates the release of pain, tension and mental patterns, encouraging deep relaxation and increased body awareness.
These movements are experienced in two different ways, one passively while lying on a padded table (like a massage table) in my Trager studio. Clients also learn ‘mindful movements’ to take away and integrate in daily life. Many people benefit from The Trager Approach, such as those experiencing the normal aging process, aches and pains, recovering from surgery, restriction of movement, arthritis, depression, anxiety, or neuromuscular disease such as Parkinson’s or Multiple Sclerosis.
Discover Trager™ is unique in that the approach to movement is very different from any other bodywork. It is really defined well as movement re-education. We are learning to remember how it feels to be more relaxed, free of pain and tension. Discover Trager™ seeks to reach the unconscious mind where holding patterns in the body/mind are stored. Through the use of specific hands-on movements, the practitioner works, or rather is ‘playful’ in her approach, eliciting the feeling and the possibility of change.
Kate Griffin, owner of Mental Wealth Counselling. (Photo: Jenish Odigski)
Mental Wealth Counselling is a virtual counselling and psychotherapy practice, supporting adults across Ontario. We have both a Registered Social Worker and a Registered Psychotherapist available to help you reach your goals.
We practice from a trauma-informed lens and tackle challenges such as anxiety, self-esteem, stress, life transitions and trauma. We are relational therapists with a focus on helping clients through a variety of modalities such as Emotion Focused Therapy, Cognitive Behavioural Therapy, EMDR, Sex Therapy and Strengths Based Therapy.
Mental Wealth Counselling is unique because we offer therapy that you can access in the comfort of your own home which helps to remove barriers to access such as childcare, transportation, etc.
With Mental Wealth Counselling, you can expect to feel heard and supported. Our clinicians focus on building a strong rapport with clients so they can open up and get as much as they can out of their time in therapy.
Caitlin Smith, owner of ReCreate Space. (Photo: Jenish Odigski)
ReCreate Space is a professional organizing business that helps overwhelmed individuals, families and businesses clear the clutter and develop systems. My mission is to help residents of Peterborough and the Kawarthas get a little more organized so they can reclaim their homes and focus on living their best life.
ReCreate Space provides a vast array of services including home organization, business/paper organization, life transitions, packing and unpacking services, and hobby/collection organization. Whatever your organizing need may be, Caitlin can help.
I work one-on-one with clients in a supportive, non-judgmental, and compassionate way to provide personalized solutions to meet each of my client’s individual organizing goals and needs.
ReCreate Space prioritizes sustainable practices by reusing, recycling and donating unwanted items to reduce the amount the amount of material going to the landfill.
Ineke Turner, owner of Turner & Pooch Dog Training. (Photo: Jenish Odigski)
Turner & Pooch Dog Training helps dog owners whose dogs have issues with behaviours such as aggression, not listening to commands, pulling on their leash, leash reactivity, or overall bratty behaviour, so that they can live cohesively with their best friend without undue stress or worry.
I understand dogs better than I understand most people. My goal is to use my unique understanding of canine behaviour to educate and inspire dog owners to learn about their dogs, and have a better understanding of dog behaviour in general.
I have worked with more than 1,000 dogs and owners during the more than 10 years that I have been working with dogs, the last nine of which in a professional capacity. I have extensive experience with many different levels of behaviour challenges from moderate brattiness to severe aggression, and everything in between.
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.
Police have arrested a person in connection with a shooting investigation after a man was dropped off at Northumberland Hills Hospital in Cobourg early Tuesday morning (March 7) suffering from apparent gunshot wounds.
The victim was subsequently transported to a Toronto-area trauma centre with critical injuries. He is now in stable condition and has been identified.
While Cobourg police responded to the initial report from the hospital, the investigation was taken over by the Northumberland County Ontario Provincial Police (OPP).
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As part of the OPP investigation, there was an increased police presence on Wednesday in the Shearer Point Road area in Roseneath.
Police resources deployed for the investigation included the OPP Tactics and Rescue Unit, Urban Search and Rescue – Chemical, Biological, Radiological, Nuclear and Explosives Response Team, Central Region Emergency Response Team, Central Region Forensic Identification Services, Digital Forensics, Northumberland and Peterborough OPP Crime Unit, Peterborough Northumberland Community Street Crime Unit, and the Provincial Liaison Team.
Police have not provided any further details about the incident or of the charges laid against the person who was arrested. The investigation is continuing under the direction of the OPP’s Criminal Investigation Branch.
Anyone with information regarding this incident is asked to contact the Northumberland OPP at 1-888-310-1122. If you prefer to remain anonymous, you can contact Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477 or online at stopcrimehere.ca. You may be eligible to receive a cash reward of up to $2,000.
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