What is it about raising money for, and awareness of, charitable causes that sees people do the craziest things?

Is it notoriety? Is it the lure of attempting something few will undertake? Or is it the desire to gain as much publicity as possible in order to bring attention to the beneficiary?

Dave McNab and Mark Smith checked all the boxes on Tuesday afternoon (October 19) outside Fitzsimmons Towing and Repair on Ashburnham Drive in Peterborough, each taking a sizable bite of a ghost pepper with donated proceeds going to One City Peterborough, a Peterborough-based organization that is focused on housing, food security, community safety, and inclusion.

So you’re thinking no big deal. Well, consider that the ghost pepper was certified the world’s hottest chili pepper in 2007 by Guinness World Records — 170 times hotter than Tabasco sauce.

Since then, the Trinidad scorpion butch T pepper and the Carolina reaper have been deemed hotter, but the ghost pepper — with a rating well in excess of one million Scoville Heat Units (SHUs) — still packs some very serious heat.

When McNab, a retired Peterborough OPP constable, put out his call for participants for his Ghost Pepper Challenge, Smith — Fitzsimmons’ operations manager — was the only one who answered.

On Tuesday, each took one bite of their respective ghost peppers before easing their obvious discomfort with gulps of cold milk donated by Kawartha Dairy.

“I have not had one that hot,” said Smith, still trying to catch his breath some 10 minutes after indulging.

“That was wild. I would say Dave lied about it being 1.2 million (SHUs). It was way more than that. I’ve had stuff up to a million and it wasn’t near that bad.”

“You lose your breath but then, on top of that, the burn sets in. You can feel it in your esophagus going down. It’s quite uncomfortable. I love spicy food but that’s extreme. It’s not something I’d want to do every day, that’s for sure.”

Via Facebook, McNab issued his challenge, giving anyone brave enough the opportunity to take away his self-awarded Ghost Pepper Challenge title belt. Smith says, when he heard of McNab’s challenge, he was all in.

“Years ago, when I worked with another company, Dave worked with us to do some charity work,” he says.

“We used to do what was called Toys For Joy, taking toys to the hospital at Christmas. Dave said we were doing this for One City Peterborough. I jumped in. For a couple hours of pain, to make someone’s life better, I though ‘Let’s do it.'”

There being no clear winner besides One City Peterborough, McNab and Smith shared the title belt, holding it aloft for a small group of supporters who came out.

According to McNab, the ghost peppers were grown in his home garden by his wife, veterinarian Kristy Hiltz.

“Kristy grows ghost peppers, African devils, Thai flame — just about anything that sounds, and is, hot she grows it,” he says.

“About 10 years ago I started really experimenting with hot peppers. About four or five years ago was the first time I tried to eat a raw ghost pepper. I made a video to show how easy it is and it didn’t go well at all. I forgot the pain and tried it again the next year and it wasn’t any better.”

As for no one stepping forward for the challenge besides Smith, McNab blames a poor marketing strategy.

“I’m sure now that everyone sees how much fun it is, they’ll probably be lined up next year,” he says.

VIDEO: Ghost Pepper Challenge for One City Peterborough

Peterborough’s music community is mourning the loss of not only an incredibly gifted musician, but also a “beautiful, beautiful person.”

Jonathan “Jonny” Wong died on Friday (October 15) at Toronto’s Princess Margaret Hospital following a battle with leukemia. The Oshawa-born multi-awarded saxophonist was just 36 years old.

Wong’s passing has brought forth a flood of condolences and remembrances on Facebook from many who shared a stage with him, across Canada and in Peterborough, including a particularly touching reflection from guitarist Emily Burgess, who performed with Wong as a member of The 24th Street Wailers.

“Everybody loved him,” writes Burgess, lead singer and guitarist of The Emily Burgess Band, and a member of The Weber Brothers Band.

“You never knew what kind of crazy shit he was going to do on stage, and he had no fear when it came to that. There was not a table too unsteady for Jonny to stand on while wailing on his horn. Sometimes I just had to look away and hope for the best.”

“He was the ideal band mate — crazily talented but equally as humble, and a real genuine friend. He was so damn funny. He really cared about people and he always made friends so quickly and easily wherever we went.”

“He made his mark in this world, and the outpouring of love and support for him at this time is a clear indication of the many lives he touched,” Burgess adds.

The 24th Street Wailers — Lindsay Beaver, Michael Archer and Jesse Whitely were also in the mix — toured festivals and clubs across North America. In 2012, the band received New Artist of the Year honours from the Toronto Blues Society, and subsequently recorded and released five CDs over the next five years, including the Juno Award-nominated album “Wicked” in 2015.

But it was the band’s live shows — electrified by Wong’s superb saxophone playing and high-energy on- and off-stage presence — that brought it a legion of fans. Wong was individually recognized with four horn player of the year awards (2012, 2013, 2015, and 2017) from the Toronto Blues Society.

“Kind and considerate and polite — a joy to be around,” says blues singer Jane Archer, one of a number of Peterborough-area singers and musicians who welcomed Wong onto the stage over the years.

“To be on stage with him was something special. He had so much energy and joy. It was just wonderful to behold. He was so great when he soloed but you never had the impression he was hogging the limelight or showing off.”

According to Archer, her boys Liam and Michael were taking music at Humber College where they first met Wong. It was there that Burgess, Whiteley, and Beaver also came into the same social circle.

VIDEO: The 24th Street Wailers perform at Lighthouse Blues Festival 2015

“Liam told me that Jonny was one of the first people to ask him to jam at Humber,” says Archer. “They became good friends and before long they were all sharing an apartment.”

Archer says the first time she performed with Wong was in 2011 at the Frankford Island Blues Festival.

“The Wailers were on the bill as was Balls and Jane (Archer’s band) and we got him up to do a song with us. His walk-arounds were amazing. I have some video of him when they played the Holiday Inn (in Peterborough). He wandered through the audience, blowing his horn in people’s faces. Whenever I watch any video of him performing, his joy comes through very clearly.”

After years of pursuing his musical ambitions, Wong changed course, launching a career in computer coding and web development. Recruited by Toronto-based Apply Digital, he worked his way up to a senior developer position and was thriving in that role until ill health forced him to step back this past May.

Visitation for Wong is Saturday, October 23rd from 8:30 to 10:30 a.m. at the Mount Pleasant Cemetery, Cremation and Funeral Centre at 375 Mount Pleasant Road in Toronto, immediately followed by an invitation-only service in the Mount Pleasant chapel.

To view the service, others are invited to visit Wong’s memorial web page at at 10:15 a.m. and click on the View Live Stream link.

Here are a few of the many tributes to Jonny Wong on Facebook:

The Canadian Canoe Museum hosted a formal event on Saturday (October 16) to celebrate the beginning of construction of the new museum at the Johnson Property at 2077 Ashburnham Drive in Peterborough. The event, held at the property’s western point beside Little Lake, was attended by project donors, funders, partners, and more.

Speakers included Chief Laurie Carr of Hiawatha First Nation, hand drummer Janet McCue, Chief Emily Whetung of Curve Lake First Nation, Métis elder and canoe builder Marcel Labelle (whose 26-foot long birchbark canoe was displayed at the event), Ontario heritage minister Lisa MacLeod, Peterborough-Kawartha MPP Dave Smith, museum executive director Carolyn Hyslop, museum board chair Victoria Grant, museum curator Jeremry Ward, Peterborough County Warden J. Murray Jones, and Métis Nation of Ontario regional councillor Andy Dufrane.

“We are excited to celebrate the beginning of construction of our new world-class canoe museum in the company of our project partners, donors, and funders, and with our community as a whole,” says museum board chair Victoria Grant of the Loon Clan Teme-Augama Anishnabai and a member of the Temagami First Nation, in a media release.

“These watercraft, conceived and built over millennia by the Indigenous peoples of what is now Canada, were central to building relations between the First Peoples and those who arrived four hundred years ago from Europe, beginning our shared history,” Grant adds. “These beautiful and functional craft offer us a vehicle through which we can better understand and appreciate that history. That understanding is essential in producing the truth upon which reconciliation between the First Peoples and those who came later must be founded.”

The Canadian Canoe Museum, first established in Peterborough in 1997 based on a collection of the late Professor Kirk Wipper, is currently located at 910 Monaghan Road and contains the world’s largest collection of canoes, kayaks, and paddled watercraft.

The museum has raised just over 82 percent of the total cost of $40 million to construct its new facility, including contributions from all three levels of government as well as the Weston Family Foundation. The museum also intends to sell its Monaghan Road property to help fund the project.

The museum is taking an integrated project delivery (IPD) approach to the design and building of the new museum. Unlike traditional design and construction delivery methods, IPD is a collaborative approach where all project stakeholders are brought on board at the very beginning of the project, sign a multi-party contract, and share the responsibility for the project — including the financial risk.

Along with Lett Architects Inc. of Peterborough as the architect and Chandos Construction Ltd. of Toronto as the general contractor, other project partners include LEA of Markham as structural engineer, Kelson Mechanical of Sharon as the mechanical trade partner, DG Biddle & Associates of Oshawa as mechanical and electrical engineer, Lancer Electric of Peterborough as electrical trade partner, and Engage Engineering of Peterborough as civil engineer.

The Johnson Property is located north of Beavermead Park and south of the Parks Canada-Trent Severn Waterway head offices.

The new museum will be built on a flat portion of the property, away from the floodplain, on the open land along Ashburnham Drive so as to preserve the existing trail, shoreline, and natural waterfront.

The new facility will house the museum’s complete collection of canoes, kayaks, and watercraft in a building that meets Class A conservation standards. With its location on the water, the museum will be able to offer increased on-water and in-person programming. The new museum is scheduled open in 2023.

For more information about the new Canadian Canoe Museum, visit canoemuseum.ca/new-museum/.

VIDEO: Canadian Canoe Museum construction commencement ceremony

It is often in the darkest skies that we see the brightest stars. – Author Richard Evans

Melissa and Alex Lamore are surrounded by stars; bright lights that they can not only see but also hear and sense and, yes, hug.

The Peterborough couple’s sky turned dark in July 2020 when a neurosurgeon at Kingston General Hospital confirmed the cause of Melissa’s severe migraine headaches and multiple seizures was a brain tumour.

Their sky grew much darker when she was diagnosed with glioblastoma, an aggressive brain cancer with an extremely low survival rate — the same cancer that came to nationwide attention in 2015 when the late Gord Downie, lead singer of The Tragically Hip, was diagnosed.

But then the stars showed themselves in growing numbers, bringing light to their world and shining brighter, with each day since.

In February 2021, “Team Mellie” really took flight in the form of a public Facebook group where not only support for the Lamore family — the couple has two children, Megan and Murphy — could be coordinated but also provide a forum for Alex to provide updates on Melissa’s battle. As of this writing, that group was closing in on an incredible 600 members.

Also active are two GoFundMe fundraisers to help the couple cover their bills and hospital visit-related expenses in the wake of lost job income.

The first, titled Let’s Help Mel Beat This, was created in August 2020 by Melissa’s friend Monica Fowler, while the second, titled Help Melissa Lamore And Her Family Fight Cancer, was created in February 2021 by another friend, Catherine Wheeler. Collectively to date, those two appeals have brought in $8,745 for the family.

Make no mistake. The darkness will turn darker but the stars — family members, friends, Melissa’s hairdressing clients, and complete strangers — are shining brilliantly, easing the pain and frustration of the couple’s cancer journey in a very big way.

“Melissa’s big concern was how we’re going to cover the cost of everything,” says Alex, Melissa’s full-time caregiver since early August after taking a leave from his job as an insurance broker.

“And then the people came and the money came. Food just shows up at our door. We have what we call the Magic Mailbox. Every day something shows up in it. A friend of Melissa’s works at Larry Dow Automotive (in Selwyn). They said that any time our car needs anything, bring it in and they’ll look after it for us. We were running back and forth to Kingston two, three times a month. They’ve got our car tip-top.”

Rhonda Preston is the founder of the Team Mellie Facebook group. She met Melissa some 15 years ago. It was “an instant connection” as she recalls.

“I was like ‘Oh, I’ve never had a real hairdresser. Can you do something fun to my hair?’ She said ‘I feel like you should be pink.’ She dyed my hair pink and I’ve been pink ever since. Megan at the time was a year-and-a-half old. I very quickly became Auntie Rhonda. We were inseparable … some interesting and fun nights.”

“She’s a kind old soul. You feel like she should have been born many, many decades ago. She would do anything for anybody. She’s that person who’d be like ‘Oh, I saw this and it made me think of you, so I bought it for you.’ When she met Alex it was a match made in heaven because he’s the exact same way.”

Through Rhonda’s Facebook group, the support effort was ramped up big time. Keychains, vehicle decals, t-shirts, and hoodies emblazoned with Team Mellie were created and distributed.

“I feel like I’m saying ‘Yes’ every day to someone who’s requesting to join,” Rhonda says of the Facebook group. “When Mellie was more lucid and able to have good conversations, she was constantly telling me ‘Stop doing this. We’re fine. You’re going to stress yourself out.’ I was like ‘That’s not an option.’ People have stepped out of the woodwork.”

“Alex was very self conscious of that help in the beginning. He’s usually on the other side — he’s never been on the receiving end. He was almost uncomfortable with it. We kept telling him ‘Nope. This is how it is.'”

Kathy Scollard, a cancer survivor and yet another client of Melissa’s, got together gift baskets that were raffled off. And then there’s Sarah Scott, another friend and client of Melissa’s who has coordinated the collection and delivery of food and meal donations.

“People have helped in any way they can,” says the Millbrook resident, who befriended Melissa years at a wedding and subsequently reconnected by chance a number of times.

“People cooked meals and dropped them off,” Sarah says. “People messaged me and said they absolutely can’t cook and asked if they can send money to purchase groceries for someone else to cook meals. Some live out of town but wanted to send money for restaurant gift cards.”

“There’s good people in the world but I also think this is a testament to the love that Alex and Melissa have shown other people in their lives — the light that they shine on other people’s lives,” Sarah says. “People feel compelled and driven to help in any way they can.”

Sarah adds that as Melissa’s health has deteriorated, it has been very hard on her emotionally.

“You go into something like this feeling like you’re going to beat it,” she says. “The longer it went on, and the more details that came out, it just felt so unfair. Melissa just shines this bright light. You can’t help but love her. I felt instantly connected to her. This whole Team Mellie thing has made me realize that she has that impact on everyone.”

The Lamore family’s cancer journey began on July 1, 2020, when Alex took Melissa to the emergency department at Peterborough Regional Health Centre. “I found her sitting on the couch staring out the window and she wasn’t responding to me,” he recalls.

That same day, Rhonda had a hairdressing appointment with Melissa.

“Alex called me from the hospital and said Melissa’s upset that she has to cancel your appointment,” she says. “After all of the testing and finding the tumour, she FaceTimed me when they got home from Kingston and said ‘I have a tumour. They’re going to remove it.'”

“She knows I’m an emotional person on a good day. She doesn’t want people crying but she gives me a bit more leeway. That moment was a hyperventilating cry.”

The Lamore family’s journey has been a gut-wrenching trial punctuated by both hope and uncertainty, compounded by a dizzying blur of hospital visits and doctors.

After her brain tumour was removed in late July 2020, Melissa was sent home the next morning, with the next step in her treatment being six weeks of radiation and chemotherapy in the fall.

“She actually started working a bit again but come January she was feeling off again,” recalls Alex, noting a subsequent MRI revealed the tumour had reformed but no spread had occurred. Still, that necessitated another surgery to remove the tumour as well as part of her frontal brain lobe — a six-hour operation.

“In May, she started having a lot of word issues again and then, in June, we realized she was having vision issues,” continues Alex.

“After another MRI in Kingston, the oncologist said it’s back and it looked like there was spread this time. She had another surgery. They cleaned it up but they could visually see the spread. The surgeon there’s no way he could cut it out without causing harm.”

Late September saw Melissa undergo yet more treatment to slow the spread down. She was scheduled for another MRI, but Melissa decided enough was enough. Last Wednesday (October 6) marked the couple’s final trip to Kingston. On that same day, Alex shared news of her decision with the Facebook group.

“Melissa has chosen to stop treatment,” he wrote. “No more trips, no more hospitals, no more doctors, no more scans, no more pokes in the arm. It was hard to be the guy in the room watching and hearing this conversation, but Melissa was happy that the doctor agreed. You could see Melissa’s smile through her mask. Melissa wants to spend her time with family and be at home.”

Noting Melissa hasn’t left her bedroom since October 8, Alex says “She has good days and she has bad days.”

“If you bring her the wrong thing, she’ll let you know about it. If you do the right thing, she’s happy. If she sees a certain person, she’ll light up. She still cracks a smile and she’ll still crack the odd joke. She has more of a child-like disposition.”

Alex says his focus has been, and remains, “keeping things as normal as possible for the kids. They’ve been happy and healthy through this whole thing because we’ve maintained a sense of normalcy in the house.”

Still, there’s an inescapable reality that has to be faced. This past Wednesday (October 13), Alex had his first meeting with a funeral director.

“I’m like a duct tape boat … I’m still floating,” says Alex of how he’s holding up.

“It’s going to be hard. I have to be strong for our kids but I have my quiet moments. There’s only been a few times when people have caught me crying. That’s going to happen more as time goes on. The other side of the coin is I’ve had 15 months to think about this.”

But, as heartbreaking as the past 15 months has been, Alex says he’s left with one undeniable truth that brings him great comfort.

“There are good people in this world. It’s been very overwhelming. I can’t say thank you enough. It’s flipping unbelievable. I couldn’t live enough lifetimes to repay everyone for their kindness.”