At its first meeting of 2025, 100 Women Peterborough has chosen Camp Northern Lights to receive a donation of more than $10,000 that will support the charity’s wilderness summer camp experiences for disadvantaged youth.

The collective philanthropy group met on Tuesday (March 18) at The Venue in downtown Peterborough. At each of its quarterly meetings, members hears presentations from three non-profit organizations randomly drawn from a larger list of organizations nominated by the group’s members. Each member commits to donating $100, and the organization that gets the most member votes receives the collective donations.

The three organizations that presented to 100 Women Peterborough at March’s meeting were Camp Northern Lights, Habitat for Humanity Peterborough & Kawartha Region, and Peterborough Veterinary Outreach, with Camp Northern Lights chosen by majority vote to receive member donations.

Founded in 1972, Camp Northern Lights is a registered not-for-profit charitable organization that provides wilderness summer camp experiences for disadvantaged youth to foster resilience, leadership, and a deep connection to nature. Every year, the charity provides around 250 youth from the Peterborough area the opportunity to experience a transformative experience at summer camp that many would otherwise be unable to access.

“Our program has provided over 13,000 campers and 3,000 high school students with life-changing outdoor experiences,” Camp Northern Lights board chair Mary Jane Smith told 100 Women Peterborough during her presentation with treasurer Randy Riel. “The support from 100 Women Peterborough will allow us to welcome even more youth to camp and help fund critical improvements, including the construction of new docks to ensure safe waterfront access for swimming and water activities.”

Families are asked to contribute $40 of the total cost of around $600 per camper for a week at summer camp if they are able to do so. Camp Northern Lights operates on an annual budget of $150,000, relying on community donations to continue its mission of empowering youth through outdoor education.

“Charities are struggling to meet growing needs and organizations like Camp Northern Lights provide crucial experiences for youth in our community,” said 100 Women Peterborough co-founder Rose Terry in a media release.

“Through collective giving, we can ensure that these programs continue to make a difference in the lives of children who might not otherwise have access to them. The strength of 100 Women Peterborough is in our ability to act quickly and make a significant impact in just one evening. By pooling our resources, we’re not just making a donation-we’re investing in the future of our community.”

At Tuesday night’s meeting, 100 Women Peterborough members also received key updates on the group’s philanthropic achievements and had a forward-thinking discussion on sustainability. Members participated in a live poll to determine whether future voting should transition from traditional paper ballots to an electronic QR code system — an initiative aimed at reducing paper waste while maintaining efficiency.

Since its formation in 2018, 100 Women Peterborough has collectively donated over $233,000 to 26 local organizations.

Organizations that have received member donations include YWCA Peterborough Haliburton, Vinnies Peterborough, Hospice Peterborough, Peterborough Youth Unlimited, One Roof Warming Room, New Canadians Centre, Cameron House, Five Counties Children’s Centre, Casa De Angelae, Lakefield Animal Welfare Society, Community Care Peterborough, Kawartha Sexual Assault Centre, Community Counselling and Resource Centre, Peterborough Pregnancy Support Services, Heads Up for Inclusion, Kawartha Youth Orchestra, Peterborough GreenUP, Bridges Peterborough, YMCA Strong Communities, Homeward Bound Peterborough, Good Neighbours Care Centre and Food Bank, PARN – Your Community AIDS Resource Network, Camp Kawartha, the Teachers For Kids Foundation, Hearts 4 Joy, and Camp Northern Lights.

100 Women Peterborough is part of a growing collective philanthropy movement that began in the United States in November 2006, when Karen Dunigan of Michigan formed the “100 Women Who Care” group. After their first meeting, those women raised over $10,000 for the purchase of 300 new baby cribs for a local organization. The movement has grown over the past 18 years to include groups of men, women, youth, and children around the world, with hundreds of chapters in Canada alone.

For more information about 100 Women Peterborough, visit www.100womenptbo.ca.

GreenUP recognizes that solutions to the climate crisis are complex. At the same time, local action can make a difference.

GreenUP aims to help people prevent the worst impacts of climate change. The organization builds community so that people can rely on one another, teaches simple, joyful, and accessible solutions that can be integrated into daily life, and ensures that young people hear not only stories of danger but also of hope.

GreenUP strives to create a community where people work together and embody the change needed in the world.

GreenUP’s Annual General Meeting (AGM) is coming up Wednesday (March 26) at its offices in downtown Peterborough, and all are invited to attend. The event begins at 3 p.m. with a board-led business meeting, where the annual report, financial statements, and board elections will be part of the agenda.

Following the business meeting, from 4 to 6 p.m., GreenUP will host an open house offering an opportunity to meet the team, explore programs, and learn how to get involved.

This portion of the event will provide a chance to connect directly with program coordinators and see firsthand how GreenUP is making an impact.

For those interested in GreenUP’s plans for the year ahead and ways to get involved, the open house serves as an excellent opportunity to engage directly with program coordinators. Speaking with staff offers insight into the many different aspects of sustainability that GreenUP addresses.

GreenUP works to enable positive change through both widespread educational campaigns and by supporting individuals and organizations in taking targeted, meaningful action. As a result, the organization’s programs are diverse.

On any given day, one member of the team may be planting trees with volunteers, while another coaches a homeowner on energy efficiency, and another plans for thousands of children to attend the Peterborough Children’s Water Festival. Staff are working simultaneously on many intersecting sustainability topics.

At the AGM, GreenUP will release their 2025 program profile which highlights the breadth and depth of its work on behalf of the environment. The content has been organized into four key areas of action to make it easier to navigate and find information that aligns with individual interests.

The four areas of action are:

1. Education and youth engagement
2. Sustainable living and climate action
3. Community stewardship and biodiversity
4. Partnerships and collaboratives

These areas of action are interconnected, and many of GreenUP’s programs address overlapping themes.

GreenUP’s team is eager to build connections across various areas of sustainability, though simplifying messaging can be challenging when solutions are complex. The organization is grateful for community members who are interested in exploring these solutions and looks forward to engaging in conversations during the open house portion of the AGM.

As GreenUP looks ahead to 2025 and beyond, sustained investment in environmental programming remains critical in the face of the climate crisis.

With support from funders, partners, and the community, GreenUP aims to continue to enrich its work in educating the next generation, reducing emissions in the residential and business sectors, and protecting biodiversity. Those interested in learning more about GreenUP programs are encouraged to attend the AGM.

Taking action on behalf of the climate is urgent. GreenUP is proud of its accomplishments in 2024 and looks forward to celebrating that work with the community.

The 2025 GreenUP AGM and open house will be held Wednesday, March 26 from 3 to 6 p.m. with AGM business at 3, followed by the open house from 4 to 6. During the open house, program coordinators will be available to discuss specific action areas and opportunities for involvement, snacks will be offered, and a kids activity centre will be available.

RSVPs are encouraged to help with event planning. Visit greenup2025agm.eventbrite.ca to confirm attendance and learn more. For those unable to attend, the annual report and program profile will be available online afterwards.

When it comes to helping a group of first and second graders form letters, Emily Vann and Katy Morton are making it a fun, full-body workout.

Emily and Katy, clinicians at Five Counties Children’s Centre, are in a classroom at St. Joseph’s Catholic Elementary School in Douro at the invitation of teacher Melanie Julian.

The aim is to help Mrs. Julian reinforce proper printing for her students.

Standing at the front of the class, Emily uses a flip chart to demonstrate the different styles of letters: “tallies” like t, f, and b; “smallies” like a, c and e; and “sinkers” like g, j and p. She also shares a simple tip that’s relatable to the students.

“Ever go to the park? Ever go down the slide?” Emily asks the students. “Well, the letter ‘y’ is the same thing. Go down the small slide first, then back up the climber, and then the big slide’s next.”

As students practise printing in their notebooks, Emily, Katy, and Mrs. Julian go around the class to assist, offer hints, or correct a child’s pencil grasp.

The printing lesson is reinforced by students forming letters in the air with their fingers and standing up to identify different types of letters, either by touching their toes (for the “sinkers”), putting hands on their waist (for the “smallies”), or reaching out to the sky (for the “tallies”).

The half-hour session is interactive and engaging, and is repeated in dozens of schools across the Peterborough, Kawartha Lakes, Northumberland, and Haliburton region.

The School Based Rehabilitation Services (SBRS) program based at Five Counties sees clinicians provide occupational therapy, physiotherapy, or speech language therapy support to students on a one-on-one basis or in a classroom setting.

A tiered intervention model (levels one, two, or three) is used by Five Counties, in consultation with the school, to determine specific supports for students based on their needs.

In these cases, the school — not the family — is the one requesting Five Counties’ specialized support. School staff identify potential needs of students and refer them to the Centre’s SBRS program. Parents are informed about the proposed intervention and must consent to having a Five Counties clinician work with their child.

SBRS is an important element to the work Five Counties does to support local children and youth with physical, developmental, and communication needs. While it may be less known than the Centre’s other services, it is significant. Last year alone, Five Counties staff provided school-based treatment services to 3,910 students across the region.

Emily and Katy’s presence at St. Joseph’s in Douro is a sampler of what SBRS staff might do in schools.

In addition to supporting Grades 1 and 2 students to form letters, the duo visit a senior kindergarten and Grade 1 class to support the teacher in offering activities that develop and strengthen students’ fine motor skills.

Later, they will work with Grade 4 students on self-regulation, helping them identify emotions and choose strategies to control their bodies, maintain focus and handle stressors.

Interspersed between classroom visits are one-on-one support sessions for students.

Katy loves being in schools to support educators and student success.

“We’re augmenting what teachers are doing,” says Katy, who is an occupational therapist at Five Counties. “If you can go into a classroom, identify a problem, and work with the teacher and the school team on a couple of strategies to help, then we’re making a difference.”

She calls it “heartwarming” to leave a classroom teacher with one or two strategies to work on with kids, then return a week or two later to see what they’ve achieved.

Sinead McIlwain, a special education resource teacher at St. Joseph’s, says the relationship with Five Counties is a win-win situation — for students and educators.

Accessing the specialized support of Five Counties, clinicians can enhance what teachers do in the classroom, while the one-on-one help offered to individual students can fill a gap.

“Teachers are open to the strategies and support being offered,” Sinead notes. “Five Counties staff can help plant the seed in students, and teachers can water and nurture it to fruition.”

For Emily, an occupational therapy assistant at Five Counties, helping a child learn to write or master a certain letter means making the exercise fun and easy.

“Most of the kids I work with don’t like to write because it’s hard or challenging for them,” she says. “For the kids that are struggling with the letter ‘a,’ you can show them that you start it with a ‘c’, and just add a straight-up-and-straight-down line, and they go ‘Oh’.”

It’s those “aha” moments that make Emily smile.

“It’s one of the best parts of my job,” she notes.

The Peterborough Police Service is celebrating its 175th anniversary in 2025, along with the City of Peterborough.

Police chief Stuart Betts marked the beginning of the celebrations on Tuesday (March 18) by placing the police service’s official 175th anniversary crest on marked patrol vehicles.

“We are honoured to be stewarding the celebration of this milestone,” Chief Betts said in a media release. “It is important for us to say thank you to the officers and civilians that built this organization and have served with dedication as our community has grown.”

A community celebration event will be held on Saturday, May 31 from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the new police facility at 1421 Lansdowne Street West, where the public can meet officers and watch demonstrations. The event will also feature recruitment information, a BBQ, petting zoo, obstacle course, and more.

In 1850, the Town of Peterborough was incorporated through the Municipal Corporations Act of 1849 — also known as the Baldwin Act, after Upper Canadian lawyer and politician Robert Baldwin who led an effort to delegate authority from district councils to municipal governments so they could raise taxes, enact by-laws, and establish their own police forces.

One of the first acts of the town council was to appoint Peterborough’s first chief constable William Cummings, along with four part-time constables, to police the community of around 2,200 people.

In 1998, the Village of Lakefield and the City of Peterborough agreed on a joint community police service and, in 1999, amalgamated the former Peterborough Community Police Service and the Lakefield Police Service (Lakefield’s first village constable Thomas Hull was appointed in 1875).

The Peterborough Lakefield Community Police Service was de-amalgamated in 2015 and rebranded as the Peterborough Police Service, with Lakefield contracting for police services.

Also in 2015, Cavan Monaghan Township — which had previously contracted police services from the Ontario Provincial Police — decided to contract police services from the Peterborough Police Service instead.

Today, the Peterborough Police Service has 162 officers and 96 civilian members serving the residents of the City of Peterborough, the Village of Lakefield, and Cavan Monaghan Township, with a combined population of around 100,000 people.

“When looking back through our history, it is not surprising to see the Peterborough Police Service at the forefront of policing and public safety innovation,” Chief Betts said.

“We pledge that the service of the future is just as forward thinking and responsive to the needs of our policing communities. As part of that pledge, we will revisit the mission, vision and values of our service to ensure they reflect not only today’s expectations, but also the future needs of our organization and the community.”

The world’s first modern police force was established in 1829 by British Prime Minister Sir Robert Peel, who introduced legislation to form the Metropolitan Police in London, U.K. (the “bobby” nickname for a London police officer came from Peel’s first name).

Prior to the establishment of the full-time, professional, and centrally organized police force, London’s population of nearly 1.5 million people has been policed by 450 constables and 4,500 night watchmen who belonged to many separate organizations.

Considered the father of modern policing, Peel developed nine general principles that saw police officers considered as citizens in uniform, embodied by the principle “The police are the public and the public are the police.” Peel’s principles followed the concept of “policing by consent,” based on transparency, integrity, and accountability for exercising police powers.