A group of Peterborough athletes has made history as the first women’s team to win a gold medal in soccer at the Special Olympics provincial games in Brantford.

The event saw 750 athletes compete in athletics, bocce, golf, softball, and soccer, with this year being the first time Special Olympics Ontario hosted a women’s soccer division as well as a men’s division at the provincial summer games.

Travelling to Brantford to compete in the games, which ran from July 10 to 13, was a memorable experience for both the players and coaches, said Debbie Quinlan, who coaches the women’s Special Olympics soccer team along with Shawna Goode and Linda Wilkie.

“It has been our dream and goal for the past six years that Special Olympics Ontario would recognize and believe in the importance of developing more programs and competition for women in sport,” Quinlan told kawarthaNOW.

“The camaraderie, new friendships made, sportsmanship between competitors, and the heart exhibited by all women’s soccer players was inspiring to watch. Our women were thrilled when people would stop to comment on how exciting it was that they played on a women’s Special Olympics soccer team.”

Since 2019 this team has believed in the importance of women in sport, Quinlan said.

“They have played and competed against other Ontario Special Olympics teams since then, dreaming of the day Special Olympics Ontario and Canada would recognize and host an all-women’s provincial soccer games division.”

Throughout the three-day event, the team demonstrated “outstanding perseverance and determination while competing in extreme heat conditions against other Ontario women’s teams coming out undefeated and winning the gold medal in the championship game,” Quinlan said.

The soccer team consists of players Candace Bushie, Crystal Cochrane, Jasmine Davis, Haley Fowler, Heather Fowler, Nicole Hewitt, Kristen Lackey, Gillian McHugh, Miriam McHugh, Kacee Quinlan, Jenn Wildman, and Carlea Wilkie-Ellis.

Quinlan said she hopes that Special Olympics Ontario and Special Olympics Canada will one day have women’s divisions for all sports.

“As women coaches, we hope that we can build and expand women’s Special Olympics soccer to include more teams at various levels in Peterborough and throughout Ontario,” Quinlan said.

“This past year my husband and I started the first-ever Special Olympics basketball team. Our hopes and dreams are to play and compete against other women’s Special Olympics basketball teams in other cities and communities just like we have in soccer.”

Other Peterborough Special Olympians also saw success in their respective divisions at the Brantford games.

Coached by Patrick Henry, Corlea Freeland, and Bill Chapman, the Peterborough Panthers soccer team (Adam Ferguson, Brian Davis, Blair Bastien, Mary McDougall, Jacob Zitman, Mike Ludlow, Makaya Dafoe, Steve Caban, Ryan Blinn, and Dylan Armstrong) won a silver medal.

Coached by Sydney Venton, track and field athlete Gaerrisen Freeland won a gold medal in the 100 metre, 200 metre, 400 metre, shotput, and javelin, Lisa Butler won a gold medal in the 400 metre, shotput, and javelin and a bronze medal in the 100 metre, and Mercedes Laking won a gold medal in shotput and a bronze medal in the 100 metre.

Coached by Toni Hill and Alan Brioux, bocce player Dalton Davis won a gold medal, Jesse Campbell, Julien Cloutier-Austin, and Florence Ekman won bronze medals, and Monique St. Pierre achieved fourth place.

More than 1,400 paddlers in 978 canoes and kayaks took part in the seventh annual Lock & Paddle event at the Peterborough Lift Lock on Saturday (July 19).

Peterborough photographer Sean Bruce was there and shared some of his photos with kawarthaNOW.

First organized by Parks Canada in 2016, the event was originally held on June 26 in partnership with The Canadian Canoe Museum to celebrate both the national historic site and National Canoe Day.

The inaugural event attempted to fit as many canoes and kayaks as possible into the two tubs at the world’s tallest hydraulic lift lock to be lifted 65 feet (20 metres) into the air and then back down.

For the 2016 event, 138 canoeists and kayakers broke the world record for the number of canoes and kayaks in a single lockage. In 2017, that record was broken again for Canada 150 celebrations, when 328 canoes and kayaks filled the two chambers in a single lockage.

In 2018, the objective was to get as many paddlers as possible through the Peterborough Lift Lock in a three-hour period, with 262 canoes and kayaks making the journey. In 2019, for the first time, the event was held in the evening and featured a lighted paddlecraft parade, lighted night-time lockage, and free overnight camping.

After a three-year absence due to the pandemic, the event returned in August 2023 when more than 600 people paddled 403 canoes and kayaks into the Peterborough Lift Lock’s two tubs. At that event, Parks Canada encouraged all participants to decorate their vessels and wear costumes.

As with last year’s event, this year’s Lock & Paddle again took place on Parks Day, which is celebrated on the third Saturday of July to celebrate Canada’s national, provincial, and territorial parks while encouraging people to enjoy and learn about these natural spaces.

As was the case last year, simultaneous events also took place at the Hartwells Lock on the Rideau Canal in Ottawa and the Saint-Gabriel Lock on the Lachine Canal in Montreal.

The Peterborough event ran from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. and featured live music with Peterborough Musicfest talent performing on a LeBoat, a kids’ zone, yoga sessions, a BBQ by the Bewdley & District Lions Club, giant games from The Boardwalk Board Game Lounge, and water safety and boat safety information offered by the City of Peterborough and Boating Ontario.

The lockage, which took place from noon until 4 p.m., saw a total of 978 canoes and kayaks lifted up and down the Peterborough Lift Lock over four hours.

The Canadian Canoe Museum also offered a special paddling experience in a traditional Voyageur canoe, where participants left the waterfront location of the new museum on Little Lake and travelled through Lock 20 – Ashburnham and onward to the Peterborough Lift Lock to participate in the event.

Peterborough MP Emma Harrison welcomed a federal Liberal Cabinet member to the city on Thursday (July 17), who brought good news for Canadian families struggling to keep up with inflation.

MP Anna Gainey, Canada’s secretary of state for children and youth, arrived in Peterborough on the eve of yet another increase to the Canada Child Benefit (CCB) payment.

Starting July 18, the maximum amount of the payment covering the period from July 2025 to June 2026 increases by $210 to $7,997 for each child under six years old, and by $178 to $6,748 for each child between the ages of six and 17 years old.

Those families with an adjusted family net income below $37,487 are eligible for the maximum amount. The benefit amount gradually decreases when the adjusted family net income is above $37,487.

Gainey, the member for the Montreal area riding of Notre-Dame-de-Grâce-Westmount, confirmed the CCB that “lands in the bank accounts of more than three million families” on July 18 will include the increase for those families eligible.

“It is a benefit that is pegged to inflation, which is important in that it will be increasing along with inflation to keep up with the costs families are facing,” she said. “This benefit is really meant to support people who need it with the additional costs of raising kids. It’s meant to take some of the pressure off.”

Gainey also outlined some of the other federal programs she says are intended to support families.

“The government recognizes that there are a lot of pressures on families — a lot of pressures that come with raising kids. This is an important part of a suite of commitments that we have delivered, including the Canadian Dental Care Plan. I think there’s more than 400,000 kids under 18 who are now getting dental care who weren’t previously, before the program existed.”

“We have the National School Food Program that’s backed by a billion-dollar investment to deliver nutritious lunches across the country. This kind of program can put as much as $800 back into the pockets of families that they would otherwise be spending on those nutritious lunches.”

All this, said Gainey, represents “a holistic and wrap-around approach to supporting families, and understanding that people work very hard and they want to be there and they want to provide for their kids and, in some cases, their grandkids.”

Asked if these programs are a continuation of Trudeau-era policies, Gainey didn’t dispute that.

“We remain the Liberal Party of Canada. We have a new government and a new prime minister. The program is to remain committed to families. When families are strong and we raise healthy kids, we’re investing in our future. So, whether it’s child care, or dental care, or a national school food program, or this Canada Child Benefit, this government will continue to stand with families and support them. I think that’s we expect of a government, regardless of its stripes. As a Liberal, I feel very strongly these kinds of programs are very important.”

Gainey also touched on the progression towards $10-per-day child care, something that been a long time coming for families looking for a break from child care costs. She said full agreements between Ottawa and three provinces have yet to be reached, although Ontario has reached an agreement in principle.

“We’ve brought costs down by more than 50 per cent in the jurisdictions where these programs have come into place,” she said. “The roll-out is going well (but) these things have regional specialities and elements to them, so we do have to work with our provincial counterparts on addressing, region by region, how this is working and what was there before the program came in, and how we blend the two together.”

According to the federal government website, the goal remains bringing child care fees down to $10 per day on average across Canada by 2026.

Prior to sitting down for this interview, Gainey and Harrison visited the Canadian Canoe Museum and the Silver Bean Café — both of which have benefited from Canada Summer Jobs, a government program that help employers create jobs for you people.

“It’s a great program and which is why, during our first meeting with (Jobs and Families) Minister (Patty) Hajdu, we asked for additional funds to expand that program for this summer, recognizing that we were seeing some challenges for young people to secure jobs,” Gainey said.

“When the House rose in June, we were still looking over 20,000 jobs available across the country through Canada Summer Jobs and that didn’t, at that point, include the extra 6,000 that we funded immediately when the House returned.”

“There was recognition more needed to be done and that was the tool the government had, at that moment in front of it, to expand the program and we did so. Hopefully those jobs have been scooped up and young people are going to the job bank to see what’s available in their communities.”

Asked why she was visiting Peterborough on the eve of the CCB payment increase, Gainey said “I don’t need an excuse to come to Peterborough.”

“Peterborough is my second home. I’m here every summer for some length of time. I’m happy to support Emma. I was here during the campaign. I’m very excited to have her as a colleague and I’m excited to work with her.”

One of four kids born to Peterborough native and former Montreal Canadiens great Bob Gainey and his wife Cathy, Gainey was raised in Westmount — the same riding she has represented since June 2023 when she came to Ottawa after winning a by-election forced by then MP Marc Garneau’s resignation.

Just this past April, she won re-election in the same riding, amassing a remarkable 64 per cent of the vote. Some two weeks later, Prime Minister Carney named her Secretary of State (Children and Youth).

Prior to being elected the first time, Gainey became close friends with then-future prime minister Justin Trudeau and, along with her husband Tom Pitfield, advised him during his campaign to become the leader of the Liberal Party of Canada.

In February 2014, Gainey became president of the Liberal Party, and won re-election to that post in 2016 before stepping down at the end of that term. There things sat until the 2023 federal election campaign when she put her name forward as the Liberal candidate for Notre-Dame-de-Grâce-Westmount.

“It’s such an honour to serve a community that you care so much about,” said Gainey.

“Emma and I were just talking about that over lunch. It’s that much more meaningful. You’re motivated because this is your home, this is your community and you really care. That’s certainly true for me, and I know it’s true for Emma.”

With vascular disease being a leading cause of preventable death and disability in Canada, you want to know that access to time-sensitive care to save a life or a limb is always available close to home.

With the help of donor investments, reimagined vascular healthcare will be available at Peterborough Regional Health Centre (PRHC) through the development of a hybrid operating room (OR).

A priority for the PRHC Foundation’s Campaign for PRHC, the hybrid OR means specialized clinical teams can perform multiple open and minimally invasive operations on the same patient on the same day and in the same room, allowing them to treat complex conditions with greater precision, less risk, and faster recovery.

“This is one of the most exciting opportunities for innovation in the hospital’s recent history, taking PRHC to the frontiers of minimally invasive surgical care,” says PRHC Foundation president and CEO Lesley Heighway. “Already a leader in delivering a wide range of minimally invasive services, PRHC continues to revolutionize its programs to better meet the needs of our growing and aging community.”

PRHC’s vascular program currently serves a population of more than 600,000 people, with patients coming from Peterborough City and County, City of Kawartha Lakes, Northumberland County, the Haliburton Highlands, and the Region of Durham. Many vascular patients face multiple serious conditions like ruptured aneurysms, blockages, or severe clotting and are unable to undergo multiple consecutive surgeries. This makes their care complex and time-sensitive.

“The vascular system is one of the most important systems within the body. It is a highly trained network that connects all the organs and all of our tissues so that we can function normally,” says Dr. Heather Cox, deputy chief of surgery at PRHC and also a vascular surgeon and the site lead for vascular surgery.

“The network includes the arteries, the veins, and the lymph nodes from head to toe, and this channel allows for all of the nutrients that we need to function, to think, to speak, to move, and to feel well and without pain.”

VIDEO: Some patients can’t wait for a second surgery … and they shouldn’t have to

While the technology to treat multiple vascular issues in a single surgery already exists, PRHC’s current operating rooms are unable to support it.

“Traditionally, if a patient with multiple, challenging vascular conditions were to have their care in a non-hybrid OR setting, they would have one procedure and recover, then have the second procedure and recover — extending the length of treatment longer than necessary, if their health would even allow it,” Heighway explains.

“Having a hybrid OR at PRHC will give vascular patients a chance to avoid life-threatening waits, difficult transfers, and repeated surgeries — right here, closer to home, with their support system nearby.”

A hybrid OR combines the strengths of a traditional operating room and an interventional radiology suite, supporting imaging, minimally invasive interventions and open surgery for the same patient at the same time.

“The benefit of having a patient in a hybrid OR includes having fewer procedures, having very high-risk procedures done in a safer or minimally invasive way, and having multiple experts at the table at the same time,” says Dr. Cox. “The patient gets the optimal care in the most efficient way.”

For example, with the appropriate technology in place, a patient who needs a procedure typically done in an interventional radiology suite, as well as a procedure typically done in a surgical suite, could have both procedures done at the same time, reducing overall risk and recovery time.

“A hybrid OR means you’d be able to do all of that in one setting, so you would minimize the number of procedures, the time it takes to care for the patient, and decrease the risk that would come with having to do all of that in the interventional radiology suite or all of that in the surgical suite,” Dr. Cox says.

By having multiple procedures done in a single intervention, the time spent setting up each operating room is reduced as well. This is crucial considering PRHC currently has only four vascular surgeons using two dedicated operating rooms to perform more than 1,000 vascular surgeries each year-the equivalent patient volumes for six surgeons.

“Our patients in particular are so ill that having the ability to do complete care in a timely fashion goes a long way,” says Dr. Cox. “It’s saving a life. It’s saving limbs. It’s avoiding a stroke. It’s avoiding an aneurysm rupture.”

The state-of-the-art hybrid OR will be the most technologically advanced operating room in the region, with cutting-edge tools and the ability to accommodate multiple specialists at the same time.

Given that the government does not fund hospital equipment or technology, Dr. Cox and her colleagues are counting on generous donors to fund the hybrid OR that will transform care for thousands of PRHC patients.

“I would like donors to know that they’re making a huge difference, not only in the individual care of each patient, but to our community as a whole. If we’re saving lives and saving limbs, our whole community is doing better.”

Since 2020, the PRHC Foundation has raised $52.9 million in support of the Campaign for PRHC, which has already begun to transform care and reimagine healthcare closer to home.

“It’s donors who will make it possible to bring a hybrid OR to PRHC for the first time,” says Heighway. “Minimally invasive intervention, including a hybrid OR, is one of the priority areas of care in the Campaign for PRHC because it’s critically important for some of PRHC’s sickest patients — people who need complex, time-sensitive, life and limb-saving care.”

“I think it’s really important that our donors appreciate that they are building a better community, building a stronger community, and that they’re investing in the people around them — their neighbours,” adds Dr. Cox. “It’s an investment in healthcare, but it’s also an investment in the community in which you live.”

To learn more about bringing a hybrid operating room to PRHC and to make a donation, visit the PRHC Foundation website at prhcfoundation.ca or call 705-876-5000.

This branded editorial was created in partnership with the Peterborough Regional Health Centre Foundation. If your organization or business is interested in a branded editorial, contact us.