Local legion inspired by Invictus By Josh Sherman
Volume 46 No. 14
October 3, 2017
JENN VAN Dusen and her twin sister Sarah are anomalies at the Birch Cliff Royal Canadian Legion branch. At 25 years of age, Jenn says they are the youngest members at the local legion, a squat brick clubhouse at 1577 Kingston Rd. Like many legions across the country, organizers say the club is having trouble attracting younger members. Local legionnaires want to change that, though, and hosting the Invictus Games flag tour on Sept. 19 was a
step towards doing so, said branch 13 president Daniel Burri. “We truly believe we try to bring the young vets to the legion, and it’s quite difficult to do that,” he said. The flag tour is like the Olympic torch relay, but for the Invictus Games, a para-sport event founded by Prince Harry in which wounded, sick or injured military personnel and vets compete. The inaugural games took place in 2014 in London, and this year’s flag tour was a precursor to the Toronto games, which ran from Sept. 23 to 30. Continued on Page 4
Fire causes $20,000 worth of damage at Hope United By Josh Sherman
PHOTO: JOSH SHERMAN
Olga Nazar and Felice Strauss release butterfly Matt into the world Sept. 24, 2017.
Olga and Felice bond over butterflies By Anna Killen
“HERE’S YOUR baby,” says Felice Strauss to her 91-year-old neighbour Olga Nazar, walking up the stairs to Nazar’s home on a recent Saturday. In her hands, Strauss holds a modestsized clear plastic container, the kind you’d use to carry insects or a small animal home from the pet store. Inside, hanging from the terrarium’s bright blue lid, is a j-shaped chrysalis in a brilliant green. In less than 24 hours, a monarch butterfly will emerge from the cocoon, a butterfly that began its journey as a tiny white blob on the back of a milkweed leaf planted in Nazar’s front yard. “That’s amazing,” says Nazar, peering down to get a closer look. “I’ve never seen the process.” Until last year, Strauss hadn’t seen the process either. But encouragement from a friend and a keen environmentalist daughter made her a quick study. She’s spent this summer collecting monarch eggs from milkweed plants, nurturing them at her home near Coxwell and Dundas, and releasing them out into the wild. In good humour, she calls them her “births”, and she’s birthed about 35 this year — her daughter is close behind with 25. It’s part of a trend to increase butterfly survival rates and improve butterfly habitats and safe spaces along their migration route.
“Monarch survival rate is about 1 per cent in the wild, and for people who take them in it’s about 95 per cent,” said Strauss, who shared her learning experience with her grandchildren and neighbourhood school. “There’s no predators in my house, the temperatures are consistent, and there’s no bad weather, so the survival rate is greater.”
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“It’s never too late to learn something new.” – Olga Nazar, 91
Nazar’s baby is one of the last three butterflies Strauss is going to release this season, and one of the most special because of the friendship it has inspired. “I would go around the neighbourhood to find milkweed, and usually knock on someone’s door to make sure it’s OK,” she said. “That’s how I found Olga.” Nazar said she “didn’t even hesitate” to agree to help when Strauss knocked
on her front door. “It was a nice surprise, really,” she said. Nazar has lived in her home near Little India since 1952, and raised nine children in the neighbourhood with her late husband, Matt. One of her sons still lives within walking distance. He’s the one who brought her the milkweed for her garden, she said. “I’ve been watching it because it can take over,” she said of the hearty plant. “It’s huge.” Underneath the leaves of the huge milkweed, the two found several white dots that might have been monarch eggs. Strauss brought the eggs home, and one of them took. Nazar knew butterflies laid eggs, she said, “but if I would’ve seen that, I wouldn’t have thought that was an egg.” Over the next month, Strauss kept Nazar updated on the tiny creature’s life cycle as it transformed into a caterpillar, then a nearly neon green cocoon, and late last week began to darken. “I’m amazed,” said Nazar, who considers herself a nature lover. “And to actually see it in person. [Online or photographs] is not the same.” She’s been sharing her story with family, friends and her church and recently travelled to a butterfly garden near Niagara. Continued on Page 2
HOPE UNITED Church worship leader Brian Stevens is giving thanks to whoever reported a fire outside the church around midnight on Sept. 22 that caused damage he estimated could cost $20,000 to repair. “We have to express a really huge thank-you. We don’t know who called the fire in, but we just want to say thank you because they saved our building,” Stevens said. Toronto Fire Services said pumper 226 responded to a call at 11:25 p.m. about a garbage can on fire outside the Main and Danforth church and arrived on the scene five minutes later. Stevens commended the fire station’s quick response to the fire at 2550 Danforth Ave. The cause of the fire, which engulfed recycling bins by the church’s entrance facing Danforth, is unknown, said fire services. “Who knows what gets thrown in the garbage? Is it malicious? Who knows?” said, Capt. David Eckerman, a Toronto Fire Services spokesperson. “Just for a garbage can they wouldn’t really do an investigation,” said Eckerman. The Ontario Fire Marshal is notified of fires that incur property damages of over $500,000. Stevens said the fire destroyed the church’s air conditioner, cooling unit, and furnace. The furnace room, connected outside by pipes, will have to be gutted, and donations for the Christmas yard sale stored in an adjoining room need to be thrown out because of smoke damage. “It’s really unfortunate because people are very kind with donations,” he said. The damage could have been much worse, he said. “We dodged a bullet… there’s a basement window that held. The fire went up the side, just the façade of the building,” Stevens said. “Luckily it didn’t enter into the building or else we would’ve lost the building,” he added. Stevens suggested the fire might have been an act of vandalism. “We don’t know how it started, but the ferocity of the fire makes us a little suspicious,” he said. The worship leader is encouraging loSome of the damage at cal residents to make Hope United Church. sure their garbage and recycling is secured. He suggested the Danforth Village church would be stepping up security but keeping its doors open to the community. “Yeah, we’re frustrated, but we also have that sense of turning the other cheek,” said Stevens. The Sunday after the fire, Stevens said he preached to his congregation about “empathy and compassion.”