September 13, 2012
Vol. 12, No. 36
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Family Storytime at Sydenham Public library
Family storytime promotes early literacy by Julie Druker
O
n September 14 Brianne Peters, a programming librarian for the Kingston Frontenac Public Library, led the first Friday morning “Family Storytime” session at the Sydenham Public Library for an enthusiastic group of moms and their children. The sessions take place Friday mornings at 10 a.m. and will continue for 11 weeks with a short break after the sixth week. Parents are encouraged to bring their children of all ages to the sessions whose goal is to promote early literacy. The sessions include stories, songs, puppet play, musical instruments and more, and offer up everything a young child needs
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to experience about language, specifically reading and writing, before they actually learn how to read and write. The program uses the early literacy initiative called “Every Child Ready To Read”, which promotes five important skills: reading, writing, thinking, playing and talking, and the program incorporates all of those skills in each session. “By coming to these programs children will learn those basic five skills so that when it comes time for them to start school, they have that important basic foundation in place and will be ready to learn how to read and write,” Peters said.
t was not an auspicious beginning to a meeting in Sharbot Lake for adjacent landowners of the proposed K&P Trail, when right at the start, County of Frontenac staff were made aware that they had failed to send letters of invitation to a number of landowners located between Tichborne and Sharbot Lake. The meeting was hosted by the county at Oso hall on Sept. 17, and it was intended to be a forum for landowners whose properties will be directly affected by the trail, to air their views and concerns. As such, although the meeting was open to the general public, it was only publicized through invitations to adjacent landowners. However, some Central Frontenac landowners showed up who had not received invitations and had only heard about the meeting from friends. Ann and Keith Howitt were among those and they said that when they heard about the meeting from a neighbour, they were concerned that the county “was holding secret meetings.” A similar meeting took place in Verona on September 13. The meeting was conducted by Frontenac County Economic Development Officer Anne Marie Young and South Frontenac Councilor Allan McPhail, who is chair of the Cataraqui Region Conservation Authority and a member of the K&P Trail Committee. Young said the failure to send the invitations was an oversight and apologized. She said that another meeting to correct the mistake would be held. Both Young and McPhail responded to the numerous concerns that were raised during the evening by saying that many more meetings would be held in the future and that there would be plenty of time to work out the issues. In explaining the phases of the trail development, Young pointed to a green line
Women’s Institute at crossroads L
ike many service clubs who are experiencing a decline in membership these days, the Harrowsmith Women’s Institute is eagerly looking for new women to join their ranks. Recently three long-time members of the HWI, Joyce Watson, Jerry Babcook and Helen Lamb, met with me to discuss the group’s history in the community and their hopes to recruit new members at their upcoming meeting on September 25. The group formed in 1924 and had at that time 53 members, but have since shrunk to less than half that number. Eva Stewart was the group’s first president and one of their first undertakings was to form a library committee. The required $200 was raised for that purpose and a room was secured. One of the first fundraisers for the library committee was the showing of motion pictures (in 1925) in the Harrowsmith town hall, where the group held their meetings until it burned down in 1972. The group also sponsored plays by local groups with proceeds going into the library fund. The Institute’s next big undertaking was the cleaning up of the local cemetery and numerous work bees were held. A caretaker was hired to look after the grounds prior to the province legislating townships to take on that responsibility. Education has long been a focus for the group and in its early days members were appointed to liaise with local area schools. The group purchased a trophy cup that was presented to the school that scored the most points at the local fair. Today the group still recognizes the importance of
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Please see Trails -continued on page 2
by Julie Druker
education and annually gives a cash award to a graduate of Sydenham High School. They also provide financial support to one child in the community in need of funding. Music always played a large part in the group’s early meetings, which featured numerous recitals by local players, and in the 1930s the group began funding the music programs in local schools. They also sponsored well-known speakers to travel to Harrowsmith to speak on various topics. Nursing and health topics were popular in the early years and the group helped raise funds to provide treatment to those in need in the surrounding community, as well as donating items to the Sick Kids Hospital in Toronto and the National Institute of the Blind. During World War 2 the Harrowsmith Women’s Institute donated maple syrup and sugar to the Navy League and shipped their home-made jams to soldiers serving overseas in Britain. At this time they also formed the Soldiers’ Comfort Club, which sent care packages to the soldiers overseas as well. The group assisted the Red Cross with their sewn and knitted items and also served food at regular blood clinics. They also made contributions to the Milk and Baby Food For Britain Funds. The Harrowsmith Women’s Institute was responsible for getting street lights in the village of Harrowsmith, and updating the township hall, and they also acquired a piano for
fact:
on a map at the front of the room, and said that the green section, which runs south of Tichborne, is all owned by the county, with a few exceptions. This prompted landowner Daryl Kennedy, whose land is south of Tichborne, to say that he has checked with the registry office and the county does not own the section that crosses his land. “It will not cross there. Find another route,” he said bluntly. Kennedy also spoke about expropriation, saying that land cannot be expropriated for recreational purposes, to which McPhail replied that although newspaper reports have mentioned expropriation, “I cannot see that any political leader would go for expropriation for the trail …. We need good neighbors or we can’t have a trail.” McPhail’s position stands in direct contradiction to a recent decision by Frontenac County Council, which voted earlier this summer to commence expropriation proceedings in order to extend the trail after failing to come to a purchase agreement with Bob Leonard, who owns a small piece of the trail that runs through his property near Hartington. Frontenac County Bylaw 2012-0019, which was passed by a vote of 7-1 on June 20, authorised expropriation proceedings to commence in relation to the piece of trail that Leonard owns. The bylaw reads, in part 2. “The purpose of the application to expropriate the lands described in Section 1 shall be to link two sections of the Frontenac K&P Trail and thereby ensure its continued long-term viability as a public trail within the Frontenac County Trail System in accordance with the County of Frontenac Trails Master Plan.” One of the issues of concern in both the Leonard case and in some the northern sections of the trail that were being discussed at the meetings in Sharbot Lake and Verona have to do with situations where the trail
Long time members of the Harrowsmith Women Institute- Joyce Watson, Jerry Babcook and Helen Lamb with Lulubelle it. Over the years they also sponsored numerous courses and seminars for their members. Currently, along with their annual education bursaries the group continues to support the community by making annual donations to the
churches of St. Paul’s and Trinity United and the Fairmont Home for their annual Christmas baskets. They also support Interval House, an emergency women’s shelter in Kingston. The members also regu-
Continued on page 2
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