June 27, 2019 Vol. 19, No. 25
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Representatives from several area Women’s Institutes in period dress, in Sydenham to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Sydenham Branch of the Federation of Women’s Institutes, Ontario.
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couragement from Lady Tweedsmuir, local histories were collected and compiled, beginning in the late 1930’s: Sydenham has a copy in the Queen’s archives. The list of community contributions goes on and on… Sydenham WI continues today though reduced in size, due largely to societal changes that have led to many more women working full-time, fewer full-time small family farms, and a broadening of available community services. Sydenham’s active WI meets the second Monday of each month at the Township Hall’s community room. Visitors are welcomed. Last Saturday (June 22) members of Sydenham Women’s Institute invited the public to join them as they celebrates their 100th anniversary from 1pm to 4pm. The gala event was well attended, with representatives from Frontenac and its neighbouring counties. MC John McDougall brought greetings from Prime Minister Trudeau, MP Scott Reid and MPP Randy Hillier. Mayor Ron Vandewal, SFCS Director David Townsend, Lion Christine Kennedy and Wayne Conway of Verona Community Association all spoke of their appreciation for the work the Sydenham WI does, and has done, both in this community and much further afield, over the past hundred years. Along the front and sides of the hall, displays of pictures and documents gave a glimpse of the group’s activities. No issue was too big or too small, from the carefully compiled and beautifully bound Tweedsmuir history volume, to a request sent to a clothing manufacturer asking them to replace the type of buttons used on men’s work clothes with a design more likely to survive the washing machine
wringers. Following the speeches, guests were invited to share in a sumptuous tea of assorted sandwiches and sweets. When they left, each was gifted a handmade bag of treats, all related, to or symbolic of, the WI motto: “For Home and Country."
fter being passed over during the most recent federal budget, the Shining Waters rail proposal, linking Toronto and Ottawa with stations in Peterborough, Tweed, Sharbot Lake, and Smiths Falls along the way, has new life. Mariam Monsef, MP for Peterborough and Minister for Gender Equality and International Development, announced on Tuesday (June 25) that the federal government and the Canada Infrastructure Bank are committing $71.1 million in new funding to complete planning activities over two years to advance the VIA rail proposal. The announcement was made at the Peterborough Chamber of Commerce, which is housed in the former Peterborough passenger rail station. A similar announcement was made in Trois Rivieres, Quebec, as the proposed Toronto to Ottawa rail line has been paired with a Ottawa-Montreal-Quebec City line that would travel on the north side of the St. Lawrence River through Trois Rivieres. A map that was printed along with article in the Globe and Mail that broke the news about the funding includes stations in Tweed and Sharbot Lake. “This project would bring significant economic growth to our community and the affected regions along the corridor,” Monsef said. The work that is slated to be done using this injection of funds includes consultation with stakeholders and indigenous communities, an examination of the required land and track acquisition, and the completion of the technical, financial, and commercial analysis that is required for a final investment decision. Monsef added that this new expenditure is a step along a process towards bringing the new rail line to fruition but said “this train has yet to leave the station, but this is the furthest we have ever come on the idea of a passenger train.” The project itself will cost about $4 billion to complete, $6 billion if
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the rail cars are fully electric. One of the potential outcomes of the $71 injection of federal dollars is to create enough certainty about the viability of the rail service for it to attract private investment dollars In the Globe and Mail article, the section of the proposed line that runs between Ottawa and Peterborough is said to “involve reviving a long-abandoned rail line that has since been converted to a recreational trail”. The advantage of using the trail is that it is simple to acquire, whereas the section between Peterborough and Toronto will require the purchase of an existing Canadian Pacific Rail line. Central Frontenac Mayor Frances Smith received a heads up from VIA rail’s communication department about the announcement early this week, and brought the information to a meeting of Central Frontenac Council on Tuesday afternoon. “This is the first communication I have received from VIA since just after the federal budget came out in April , when it looked like the project did not have much momentum,” Smith said. “That seems to have changed.” The announcement of funding for rail in Eastern Ontario and Quebec comes about on the second business day after the start of a long summer of election campaigning. The House of Commons rose last week, not to return until after the election. The Frontenac News has received an unconfirmed report that VIA rail has already looked
at locations for a station in the vicinity of Sharbot Lake, and is considering ducking just south of the village rather than following the former rail line which would rumble within metres of the Sharbot Lake Family Health team, the Sharbot Lake beach and the Central Frontenac township office.
CANADA DAY 2019 Check pages 7-10 for a full rundown of Canada Day events in Frontenac County and Addington Highlands, and our Canada quiz!
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Shining Waters re-surfaces
Celebrating 100 years of the Women’s Institute in Sydenham
by Wilma Kenny arm women are this country’s richest untapped resource.” February 1887, at a Farmer’s Institute Ladies’ Night in Stoney Creek, the speaker was Adelaide Hoodless of Hamilton. She suggested there was a need for a farm women’s organization, and she was right; one week later, over 100 women crowded into the founding meeting of the Canadian Women’s Institute. Based on the premises of education, community service and socialization to raise the standards of homemaking and child care in rural areas, the idea spread rapidly across Canada. Sydenham women held their founding meeting June 25, 1919 on the lawn of the Lacey home which was located in the current Home Hardware parking lot, adjacent to Lacey’s general store. That year 41 women joined, and by the following year, membership was up to 83. As a learning centre, the WI was sometimes nicknamed ‘the rural women’s university’. Women were sent by their branches to area seminars, and as well as learning a wide range of skills that included home nursing, hygiene, nutrition, sewing, cooking, community outreach and how to conduct meetings, they were taught how to teach these skills to their home branch members. The regular monthly meetings usually featured guest speakers on topics of current interest. Bake sales and catering have always been WI specialties, but there was much, much more. In Sydenham, the WI introduced the Red Cross water safety and swimming lessons, sponsoring it from 1950 until the Township assumed responsibility relatively recently. The WI also: supplied clothing, quilts, toys to needy children during the war years; organized Girl Guides in Sydenham; bought a piano for the public school, thus initiating a school music program; bought, along with the local Board of Trade, what is now ‘the Point Park’, raising $550 a year until it was paid for in 1955; initiated an annual Christmas dinner for Seniors, and ran it for 30 years; set up scholarships for the local schools, held annual village Hallowe’en parties, sponsored plays and movies in the Town Hall, provided milk and sometimes lunches to local schools. With en-
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