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Elmira, Ontario, Canada | observerxtra.com | Volume 26 | Issue 20
260
Living Here | 21
John Mahood PS greening project up for new award School is nominee in youth category of Suzuki Foundation’s Future Ground Prize Steve Kannon Observer Staff
THE AMBITIOUS GREENING PLAN AT Elmira’s John Mahood Public School has caught the eye of the David Suzuki Foundation, which has the work being done there as one of the nominees for the organization’s new Future Ground Prize. The long-term project to change the face of the schoolyard is one of five finalists in the youth-led category, along with 10 in the main contest. There were 135 submissions for the Future Ground award, which recognizes community initiatives in Ontario actively building a green and just future. At John Mahood, students have fashioned a pollinator garden, a rain garden, planted native food-garden seeds and formed an eco club. The goal is to encourage biodiversity and provide children with a direct connection to nature, says Grade 4/5 teacher Michele Smith, who is spearheading the efforts.
“We’re building a rain garden, which is where it all started from the school yard is pretty swampy, so the students end up on the tarmac for a bulk of the school year, because it’s just too wet – it’s not draining properly. So we’re putting a rain garden in. It’s in the initial stage, but we’re hoping to work that into a larger area that will channel the water into the ground. And we’ll put some native plants in there as well that are pollinator friendly plants, so that we can be increasing our biodiversity at the school at the same time,” she explained of some of the work being done at the school. “As well, we’ve been working with an indigenous organization called White Owl Native Ancestry Association, and they have been helping me to plan an indigenous food garden so that we can focus on some native seeds, and sustainable harvesting and resources.” Beyond the school itself, the students have been working with the → GREENING 4
Paul Weber and his wife Donna have put the Commercial Tavern up for sale, contemplating a new direction.
A genuine piece of history up for sale in Maryhill After 25 years, Paul Weber has done what he long said wasn’t an option in listing it Steve Kannon Observer Staff
WHEN PAUL WEBER BOUGHT THE Commercial Tavern in Maryhill in 1996, it was a homecoming in more than one way: He was putting down roots after two decades on the road, and returning traditional country music to
the same stage he’d played as a young man. Now, 25 years later, he’s looking at perhaps the next chapter, having done what he’d long maintained wasn’t possible by putting the historic property up for sale. Between some health issues and some struggles keeping the place going as
a live-music venue, Weber and his wife Donna were already looking at other options. Then along came the pandemic, and there was plenty of time – and many more reasons – to consider selling the place. A lockdown in March of last year just stretched on and on, with Weber opting not to reopen when the
regulations permitted it. “I just wasn’t comfortable with that responsibility and the liability, in that order,” he said, noting measures such as Plexiglas dividers were both an added expense and change to the character of the venue he wasn’t prepared to take on.
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