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The
Vol.16 No. 39 Weekend Weather Thursday High 2º
VOICE
Inside The Voice Citizen of Year
page 12
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BY SARAH MURRELL
VOICE Staff Pelham’s Annual Food Drive took on a international flavour this year as students from around the world took part. Students in Niagara College’s International English for Academic Preparation (EAP) program were among the dozens of volunteers who collected, sorted and transported food on Saturday, Dec. 1 to help fill the shelves at Pelham Cares. Lina Lianga, with the EAP Community Links volunteer program, explains the volunteer program allows the international students to help out in the communities where they are studying and living, noting North Americans often travel overseas for mission work and this is the students’ way of helping. Lianga, a Pelham resident, said she saw the call for volunteers in
INTERNATIONAL students from Niagara College were part of a large group of volunteers who executed Pelham’s Annual Food Drive on Saturday. /Special to the Voice
the paper and thought it would be a great event for the students to take part in. She explains the interaction with community volunteers is a realworld way for them to practice their English skills. The benefit, she says, goes both ways, noting the community learns about the students’ cultures and become “global citizens.” “It’s closing the gap between cultures,” she said. The students, from France, China, Hong Kong, Russia, Japan and Korea, were happy to help and work with the dozens of local volunteers. “It’s been very interesting,” said Pelham Cares President Jane Gilmour of working with the international students. “The community, as usual, has been very generous,” said Gilmour,
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who is also the organizations food program coordination. “It’s very well organized,” she said of the day, as volunteers waited at the old Fenwick fire hall while other volunteers canvassed the town for food donations. As the first truck loads of food arrived, the volunteers sprung into action: unloading trucks in mere minutes, moving food inside where one group datechecked it and another sorted it into major categories, runners took it to smaller tables where more volunteers sorted the food into more specific categories and filled boxes before even more volunteers moved full boxes out of the way, ready to be transported to Pelham Cares’ office and food bank on Regional Road 20 where it was packed onto shelves. See COMMUNITY/page2
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If someone you know had hands stained with yellow paint over the weekend, it’s likely the police will want to talk with them. Two community organizations are reporting this week that their buildings were “tagged” sometime Friday night with yellow spray paint. Lieutenant Greg Beaulieu with Pelham Fire Department Station 2 told The Voice the brand new fire hall in Fenwick was vandalized late Friday night. Beaulieu said when firefighters responded to a call on Friday night the building was fine. When they returned to the hall Saturday morning for training they discovered large portions of the fire hall had been spray painted with yellow paint. He noted only the back and sides of the building were vandalized. “We’re very ticked off,” said Beaulieu, noting the hall is brand new and firefighters are very proud of their facility, working to keep it in pristine condition. He also said they are disappointed and disheartened that someone would have such little respect for the building and the firefighters, who volunteer their time to protect the community. “These cowards damaged not only the hall but they have damaged the community they live in. They have sent a very clear message stating that they don’t care about their community or its infrastructure. Unfortunately for them they have also said that they care very little about themselves,” said Beaulieu. The hall is tucked back from the road and is often used as an access point into Centennial Park so seeing people walking past it would normally not be of concern, Beaulieu said, adding people could easily hang out there and not be seen from the road. When the new hall was built infrastructure for a security surveillance system was included but video cameras were never hooked up says CAO Darren Ottoway, explaining the town chose to wait to see if they were needed. Since the act of vandalism over the weekend, Ottoway says making the system active is being planned. Also over the weekend members of the Greater Niagara Model Railroad Engineers discovered their building on Maple Street had
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