Stories

 

 

 

 

June 12, 2023

Story and photograph by: Tim FitzGerald

Photography by Dave Ferris

Story and Photograph by: Tim FitzGerald

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

May 31, 2022

Story by Tim FitzGerald

April 4, 2022

Story by Tim FitzGerald

March 14, 2022

Story by Tim FitzGerald

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

District # 7090 is composed of rotary clubs in southern Ontario and northern New York. The Rotary Clubs of Delhi, Norfolk-Sunrise and Simcoe within Norfolk County are all part of the district.

November 29, 2021

Story by: Tim FitzGerald

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sepsis – what is it? In lay terms, when infections from “external” sources, be they from deep cuts, sore throats or other causes bypass the bodies defences and reside “inside the body where no infections are supposed to be” sepsis can set in. Undiagnosed / untreated sepsis infection cans be deadly within relatively short periods of time.

Ellen Coffey (Zoom video) is a volunteer with the Canadian Sepsis Foundation. Her husband, was an healthy and avid outdoorsman. Not feeling right and undiagnosed, he suffered a combination of the signs/symptoms of sepsis. TIME (Temperature – higher or lower, Infection, Mental Decline (confused, sleepy, difficult to arouse) and Extremely Ill (severe pain or discomfort). Ellen's message "if you suspect sepsis – see a doctor immediately!" The infection was severe. A coma was induced. Unfortunately he never regained consciousness and passed.

Presenting today with Ellen from the McMaster University Department of Medicine (Zoom video) were:

 

Patricia Liaw, Phd.

 

Alison Fox-Robichaud, MSc, MD (on active duty)

 

The Rotary Club of Simcoe thank the three of you for your important presentation and answering our questions today.

 

 

 

 

 

When Alzheimer’s is viewed as a stigma it burdens families and raises health care costs. Alene Bradshaw – Director of Development and Maria Leitos – First Point Navigator (seen here with Rotarian Craig Hunter) are staff with our local Alzheimer Society. They explained that Alzheimer’s lies in a spectrum of dementia diseases. Like any disease, if proper information, diagnosis and medical treatment are not sought out – the disease may likely get worse.

Shatter the myth – old age does not equal memory loss! If your family member or friend is losing memory find out why. It could be factors of seven reversable/pseudo causes; tumours, depression, diabetes … . There are eight irreversible causes in the many areas within the brain; frontal lobes, anterior lobes, and many more. Disease/dementia in one lobe may leave others intact and fully functioning – thus risk of family and friends ignoring symptoms and not seeking medical advice.

When dementias remain undiagnosed, in some patients, activity deteriorates; others patients get agitated in unfamiliar circumstances (which may lead to involving the police) – both may end up in the hospital emergency room.

Education and some things that have been learned:

Education and learning – the more neural pathways that we develop over a lifetime makes us more resilient. So if you continue learning/using all five senses and then if you loose, say,  two pathways through dementia then  you still have pathways left to continue functioning with. So social groups and exercise are important therapies. Alene and Maria advised that walking enlarges the memory active part of the brain and is a most significantly beneficial therapy – for some reason especially in men.

For patients with a diagnosed dementia moving them to their next residence early allows them to become familiar with new surroundings and routines.

Please visit their website for more information www.alzhn.ca

 

 

The Rotary Club of Simcoe sponsored three young women to attend our Rotary District 7090 SLAPSHOT 2019 Programme.

 

 

 In the photo Jada Dawson, Laci O’Reilly-Forrest, and Karly Hoak are flanked by Bob Stephenson (New Generations) and club President – Dave King. This Rotary programme stands for Student Leadership Awards Programme (SLAPshot). Like the hockey puck it propels students forward quickly and enables them to believe in themselves.

The trio attended Ancaster last May with students from our Rotary District which also includes participants from our District's Western New York State Rotary Clubs. Of course, their expressions of their experiences were different. Howevr their communication of learning and confidence as to what leadership is was unified. The trio was split into separate cabins with twelve other students per cabin. Here are some of their blended reports and feelings.

Leadership – there are many types but core aspects are get along, have fun and make the world a better place. Be yourself, take risks and don’t worry – step out of your comfort zone and away from the pressures of judgement.

Skits, activities and experiencing leadership – such as getting all of your team downhill, through hoola hoops on wet grass (wearing inappropriate footware lol) in the Pacific Rim of Fire, in record time. Lessons learned – hold each other up – its difficult – but people are there to help you!

I feel privileged to have advance my leadership skills that will be used as co-president of the student’s council next year.

Counsellors are only there to watch you. Breakfast is served but from there on its your responsibility– last cabin to arrive does the clean up!

Annalise Carr was a guest speaker – awesome.

We tackled world problems of mental health, climate change and are taking back potential solutions to our schools.

Thank you Rotary Club of Simcoe for sponsoring us!

 

 

Jenna spoke to us today about her one year exchange in Canada; and presented club President – Dave King with the banner from her sponsor club The Rotary Club of Puijo, Suomi (Finland). The banner depicts mountains with their tower (like CN Tower but only 150 metres high), the city skyline and the sea.  But for this year the Rotary Club of Simcoe along with host families and Holy Trinity School is her home.

 

Jenna showed us pictures of her family and friends in Finland, her two dogs, her brother’s rabbit and sites around her home in the city of Kuopio. Maps of Finland showed changing borders over 600 years with encroachments and returns by both Sweden and Russia. The story goes that when drawing the eastern border, circa 1947, that Stalin put his thumb into the otherwise straight line eastern border to include a large nickel deposit (strategic metal) in Russia. We asked Jenna about their Russian neighbours. She said the predominate culture is that people either love them or dislike them.

 

 

Jenna finds Canadians friendly and outgoing. She explained with cartoons that Finlanders only say hello to people they know. The caricature on the bus avoids eye contact with someone they don’t know hoping they will not sit in the empty seat beside them (really, that happens in Canada as well)! Jenna finds school easier in Canada. Finland has preschool but Grade 1 starts at age 7 and learning continues on a more intense basis.

 

Jenna’s parents are coming to Simcoe in June to coincide and see Jenna perform with the Holy Trinity Concert Band. Garry MacMillan, our Exchange Student Coordinator, reminisced that when he first reviewed Jenna’s Rotary Exchange Application that she had listed interests mostly in the “Arts”. But since that time Jenna now lists as her memories numerous sports and outdoor activities – winter camping in Algonquin Park, attending a Buffalo Bills game last fall (which in Buffalo’s open air stadium can often be a winter camping adventure itself), skating on the canal in Ottawa, curling, swimming, skiing at Holiday Valley. Exchange student field trips and conferences included New York City and Central Park for four days, Niagara Falls, Toronto and the CN Tower, Jamestown Zoo, and Pumpkinfest in Waterford.

 

For all of this Jenna says “Kiitos” (thank you).

Hadley grew up a few blocks south of Hwy 3 which was the de facto connector route for traffic to/from Detroit/Buffalo. As a youngster, Hadley remembers “gasoline alley”, between Queen Street and Norfolk Street, the colourful service stations signs enticing drivers to buy their brand of gasoline (most now long since forgotten); and long convoys of army vehicles, built in Detroit, making their way through Buffalo to East Coast ports for shipment to Europe during WW II. Simcoe was a thriving buzzing metro with 5 drug stores, 4 hardware stores, 3 shoe stores, a pair of 5¢/ 10¢ stores, 3 movie theaters and boasting 5 hotels.
 

 By 1948 Hadley,  12 years old, was walking, running and bicycling around Simcoe with his gang of friends.  Robinson Street divided the town north and south. Living at the north end of Wellington Park, he attended North School where the girls and boys had separate entrances and playgrounds. Simcoe had a bus service that stopped at Norfolk and Robinson Streets every half hour. Hadley and his friends would get on the bus and tour the entire bus route on the south side of town and then return to their start point in the north end. There was no such thing as a school bus as every child could walk to school North School or South School (both now demolished). High School students from Port Dover rode the Lake Erie North Electric Railway trolley into Simcoe. Seniors were conscripted as school crossing guards. 

Wellington Park was very active with softball. Spectator bleachers held 500 people. Hadley sold refreshments to the crowds. There was no monetary remuneration; rather all the hot dogs you could eat. Wellington Park was created in the early 30's after a bad traffic accident at the north intersection of Hwy 3 and the trolley tracks. Dirt was moved to improve sight lines and steam shovels filled in what is now Wellington Park. The Talbot Arena was built in 1947. Hadley was a rink rat shoveling the ice clean between periods. After the games, Hadley and his friends played hockey until midnight when George Hofgraff would kick them out before watering the ice.

Ridley College slid by and Hadley returned to Simcoe. There were three main service clubs - Kinsman, Lions and Rotary - plus several lodges. Hadley first was a Kinsman. Then it seems as a right of passage, at age 40, he became a Rotarian.

Of fundraisers for service work and projects:
The Kinsman sponsored figure skating and joined this with their annual sell-out comedy fund-raiser (Kinsmen Ice Carnival) where their members did comedy skits between figure skaters.  One year the skit was based on the comic strip Little Abner. The two characters Earthquake Magoon and Indian Joe paraded around the ice with a big barrel making their Kickapoo Joy Juice. Hadley was hidden in the bottom of the barrel and fired off a CO2 fire extinguisher each time Magoon or Joe stirred the barrel with a long pole. The crowd went wild! Hadley stayed put in the barrel for the first and second acts. But, Hadley, realizing that he, with his CO2 fire extinguisher, was the "true" star of the show fired off the fire extinguisher unexpectedly.  So startled was Magoon, that he dropped the heavy pole on Hadley's head nearly knocking him out! (heard from the gallery of Rotarians at lunch today "now we know why he is the way he is"). The Kinsmen also held street dances in the summer for the "farm hands". The Lions Club annual May 24th fundraiser variety show drew a lot of people and continues to this day. In those early years, Rotarians largely being the town fathers more often "passed the hat" versus being known for fundraiser events. 

Simcoe had a population of 7,500. The Salvation Army Band played on the corner Saturday nights. The largest employer was the American Canning Company, at Robinson and Queen Streets; along with the Canadian Canners next door. In the war years, it is said that they produced half of the cans for the British Empire, running shifts 24 hrs a day. The Canadian Canners started employing women and canned all the fresh fruits and vegetables in the area. The Brook Woolen Mill was located south of Victoria Street (Old Woollen Mill Road) beside the Lynn River. The white (now) apartments located at the end of Patterson Street were part of this complex on the south side. The mill had an end off day whistle at 5 PM which was also a signal for all children to start making their way home for supper.

 

On the north end of town there are still remnants of former army barracks buildings hidden away on Second Avenue ,where 1,000 soldiers had been housed. After WW II, the buildings were deeded to the town. Two of the large buildings were moved to the Fairgrounds, now known as the Commercial Building and the Junior Farmers Building.

 

So in conclusion, Simcoe was a safe place for children to grow up and roam the town with only two 
constraints - lunch at 12 noon, supper at 6 PM. “Thanks Hadley”
 

 

 

 

On March 11th, 2019, Kristyn Richardson, Program Manager of the Long Point Basin Land Trust presented an overview of the trust and its projects. The LPBLT which is based in Port Rowan, Ontario is a non-profit charitable organization that focuses on land acquisition and easements for the purpose of conservation. The majority of Land Trusts concentrate on “conserving the biological values of land, but some have been established to protect scenic, historical, agricultural and recreational lands…”

 

 

 

The Long Point Basin Land Trust

 

All of the nine properties that the LPBLT own or managed are in Norfolk County. The acquisition strategy of the LPBLT concentrates on watersheds with priority given to wetlands, Carolinian forests, sand barrens and oak savannas. One of these properties acquired in 2018 is named the Ken McMullen and Joan Shirlow Spring Arbour Farm Nature Reserve. Joan is a member of Simcoe Rotary.

 

This Norfolk County of ours is a special place. Most local school children are learning about the Carolinian forest that is growing here and the species of animals and birds which are dependent on the wooded areas to live. Remove the living area and the dependent species dies. Unfortunately, there are a number of species such as the Monarch Butterfly which are threatened. Ms. Richardson tells us of the efforts to learn more about the Monarch Butterfly by “tagging” them with a sticker. Even the 4,000 km fall migration from Canada and other areas to Mexico is threatened by insecticides and the lack of areas for their “food”.

 

Wikipedia defines Carolinian forest as… “a life zone in eastern North America characterized primarily by a predominance of deciduous (broad-leaf) trees. The term "Carolinian forest",is used primarily in Canada, and therefore often refers only to the northernmost portion of the overall region, in Southern Ontario”. Within the southern Ontario "Carolinian forest", you find a diversity of trees such as ash, beech, American Chestnut, oak, hickory as well as hard and soft maple, butternut, black gum, sassafras, tulip and walnut. For generations, the forest has been home to various animal and plant species. Conservationists believe that the Carolinian forest contains among the most beautiful and rare trees in Ontario and Canada.

 

 

Norfolk Council/County asked local service clubs, business and other patrons to step up to the cause and donate to the funds required to update/replace "gateway signage" on the roadsides entering Norfolk.

 

The Rotary Club of Simcoe was quick to do so. Seen here is Chris Garwood (left in photo) , Economic Development Coordinator - Tourism and Economic Division for Norfolk County  accepting a cheque for $1,000 from our Rotarian and Club Secretary -Thor Olsen.

 

Thor said it’s a community service and we’re glad to do so.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

August 13, 2018: President Dave King accepts a Rotary Banner from Short Term Exchange Student Alessamdra Fuzmo, Italy, Carly Burow and Rotarian Bob Stevenson.
 

 

In June, our Wally Anderson was featured in the Rotary In Norfolk tabloid newspaper published by The Rotary Clubs of Delhi, Norfolk-Sunrise and Simcoe in association with Media Pro Publishing, Waterford, Ontario. The Rotary Wally webpage contains the story or click on the graphic above.