Georgina Studio Tour Celebrates 25 Years
By: Ewa Chwojko-Srawley Tables with flowing rivers, hand-carved guitars with embedded personal mementos; magic! The magician is Ron Walmer, who uses the most beautiful slabs of wood and some resin to create enchanting furniture and musical instruments which are shipped all over Canada from his little workshop on the shores of Lake Simcoe. Mr. Walmer is one of thirty-four artists and...
Demolition by Neglect: Georgina Pioneer Village Needs Major Repairs
By: Mike Anderson While the Georgina Pioneer Village is promoted as a tourist attraction, many of its buildings are in disrepair, and at least one has been officially condemned. Located adjacent to the Georgina Civic Centre, the ten-acre site is home to 14 historic buildings that date from 1850 to 1920. The Cedarbrae School, a one-room schoolhouse built in the late 1890s and moved to...
Fire Chief: You have less than three minutes to escape a house fire
By: Mike Anderson While this fall’s annual open house at the Sutton Fire Hall had all the elements of a fun, family outing -- bouncy castles, rides and games for the kids -- there was also a serious, underlining message: fire kills. And it can kill quickly, and often without warning. In a typical house fire, you have only two to three minutes to get...
Pioneer Village Harvest Festival: A Delightful Trip Back In Time
By: Ewa Chwojko-Srawley Our American friends did not invent Thanksgiving; it began in Canada! In 1578 Sir Martin Frobisher, an English explorer, celebrated the first Thanksgiving in Newfoundland. The Georgina Historical Society has been keeping the tradition alive for over forty years at the Georgina Pioneer Village with their Harvest Festival. On September 14–the day of the Harvest Moon–visitors were...
39 Years Later: Terry Fox still inspires us
By: Deb Robert A young man traverses the highway, striding with an unwieldy double step and hop. His right leg, crippled by cancer and now a mere stump, is attached to a prosthesis fitted with a battered Adidas shoe. It was 1980 when Terry Fox shook a nation awake. With his sweeping Marathon of Hope to end cancer, Terry ran...
GFCC Pilot Project: A Feral Cat’s Best Friend
By: Tina Novotny Feral and stray cats used to be a significant problem in Georgina, but over the last few years a group of volunteers have worked hard to improve their lives. Eva McDowell started the Georgina Feral Cat Committee (GFCC) in the fall of 2015 and proudly says that one of the first colonies she and her volunteers targeted for “Trap, Neuter, Return” had no...
Georgina Civic Centre: Not Giving Up The Ghost Yet!
By: Tanya Edwards Take four people with the same spooky hobby, and what do you get? COPi, Central Ontario Paranormal Investigations. Glenn and Wendy Laycock along with Paul and Tina Jackson formed COPi over a cup of coffee and their passion for the paranormal in 2017. They haven’t stopped investigating the spiritual world since. Recently Mayor Margaret Quirk invited COPi to...
From Blue Box to Art!
By: Ewa Chwojko-Srawley Think twice before you put out your recyclables in the blue box. You might be able to create an artwork with it and win a prize! Yes, art and recycling go hand in hand. All over the world, galleries big and small are opening their doors for such innovation and creativity, and Jackie Diasio, a volunteer at...
Girl Guides of Canada Comes To Pefferlaw
By: Tanya Edwards With a new motto "Everything she wants to be," and a new mission "To be a catalyst for girls empowering girls," Girl Guides of Canada hopes to empower thousands of girls to become future leaders and doers in their communities. Now, thanks to the efforts of Ricci-Lynn McDermott, Pefferlaw is about to get its first Girl Guides unit:...
Field-To-Table: City slicker visits Georgina’s working farms.
By: Tina Novotny If you are an urbanite like me who likes to channel their inner farmer, then a local country fair isn’t going to cut it. I need something more; a deep dive into what it’s like to live and work on a real farm. The problem is there aren't many real farms in Toronto. And, even if there were, the farmers would...
