Platform Playbook
With the economy in a real state, everyone now appears
to be working from the same playbook.
After suffering aneurysm, Elmira man sees community support
Three weeks ago, Peter Schmitt was at home when he developed a slight headache. He thought nothing of it and was walking to his bedroom when he suddenly collapsed. Schmitt was rushed to hospital, then airlifted to Hamilton, where doctors told his family it was a ruptured brain aneurysm.
Doctors were amazed at Schmitt’s rapid recovery; aneurysms are often fatal or can leave people permanently brain damaged.
Anna Wall is organizing a fundraiser for her cousin, Peter Schmitt, who is recovering from a ruptured brain aneurysm. Family and friends of the Elmira man will be selling baked goods and Mexican food at the Elmira Maple Syrup Festival, with the money going into a trust fund for the family.
However, he can’t work for a year anAd the Ministry of Transportation automatically revoked his licence for that period. Schmitt is applying for disability income support, but it only supplies 60 per cent of what he was earning, so family and friends have rallied to help him, his wife Tina and their three-year-old twin girls.
“We’re trying to help them so they can keep their house at least,” said Schmitt’s cousin, Anna Wall.
Wall has set up a trust fund for donations for the family and is organizing a bake sale for the Elmira Maple Syrup Festival. The family is of Mexican Mennonite …Read more
Quick Cleanup
A fire broke out at a wood shop on Line 86 just west of Wallenstein around 3:50 a.m. Thursday. Linwood, St. Clements, Wellesley and Floradale fire stations responded to the blaze, which destroyed two outbuildings and caused an estimated $150,000 in damage. No one was hurt in the fire, and it is not believed to be suspicious. Workers soon began clearing away debris.
St. Clements squad readies itself for national spotlight
It was St. Clements versus Nepean in the gold-medal game of the provincial ringette championships. The two teams were locked in a 4-4 tie as the third period ended, and the St. Clements coaches got a feeling of déjà vu. The previous two years, they’d made it to the championship final, only to lose in overtime and come home with silver.
Members of the St. Clements junior AA ringette team donned their bright red Team Ontario jerseys for practice ahead of playing in the national championships in Charlottetown in April. Back row: Alana Raymond, Josie Scott, Stacey Ireland, Sydney Grainger, Claire Copland, Sarah Worthen, Emily Griffiths and Storee Scott. Front row: Sam Nosal, Josslyn Denstedt, Lana VanFrankenfoort, Paige Nosal, Kaylee Whitcroft, Emily MacDonald and Robin Scott.
This time, the story had a different ending. St. Clements poured their three top scorers – Josie Scott, Sam Nosal and Robin Scott – onto the ice. A minute and a half into overtime, Josie flicked the ring into the back of Nepean’s net.
There was a second of stunned silence; Sam Nosal put her hands to her head and sank to her knees in disbelief. Then the team burst into the screams of joy only a group of ecstatic 15-year-old girls can make.
The St. Clements Rockets will be Team Ontario at the …Read more
Quest to combat cancer is personal
When Dave Chalmers canvasses his neighbourhood for the Canadian Cancer Society, it seems everyone has a story about the disease.
“You discover so many people who’ve had an aunt, an uncle, a grandparent, a child – it’s got no age barriers, it’s just touched every family.”
Dave Chalmers holds a photo of his late wife Rose, taken when she graduated from nursing school. Rose was diagnosed with colon cancer in 1988.
Chalmers has a story of his own, and it’s why he canvasses for the cancer society: 19 years ago, he lost his wife Rose to colon cancer.
Rose was diagnosed in the summer of 1988. A nurse, she was expecting the worst when doctors found polyps on her colon. But the initial biopsy showed the polyps were benign, and the family breathed a collective sigh of relief. It wasn’t until three months later, during surgery to remove the polyps, that doctors realized there were cancerous ones higher up her colon.
After the surgery and a round of chemotherapy, everything was fine for another year. Then the cancer returned, and wouldn’t respond to chemo or radiation. Rose spent Christmas in the hospital, at which point doctors told her there was nothing more they could do.
Losing his wife at 47 was a terrible thing, especially with three young daughters.
“I relied on the three Fs,” Chalmers said. “Faith, family and friends. I don’t know which is more important; to me, a person needs all three of them to get through something like that.” …Read more
His own set of principles
Learning is as much about being as it is about doing – that’s the essence of the teaching philosophy touted by Geoff Suderman-Gladwell, Linwood Public School’s new principal.
As such, teaching is as much about sharing time and space and knowledge concerning how to be better to others as it is imparting knowledge about specific subjects.
Having grown up in Elmira, Geoff Suderman-Gladwell finds his new posting as principal at Linwood PS is something akin to a homecoming.
“The education piece is very important,” said Suderman-Gladwell, stressing the importance of a strong curriculum.
“But so is the social learning ‘to be’ and ‘learning to be together’: it’s not just about learning the traditional learning pieces,” he said in an interview. “It’s about both – we have to put them all together.”
Whether dealing with school kids or young offenders – both are part of his experience – teaching is about learning to be together.
“For me, looking at school, absolutely it’s about education. But when you look at education there is learning to know, learning to do, learning to be, and then the fourth sort of pillar, which is learning to be together. All four become pillars of our education pieces,” he said, noting that a teacher cannot teach math for an hour and then delve into another one-hour session on ‘being kind.’ The latter is a character quality that teachers should espouse always and at all times. …Read more
YMT to close its doors this month
The battering Canada’s auto sector has taken in recent months has spread to Elmira. YM Technology Inc. (YMT), the automotive tool and die plant located on South Field Drive, will close its doors by the end of March …Read more
BIA hopes new blood, funding will give it a boost
Elmira’s BIA hopes a recent infusion of cash will help jumpstart the downtown business organization. There are also encouraging signs that new members may boost participation rates. …Read more
Elmira plant not part of Chemtura Chapter 11 filing
Chemtura Corp’s U.S. operations filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection Wednesday but its international operations, including the chemical plant in Elmira, are not included in the filing and are expected to continue without interruption …Read more
“All in for Jim” event to support Arena
For years, Jim McLeod gave his time and energy to sport in Elmira, and now his family is giving once more in his name.
Touched by the community’s decision to name the second ice pad at the new Woolwich Memorial Centre after McLeod, his family is organizing “All in for Jim,” a 3.5-km fundraising walk. All money raised will go to the Jim McLeod Memorial Arena.
The family of Jim McLeod is organizing a fundraising walk in his name to raise funds for the Jim McLeod Memorial Arena. From left are Krista (McLeod) Sandelli, Mirella Sandelli, Helen McLeod, Rob Sandelli and Ava, Chad, Mason and Shawna McLeod.
“My family was just honoured that there was a passion in the community to do this in dad’s name,” said Jim’s daughter Krista (McLeod) Sandelli. “We just felt we absolutely had to do something to show our support and raise some funds for the new complex … This is what we thought would be most enjoyable for the community.”
The walk is set to take place Sunday, May 24 – a week after long weekend – along the Lions Trail and past the tree planted in Jim’s memory. …Read more
