Citizens want support in biogas fight

Councillors may have backed away from the fight, but they should still throw in with the community in the upcoming battle over a proposed biogas plant, say Elmira residents who launched an appeal to the province’s Environmental Review Tribunal.

Addressing council Monday night, representatives of the group asked for the township’s help in fighting the project, calling it a potential health hazard that will lower the quality of life in Elmira. Although Woolwich opted against an appeal, citing the cost of fighting a battle with a slim chance of being won, councillors have a duty to protect residents, argued Vivienne Delaney and Michael Purves-Smith.

Their presentation, which emphasized the negative impacts of the extra truck traffic that would be needed to service the plant, laid the blame squarely on the shoulders of the Ontario government.
“It clearly does not care where bio-energy plants are located, so long as they are built,” said Purves-Smith, noting the province ignored the input and best interests of Elmira residents in giving the green light to the application by Woolwich Bio-En.

“The Ministry of the Environment once again has let Elmira down. We’re asking Woolwich council to stand up for us – where do you stand on this issue and are you on board with us?” he asked.
Both stressed they support the goal of green energy, but want to see the project built elsewhere, away from residential and commercial areas.

“Noise, odour, vibration, congestion – who will live, visit or shop in Elmira if this gets worse?” asked Delaney, rattling off a list of problems that will accompany the construction of the energy-generating facility just north of the downtown core.
Pointing to the increased truck traffic – and the health risks of diesel-fuelled vehicles – they noted the existing zoning in the area of the Martin’s Lane facility will see the creation of an industrial park with truck access only through the core of Elmira.

“If the site in north Elmira is to be properly used, without bringing extra truck traffic through town, we do need a truck bypass,” said Purves-Smith.
“What is the benefit to Elmira of increased truck traffic from new industry in the north of town? Where else has a significant extension of an industrial park been approved when there is no truck access to it except through a downtown and residential area?”

That idea drew support from Coun. Mark Bauman, who called on Mayor Todd Cowan to pursue the long-discussed bypass route at regional council.
“A truck bypass is not only important to this project, but to other projects. If there’s one thing we should be doing – that would be a regional issue – it’s pushing the region on a truck bypass.”
Bauman was cautious, however, about committing the township’s time and money to the appeal, noting council had received legal advice that the narrow scope of the appeal process makes success unlikely.
The citizens’ group is asking for administrative support, expert witnesses, research support and funding to help with legal action.

For his part, Cowan said the township would continue to lobby the provincial government to allow the project to be moved to another site – a Breslau location has been suggested, though there are many details still to be worked out. Although not overly optimistic at this point, he said he would push for an alternative.

“I’m trying to be realistic – I’m not going to promise that we’re going to (be successful, but we’re going to continue the efforts on our part.”

Big changes in store for next season’s Sugar Kings

When the Elmira Sugar Kings 2011/2012 season opened back on Sept. 9 there was a buzz in the air as fans packed the Dan Snyder Arena to watch the Sutherland Cup Champions collect their rings and watch their championship banner rise to the rafters.

The players didn’t disappoint, either, and the team went on to defeat the visiting Owen Sound Greys 5-2 in that game, eventually stringing together a team-record 14 straight wins to start the year.
Not bad for a team with a completely rebuilt defence, a new head coach, and a new general manager.

The team ultimately fell far short of their goal of defending the Cherrey Cup and Sutherland Cup, as they bowed out to Stratford in a hard-fought six-game semi-final series that ended on Mar. 26, with injuries and undisciplined play the primary culprits in their early exit.

“It was a tale of two seasons,” said head coach Dean DeSilva earlier this week. “On paper, we probably had the most talented team, and we definitely had the oldest team in the league, and at times that was our nemesis.”
The Kings took a different approach this season, moving away from the traditional dump-and-chase Sugar King hockey fans are familiar with to adopt a more skilled game with a veteran lineup of forwards in order to compete in what they knew would be a very competitive Midwestern Conference.

To put the competitiveness of their season into perspective, the Sugar Kings set a team record for wins in a season with 40 (eclipsing the previous record of 38) and points in a season with 82 (previous record was 81) yet they still only finished third in the conference.

The team carried eight 20-year-olds on the roster: six forwards, defenceman and team captain Colton Wolfe-Sabo, and goaltender Nick Horrigan, yet they had one of the youngest defensive units in the league, leading to some questions as to how management decided to assemble their lineup.

The January trade of all-star first-year defender Craig Johnson to Listowel for forward Brett Catto epitomized that mentality.

“People may ask why we played all these older players. It was a damned if you do and damned if you don’t situation,” said DeSilva. “What we looked at as coaches is we wanted to ice the most experienced lineup that we possibly could.”
DeSilva said that the team is expecting all eligible players to return next season, meaning the Kings will have a strong core of returning defenders, led by veteran Clayton Greer, but the forwards are going to be decimated by the loss of the top two lines of players.

Michael Hasson, Brett Priestap, Scott Nagy, Brad Kraus, Lukas Baleshta, Riley Sonnenburg and Andrew Smith are all gone next season, along with their 155 combined goals – or 65 per cent of the Kings’ total offense from last year.
“That’s a huge amount of offence, and yes, I’ve actually got a blueprint and a plan in place for next year,” said DeSilva.

Add the fact that their captain and starting goaltender are gone as well, it is clear that more than a few players are going to have to step up next season.

DeSilva’s plan involves a return to the more traditional style of Sugar Kings hockey of banging, grinding and fighting for every inch on the ice, as well as a heavier reliance on players like Cass Frey and Clayton Greer to lead the way.
In goal, it will be nearly impossible to replace Nick Horrigan, who is graduating from Junior B this season, but DeSilva said the job will be backup goalie Justis Husak’s to lose come training camp, and that the transition should be made easier by greater experience on the blueline.

The work to execute that blueprint begins in earnest next month when the Kings will hold their spring rookie training camp May 12-13 in Cambridge. The camp will be for players hoping to move up from the minor hockey ranks as well as the Junior D and C levels of hockey, and no returning Kings players will be on the ice that weekend.

“What I’m looking for there is work ethic and their compete level. What I like to look for is their attitude and how they react after they get checked – do they continue to battle? What’s their body language?” said DeSilva.
Registration forms for the spring camp are available on the Sugar Kings website, elmirakings.pointstreaksites.com.

It’s time for a string fling

A couple of years ago, Elmira resident John Woods noticed there were flea markets that sold household items and swap shops for toys and trading card enthusiasts, but there was no place to find affordable musical instruments. Trade shows in larger cities had become quite costly, as patrons have to pay for both parking and entrance fees that can reach as high as $40 per person.

Thus was born the Ontario Guitar and Music Gear Show and Swap.

On Apr. 29 Woods is hosting his third annual music show and swap at Lions Hall in Elmira for those seasoned musicians and newcomers alike to display their used musical instruments for sale, or for anyone just looking for a good bargain.
“We keep changing the date every year as we work with different vendors and we find the change brings in a different crowd that might not have been around or known about the other shows,” said Woods. “This year we have 35 vendors, with several from Toronto, some from Windsor and even Valleyfield in Quebec.”

After the success of last year’s show in August, which saw 400 people crowd into the hall, Woods is hoping for much of this same for the next event. The show will include vendors, collectors, hobbyists, performers, appraisers and music teachers.
Juno-award winner Ted Leonard, a guitarist from the seminal roots collective Fathead, will be on hand running workshops and performing instrument demonstrations while meeting fans and music lovers alike.

There will be a short musical program starting after 1 p.m. that will feature local bands like The Slacks and The Resistors to keep the crowd entertained as they walk through the hall.

To change things up this time around, Woods is hoping patrons will bring in own their vintage instruments as several vendors have indicated they would be making offers to buy them.

Woods is an avid guitar player himself, having picked up the instrument nearly 30 years ago, and has quite a collection of guitars, which he has placed on display at previous shows.

“It’s a great place for any musician who is looking to buy a new instrument or amp as they can try it out and see how well it performs for their needs,” said Woods. “Anyone is welcome to come, even if they are not looking to buy but are just curious about the instruments.”

The event will start at 9 a.m. and runs until 3 p.m. with an entrance fee of $7. For more information about the show visit www.ontarioguitarshows.com.

Annual Ride n’ Stride event will raise funds to fight cancer

Walkers, runners and cyclists of all skill levels are invited to the annual Ride n’ Stride event in Elmira on Apr. 29, organized by the Canadian Cancer Society. The non-competitive event encourages participants to complete a 4 km, 10 km or 20 km course with the goal of raising funds for research and support services for people in Waterloo Region that are living with the disease.

“The problem is that so many of us have been touched by cancer,” said Sarah Bradshaw, the chair of the Woolwich event and herself a survivor of breast cancer.

“We always have a core of people that come back. There are some people in the community who have participated for well over 20 years, which is quite cool.”

Last year some 50 to 75 participants in Elmira raised nearly $10,000 for the Canadian Cancer Society, and over 30 years in the region the Ride n’ Stride has raised more than $2 million benefiting people in Waterloo Region and beyond.

Participants familiar with the event will also be familiar with the route, as it will once again start out at Elmira District Secondary School, follow Arthur Street north to the Kissing Bridge Trail, and then along the trail to either Floradale Road or Side Road 18 at Wallenstein, depending on how far you choose to go.

“It’s anyone who can get themselves to the Kissing Bridge Trail and back again,” laughed Bradshaw.

“Whether they’re riding or walking or running, we always have people pushing strollers and doing whatever works for you.”

Every year between 75 and 100 people participate in the Elmira event, but numbers were down slightly last year due to a scheduling conflict that placed the Healthy Communities Month triathlon on the same day as the Ride n’ Stride, but with no such conflict this year Bradshaw is hoping for a strong turnout and for upwards of $15,000 for crucial cancer research.

Participants can register on the day of the event, which is free and has refreshments and entertainment by the band Wishful Thinkin’, which includes musicians Larry Lesperance and Paul Bossenberry.

You can register and collect pledges online at www.greatride.ca or by contacting Bradshaw at (519) 669-2599 or emailing angusquinn@rogers.com.

Silver medals for Elmira siblings at Judo Championships

Olivia Leeman certainly doesn’t mind following in the footsteps of her older brother.

The Elmira teen, along with her brother Phil, recently returned from the 2012 International Judo Championships held Mar. 30 to Apr. 1 in Edmonton, where both fighters earned a silver medal.

The medal was the second straight silver for Olivia, 13, after a second-place finish at last month’s Ontario Winter Games in Collingwood. In both competitions she came out strong by winning her first two matches, but unfortunately she lost in the gold medal match in both Collingwood and Edmonton to Natasha Badowski of Hamilton.

“It was kind of frustrating,” said Olivia of the losses, considering she had beaten Badowski earlier in the year at a tournament in Cambridge. In both gold-medal fights Olivia was knocked back on her heels, which gave her opponent the opportunity to throw her to the mat and collect the win in the Youth 15 -57 kg category.

Phil entered the competition in Edmonton with a nagging wrist injury, but that still didn’t slow him down as he won his first two fights in the Under 20 -66 kg category before losing in the finals. He also entered the Senior Men’s -66 kg division and in spite of being one of the youngest competitors in the division finished with a record of 2-2.

Olivia has been training and competing in judo since she was five years old, and she said it was her brother’s involvement that initially drew her in. After taking the year off in 2011 to try synchronized swimming in Kitchener she returned to judo this year.

“What brought me back was that I love competing and I love the sport,” she said. In an ironic twist, after never suffering a serious injury through all her years of judo, she did get a concussion while synchronized swimming.

Her judo training regimen is intense, practicing five nights a week at the Kaizan judo club in Waterloo with her older brother as her coach, along with Bob Zettl. Currently a green belt, she is only three levels away from being a black belt like her brother, who earned the distinction of being the youngest black belt in the club at the age of 15 last February.

Her major strength is fighting on the ground, she said, while her weakness is her balance while fighting standing upright, but Phil knows how they can remedy that problem.

“Olivia fights with her feet flat, while most fighters fight on the balls of their feet,” said Phil. “Once we get her moving from her flat feet more to her toes, her balance will be more forwards rather than backwards, which was how she got thrown for a gold medal in Edmonton.”

Both siblings are currently training for the upcoming Youth National Championships to be held in Toronto on July 5 and 6, where Phil is the defending silver medalist after last year’s competition in the Under-17 category. This year he will be fighting in the Under-20 category.

While the competitive spirit runs high in their household, they do agree on one thing – that women tend to fight feistier and more intensely than men do.

“We pinch, pull hair, bite – well, I don’t bite – and they’ll yank your ponytail and dig in with their nails,” said Olivia.

And should she cross paths again with Badowski at the upcoming nationals?

“I’ll be ready. I’ve got her.”

April is Healthy Communities Month in Woolwich

The annual Healthy Communities Month in Woolwich is once again upon us, with a full slate of events and activities lined up to help residents get out and enjoy the warmer weather and appreciate just how much the township has to offer.

“The main goal of Healthy Communities is really to try and enhance the social, economic and environmental well being of residents through out the Township of Woolwich,” said organizer Joy Finney.

The kickoff for the sixth annual Healthy Communities Month will be A Taste of Woolwich, which has been moved to the Breslau Mennonite Church this year. The event will take place on Apr. 16 and runs from 5-8 p.m. The event allows the community to connect with local farmers.

“We have moved the event to Breslau because of the population growth and we wanted to help build relationships between farmers and the new residents there. Part of the motivation for that is to allow farmers to learn what people would like to see grown here,” said Finney.

This year’s program includes tips for quick and nutritious meals for young families, the art of cooking slowly for healthy families on the go and why we should pay for the benefits of local food. There will also be a youth recipe challenge with the winning recipe to be showcased by Chef Ryan Terry of Flow Catering. Admission to A Taste of Woolwich is only $2 per adult.

The following weekend, on Apr. 21, there will be a community clean-up and yellow fish storm drain painting event that begin at 8:30 a.m. and runs until noon.

Later that evening, a free screening of the movie ‘Revenge of the Electric Car” will be shown at Trinity United Church starting at 7 p.m. The documentary explores the electric car craze and the future of the automobile as a film crew go behind the closed doors of some of the major automakers to chronicle the story of the resurgence of the electric car.

On Apr. 28 the biggest event of the month will take place as the St. Jacobs arena hosts the Green Living and Tech Fair. The show will run from 11 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. and includes workshops on creating an energy-smart living space, energy saving ideas and technologies for under $100, building a strong back and healthy mind through hiking and healthy active living with information from the Heart and Stroke Foundation.

“The event gives people access to and knowledge about local businesses that are supporting green and healthy living,” said Finney.

Visitors will have the opportunity to meet local business owners to discuss green energy, healthy living and discover tips for reducing daily energy use.

There will be a free electronic waste drop off at the fair as well as an old bicycle donation bin courtesy of The Working Centre.

A bus tour leaving from the arena in St. Jacobs to REEP house in Kitchener will be available for fair visitors. The REEP house is a completely renovated century home that highlights some of the alternative energy resources available including in-floor heating, ground source heat pump and recycled polymer roof shingles. Tours start at 12 p.m. Admission to both the fair and bus tour is free.

The month ends with a bird watching hike with Mark Bauman along the Health Valley Trail in St. Jacobs on Apr. 29, 2-4 p.m. The hike is part of an effort to get people out to enjoy the fresh air while encountering the different types of birds the area with the scenic views of St. Jacobs.

For more information about these, or any other events scheduled for Healthy Communities Month in Woolwich, visit their website at www.healthywoolwich.org.

50,000 to 60,000 visit Elmira for sap festival

It’s never easy following up a record-setting performance, something that organizers of the Elmira Maple Syrup Festival discovered last Saturday.

Despite ideal temperatures and sunny skies, the estimated number of attendants to the festival is down compared to last year, with somewhere between 50,000 and 60,000 people coming to Elmira – down from a historical best of 80,000 last year.

“I was a good year. A normal year,” said chairperson Cheryl Peterson. “People compare it to last year but that was just a phenomenal year.”

Peterson also said the slight drop in numbers was actually good for the crowds that did come because there were fewer people to contend with for space in the busy downtown streets, and she said that virtually all of the nearly 150 vendors were pleased with the turnout and with the day as a whole.

Explaining the drop in attendance is a complicated matter. Had it rained or snowed all day it would be easier to understand, but in an unfortunate twist, the warm weather the region experienced in mid- to late-March – with temperatures reaching summery 25 to 27 degrees – actually made the single-digit temperatures we had last Saturday morning feel downright chilly, and that may have played a small role in keeping some people away, Peterson said.

“Usually a six-degree weather day in March is great for people to get out,” she said.

She also noted that high gas prices and the still-struggling economy may have taken their toll as well, saying that many factors affect attendance each year.

While the day started slowly, it picked up by the early afternoon as the sun came out and raised temperatures up into the double-digits, and despite the drop in attendance there is not likely any threat to the town’s Guinness Book of World Record status as the world’s largest one-day maple syrup festival, established in 2000 when 66,529 people attended.

The organizing committee held a debriefing meeting this past week, and final numbers of pancakes sold and total attendance were not available for press, but Peterson said they did use more than 600 litres of maple syrup throughout the day.

Last year some 14,000 pancakes and 800 litres of syrup were consumed by the crowds.

Of course it’s impossible to forget that the EMSF is also a major fundraiser in the community, and last year 23 community groups received about $60,000 in grant money from the festival. While Peterson said that number will likely drop this year, it’s still a great cause, and the money will be distributed on June 13.

Peterson extends her thanks to the more than 2,000 volunteers who came out to make the day run smoothly.

The 2013 Elmira Maple Syrup Festival is set for Apr. 6, rain or shine, and planning for that will begin this fall. Visit www.elmiramaplesyrup.com for more information.

Part of New Hamburg Firebirds’ banner season

A trio of Woolwich residents and former Woolwich Minor Hockey players had a big role in the success of the New Hamburg Firebirds this season.

Matt Horst of St. Jacobs wore the captain’s ‘C’, while Nick Pope of St. Jacobs and Damien Parent of Winterbourne were both assistant captains on the Junior C hockey club that finished first in the league this year, and went on to win the Niagara West title on Mar. 12 before bowing out to Grimsby in the Schmalz Cup all-Ontario final in a four-game sweep.

“It was an awesome season,” said Horst, a defenceman who has played for the New Hamburg squad for the past three years. “We all knew that we have accomplished something amazing, but it’s frustrating because only one team in all of Ontario gets to finish the year with a win.

“It’s kind of bittersweet.”

The series against Grimsby could have gone either way, said Horst, and a bounce here or there – particularly in Game 2 which ended with a 4-3 loss and in Game 3, a 3-2 loss in double overtime – would have changed the outcome of their season.

That shouldn’t take away from the team’s overall success this year. They finished with a regular season record of 26-7-3 before sweeping their first-round series against Woodstock 3-0, beating Aylmer in the second round in six games, and then defeating Norwich in the finals in five games for the Niagara West division championship.

Parent, who has played for New Hamburg for four seasons, said it was particularly nice to finally beat their rivals from Norwich in the finals.

“Last year and the year before you knew you’d lose to them [Norwich], but this year we had a sense that we were going to beat them,” he said, adding that the atmosphere at the Wilmot Recreation Complex for the final game was unreal as more than 1,000 fans packed the stands.

The players agree that the reason for their success this year was a result of how tight-knit the team became over the course of the season.

“There was never anybody that was going against the grain. Everybody was going the same direction and we didn’t have any big obstacles all year long within the dressing room that we had to overcome, which is amazing,” said Horst.

For Pope, playing in his first season as a Firebird after playing Junior B in Owen Sound last year, the team readily accepted him into the fold and he responded by leading the team in scoring during the regular season with 15 goals and 44 points playing on the same line as Parent for most of the season.

“We stuck together through thick and thin to win the championship. Everyone sacrificed something; it wasn’t just one line going out, or just one guy.”

This season was a reunion of sorts for Pope and Parent. The wingers had played on the same line during their Midget hockey days in Woolwich, losing in the OMHA finals that year.

Parent and Horst also played minor hockey together in Woolwich for four years before Horst left to pursue minor hockey in Waterloo.

“It’s kind of neat how everyone got back together,” said Horst.

Looking forward to next season, both Parent and Horst have graduated from the junior hockey ranks as they both turn 22 this year, leaving Pope, who is finishing up his first year of business foundations at Conestoga College, to return to the Firebirds squad to hopefully lead a defence of their league title with other returning players.

Parent will wrap up his business and arts degree at the University of Waterloo this summer, while Horst will finish his kinesiology degree in December and may suit up for the Waterloo men’s hockey team, but said he has dreams of coaching minor hockey and possibly in the Junior ranks some day.

In the meantime the pair is still letting the end of their Junior hockey careers sink in.

“It was a nice way to end our career, but it’s still slightly emotional,” said Parent.

“We got off the ice and you can’t help the tears,” added Horst. “All we’ve known is playing hockey.”

And the band played on

When the music returns to Elmira’s Gore Park for the popular summer concert series, the bandstand there will be continuing a role that has made it a fixture in the downtown core for 120 years. The original bandstand is thought to have been located behind a hotel on the northwest corner of Church and Arthur Street and erected by the hotel owner, Henry Zilliax, in 1892. The hotel, the Anglo-American House, was destroyed in a fire in 1898, along with the Union Hotel, but the bandstand survived and was transported to Gore Park when the block was rebuilt.

“We think it is the same bandstand sitting in Gore Park. We have no paper trail but old photos show it looking exactly like the one at the hotel,” said Bertha Thompson, a local historian. “It was originally built as a way to gather people and (Zilliax) sold beer and liquor to increase business, but when the hotel was rebuilt they needed more space and it is believed that the bandstand then moved to Gore Park.”

By 1912, the bandstand was starting to look tired and Elmira’s council decided to erect a new one from a design prepared by members of the Elmira Musical Society, calling for tenders from local carpenters. Abraham Martin Bowman submitted a bid of $33, half of what his competitors were asking, and council accepted it.

Bowman, a son of a carpenter, had established a contracting business in Elmira in 1911 and was well prepared to “show the community he was up to the challenge of building the structure that would display the quality of work he could do.”
“It stood for 76 years: he did a good job building that bandstand, he took care of his craft,” said Elmira resident Ruth Josephs, Bowman’s great-grandniece. There are indications that Bowman used parts of the existing bandstand built by Zilliax, said Josephs.

The original bandstand did not have a roof which was added by Bowman as he transformed the rectangular cross bracing of the structure into squares. By doing this he increased the number of cross-braces around the perimeter providing more rigidity for the posts that supported the new roof.

“Bowman redesigned the cross members to be tighter to allow the weight of the roof of the bandstand to be equally distributed,” said Thompson. The roof was originally shingled with asbestos slate tiles that served to protect the eight seams of the octagonal roof.  The bandstand did not just provide a stage for music, it also created a sense of community, as weekly concerts were held that drew large crowds. For decades the downtown core would be busy on either a Thursday or Saturday night as people from all over would make their way down to the bandstand to listen to the weekly concert performed by the Elmira Band.

“When we moved here in 1956 I remember hearing music through out the town as the band would practice at the bandstand for the weekly shows,” said Thompson. “It was a very important part of the social life in Elmira.”

The bandstand was used for regular band concerts and social events. When men went off to the wars, they were bid goodbye from the bandstand with concerts and speeches. It was also used as a platform for politicians to speak to members of the community, said Thompson.

“This was a time before television, a time when people got together not to just listen to music but to be social and meet neighbours,” added Josephs. “Numerous politicians have used or visited the site of the bandstand, including prime ministers John Diefenbaker and William Lyon Mackenzie King.”

A social gathering place, the bandstand held many community events and churches would use it for their meetings. “For a long time it was the heart of Elmira,” said Thompson. “Every week people would come down to the bandstand to listen to music and talk with their neighbours and find out all the local gossip,” said Josephs.

In the 1920s, Mary Hambly of Elmira saw these weekly gatherings with an entrepreneur’s eye. With the bandstand located across the street from her home she began to sell food and ice cream to those in attendance. “She would set up a stand by her porch and sold ice cream, which was a specialty because there were no freezers or refrigerators in the houses,” said Josephs. “She capitalized on all these people coming to the weekly concert and started making a living because of it.”
Eventually she would outgrow the porch and move her business down the street, opening up Hambly Grocery, which became a fixture in Elmira for many years.

By the 1980s, the bandstand looked more like the leaning tower of Pisa. Bowman had given the old bandstand new life by reusing the old base and building a roof on to it but over the years the wood had begun to rot and the bandstand was in need of a restoration. When Woolwich Township decided to have the bandstand designated as a heritage structure and renovate it for Elmira’s centennial celebrations in 1986 they found that Bowman had erected columns on top of the original bandstand’s supporting posts and not on footings in the ground, which had caused the structure to tilt over the years.

“The first restoration they found there were a lot of things to repair and fix that they did not expect,” said Thompson.

The restoration of the bandstand was originally planned to have coincided with the centennial celebrations of the town in 1986, but it would not be completed until June 1988. Dan Waters of New Day Contracting in Wallenstein won the bid for the restoration work. When making repairs the company faced many problems, including the rotten roof rafters and cornice, but managed to complete the work in the summer of 1988 when it was designated a heritage structure.

The bandstand is once again in need of a major restoration and the township has launched a community fundraising drive, with residents encouraged to contribute to the effort. Much of the wood is again rotting and needs to be replaced. The same goes for the existing asbestos shingles on the roof. Council has earmarked $80,000 to deal with the basic structural deficiencies. The bandstand has a historic value for the entertainment it provided throughout the years but is also historically significant as it is one of the last of its type in the country.

“As far as I know, the bandstand in Elmira and one located in Halifax are the only two bandstands of their type to still be standing,” said Thompson. “They are open all the way around allowing visitors to sit anywhere to listen to the music; most band shells today are closed off in the back as that allows the music to travel out to the audience.”

Elmira contingent gearing up to host Senior Games

The annual Senior Games are headed for Elmira this summer, though they will be played under a slightly different format this year. Previously associated with District 26 of the Senior Games Association of Ontario for nearly 30 years, the two have severed their partnership this year, meaning the games will take on a new moniker as the Woolwich 55+ Invitational Games. “The format is the same. The rules and everything are all the same, it’s just that we’re on our own,” said chairperson George Read.

The games are open to all seniors 55 years of age and older living within the seven areas of the Golden Triangle of Cambridge, Kitchener, Waterloo, New Hamburg, Fergus, Elmira and Guelph, and participants do not need to be a part of any seniors group or association to participate.

Read said that registration forms, along with a full schedule of events and information on how to register, will be distributed to seniors’ activity centres throughout those seven cities soon, and the deadline for registration is May 16.
The games include 21 events, ranging from golf and horseshoes to darts and swimming, and they will almost all be played right here in Elmira, save for 10-pin bowling, which will be played in Guelph. When asked what the most popular games were at the event, there was no hesitation in his answer.

“]“Card games. Euchre, bid euchre and bridge,” he said. Bridge in particular has really picked up in popularity since the last time Woolwich hosted the games back in 2005, nearly tripling in numbers since then.
“I haven’t a clue how to play it, but I watch sometimes,” Read said with a laugh.

Despite being in preparation mode for more than six months, Read said the group has had difficulty in fundraising for the event. He said in 2005 it cost $16,000 to operate the games, and he expects the same this time around. Many of those fees are to cover the rental of the ice pad and the swimming pool at the Woolwich Memorial Centre, as well as other facilities. “Fundraising isn’t as easy as it used to be. Everything is tight, so we’ve had to work a little harder on that.”

He said the games are not only a great way for seniors to get involved in their community and to meet new people, they will also provide a boost to local businesses. He said they had about 700 athletes come to town in 2005, along with their families.

He also said that despite the age of the participants, the competitive juices are still flowing.  “They take it seriously. Especially cards,” he said. “If you make a mistake, they’ll let you know.”

The Woolwich 55+ Invitational Games are set for June 4-12. Registration is $8 for the first event entered and $3 for any additional event. Return completed registration forms and cheques (payable to 55+ Invitational Games) to; 55+ Invitational Games, 24 Snyder Ave. S., Elmira, N3B 1Y9.