All keyed up for US piano competition

Entering the Pejanovic home in Bloomingdale you are greeted with music playing from the Ritmuller baby grand piano sitting the family room. At the piano, tickling the ivory keys is 11-year-old Marko Pejanovic. He is playing the first movement from a Mozart sonata. It was playing that composition along with Chopin’s Nocturnes that won Pejanovic a spot at the Gina Bachauer Jr. International Piano Competition to be held in Utah in June.
The competition has been known to foster excellent performances and help develop opportunities for pianists.

Last December Pejanovic flew to New York City with his father, Miso, to audition for the worldwide competition. He won a spot among 35 other finalists, one of only three Canadians at the contest.  More than 300 pianists were heard in live auditions in Beijing, Shanghai, Seoul, Tokyo, Hong Kong, Moscow, Hamburg, Venice, New York City and Salt Lake City. Pejanovic had 15 minutes to impress the judges with his preparation and dedication to the music.

“There were quite a lot of children at the audition and it was quite nerve-wracking in the morning,” said Marko. “But I am use to playing in front of larger groups and in competitions so I just channeled that into my music and did the best I could.”

He started taking piano lessons at the age of eight and has progressed quite quickly in the world of music, joining the Young Artist Performance Academy at the Royal Conservatory in Toronto last summer. He travels to Toronto twice a week for theory and private lessons and practices close to three hours a day. The home-schooled student will be quite busy over the next few months leading up to the competition.

“He has a lot on his plate this year and we spoke with some families with students at the Royal Conservatory and discovered a lot of them were home schooled and we decided to teach Marko at home, giving him more chances to practice and play for pleasure,” said Bo Pejanovic, Marko’s mother.

Last month he won a concerto competition for junior piano players at the Royal Conservatory and will be playing on Apr. 28 at the conservatory with a chamber orchestra. It will be the first time he has played with a full orchestra.

At the end of February he will be participating in the Kiwanis competition in Toronto.

“The good thing about the Kiwanis competitions is that they have judicators that write things down on paper that they think you can improve on and the tell you what you need to do to be better instead of just getting a score and not knowing how to improve,” said Marko.

Following the Toronto competition he will be participating in the Kitchener Kiwanis Music Festival in April and then he is off to the Canadian Music Competition in Toronto in May.

“I am very busy but I enjoy playing the piano. It is my passion.”

Quarter century of Zion Mennonite

Parishioners past and present gathered to reflect on a quarter century of memories Feb. 5 as they celebrated the 25th anniversary of Zion Mennonite Church in Elmira. “It was a real celebration of being able to fulfill a dream,” said Marilyn Brubacher, one of the original members of the congregation that began back in January 1987. “When we started the new congregation it was with the intent that we’d have an alternative to some of the traditional churches.” Known by many as simply The Junction, the church has flourished despite its humble roots.

Zion Mennonite Fellowship began meeting at Elmira Branch 469 of the Royal Canadian Legion, and enjoyed the warm hospitality for almost 10 years. Yet the congregation wanted more – the space at the Legion worked well for Sunday worship, but limited their vision of outreach and service the other six days of the week.

So a delegation went to council and proposed making used of a property downtown, formerly Shopeasy. The council of the day, led by mayor David Leis, granted a five-year lease at 47 Arthur St. S., signed April 1, 1996, and work began almost immediately on the renovations.

On June 16, 1996 the church held its first official service in the building, and hasn’t looked back in the nearly 16 years since. Beyond its Sunday service, the church also offers a youth group on Friday nights, a coffee and games night drop-in known as “Java Junction” on Thursday, as well as an evening to praise God through music one Saturday night per month. The church also opens its doors during the Elmira Maple Syrup Festival, moonlight madness sale, and the Elmira street dance.

At the service last Sunday, Dale Bauman – a member of the steering committee that helped establish the church – encouraged the congregation to continue to take risks like they did 25 years ago.
“That can fade over time,” said pastor Dawne Driedger, who along with her husband Ken, has been giving Sunday service at Zion Mennonite since 2005.
“Things get a little more comfortable and you might not feel like you need to take risks anymore, (but) I’d like to take the lead into some risky change.”

As attendance numbers at churches continue to dwindle – such as at the recently-closed Chalmers Presbyterian church in Winterbourne – the Driedgers believe that the church cannot be afraid of taking risks in order to continue to serve the people of Elmira, just as the original members of the congregation took a risk starting their own church.

“Times are changing and when we change it feels like a risk. Sometimes it is more of a risk than it feels like, and sometimes it feels like more of a risk than it really is,” said Ken. The church sees about 60 parishioners on an average Sunday, but that number more than doubled for the 25th anniversary last week as former members made the trip back to Elmira to relive some old memories and enjoy a potluck meal.

And what of the next 25 years? The Driedgers don’t see themselves staying at Zion for that long, but know it will be in good hands when they do decide to move on.
“It will be exciting to see what the next 25 years brings for this congregation,” said Dawne. “There is so much potential here, people are so willing to serve this community and we really have a heart for Elmira.
“I think we can work with Elmira to make this a better place for everybody.”

What it means to be Mennonite

While the majority of NHL players were enjoying a nearly weeklong break for the All-Star game festivities in Ottawa last weekend, Nick Spaling took the opportunity to give back to his community.
Spaling, a native of Drayton and 2007 draft pick of the Nashville Predators, was in his hometown and at the Dan Snyder Arena in Elmira Jan. 27 to shoot a commercial for the Mennonite Church of Canada.
The commercial is aimed at children growing up within the Mennonite Church, as Spaling did, and to encourage them to chase their dreams and not be held back by their faith or the stigma that surrounds it.
“The purpose is to chip away at some of the stereotypes that are sometimes associated with Mennonites,” said Willard Metzger, executive director of Mennonite Church Canada and former pastor of the Community Mennonite Fellowship in Drayton, which Spaling attended as a child.

“Sometimes people will associate Mennonite with a certain ethnicity, a German ethnicity, or oftentimes would assume that all Mennonites are old-order Mennonite with the horse and buggy, so we’re trying to dispel that.”
The shoot consisted of two locations; youth playing ball hockey in the parking lot of Community Mennonite Fellowship, and Spaling playing in a mock NHL game at the Dan Snyder Arena. The scenes will cut between one boy in particular at the ball hockey game (symbolizing Spaling as a youth), and Spaling at the NHL level taking slap shots and body checking opponents into the glass.

“The main focus of it is that you can find Mennonites anywhere and everywhere. The idea is that ‘I’m Nick Spaling. I’m an NHL player, and I’m also a Mennonite,’” explained Metzger.

Metzger has been trying to organize the shoot for nearly a year, but with Spaling’s busy NHL schedule, it has been hard to find the time. Finally, the pair decided they could do it over the NHL All-Star break since Spaling would be returning home to visit family because he couldn’t make it home for Christmas.

The NHLer said he was happy to help the community that had done so much for him growing up.

“Being a part of the Mennonite Church, when this opportunity came up I thought it was a great way to get the church’s message out there and to get that point across,” said Spaling after the shoot at the WMC.
“It’s a new and evolving way of looking at things, instead of your typical Mennonite that a lot of people think of these days.”

The commercial is just the first in a series that the Mennonite Church hopes to film, and Metzger said they have arranged to film a member of the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, as well as ordinary business people and entrepreneurs to give the commercials a well-rounded mix of high-profile professionals as well as the everyday person.

Metzger said he was unsure when the commercial might hit the airwaves, but hoped it could coincide with the Predators’ playoff push in early spring.

Wellesley girl’s poem nets $5k for Habitat for Humanity

Katie McDonald’s poem “Homemade Happiness” expresses just how important her home is to her and her family, and thanks to her writing efforts, an Ontario family is a little bit closer to having a home that they can call their own. Katie is one of five runner-up winners in the Meaning of Home national essay contest that was organized by mortgage specialists Genworth Financial Canada, and $5,000 will be given to a Habitat for Humanity project in her name.

She also received a new iPod and a pizza party for her entire Grade 6 class at Wellesley Public School.

“My mom heard about the contest, so I thought it would be a lot of fun,” said Katie.

Katie’s mother Sharon, a Grade 6 teacher in Kitchener, said she was surprised to learn that Katie was one of the winners, but that surprise quickly disappeared.

“She is such a creative girl. Her writing, her doodling, she’s always reading,” said Sharon. “She loves her home and is very passionate about our home and what it stands for. I wasn’t surprised by what she wrote.”
Katie’s poem touches on many themes that most of us can probably relate to. She describes how home is a place of joy and delight, and that it is like “arms that embrace.”
She also writes about how her creativity takes flight and that fun has no limit in her home – and she even makes mention of her father Ken’s homemade waffles.

“My dad makes those a lot,” she said with a smile.

This is the fifth year of the essay contest, and it has seen more than 10,000 essays submitted in that time. The latest contest was also Genworth’s best – a total of 3,190 essays were submitted from coast to coast, and the contest was open to children in Grades 4, 5 and 6, with the winners chosen from a list of 24 finalists.

Genworth’s leader of community relations said that Katie’s poem was well-written and truly conveyed the meaning of home, which was why she was selected as a runner-up.
“It’s not just a place to sleep, and it’s not just determined by the brick and mortar,” said Linda Belanger. “It’s somewhere where a family gets together and, as (Katie) said, the home is about the people inside and the love that’s around it.”

An Ethiopean-born Grade 4 student from Calgary, Edelawit Schnell, was the grand prize winner and $60,000 was given to a Habitat for Humanity affiliate in her name. Altogether Genworth has donated more than $450,000 to the charity since the contest began.

This year the company also donated $5 to Habitat for Humanity for every essay that was submitted.

“We added this element so that every kid can feel like they are contributing,” said Belanger.

Since this year also marks the fifth anniversary of the contest, Genworth will be publishing a book of all the winners and the runners-up from the past five years, with all of the proceeds going back the Habitat for Humanity.
Katie said that she didn’t know anything about Habitat for Humanity before the contest, but since she decided to enter she did a little more research on the organization and said that they are doing important work to try and build homes for those who can’t afford them.

She has donated her $5,000 to Habitat for Humanity in Stratford, and hopes the money can be used to help someone else discover the joys of home that she loves so much.
“I’ve always grown up in a good home so I thought it would be fun to write about it and tell other people about where I live.”

Kings make it three in a row over the last week

The Elmira Sugar Kings used a potent and balanced attack to claim a victory in each of their past three games. They defeated the Listowel Cyclones 8-4 on the road back on Jan. 27, beat up on the Stratford Cullitons 6-2 at home last Sunday night, and edged the Kitchener Dutchmen also by a score of 6-2 on Tuesday night at Kinsmen Arena. Head coach Dean DeSilva was pleased with the team’s performance as they head towards the playoffs.
“I was real happy over the weekend, real happy with how we played Friday night in Listowel and Sunday against Stratford,” said DeSilva. “That’s right from goaltending, defence, everybody. I can’t find fault in anybody’s game.”

The goals came in bunches all night against Listowel as Elmira scored two in the first, three in the second, and three more in the third en route to the win. Riley Sonnenburg led the way with a hat trick and an assist, while Brett Priestap also added four points on a goal and three assists.

Justis Husak was strong in goal, making 38 saves for his eighth win of the year.

Sunday night at home against the Cullitons the Kings fell behind early but managed to rally to snap the visitor’s four-game winning streak.
Stratford took a 1-0 lead into the first intermission despite being outshot 23-15 by the Kings, and Brad McClure extended that lead to 2-0 on the powerplay just 1:54 into the second.
The Kings, however, pushed back with four unanswered goals and headed to the dressing room up 4-2 at the end of 40 minutes.

“I don’t think there was anything that sparked us,” said DeSilva of the comeback. “There is a sense of confidence and a sense of belief with the players and the team. There was no panic, and we talked about that before the game.”

Elmira’s Michael Hasson got the ball rolling less than two minutes after Stratford made it 2-0 when he crossed the Cullitons blueline and unleashed a quick wrist shot through a screen at the top of the faceoff circle, beating Stratford’s Jesse Raymond for his 14th of the year. Brett Catto and Mitch Dunning picked up the assists.

The floodgates opened a few moments later when Brady Campbell undressed Raymond on a breakaway when he faked backhand and managed to pull the puck back to his forehand and tuck it past the sprawling keeper to knot the game 2-2 at 11:20 of the period. Catto and Will Cook collected the assists.

Andrew Smith gave the home team the lead for good just two minutes later when he took a cross-ice pass from Sonnenburg and picked the top corner with a wrist shot from the left faceoff dot to make it 3-2 at 13:25. Priestap had the other assist on the goal.

Brad Kraus finished the scoring in the period on the powerplay at 17:35 after defenceman Colton Wolfe-Sabo carried the puck deep in Stratford territory and behind the icing line before passing it out front, where Kraus was waiting near the lip of the crease to bang home his 21st of the year.

In the third the Kings continued to pressure the Cullitons and gave them no quarter in their own zone. Hasson tallied a shorthanded goal just 1:47 into the third after Lukas Baleshta stripped the Stratford defender of the puck near the Culliton blue line and made a nice cross-ice feed to Hasson for his second of the night, and Sonnenburg finished off the scoring at 14:45 on the powerplay from Smith and Cass Frey.
Nick Horrigan finished with 26 saves to collect the win.

“We felt very, very confident with what we were doing and we thought we could wear them down even though we were down by two goals at one point,” said DeSilva of their overall game plan against Stratford.
On Tuesday night the Kings travelled to Kitchener for a game against the 8-28-7 Dutchmen and didn’t let up, handing them their eighth straight loss with a 6-2 win. Will Cook led the offence with two goals, and Scott Nagy and Sonnenburg had a pair of assists in the win.

Horrigan collected the win by making 25 saves.

DeSilva said that the players have turned the corner from their struggles earlier in the season and that every player knows their role when they step onto the ice. That being said, he also credits the team’s four solid lines for the well-rounded offence on display during the Kings recent winning streak.

“If we expect one line to do the scoring, and it’s not their night, they focus on the defensive side of the puck and the other three lines can pick up the scoring.”
He also said they would be treating the remaining eight games on the schedule as a tune-up for the playoffs, treating every game like it was a part of a playoff series.
“Over seven games we’re going to be tough to beat, and we’re talking about the playoffs being all about momentum, so we can’t give teams any opportunity.”

The Kings play at home against Guelph tomorrow (Sunday) in an afternoon tilt, with puck drop at 2 p.m. then head to Stratford next Friday night for a rematch against the Cullitons starting at 7:30 p.m.

“A total loss”

Fire destroyed a St. Jacobs business Wednesday night, requiring crews from three Woolwich fire stations to bring it under control. Damage to the Kel-Care Metal Polishing building is estimated at $400,000.
Firefighters from St. Jacobs, Conestogo and Elmira were called out to the Albert Street location at 4 p.m. after a small fire was reported in a dust collector.

“Workers were grinding and sparks got into the dust collector and that spread quickly into the walls, the second floor and into the roof,” said township fire chief Rick Pedersen. “Crews were able to extinguish the fire on the main floor but it had spread too quickly.”

Smoke could be seen from the garage door on the west side of the building and escaping through the roof as firefighters organized themselves by setting up a base of operation on the south side of Albert Street, directly across from the building.

Two fire trucks from Elmira were summoned, including the aerial ladder to help firefighters extinguish the blaze from above as multiple teams fought the fire from the ground, shooting streams of water drawn from the village’s fire hydrants and the nearby Conestogo River.

“We had a lot of guys working very hard to control the blaze,” said Pedersen.

It took 45 Woolwich Township volunteer firefighters all night to battle the blaze at the two-story building, with the last truck leaving at 8:30 a.m. on Thursday.
A plume of dark smoke could be seen high above the village drifting east over the township.

“We have had the building inspector in and are limiting the access because of structural problems. It seems like the building is a total loss,” said Pedersen.

Kings support troops, shoot down Hawks

Dressed in camouflage jerseys, the Elmira Sugar Kings were ready for a battle against the Cambridge Winter Hawks Jan. 22 after suffering a 5-4 defeat to the Guelph Hurricanes the night before. Playing in their annual Support Our Troops game, the Kings scored four unanswered goals against the visiting Hawks en route to a 4-1 win. “I think the game was a typical Elmira Sugar King hockey game. We were five strong on the ice, we were tough in battles, and we stuck to our game point and I believe we have turned the corner,” said head coach Dean DeSilva.

The Hawks were the first on the board when Darcy Meyer scored two minutes into the first period on the powerplay beating Elmira netminder Nick Horrigan with a chip over the glove. It would be their only goal of the afternoon. The Kings were eager to fight back, evening the score before heading to the room when Lukas Baleshta scored his ninth goal of the campaign at 15:41.

Cash Seraphim, who had just been released from the penalty box after a roughing call, picked up the rubber and entered the Hawks’ end, finding Scott Nagy on the right of the goals. Nagy circled around the net and quickly fed the puck to Baleshta, who fired a one-timer high over the stick of Cambridge goaltender Lucas Machalski.

“The turning point was (Seraphim) and his penalty where he jumped in for somebody on his team and the guys rallied around that. For a 16-year-old to do that, it is amazing. (Seraphim) has come a long way and the team really picked up after that, especially for the guys sitting on the bench, and our momentum just built from there and we scored shortly after,” said DeSilva.

Returning to the ice after the first intermission, forward Brett Catto extended the Kings’ lead while scoring his first goal in Elmira green just over two minutes into the period. Wade Pfeffer got the puck up to Michael Hasson at the blue line. Hasson then made a cross-ice pass to Catto who snapped it past the goaltender. Brady Campbell would score one more just under three minutes later from Seraphim and Pfeffer at 18:18 to make it 3-1.
The third frame saw the Kings starting shorthanded after Clayton Greer was given a penalty in the dying seconds of the second period on an interference call. Penalties were in style, as both teams came at each other hard in the third, clocking a combined 56 minutes in the box.

“I don’t know what it is that gets these two teams going. I think since a lot of these guys grew up together and play together; we have a lot of Cambridge kids on our team that there just seems to be something that happens when our two teams meet,” said DeSilva.

The Kings put any hopes of a comeback by the Hawks to bed by dominating the third as they outshot Cambridge 11-4 and scored once more with the extra man. Hasson collected his 14th of the season on the power play at 15:51 from Riley Sonnenburg and Nagy for the 4-1 final.

Horrigan stopped 25 of 26 shots for the win, while Machalski stopped 48 of 52 for the Hawks.

Emotions ran high during the game and the Kings need to be able to put them in check before the team starts its playoff run in a month’s time.

“This has been a problem all season, it is tough to pull them back because they are trying to play a high pressure, high tempo game and to use our depth and we want guys to finish their checks, we are trying to teach them to hit sticks on puck, but using their shoulders their sticks come up and emotions start running high,” said DeSilva.

“We talk about it and work on it  and we are going to have to try and control it because we know come the playoffs we are going to have to keep that in check but if we use our depth and keep pushing and pushing the pace and the tempo we will get the results we want to see.”

The Support Our Troops game raised more than $5,500, with an auction held after the game in which each of the game-worn jerseys were sold off to the highest bidder. All the proceeds went to the London Military Family Resource Centre. The organization’s aim is to enhance the quality of life of military families in southwestern Ontario.

This weekend, the Kings are in Listowel Friday night to face the Cyclones before returning home Sunday to welcome the Stratford Cullitons. The puck drops at 7 p.m.

Transit fares likely to rise 9% this year

Grand River Transit riders can expect to pay a little bit more for the service this summer after Waterloo Regional council approved a nine per cent fare hike. The changes have yet to be finalized but councillors last week voted 9-6 in favour of the increase, which will come into effect in July. Cash fares could rise to $2.75 from its current $2.50, and other types of fares such as bus passes and student rates could also see a proportional increase.
The rise in fares is part of the regions efforts to have riders pay more of their share of the service. Last year saw a fare increase of five per cent, and there are proposed increases of up to nine per cent in 2013 and 2014 as well – a total increase of more than 30 per cent.

The goal is to have riders paying 50 per cent of the cost of transit services as soon as 2015. In 2010, passengers paid 38 per cent of Grand River Transit costs, with taxpayers footing the rest of the bill.
Woolwich Mayor Todd Cowan voted against the fare hike, saying raising fares is the wrong way to increase ridership on the system.

“The whole idea is that we want to encourage people riding the bus,” he said. “I don’t think raising the fares nine per cent is going to encourage more people to say ‘maybe we should take the bus.’”

Despite the increase, he doesn’t think that the new rates will have a negative impact on the ridership numbers of route 21 that runs through St. Jacobs and Elmira. Rather, the entire system as a whole will suffer as a result.
“From the grand scheme of things – and I’m not talking about the Woolwich riders, I’m talking about the grand scheme of the entire system – that’s what is going to be affected.”

Cowan said that if the fare hike had been limited to 2.5 or three per cent, he likely would have voted in favour of it in order to keep pace with the rate of increase within the region’s overall budget, but nine per cent was simply too high to support.

One of the councillors who voted in favour of the increase was Wellesley Mayor Ross Kelterborn, and he did so based on the belief that riders should be paying for more of their share – not regional taxpayers who have no use of the service, such as his constituents.

“Whenever you have something where people use it, who do you think should pay for it? They (transit riders) should be paying their fair share,” Kelterborn said, adding that ridership shouldn’t be hurt, especially when compared to the high price of running an automobile these days.

Cowan, however, doesn’t agree with Kelterborn’s assessment that those who don’t benefit shouldn’t be supporting it through their taxes. “Good argument, I hear it,” he said, comparing it to the new watermains scheduled to be installed in Maryhill this year to the tune of about $1.3 million – a cost that is covered by the township’s entire tax base rather than just those who live in Maryhill.

“Would you rather have to deal with that between 400 people or 23,000 people?

“Hopefully I never need an ambulance but we still pay for them through the region. It’s for the greater good.”

Last fall Woolwich Township council agreed to cover the operating and debt financing costs of route 21 for a total annual cost of $462,000 – or about $35 per township household.

Average daily ridership during the week was up to 390 from September to December last year, an increase from 351 in 2010 and 245 in 2009, and Cowan expects a new report from the region further updating those ridership numbers next month.

Heidelberg loses its postal outlet

A dispute between Canada Post and the private postal outlet in Heidelberg means residents will no longer have a post office, joining many small communities that have been stripped of service.
As of Monday, residents will have to travel to St. Clements for their mail while Canada Post continues to install community mailboxes to replace the serviced outlet. The mailboxes are to go into use starting Feb. 20.
Steve McCathie, owner of Forwell Super Variety of Heidelberg that has hosted the franchised postal outlet since 2000, lays the blame on a longstanding contract dispute with the Crown corporation. He was informed Monday the outlet will close Jan. 23.

The variety store hosts 440 post boxes for residents and businesses, and provides almost all of the services a normal post office does.

“We are a busy post office and larger than a lot of other rural outlets in the area,” said McCathie. “Since we are a franchise outlet we are only paid $13,000 a year by Canada Post to sort the mail, whereas a corporate post office like the one in St. Clements receives $48,000 to do the same job, but they have fewer boxes.”

McCathie said the compensation to provide the service works out to $5.30 per hour, far lower than the provincial minimum wage. The store has to make up the difference in pay for the two employees that work at the outlet.
Canada Post and the storeowner have been at odds over a couple of contract terms that McCathie won’t accept.

Along with maintaining the current pay, Canada Post wants to install new computer equipment and scales. McCathie said the organization refuses to pay for the estimated $750 a year in electricity he believes the equipment will use.

Another contract term concerns a pre-authorized debit arrangement that McCathie said would give Canada Post unfiltered access to the store’s bank account.

“What it boils down to is that the little independent guys have no power with Canada Post and we are seeing rural outlets close down all over the region like in Maryhill and Floradale,” said McCathie. “We are not a union, we are just a family-run business. It is too dangerous for my business to allow anyone into my bank account at anytime.”

McCathie offered to use electronic banking to pay his monthly bill but said Canada Post refused that offer, demanding access to his business bank account.

When it became clear negotiations were getting nowhere, the storeowner contacted Kitchener-Conestoga MP Harold Albrecht in August, providing him with the letters from Canada Post threatening to close the outlet.
“He was very surprised by the tone of the letters and was not aware of the inequalities between post offices across the region,” said McCathie. “He contacted me in October and told me he had spoken with representatives from Canada Post and they told him they were not treating me any different than another outlet.”

Albrecht said he believes that Canada Post has not lived up to the terms of the postal service charter.

“I am continuing to work with Mr. Lebel, the Transport Minister, and Canada Post to determine how we can correct this failure. We should have been consulted prior to the change and I expect Canada Post to find a solution that will ensure that families and businesses continue to receive the postal services that they are use to,” said Albrecht. “We expect Canada Post to abide by the charter and provide quality postal services that we can count on.”
McCathie said Canada Post told him when he first became a dealer that he would not make any money being a postal outlet but by providing the mail service but he would have people coming through his store.
Although the post office does bring in some revenue for McCathie’s business, he said he is more concerned about how the closure will inconvenience residents of the village.

“It is very unfortunate that they have decided to close us down because this was a place where people in the community would meet. We don’t have a community centre and many times neighbours would run into each other collecting the mail and stop and chat with one another. I feel the community is losing its only link to commonality.”

Mail service will continue in Heidelberg, maintains a Canada Post spokesperson.

“Unfortunately we could not reach an agreement with the current dealer to maintain the postal outlet,” said spokesman John Caines. “In the interim, beginning Monday residents of Heidelberg will be getting their mail by general delivery at the St. Clements post office until the community mailboxes are ready. Those community mailboxes will be closer to their homes.”

McCathie said he was willing to keep the post office open until Canada Post had the community boxes ready so that residents of Heidelberg would not have to travel to St. Clements, as some do not have their own transportation.
“Canada Post is closing the office just out of spite. They didn’t like that I was standing up for myself, they want to be able to call all the shots,” said McCathie.

Caines said Canada Post is still talking to other businesses in Heidelberg to see if they can find another location to host the post office. If so, they will re-establish the retail outlet.

Given the fact that there are not many retailers in the village and the fact that the community boxes are being built, McCathie believes that it will be unlikely for another outlet to open in Heidelberg, but he is hoping for a change of mind by Canada Post at the last minute that will allow him keep his postal outlet open.

Cold for Coats for Kids fundraiser

William Walkey is either a marketing genius, or one of the unluckiest men in Elmira. The student teacher at Park Manor Senior Public School spent 24 hours in front of the Foodland in Elmira to raise awareness for the Coats for Kids campaign at Park Manor Senior Public School on Jan. 13 and 14. Coats for Kids is an initiative started by Grade 6 students at Park Manor back in November to collect gently used coats and donations for less fortunate children throughout the township. So far they’ve collected about $400 for the cause.

Temperatures over the course of last Friday night were the coldest they had been for much of the winter so far, at one point touching minus-11 degrees Celsius without the windchill.

“I should have waited until the summer,” laughed a frigid looking Walkey on Saturday morning. “Coats for Kids in August just doesn’t have the same appeal, though.”

He made plans to spend the night at the store several weeks ago, and it wasn’t until the middle of last week that he realized just how cold it was going to be. An avid camper during the summer, it was the first time Walkey had slept outdoors during a frigid winter night.

“I have about three sleeping bags, a foot of insulation underneath, two blankets over the tent, and then a tarp over that,” he said. “I nicknamed the shelter an iceberg and it got kind of chilly at some points.”
He said that students from the school braved the cold to visit him at various times during his venture, and many brought him hot beverages to try and boost his spirits. He also said the response from the public was favourable and that he had collected a number of donations in a blue water jug.

“The kids who started Coats for Kids were doing such a great job that I offered my services here for a little bit of an incentive and motivation, and to show them what one simple thought can lead to,” said Walkey.
“I just want to show them that everyone at the school is behind them – the teachers, the staff and even the community as a whole.”

The 24-year-old Waterloo resident currently splits his time between Wilfrid Laurier University and Park Manor. During his practicum he spends several consecutive weeks at the school, otherwise he is at the school on Tuesdays and Wednesdays.

“Right now I’m on my two-day cycle, which kind of limits how I can get involved, but the students find a way to keep me involved and accept me into the school community,” he said.

Walkey also tried to record his experiences during the night using a video camera but there wasn’t enough light, so he sent out a few messages on his Twitter stream instead.

The toughest part of the entire ordeal was waking up Saturday morning, when the outside temperature was minus-10 degrees, the temperature inside the tent was about four degrees, and the temperature inside his sleeping bag was a toasty 30 degrees.

“It’s been quite an experience, both physically and mentally.” For his efforts, Walkey managed to collect $295 and 10 more coats. To make a donation to Coats for Kids contact Park Manor, located at 18 Mockingbird Dr. in Elmira, (519) 669-5183.