Looking to provide Elmira’s budding musicians with a regular venue to showcase their talents, and residents a fun night out, a local band is teaming up with the Central Tavern downtown to offer up music nights every two weeks.

Christina Robinson of Soul2Soul hopes the open band night at Elmira’s Central Tavern becomes a regular outlet for local musicians.

“What we want to do is kind of start a musical community in Elmira,” said Soul2Soul’s bassist Christina Robinson.
“Elmira’s just full of talent,” she said.

Having celebrated her birthday at the Tavern with her bandmates at an open jam night Jan. 10, Robinson was pleasantly surprised by the number of musicians who showed up.

Overwhelmed by that positive response, Robinson and her band – a three-piece ensemble playing covers such as “Low Rider” and “Born Under a Bad Sign”– are now seeking to make the watering hole a part of the local music scene.

“There was such a good response to it, we thought, ‘man this town needs it,’” said Robinson, noting that to get her fill of live music she has to head southwards to Waterloo, to Maxwell’s Music House or Failte Irish Pub on King Street. Long lineups, and expensive cab rides home, however, are something of an inconvenience – having a venue within walking distance from home would be ideal. It would also help stimulate the local music scene.

So far, there is little in the way of local public venues that offer up regular concerts or performances, said Robinson. Elmira District Secondary School offers up the odd coffeehouse jam, but Robinson is shooting for something more regular and which covers a broader range of musicians of all ages. The idea of staging shows at the Central Tavern seemed to be a no-brainer.

“It holds the people and we can do it for free; it’s not like we have to rent it,” said Robinson, noting the cover charge will be the nominal sum of $2.

“They have the bar, they’ve got the space, they’ve got the stage, they’ve got the lights – we’re bringing our own PA system – it’s great.”

Hoping to see an audience reception similar to what she saw earlier this month, Robinson geared up for another open jam Thursday night.

“We thought, ‘if that goes really well’ we should do this more often if there’s a big response to it.”

EDSS student Dan Bossenberry – who this December won the Waterloo Region Record’s Within Ear Shot music video contest – was also on hand to help bridge the gap between Elmira’s older and younger generations of musicians.

“We really want to get younger kids up and doing it,” said Robinson. “It’s really cool to see how keen the younger kids are.”

Indeed, Robinson hopes that open band night will become a mixed-ages event at the tavern taking place every other week during the winter months when more residents are in town.

“It’s great for kids to be able to play in front of people too: that’s how they learn. We know so many different musical families in town here,” Robinson said, noting that she regularly jams with her kids, who play the bass and the keyboards.

“They think our music’s lame and we think their music is kind of lame,” she quipped.  “But it’s a good family thing.”

And that is exactly the point for St. Clements’ Rick Esbaugh, who recently had one of his trucks painted pink in order to raise awareness of breast cancer.

Mitchell Esbaugh climbs atop his parents’ pink truck. The Esbaughs recently had the gravel truck painted pink to raise awareness about breast cancer research.

“The driver says they definitely take a second and third look,” said Esbaugh, who along with his brother Ron, owns Tri-City Materials, a gravel supply company in the Petersburg area, and Tri-City ReadyMix.

The eye-catching gravel truck was part of the Santa Claus parade in St. Clements last weekend.

“I was pretty proud, actually. Everybody definitely took a second look and had a smile on their face when they saw it,” said Rick, who drove it in the parade.

Indeed, the truck has drawn plenty of attention – and not just at the parade – as its new coat of paint, which will likely stay on for another three to four years, isn’t the most orthodox colour scheme for a truck.

“[Rick] did go out of his way to really try to create awareness for breast cancer by painting a dump truck pink, though the truck driver wasn’t very happy about that,” joked Rick’s wife Barb, adding that the driver has warmed to the colour scheme now that the initial shock has subsided.

“He’s been good about it. He’s driving it,” she quipped.

The truck has since featured in a number of local parades, including those of St. Agatha and New Hamburg.

The Esbaughs’ decision to go pink is in line with the family’s support of cancer research and awareness. Barb has done the Walk for Breast Cancer in Toronto twice (a 60-kilometre walk in two days) and the Esbaughs’ companies have held auctions for two years in a row to support Kitchener radio station Kool-FM’s poster boy campaign for the Grand River Regional Cancer Centre, raising $30,000 in the process.

“It’s such a great thing to have locally, we have to support it,” said Rick of the local centre. “Everybody knows somebody that has cancer.”

When Barb herself was diagnosed with breast cancer in October – she is now undergoing treatment and is doing well – the cause hit even closer to home. Rick wanted to do a little extra, and thus the idea of the pink truck was born.

“The breast cancer thing is all about the pink, right?

“The pink truck will hopefully bring awareness to early detection, which is key in breast cancer. If we can raise some more money for the poster boy campaign through the truck, we’ll try to do that too,” he said.

Barb stressed the importance of early detection, encouraging women to see their doctors on a yearly basis, conduct self-examinations, and have yearly mammograms done.

Breast cancer is the most common cancer among Canadian women.

According to the Canadian Cancer Society, in 2008 an estimated 22,400 women were diagnosed with breast cancer, and 5,300 will die of it. An estimated 170 men were diagnosed with breast cancer; 50 will die of it.

On average, 431 Canadian women will be diagnosed with breast cancer every week; 102 Canadian women will die of breast cancer in that same period.

Breast cancer death rates have declined in every age group since at least the mid-1990s.

People were busy assembling hundreds of cardboard boxes, sorting thousands of groceries into the boxes and wrapping the presents stacked on a table running the length of the room.

Woolwich Community Services’ Christmas goodwill hamper program is run with military precision, and it takes an army of volunteers to make sure Christmas comes to less fortunate families in Woolwich.

Kim Hendrick sorts food into hampers.

“It’s a well-oiled machine,” said volunteer Joan Moyer. “From year to year it just seems to flow.”

Moyer looks after matching recipient families with sponsoring families. She’s been coordinating the sponsors for the past six years, but before that she was a shopper and packer and gift wrapper. She started volunteering after she retired from teaching at Park Manor Public School.

“When I had the free time, I thought ‘what better way to give back to the community?’”

She has cut back on her volunteering slightly in the past few years, making time to spend with her two grandkids, now three and five. But from the beginning of November, she spends 15 to 20 hours a week entering data into the computer and matching families. For her, this week is the culmination of all that work.

“This is my week about the goodwill program,” she said. “My family knows that this week I’m not available to them.

“It forces me to get my Christmas done prior to this goodwill week because next week there’s not enough time. Which is a good thing, because I’m a bit of a procrastinator.”

Kim Hendrick is another volunteer who sets aside a few days this week for packing hampers. She first volunteered three years ago, and she’s been back each year since.

“I always make sure I allocate time for this,” she said. “It makes you appreciate Christmas more.”

“A lot of times you see the same people come back every year. It’s nice to see familiar faces. We see them once a year and it’s at this event, so it’s nice.”

On Wednesday, Hendrick was busy packing cans and boxes into the food hampers that will go out to each family. Sorting the food, a huge task in itself, was done before she and her fellow packers arrived.

“There’s all sorts of food, and all the soup has to go in one area and all the pasta in one area. It’s amazing just to watch them organize all that.”

Gazing over tables crowded with boxes, Moyer said she has no idea how many items flow in and out of Lions Hall during the week.

“I couldn’t even begin to guess,” she said.

The Christmas hampers are the single biggest program offered by Woolwich Community Services. Every year they hand out between 120 and 130 hampers to individuals and families in need. The hampers include groceries, a turkey or ham, toys and clothing for the children and a small gift for the adults.

Organizer Kelly Christie said they have between 125 and 150 volunteers who put in 800 or 900 hours of work. For the coordinators, hamper week means 12-hour days.

Mary Haight, taking a moment to rest her tired feet, said it’s all worth it when it comes time to distribute the hampers.

“Getting to Thursday is long and tiring, but Thursday is just the most euphoric thing. You realize why you do it.”

Moyer, who greeted people at the door on Thursday, checking them off the list, said the service isn’t taken for granted by those on the receiving end.

“They’re all so glad and appreciative. I go home greatly satisfied that I’ve been able to participate in it.”