Wellesley Idol process gets in motion
This year’s Wellesley Idol contest gets underway June 3, and organizers are looking to have contestants in place by May 29, the deadline for registration. The singing contest is open to young people, 10 to 18 years of age as of June 3, who live in or attend school in Wilmot, Woolwich, Wellesley and Perth East townships.
This time around, only 16 contestants will be taken, as last year’s starting number of 20 was deemed too unwieldy, said organizer Wendy Richardson, adding there’ll be an afternoon start-time for the event rather than running late into the evening.
Ali Carol was crowned the 2011 winner of Wellesley Idol at the ABC festival last September. [observer file photo
The contest will be judged by Gary Goeree of the Community Players of New Hamburg, Tavistock musician Charlene Zehr and former Idol winner Scott Malloch.
Following the first round, the semi-finalists will square off at the Wellesley-North Easthope Fall Fair on Sept. 11, with the eventual winner chosen Sept. 29 at the Wellesley Apple Butter and Cheese Festival. First prize is $500, with $300 going to the runner-up and $200 to the singer who finishes third. There will also be $125 awarded to the People’s Choice at the fall fair.
For more information, call Wendy Richardson at 519-656-2961. She’ll take registrations and provide a complete set of rules, as well as answer any questions. Applications are due by May 29.
A taste of the coast coming to Elmira courtesy of Kiwanis Lobsterfest
It’s almost time to dig out your favourite bib and those pants with the stretchy waistband, because the Kiwanis Lobsterfest is coming back to Elmira. The region’s most luscious lobster dinner returns to Lions Hall for its 31st year on May 26, and this year promises to be as big as ever. Lobsters weighing 1.5 pounds will be flown in fresh on the day of the event and steamed to perfection by the club’s experienced lobster masters.
Add in some prime rib for those who choose not to indulge in the lobster, along with a wide range of salads, potatoes, a secret baked bean recipe and dessert, and everyone is sure to go home with a smile on their face.
“There are two secrets – you need to start with a big fresh lobster and you have to cook it just right,” said Tom Hendrick, committee chair and founder of the event. “We’ve cooked about eleven tons of lobster over those 31 years. When you’ve done so much for so long, you get pretty darned good at it.”
Eleven tons of lobsters cooked to date.
Kiwanis club member Tony Dowling said the event has become a fixture in the community over the past three decades, and is an important fundraiser for their ongoing work in the community, including the Kiwanis Music Festival, the Kiwanis Santa Claus parade, Meals on Wheels, the Kiwanis food drive, the Woolwich Memorial Centre, and others.
Some 500 to 600 people come out annually, helping to raise anywhere from $7,000 to $10,000.
“We’ve had a pretty steady core over the years,” Dowling said.
Aside from the great food, diners will enjoy live east-coast music during dinner, with a DJ and a dance to follow. There will also be a cash bar, and one of the highlights of the evening is the so-called “lightening raffles” for great prizes ranging from sporting events to weekend getaways.
Introduced two years ago, Dowling said the raffle is a real hit. After dinner a handful of ticket sellers are given about ten tickets to sell, but once they’re gone they’re gone, and it usually only takes about two minutes for them to be sold out. Once they are sold the item is raffled off immediately, and the next round of tickets are made available.
“It doesn’t last more than 20 minutes for the whole thing,” Dowling said.
“A lot of time you try to do raffles you lose the crowd because it goes on and on. This is very entertaining.”
The 31st Kiwanis Lobsterfest is on May 26 at Lions Hall in Elmira. Tickets are $39 per person for the early bird seating at 5:00 p.m. or $49 for the late sitting, which starts at 7:00 p.m. For tickets visit Read’s Decorating or call Tony Dowling (519) 669-1281 or email tony@elmirastoveworks.com.
Memorial ride a sign of solidarity
A drive along the roads that connect Woolwich and Wellesley townships to the rest of Waterloo Region on a warm, sunny day will quickly reveal just how popular the sport of road cycling has become in southern Ontario.
And while most cyclists say that motorists give them the space and time to feel secure on the roads, every now and again we are reminded of how quickly a spring ride can turn to tragedy.
Around 4 p.m. on May 6, Waterloo resident Barrie Conrod was struck from behind by an SUV while cycling along Herrgott Road in Wellesley Township. Conrod was pronounced dead at the scene. His wife, Heather Caron, was riding in front of him and was not injured in the crash.
More than 500 riders wore white shirts to show their solidarity and support for Barrie Conrod’s widow, Heather Caron (inset). [james jackson / the observer
Last Sunday, one week to the day that Conrod was killed, more than 500 cyclists from across Waterloo Region joined his friends and family in a memorial ride along Herrgott Road to the spot where he was killed.
The riders, all wearing white shirts, proceeded along the road single-file at a deliberately slow pace. The pair of police cruisers and motorcycles directing traffic gave the solemn event the feeling of a funeral procession even though the actual funeral had been held two days earlier.
“It’s like a big, warm embrace from the community,” said Caron just a few minutes before she was set to lead the pack to the site of the fateful crash. “It’s pretty overwhelming, but in a good way. It’s nice to be connected to this community and to the cyclists.
“They all came together and it’s so moving.”
Police continue to investigate the cause of the crash and have yet to lay any charges against the 31-year-old St. Clements man who hit and killed Conrod, but Caron has said she isn’t angry at him for the collision.
The memorial ride marked her first time getting back on a bicycle since the accident, and the 53-year-old admitted to being at least a little scared to get back in the saddle.
“Of course I’m nervous. Absolutely. I keep looking over my shoulder. I’m nervous walking down the street now. It just brings it home how dangerous it is to get hit by a car as a cyclist and a pedestrian.”
Organizers of the event said it was important for the cycling community to come together in an act of solidarity and show their support for a fallen member of their community. The vast majority of the riders had never even met or heard of Conrod before the accident.
“I didn’t know him. I belong to the Waterloo Cycling Club and I ride the same route,” said Mel Roman, one of the organizers. “When we opened the paper Monday morning and saw what had happened, we were just shocked.”
Almost immediately the group sought Caron’s permission for the memorial ride and to place a ghost bike at the site where he was killed. Roman said they wouldn’t have undertaken the ride without Caron’s blessing.
A ghost bike is a bicycle which is painted completely white – even the wheels – and is chained to a spot near the accident as a symbolic way of informing those passing that a cyclist lost his life there.
“You feel a camaraderie among cyclists. When you’re on the road you salute each other with a wave, and when something like this happens you feel like you’ve lost part of your own and part of the extended cycling family.”
The 500 or so cyclists gathered at Countryside Mennonite Fellowship Church in Hawkesville around 3 p.m. last Sunday and travelled about two kilometres south towards St. Clements to where Conrod died.
Once they reached the site the riders aligned themselves in a nearby driveway and faced the family and friends of Conrod as they placed flowers and said a few words in memory of him. A moment of silence was also observed.
Following the ceremony the riders dispersed, with some continuing on to St. Clements, while others returned to Hawkesville.
Many of the riders at the event said they hoped the memorial ride would help raise awareness for cyclist safety and road safety in general in the region, and others said it’s time for Ontario to make cyclist safety a priority.
“The reason you see such an outpouring of support is because cyclists feel vulnerable, they feel frightened, they feel disregarded and disrespected,” said Eleanor McMahon, founder of Share the Road, a province-wide organization aimed at making the roads a safer place for cyclists.
McMahon formed the group back in 2006 when her husband, OPP Sergeant Greg Stobbart, was killed in a very similar collision. She was invited to participate in the memorial ride but was unable to attend.
“My condolences are with his family and his wife in particular. I’ve walked in her shoes and she’s got a difficult road ahead.”
McMahon said that a combination of fewer cyclists (caused by poor infrastructure and city planning, and our societal reliance on cars to get around) has led to fewer drivers knowing how to react around cyclists. In 1971 85 per cent of Canadian children rode their bikes or walked to school; now, only 14.5 per cent of kids nation-wide walk or ride their bikes to school, McMahon said.
“You’re going to have friction on our roadways and that’s simply not necessary.”
Ontario’s chief coroner is currently preparing a probe to review cycling deaths in Ontario, and the coroner estimates that some 15 to 20 riders are killed each year from accidental collisions.
For her part, Caron said she will continue to ride despite the accident, and she hopes cyclists and motorists will continue to be more diligent in being safe while out on the roads so that others will not have to endure the loss she has had to.
“I still don’t want to stop cycling. It’s such a healthy thing to do and it’s good for me mentally and physically, so I don’t want to stop.
“But he’s going to be missed,” she added.
Here, it’s hostas all the time
Ross Little doesn’t care much for grass. That’s not to say the Bloomingdale resident hates the outdoors – quite the opposite, actually. Ross and his wife, Kathy, own a piece of land a little more than an acre in size and have a backyard that most people would die for.
For as far as the eye can see, hostas and a host of varieties of groundcover such as pachysandra (also known as Japanese Spurge) and periwinkle dominate the landscape, and a tranquil creek runs right through the middle of it. It’s a little slice of paradise – but there’s hardly a blade of grass to be seen.
Ross Little holds up a tray of pachysandra at his home on McAllister Drive in Bloomingdale. The retired auto mechanic has spent the past 35 years turning his passion for plants, namely hostas, into a side business. [JAMES JACKSON / THE OBSERVER
“Grass it pretty bad stuff when it comes right down to it.”
Over the past 35 years the couple has turned their passion for plants into a second career as they have been selling hostas and pachysandra out of pots on their driveway to neighbours, friends and family members.
“It just sort of started as a hobby when we moved out here,” said Kathy. “He likes plants. His two brothers also are gardeners and his mother was, so it’s natural for them.”
Their business all got started with one simple question more than three decades ago: “I wonder if I could sell something that I like to do so much for a hobby?” Ross asked his wife.
To find out, he went to a local greenhouse and asked if they had any Pachysandra in stock, and when the owner said no, Ross said he’d like to sell him some. The greenhouse owner agreed to buy five flats the following spring.
“So I rushed home and planted some, and they grew roots, which was a surprise to me,” recalls Ross. The next year he returned to the greenhouse to make good on the deal and the owner paid him $60 – it was the only money Ross would make that first year.
Hostas are very popular for gardeners and homeowners, as they enjoy the wide range of colours and shapes that the different varieties have to offer.
The fact that they’re “virtually impossible” to kill is an attractive feature as well, Ross said.
The only thing they need is water, something that is available in spades in his backyard, which is bisected with a stream that provides all the water he can use, he said.
They call their business Hostas Anytime, and Ross has 146 different varieties of the plant on his property. Kathy said her husband knows where each one is and has a collection of maps and sketches outlining their exact location. They’ve mainly operated through word-of-mouth with neighbours and friends, but about three years ago Ross started putting out signs by Sawmill Road.
The couple grow their own plants on their property, and the work stretches out over all 12 months; whether its potting plants in the spring and fall, caring for them during the hot summer months, or tending to potted plants stored in the garage over the winter, it’s a full-time job for the retired auto body mechanic.
Though for him it isn’t so much a job as it is a hobby.
“When I get up in the morning I don’t have to think ‘oh, what am I going to do today?,’” he said. “I just pick up my shovel and I know what I’m doing.”
The unseasonably warm weather in March brought gardeners out earlier than normal, he said, but much like apple growers who saw heavy losses to their crop when the frost returned in April, Ross and Kathy said that they too saw some losses when the temperatures reached -8 degrees on some nights.
“Much like a farmer growing his crop, we’re at the mercy of the weather,” said Ross. “We’ve got a certain amount of time to get the crop in, hope for good weather, and then we’ve got a certain amount of time to harvest it and the weather has to be on your side.
“With hostas you have a little more control than a planted seed, but you’re at the mercy of the weather all the time.”
As part of their business, the couple also provides free guided tours of their yard to show potential customers just how their plants might look in two to three years, something that is difficult to do when buying a young plant in a pot on the driveway.
“We like to take them out here, show them around, and make new friends. If they buy a plant, that’s a bonus,” said Ross.
“I do it because I love it. The money is just extra.”
For more information about Hostas Anytime, call (519) 576-9407.
Students find themselves on a roll
You probably remember sitting in your math class and thinking ‘when am I ever going to use this stuff again?’ Well, for the past few months Grade 7 and 8 students at Wellesley Public School got to experience physics and other mathematical properties first-hand when they were given the task of building a rollercoaster as part of an extra-curricular program in their school called Mathletes.
The project was part of the annual WonderCoaster Contest held by Canada’s Wonderland, and this year three of those Wellesley students – Grade 7 students Nathan Green and Jaden Pretorius and Grade 8 student Sawyer Grubb – finished second overall for technical merit at the finals held at the theme park north of Toronto on May 11.
Wellesley PS students Jaden Pretorius (left), Sawyer Grubb, and Nathan Green were the runners-up for technical merit at the annual WonderCoaster rollercoaster competition at Canada’s Wonderland on May 11. [JAMES JACKSON / THE OBSERVER
“It meets the Grade 7 and 8 science curriculum; Grade 7 looked at the structures unit and Grade 8 looked at the systems at work unit. There is a lot of physics involved in it,” said Grade 7/8 teacher Rhonda Hergott, adding that even when elements of the students’ construction failed it continued to provide valuable life skills.
“It’s a really good life-lesson for them that it doesn’t always work out right away, you have to go back and re-examine your plan and recreate your plan and move forward from there.”
“The elements and principles of designs are all thoroughly covered in the activities they were working on,” added Grade 7/8 teacher Debbie Moore. “I’m always so fascinated by what the kids can come up with and the originality of each of them. There were no crossovers or similarity in their ideas.”
The competition was broken down into three categories: technical merit (the rollercoaster that is determined by the judges to record the highest score according to the technical merit calculation), creativity and artistic value (the rollercoaster that is, in the opinion of the judges, the most creative and makes the best use of available materials), and the most exciting to ride (judged by engineers who helped construct the park’s newest ride, Leviathan).
There was also a long list of rules, including size restrictions of 30 cm x 90 cm x 80 cm; magnets and other forms of energy were not permitted; the marble had to be between 1.3 cm and 2.5 cm in diameter; each team needed a minimum of two members and a maximum of four; and the marble must complete one of three test runs in order to be counted by the judges.
Scoring was based on a score for the vertical drop (maximum of 80 cm), the total time it took for the marble to complete its ride, the number of loops, and the loop diameter. In total the boys collected a score of 647,920 for their rollercoaster to take second place.
“The thing I really liked about this project was the boys got to use tools they had never used before,” said Jaden’s mother, Jeanette. “You start out with big ideas, but then they started doing it and it was way too hard to do all their ideas. We went to the thrift store and got all kinds of funky things, but it was just too much. “
She was also impressed with how the three boys – who sometimes struggle in school – could work together and make such a successful design.
“I told them I think it needed more loops, and they told me ‘We’re the committee and we think we have enough.’”
In total the boys’ coaster ride has seven loops and lasts 13 seconds, and their theme for the project is of the popular television show “Wipeout” which forces contestants to navigate a series of obstacle courses to determine a winner.
“It has wood, plastic tubing, pins, hot glue, paper towel roll, spice tray, two napkin holders, and a CD holder,” said Jaden, adding it was a serious case of trial-and-error to get the pieces to fit together and not have the marble gain too much speed and fly off the track, or not have enough speed to make it through to the end.
In total it took about five weeks for them to build the rollercoaster, meeting a couple nights a week on their own time to get it done.
Originally, the top four teams from Wellesley were slated to compete at Wonderland on May 11 but a mix-up with the buses that day meant there were none available to take students to the park. Luckily, Jeanette was able to take the day off work and drive the three boys to Wonderland to compete.
The other student’s efforts won’t be wasted, though, as they all travelled back to Wonderland Thursday to listen to the engineers of the Leviathan give a talk on all the work that goes into designing a real rollercoaster.
EDSS suffers first loss of the season
Despite suffering their first loss of the season on Tuesday during the Premier League qualifying playoff round, the Elmira District Secondary School boys’ soccer team can still advance to the Central Western Ontario Secondary Schools Association (CWOSSA) playoffs with a win later next week.
After cruising through the lower-tiered First Division regular season with a perfect 7-0 record and not allowing a single goal, the Lancers had their first test of the season on Tuesday against the Bluevale Knights of the Premier League, falling 2-1 in penalty kicks and knocking them out of the Waterloo County Secondary School Athletic Association (WCSSA) playoffs.
Cole Martin jostles for position with a defender from Glenview Park in the first half of last week’s win. Elmira can advance to the CWOSSA playoffs with a win next week. [james jackson / the observer
“We didn’t even get scored on, we scored on ourselves,” said head coach Chris Finnie. “We still haven’t had anyone score on us properly this season.”
Elmira will play Southwood Secondary School on Tuesday for the final berth in CWOSSA after Southwood fell 3-2 to Waterloo-Oxford this week. Waterloo-Oxford finished third in the First Division this season, well behind Elmira, but Finnie knows Southwood still presents a tough test.
“Last season Southwood was very strong and they got promoted this year and they seem to have done alright,” said Finnie. “They’re a tougher division up top, and they’re young and good defensively, but hopefully we can continue to play as well as we have.”
The Lancers sported a 7-0 record and outscored their opponents 21-0 en route to top place in their division, and Finnie credits their success to a well-balanced team and a strong effort on team defence. That balance was apparent when starting goaltender Mike Weber suffered an injury and backup Tyler Seguin sported back-to-back shutouts earlier this year.
Despite that dedication to defence the players also know what to do offensively when the opportunity arises, averaging three goals per game during the regular season.
“Our midfield is very good at dominating the ball, and our strikers are very skilled as well and can take advantage of mistakes that the other team makes,” the coach said.
The mix of players from all grade levels also bodes well for the team next season, as they will be moving up to the Premier League and will rely on that extra experience and ability to compete in tight matches.
“We have a very complete team, so when we get bumped up to the top league next year, we should be in good shape.”
The boys face Southwood Tuesday at 3 p.m. at 30 Southwood Dr. in Cambridge.
Organizers set for region’s 17th annual Quilt and Fibre Art Festival
Quilting is an important component of Waterloo Region’s long and rich heritage, and next week the annual Quilt and Fibre Art Festival will attract thousands of quilting enthusiasts from across the province to see what the area has to offer.
From May 22-26, venues in St. Jacobs, Cambridge, Kitchener, Waterloo and New Hamburg will be home to the 17th annual festival while churches, businesses and community centres will open their doors to celebrate all things quilting.
“You like to see what others are doing so they come from all over the place to see what’s new,” said Ella Brubacher, the treasurer of the St. Jacobs quilt show that is a part of the festival. “There are always new patterns and new colour choices and new ideas; that’s the beauty of it.”
A full slate of activities is planned throughout the region, from quilting demonstrations, appraisals and workshops, to the now famous Mennonite Relief Sale, which auctions off quilts on the 25th and 26th to raise funds for Mennonite Central Committee projects around the world. Some 200 quilts will be auctioned that day and the event takes up the entire fairgrounds.
“(Visitors) can spend a couple days in St. Jacobs easily, and visiting all the other ones in the area I guess you could be here all week,” Brubacher said with a laugh. Not a quilter herself, she appreciates the hard work and time that goes into each design.
While quilting may have its roots in the Mennonite culture of Waterloo Region and beyond, one avid quilter believes the act of making a quilt has moved past those historical to become almost an art form.
“I think it started out that way, but now there are just as many non-Mennonite quilters as there are Mennonite quilters,” said Irma Buehler, a member of the St. Jacobs Mennonite Church and who has helped out with the event for the past 15 years or so.
“It really has become an art form more so than a utilitarian thing. We’ve taken them off the bed and put them up on the wall.”
The annual Quilt and Fibre Art Festival runs from May 22-26 throughout Waterloo Region and the surrounding communities. For more information on the wide range of activities and classes that are available, visit www.stjacobs.com/quilt-fibre-festival for a complete calendar of events and times.
Three St. Jacobs Conservatory of Music students qualify for provincials
Three locally-trained pianists are headed to the Ontario Music Association finals next month. Madeline Weber, 16, of St. Jacobs, Alanna Martin, 19, of West Montrose, and Cindy Chen, 14, of Waterloo are all headed to the provincial finals to be held in Peterborough from June 6-12, and all are students at the St. Jacobs Conservatory of Music.
“This was a really wonderful surprise,” said Constance Madelina, the director of the conservatory.
“You think your students are doing well, but it’s nice when there’s a universality of opinion.”
All three students qualified based on their outstanding performances at the Kiwanis festivals throughout southern Ontario this year. Weber was the grand-prize winner in Elmira last month and also performed in Kitchener, Martin performed in Stratford and Kitchener, and Chen performed in Kitchener.
This is the first time that the director has had any of her pupils go this far in the competition after years of teaching in Toronto, where her students typically went on to study at McGill or the University of Toronto.
“I really didn’t use the festivals,” she said. “But here everyone does it, so this is the third year that I’ve put students into the festival, but it’s the first year I’ve had anybody who would qualify (for provincials).”
The musicians say they aren’t nervous now, but likely will be when the event draws nearer. Madelina said the rulebook is 16 pages in length and includes a list of prohibited clothes, such as jeans or running shoes, a strict age requirement (all performers must be 14 or older), and there are also regulations on drug use – a component that makes the director laugh.
“I can’t imagine anybody wanting to play seriously under the influence of drugs.”
Madelina began playing at the age of three on her grandparent’s piano and graduated from the University of Toronto with a Masters in Music and Literature, winning the highest award, the WO Forsyth Memorial Scholarship. She was also awarded several Canada Council Grants to study at the Paris Conservatoire.
After teaching in Toronto she moved to St. Jacobs about three-and-a-half years ago to care for her mother, and said that “chance” became “an opportunity” when she decided to open the conservatory, and she will not allow herself to force any of her own expectations on the three students heading to the provincial finals. She simply hopes that they play their best and enjoy the opportunity.
“My mandate is to share the pleasures of music in such a way that it becomes a gift for life, so that it enriches and elevates the spirit.
“You cannot put a price on the joy it brings us in our life.”
Kickin’ it for Kandis
Like most other kids her age, Kandis Braid should be outside playing and exploring the world around her. Yet for the two-and-a-half year old Elmira resident, being active and involved is sometimes painfully difficult.
The blond-haired girl suffers from what doctors call systemic-onset juvenile arthritis. Juvenile arthritis, or JA, is one of the most common chronic illnesses affecting children – according to the Arthritis Society, one in 1,000 children under 16 has the affliction.
Yet the systemic-onset form Kandis suffers from is a rarer and more severe type of JA. It occurs in about 20 per cent of all children with JA and affects both boys and girls equally. Kandis’ problem began last August when she started complaining of joint pain and was not able to walk on her own for extended periods of time.
Four days of tests later at the children’s hospital at London Health Sciences Centre, and they finally had their answer.
The diagnosis of arthritis was actually a relief for Kandis’ parents, Bailey Palmer and Ron Braid, as doctors had completed a wide range of tests including a bone marrow tap to check for signs of Leukemia, unsure of what was causing her such pain.
“It was a relief, but then at the same time there was the medication she needed and she had to go for physiotherapy,” said Bailey. “So it was two seconds of relief followed by being overwhelmed with everything else.”
On May 25 the family will be holding a fundraiser called Kickin’ it for Kandis at Lions Hall in Elmira to raise money for JA research and to help offset some of their own costs. The event includes a family fun portion including a bouncy castle, cotton candy, face painting, balloons and a barbecue. There will also be a 19+ dance later in the evening and a raffle table with a wide range of prizes, including a gas-powered lawn mower and weed-eater.
“It will have a stag-and-doe type feel to it so we can include all of our friends,” said Bailey. “Not all of our friends have kids and they want to help out so they are more inclined to come to the later one.”
Kandis is currently taking two drugs for her pain, prednisone and tocilizumab, and her parents are trying to wean her off of the prednisone because of the harsh side effects, including swelling, and they say the new medication is working well. The family receives funding to cover the $25,000 annual cost of the tocilizumab but their insurer is trying to avoid paying for their other drug prescriptions even though the couple is covered under their insurance policy.
They must also pay about $350 every three months for the tocilizumab, as well as their incremental costs of travelling to London and missing work.
Bailey and Ron want to donate the other half of all their proceeds they collect to the children’s hospital which has a partnership with the University of Western. They want to raise $7,500 for a three-year bursary for someone studying JA or who is working towards finding a cure.
Kickin’ it for Kandis is on May 25 from 5 pm to 1 am at Lions Hall. Tickets are $10 for adults, $5 for children, and $25 for a family. Tickets can be ordered ahead of time or bought at the door. For more information email bailey_palmer89@hotmail.com or visit http://kandisjajourney.blogspot.ca/.
Going the distance for a good Kause
Fred and Joe Meissner shouldn’t have any problem digging deep for motivation to train for an 80-kilometre bike race in September.
The father-son duo have formed a cycling team to raise funds for their granddaughter and niece Kate Meissner, and her charity Kate’s Kause, which is building an all-accessible playground in Elmira’s Gibson Park.
“We’re hoping to get 25 riders on our team and they’re going to be asked to raise a minimum donation and then go and do the ride,” said Joe. “We’ll donate all those proceeds to Kate’s Kause.”
Headed by Kelly Meissner, the charity is named after her young daughter Kate, who was diagnosed with Angelman Syndrome about two years ago. Angelman Syndrome is a neurological disease affecting about one in 15,000 people, characterized by a severe global developmental delay. People with AS, or “Angels” as they are sometimes called, can have little or no verbal skills, poor gross and fine motor skills, and possible seizure and sleep disorders.
Each rider on the team will be expected to raise a minimum of $150 through fundraising or a donation, and they will be participating at the Centurion bike race in Blue Mountain from Sept. 14-16 as part of the Kate’s Kause team. Riders can participate in any of the 40-, 80- or 160-km routes, and thus far they’ve already gotten about 20 people to express interest in joining the team.
“We’re pushing for the end of May for a commitment,” said Fred.
If the team does reach the “magic number of 25,” Joe said, they will be allowed to have a Kate’s Kause information booth at the three-day event, which would go a long way in promoting their cause even more.
The one thing they are looking hard to find more of, though, are corporate sponsors to help offset the cost of the team jerseys. Sponsors will have their logo printed on the jerseys, but the order must be sent away in June in time for the ride in September.
Both men have a background in cycling; Joe was a mountain biker during high school and post-secondary school and recently took up road cycling, and Fred has cycled for years, but they both know the Centurion will pose a challenge for them.
They rode the course last fall to test it out, and admitted the 80-km route – which includes an overall climb of about 1,000 metres – will be tough. That is why they are encouraging team members to train this summer and they are organizing training sessions as well.
“If I’m doing this, anyone should be able to get through it,” Fred said.
While the basic playground structure is paid for and construction is slated to begin this spring, there are still additional components that Kate’s Kause want to add to it, which is where this money will go.
“There’s a sensory wall that they’re still trying to raise money for,” explained Fred.
While they say that this year has been more about getting the word out to possible participants and corporate sponsors, they hope to make it an annual fundraiser for the cause and have even bigger plans ahead.
“We’ve always talked about cycling across Canada, and that’s a few years down the road when we have enough time,” said Joe.
For more information on the Kate’s Kause cycling team, email cycling@kateskause.com or visit their website, http://kateskausecycling.weebly.com/. For more information on the Centurion ride visit http://centurioncycling.com/canada/.
