Walk marks 10th anniversary of 9/11
While millions around the world were glued to their television sets to watch the 10th anniversary of the attacks of Sept. 11, Leon Kehl decided to go for a walk.
The Floradale resident organized a commemorative walk along the seven-kilometre Elmira Lions trail starting at 2 p.m. last Sunday as a solemn act of remembrance and reflection on the day. Despite the short notice, about 20 people from six different countries and four groups of faith joined in.
“I knew with the event coming up there was a lot of saturation in terms of media coverage and I felt we needed to reach out to our neighbours rather than just focusing on that coverage,” said Kehl, a father of four who moved to Floradale about eight years ago.
IN IT TOGETHER About 20 people from across the region and from six different countries around the world met in Floradale Sunday for a 9/11 commemorative walk along the Elmira Lions Trail. The day marked the 10th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks in the United States.
“If everyone who watched two hours of 9/11 coverage had taken those two hours and walked with their neighbours instead, would that have had more of an impact than sitting in front of the TV?”
He was inspired by the website 9/11walks.org, which organized similar walks in 20 different countries around the world. Kehl’s walk was the only registered location in Canada, and he was happy with the cross-section of people who came out.
Those on the walk included Muslims, Sikhs, Eastern-Orthodox Christians and Mennonites.
Ever since the attacks 10 years ago he said he was also concerned with how Muslim Canadians and Americans were coping with suddenly waking up and being viewed with suspicion by their neighbours.
“We talked about where we were on the day and our memories of it to act as ice breaker-type questions to help the dialogue,” said Kehl, who added that he knew some of the people already but most were strangers to each other.
“Just listening to individual stories really seems to connect people. It was interesting talking to the man from Syria because he ended up watching the second plane crash live on the television, and they were shocked and appalled at what was happening; you don’t always hear that.”
The terrorist attacks of 9/11 and the subsequent decade of war, terror and fear around the world have led to thousands of innocent deaths, but Kehl believes that the events of that day should also be seen as a watershed moment to increase our understanding and acceptance of people of other nationalities and religions.
Otherwise, history is doomed to repeat itself.
“Personally it became a trigger for me to ask ‘how did we get to the point where we hate each other so much? How we can change the myth that we have about each other and other cultures to better understand each other?’
“For me that’s how we stop this type of thing in the long run.”
Local EQAO results a mixed bag
Area schools showed mixed results in test scores released Wednesday by the Educational Quality and Accountability Office (EQAO).
The province-wide testing was administered to both the public and Catholic school boards and was delivered to Grade 3 and 6 students to assess reading, writing and math skills, while Grade 9 students were tested on math to determine how many met the provincial standards.
Here in Waterloo Region, the Catholic school system performed as well as or better than the public board across all categories, save for Grade 9 academic math where 84 per cent of public school students met the provincial standard, compared to 81 per cent of Catholic students.
Elmira District Secondary School continued its reputation for strong scores, as the school surpassed board and provincial averages for both applied and academic math by a combined 34 per cent.
The applied scores were particularly strong, with 71 per cent of students meeting the provincial requirement for applied math – compared to 42 per cent province-wide.
“On the whole I think we did quite well, specifically in the applied math courses” said Doug McKlusky, a vice-principal at EDSS who is responsible for EQAO testing at the school, adding that the math department does a good job of preparing the students but that they also include some added incentive to the testing.
Up to 10 per cent of their final grade is tied to their performance on the EQAO math test.
“The kids know that from the very first day so they do tend to take it seriously, and they find provincially that schools who count it as part of the final evaluation the kids do better.”
The school’s performance is a slight regression from last year when 90 per cent of students met the academic curriculum standards and 76 per cent met the applied standards, but McKlusky isn’t too concerned.
“It fluctuates, but the trend over the past few years has been going up,” he said.
For Grade 3 students across the province, 65 per cent were at or above the provincial standard for reading, 73 per cent for writing, and 69 per cent for math. In Grade 6, 74 per cent met the standard for reading, 73 per cent for writing, and 58 per cent for math.
Those scores are all an increase over last year except for math, which saw a two point drop in Grade 3 and a three point drop among Grade 6s.
In the region, it’s a mixed bag of results for elementary school students, with some schools showing dramatic improvements over last years scores, and others showing sharp declines.
For example, at Wellesley Public School Grade 3 students performed below the provincial average in all three categories, achieving a 51 per cent in reading, a 57 per cent in writing and 54 per cent in math, yet the Grade 6 class was at or above the provincial average in all three subjects.
That is a trend familiar to the school, particularly with its rural setting, and students who perform poorly in Grade 3 tend to show dramatic improvements in just three years.
“By Grade 6 they are showing much more evidence of being able to be successful with provincial achievement,” said LeeAnne Andriessen, the principal of Wellesley PS.
That improvement is evident by comparing the current Grade 6 class scores to their scores when they were in Grade 3.
“When they were in Grade 3 they were very, very low. In the 40s and the 30s in reading, writing and math. What that shows is with a little more time we can reduce that gap, and that is very important to us.”
Andriessen said that was one of the purposes of the test, to identify which students need extra attention and to help them improve on those basic skills. She said the focus should be less on the year-to-year scores and more on comparing scores from Grade 3 to 6 to 9 to truly understand the progress made.
The EDSS VP added that score fluctuations are normal from year to year and from school to school, and the important thing is for the scores to trend upwards.
“Each year you get a different batch of kids and different situations, and it’s difficult to compare from school to school too. For me, personally, I think it’s better to look at your own results.”
Provincially, more than 124,000 Grade 3s and 130,000 Grade 6 students were evaluated by the EQAO test, while more than 140,000 Grade 9 students in the province were also evaluated.
A comprehensive report on every school’s performance across the province is available at the EQAO website, www.eqao.com.
Green bliss
When Rachel Jamieson and Andrew Bennett met about six years ago while working at Boundless Adventures camp north of Bancroft, it was their love for the outdoors that brought them together. The pair enjoyed hiking, skiing, paddling and just going on road trips together, and they shared a common passion for the environment.
They’re both born-and-raised Ontarians – she is from St. Jacobs and he is from Hagersville – but their love for the outdoors drew them to Calgary about two years ago. She works as a paramedic and he works with school children who have been diagnosed with mental illness.
When the couple got engaged last July, they wanted their wedding to reflect their enthusiasm for the environment and their love for their community, so they set out to organize a wedding that would not only showcase their dedication to each other, but as a way to celebrate their friends and their families.
Their chosen site was the millrace along the Conestogo River in Rachel’s hometown, and for her that site by the riverbank has had a very special meaning for as long as she can remember.
THE BRIDE WORE WHITE ... AND GREEN Rachel Jamieson and Andrew Bennett wanted their St. Jacobs wedding to be a reflection of their love for each other, the environment and their community. To that end, extra steps were taken to ensure the Calgary couple’s special day would have as little impact on the Earth as possible, but would touch the lives of their families in an enormous way.
“I used to hang out there as a little girl. Any time I went for a walk or left the house I usually ended up down there exploring for treasure along the shores of the river, or going for picnics and trying to catch bugs,” said the 29-year-old. “We wanted to have an outdoor wedding and that felt like a really nice spot to do it.”
They also wanted to have as little impact on the environment as they could, but admit it turned out to be trickier than they expected.
Instead of renting dishes or buying disposable ones, they decided to ask their guests to donate any unused dishes that they might have. That way the couple could save both money and the environment by avoiding needless trash.
What developed was an eclectic group of place settings where each table was different than the next, but it suited the couple’s personalities perfectly. They then donated the dishes to a consignment shop so they could enjoy a new life with a new family.
“Our dishes had all different lives previous to our wedding, and now they’re continuing on in other people’s homes, which is kind of cool,” said Rachel.
Continuing with the dish theme, the couple also gave each guest their own mason jar that they could use to drink from during the night. They asked each guest to keep track of their jar, and should they wish to clean then over the course of the night, a dish station was set up.
“If people felt their glass was getting to skunky to use it again, they could wash it themselves,” she laughed, adding that the jars were then cleaned and donated back to a local family who used them to make preserves.
Instead of traditional seating for the ceremony, the farmer who owned the piece of property donated 110 straw bales for the guests to sit on, and the archway at the front of the aisle was made of old cedar rails from Andrew’s sister’s farm near Simcoe. Both added to the country feel of the wedding and made use of old materials to make something new.
One of the biggest ways they decided to go green was by avoiding any paper invitations. Rachel built a website to keep their guests informed of the date and location, as well as the finer points of the wedding, and sent electronic invitations through email closer to the date with a link back to the
website.
“We really wanted to have as little impact as possible and it was actually really tricky to do, so we weren’t 100 per cent green but we certainly gave it a good effort,” said Rachel.
Another huge aspect of the wedding was to encourage a sense of community and family bonding through the preparation. To that end, all the food was made from scratch in the kitchen of her parents St. Jacobs home. She arrived home from Calgary on July 20 to start the preparations for the wedding scheduled for exactly one month later.
“Food is really important to us, we spend a lot of time sourcing our food locally at home [in Calgary] and preparing meals, so that was a huge contributing factor to our wedding.”
She said it was as if the house had a revolving door, new people were coming and going every day, cooking and preparing and preserving and freezing, she said.
The menu included a veritable feast of local food. Roasted red pepper and yam soup, caesar salad with portobello mushrooms, grass-fed and hormone-free beef raised in Baden, veggie burgers, potato salad, pickles, pie and chocolate beet cake – none of which were prepared using processed ingredients.
“All of us spent a lot of time at the market meeting local producers and grabbing fresh produce, and all of our flowers came from within St. Jacobs,” she said.
“All of that was literally a stones-throw away from where we were.”
With all of the work involved in preparing for the wedding – on top of the dress fittings, rental of the Waterloo Rod and Gun Club for their reception, and the coordination of all their guests – it would have been easy for the stress to become overwhelming for the family.
And while tempers did flare at some points, Rachel said it was well worth the effort.
“It was so wonderful because we don’t have that many opportunities to go home and spend time with friends and family, and by having those three weeks together the sense of community was just amazing.”
They also took solace in knowing that they would be spending the rest of their lives together, and that it was going to be a party to remember regardless of the pains along the way. The wedding went off without a hitch and all their guests had a truly memorable time.
“Things didn’t go perfectly, and when they didn’t, nobody would have known that something was not the way that we had intended.”
Brenner takes part in Leafs’ rookie camp
This past week, 25 of the Toronto Maple Leafs top rookies converged in Oshawa for a three-game tournament against rookies from the Ottawa Senators, Pittsburgh Penguins and the Chicago Blackhawks.
Among them was Tyler Brenner, a 23-year-old Linwood native who said the rookie camp and tournament was an important step to take in his development as a professional hockey player.
“It’s been a very high pace and a great experience, especially getting a few games in right before main camp, which is nice,” he said on Monday afternoon, the team’s lone day off during the four-day event.
Although Brenner has been in Toronto and skating with members of the Leafs NHL squad for the past three weeks, the rookie tournament officially started with a team practice on Sept. 10 and ended with a 4-3 overtime loss to Ottawa on Tuesday night.
Brenner was a healthy scratch in that game, as well as the team’s first matchup against Chicago, a 4-2 win Saturday, but he performed well and collected a goal and an assist in the team’s 5-1 win over Pittsburgh on Sunday while skating on the third line with Kenny Ryan and Kyle Neuber.
The 6’2”, 200-pound forward said that he hopes his production in that game, as well as his physical style, helped turn some of the coaches’ heads and will give him some confidence heading into the main Leafs camp this weekend.
“I think it created a little more space for me and my linemates. It gets me more involved and into the game,” he said.
Brenner also said the team of young skaters was beginning to gel and generate some good chemistry, which should bode well not only for the Toronto Marlies, the AHL affiliate for the Toronto Maple Leafs, but for the big club as well in the coming years.
With the Leafs NHL roster pretty well set for the upcoming season, odds are Brenner will have the chance to get to know most of the guys even better playing for the Marlies.
“It’s great to meet them all because I’ll be playing with them for the next couple of years,” he said. “I feel a little more comfortable and at ease and not so nervous. It’s a great experience overall.”
The former Sugar King captain potted 41 goals and 35 assists in his final season in Elmira back in 2006/2007 before earning a scholarship to the Rochester Institute of Technology south of the border. He was a standout player for RIT, registering 26 goals and 41 points in his final season last year.
The Leafs signed him to a two-year contract in March, a lifelong dream for the boy who grew up cheering for the blue and white. He scored twice in his AHL debut with the Marlies and finished with six points in the final eight games of the AHL season.
Brenner is confident that his decision to attend RIT was the right one for his development, and should serve him well in his continuing quest to make it to the NHL when camp opens Friday.
“It’s a fast-paced game in the States so when I came to the AHL it was a little tougher and guys were a little bigger, but I just continued to play the way I had been at school, and things have worked out.”
Hockey’s back and it’s game on for the Kings
It’ll be uncharted territory for members of the Elmira Sugar Kings this year when they start the regular season as the defending Ontario Junior B champions for the first time in a decade.
The Kings opened their season last night (Friday) in Owen Sound to take on the Greys and take to the ice tomorrow (Sunday) in their home-opener, an afternoon tilt against the Listowel Cyclones at 2 p.m. at the Dan Snyder arena.
ON THE PUCK Sugar King Cassidy Frey handles the puck as he skates down the ice against the Stratford Cullitons Sept. 4.
After a grueling preseason schedule that saw the team play five games in nine nights, head coach Dean DeSilva is ready to get the season underway, his first behind the Elmira bench.
“I can’t wait to get the season started. Training camp is always tough but I’m really pleased. I’m looking forward to getting started,” he said.
“We do have some work to do still, but overall I’m really happy with where we’re starting the season.”
The team features a good mixture of first-year and returning players. In goal, fans will recognize Nick Horrigan who is entering his third season with the team. He will be joined by newcomer Nick Coone from Cambridge.
Hopefully that tandem can provide some stability in goal because the defence has witnessed a lot of turnover.
Gone are Shane Smith and Jordan Benton, along with Cory Genovese and all-star Wade Pfeffer. Only two defenders from last year’s squad – new captain Colton Wolfe-Sabo and second-year player Clayton Greer – are back, and they will be called on to be a steadying presence for the young core of blueliners, DeSilva said.
“We’re still pretty young at the back end and we haven’t even started working on any systems or anything,” said DeSilva, stressing the importance of maintaining good defensive presence in the zone and making a good first pass to start the offence.
Getting the puck to the forwards will be critical, because that is where the Kings should really shine. With the return of six Kings from last season, including leading scorer Lukas Baleshta and rookie of the year Brady Campbell, as well as former King Riley Sonnenberg who suited up for the Guelph Storm of the OHL last year, putting the puck in the net shouldn’t be Elmira’s primary concern this season after finishing fourth in the conference last year with 219 goals.
“We have a lot of offensive players and I’m going to give them full room for creativity,” said DeSilva.
Sunday’s home opener will have some extra flair as the Kings will raise their Sutherland Cup champion banner and present last year’s team with their championship rings, something the head coach knows will likely distract many of his players leading up to their Cherrey Cup finals rematch with the Cyclones.
“It’s going to be tough for our guys to focus, there is going to be a lot going on and it could provide some motivation for Listowel, so we have to be ready for that and I think if we can get through the first period of the game relatively unscathed we should be alright.”
The puck drops at 2 p.m. but fans should get there early for the pre-game festivities.
Well owners encouraged to be, well, aware
Out of sight, out of mind. Unfortunately, when it comes to groundwater, that saying can have dangerous consequences. Up to 75 per cent of drinking water in Waterloo Region comes from the ground, and only about one-quarter of all well owners remember to test their well water at least three times per year as recommended by the province.
Groundwater contamination is also something that residents of Elmira and St. Jacobs are familiar with after area aquifers became contaminated with chemicals from the Uniroyal (now Chemtura) plant, requiring water to be pumped in from Waterloo since 1992.
It is with that in mind that the Waterloo-based Residential Energy Efficiency Project is holding a pair of information workshops on its Well Aware program for rural, non-agricultural well owners.
The program is aimed at increasing homeowner education surrounding wells and well maintenance, and it includes an introduction to the Well Aware program, practical tips for water protection and well and septic maintenance, a free Well Aware kit with information about licensed well contractors and the importance of having your well tested, water sample bottles and the opportunity to register REEP’s free well check-up.
“This program really just continues REEP’s ongoing dedication to helping protect the environment through education,” said Susan Bryant, a certified water guide who will be leading the two workshops later this month.
“I’ve been doing this for about three years and I am just passionate about protecting our groundwater.”
WELL-NESS PROGRAM Susan Bryant will be leading a pair of Well Aware programs later this month in Elmira and Ayr with the aim of increasing well, septic and groundwater awareness, such as the effectiveness of new well plugs like the one she is holding.
She said that many homeowners just aren’t aware of the dangers and issues that can be associated with having a well improperly maintained. Over the course of one of her free visits, Bryant spends about 90 minutes inspecting the well and the cap and informing home owners about the importance of minimizing the sources of contamination within 50 and 100 feet of the well.
The visits are also voluntary, non-regulatory and confidential – which is a big selling point to well owners, she said.
“I think that is why the program is so popular, because we don’t report anything, we just make recommendations to the owner,” Bryant explained.
There are two scheduled Well Aware information workshops scheduled, the first is Sept. 20 at the Elmira Public Library from 7-8:30 p.m. and the second is on Sept. 28 at the Ayr Public Library, also from 7-8:30 p.m.
The sessions are free, though donations to REEP are welcome, and Bryant said there are also about 30 spots left for free well checkups this fall. For more information call REEP at (519) 744-9799 or visit www.reepgreen.ca.
And the race is on in Kitchener-Conestoga
Ontario voters are poised to return to the polling booths for the third time in 12 months as the provincial election officially got under way on Wednesday morning. Premier Dalton McGuinty started the campaign for the Oct. 6 election with a visit to Lt.-Gov. David Onley to formally dissolve the legislature. It stands to be one of the more interesting provincial elections in recent memory as the Tim Hudak-led Conservatives look to match the success of their federal counterparts and end McGuinty’s eight years of Liberal leadership.
Meanwhile, both the NDP and the Green Party look to ride on the wave of optimism and success that their parties enjoyed back in May when the NDP were named the official opposition and the Green Party under Elizabeth May secured their first-ever seat in Parliament.
Locally, Kitchener-Conestoga candidates have been knocking on doors for weeks – and in some cases, months – trying to get a jump on the election. Voters should be prepared to see some familiar faces, as Liberal MPP Leeanna Pendergast, PC candidate Michael Harris, and the NDP’s Mark Cairn all ran four years ago.
“I’ve been doing a lot of hard work for the past four years,” laughed Pendergast when asked how she was preparing for the upcoming election. 
The Liberals are basing much of their platform on their track record of job creation, education reform and healthcare improvements. According to the official party website, 81 per cent of students now complete high school, up from 68 per cent in 2003, the province has created more full-time jobs this year than the rest of Canada combined, and made universal health care law in the province and banned two-tier health care.
The party also announced this week a new tuition grant program that would help save $1,600 per student in university and $730 per student in college annually.
For Pendergast, though, this election is more than just towing the party lines.
“For me this is about real life,” said Pendergast, adding that a vote for Hudak would be a return to the slash and cut days of Mike Harris, whose cuts she picketed during her days as a school teacher.
Her most notable opponent is Conservative candidate Michael Harris, who lost to Pendergast in the last election by fewer than 2,000 votes. Harris said that constituents are tired of being stretched thin by McGuinty’s tax-and-spend policies.
“The last eight years Ontario families have seen their budgets get a bite taken out of them and I think they need and deserve some relief,” said Harris. “Under our leader Tim Hudak, we have every intention of providing that relief that they need.”
Among their platform policies, the Conservatives say they will remove the provincial portion of the HST off of home heating and hydro bills, cancel the McGuinty eco-tax, and lower income taxes by five per cent on the first $75,000 of taxable income.
“People don’t mind paying taxes but they’re tired of the waste,” said Harris.
The NDP candidate for the riding, Mark Cairns, has high hopes for his party following their federal success in May.
“Of the 1,000 houses I’ve been to so far I can remember one person slamming the door in my face, and that was a much higher number four years ago,” said Cairns of his reception by the public thus far.
“Around here it’s always been Liberal or Conservative, but I think in this particular riding people are more accepting of the NDP and see us as the better alternative.”
The NDP, under the guidance of Andrea Horwath, are campaigning on making life more affordable for Ontarians by removing the HST from daily essentials, freezing transit fares and putting an end to gas-price gouging.
The party also wants to reward companies for job creation rather than across-the-board tax cuts in the hopes of creating jobs, and cutting hospital emergency room waiting times in half.
“We have a very large area here and it’s growing rapidly, specifically in the south end of Kitchener, so freezing transit fares and expanding the reach of transit is very important,” said Cairns.
Cairns said he learned many lessons after the last election when he came a distant third behind Pendergast and Harris with about 4,500 vote, and that him and his team were better prepared this time around. He also sees the NDP emerging thanks to the leadership of the late Jack Layton.
“Jack’s perseverance definitely brought us out of the political wilderness so to speak and made us realize that we’re not the write-off third party. The NDP is becoming a more tangible option with the passing of each day.”
The Green Party candidate, Robert Rose, is running for the first time in politics and felt that now was the time to capitalize on the renewed interest in the Green Party and their message.
The party is campaigning on a message of lowering income taxes, balancing the budget by 2015, freezing tuition rates and increasing investment in co-op and mentorship programs.
On the more local level, Rose is concerned with the disappearance of farmland and the fact that small communities have reduced access to medical facilities due to their distance from major urban centres.
Rose said that the current parties are stuck looking at the past, rather than what the future will bring.
“That’s what the Green Party is about, we think about today but we have a strong focus as well on tomorrow and trying to ensure that everything turns in the right direction,” he said.
Despite the optimism growing around the Green Party – which only captured 2,783 votes four years ago under candidate Colin Jones – Rose is realistic about the party’s chances.
“I realize that it’s not like the Green Party is going to come out with a majority government, but the ideas and the fundamentals are in place now.
“Whether it happens this election or next, Green MPPs are going to go to parliament.”
Wellesley nearer to a decision on Sunday hunting
The Township of Wellesley will finally see a resolution to a request for Sunday gun hunting that was tabled earlier this summer.
Meeting Tuesday night, councillors agreed to vote on the subject at their next scheduled meeting set for Sept. 20 in Crosshill.
“I think there’s enough information. I’m satisfied with the information I have and I’ve canvassed people around the area and I’m very confident in the decision that I will be making at the time, so I would like to see this get resolved,” said Coun. Herb Neher.
The issue was raised after a petition was submitted to council by Dusan A. Cizman that included some 51 signatures of township residents in opposition to the Sunday gun hunting proposal.
No delegates for or against the bylaw change were present at Tuesday’s meeting, and Mayor Ross Kelterborn read the petition aloud.
“We have problems now six days a week [...]. We all need a day of rest and worship, and do not need strangers trespassing on our rural lands,” he read.
“Approximately 12.5 per cent of Wellesley is wooded to some extent, not enough to kill and find wildlife.”
The change to the bylaw was proposed back on July 4 when delegates from the Nith River Wild Turkey Conservation Association (NRWTCA) and the Ontario Federation of Anglers and Hunters made an appeal to councillors to permit Sunday gun hunting.
They argued it would decrease predation on crops and livestock, would help increase public safety and potentially provide increased economic activity in the area.
NRWTCA president Derek Snyder called the law “outdated” and suggested that Wellesley should follow the lead of other townships that have made the change to permit Sunday gun hunting, including neighbouring Wilmot Township.
At the time, councillors were concerned that Sunday gun hunting would disrupt the religious members of the township, but agreed to take the information provided to them to their constituents over the summer.
The municipality on at least two occasions within the last several years passed a resolution not to support Sunday hunting, most recently in 2006.
In the Region of Waterloo, only North Dumfries and Wilmot allow Sunday hunting, while 172 municipalities across the province also permit it.
A part of Woolwich’s ringette history
Untwist the brush from your mothers broom, file off the picks of your figure skates, put some sort of a helmet on and meet me at the arena. With those words from a woman named Carol Fisher back in 1972, ringette was born in Woolwich Township. One of the girls to heed that call was Brenda Poole, and she has made the sport a passionate component of her life ever since.
Earlier this year Poole announced she would be leaving her post as the president of the Woolwich Minor Ringette Association, a position she has held for the past eight seasons during one of the darkest times in their club’s history.
That decision has given her a chance to reflect on the nearly four decades of involvement in the sport, where it has been and where it is heading.
“I was the first to jump in, I thought it was right up my alley,” said Poole, who was 13 when she first signed up. “I don’t remember much about that first year other than learning to skate and having fun.”
COMING FULL CIRCLE Brenda Poole has made ringette an important part of her life for nearly four decades and the game has become a three-generation sport for her family, with her mother and three daughters joining her on the ice. Poole has stepped down as president of the Woolwich Minor Ringette Association after eight years at the helm.
The sport enjoyed a boom in the early going. That first team formed the same year the St. Jacobs arena opened, and they had only 10 players. By 1975, however, the association boasted 100.
Even the players’ mothers, led by Carol Fisher, Karen Schwartz and Brenda’s mother Mary Metzger, organized their own Thursday morning league in 1973/74 so that they too could enjoy the sport.
“The ladies said ‘we’ll send our girls off to school and go play ringette.’ It was just way too much fun and they were going to learn it too,” Poole laughed.
The number of players in the association would more than double throughout the 1980s, but began to wane in the late 1990s and into the 2000s once Woolwich got its own girls’ hockey association.
Having served on the executive for a number of years already, Poole became the president in 2003 and set out to try to save her beloved sport.
“I can’t take any credit for building the association and making all these wonderful things happen,” Poole
said. “The key was survival and keeping active.”
Through her efforts, such as reviving the annual Sugar Ring tournament and renewing the recruitment, training and coaching efforts of younger players, the league managed to survive and is once again starting to grow.
She said that the developmental teams with girls aged four and five years old right through to 10 years old is beginning to grow, and now has six different teams.
“We had to rebuild the association and we started working from the ground roots up developing the younger players and filling the association from the bottom up.”
She has decided to step down from her position as president after the politics and procedure involved in running the association became too much, passing the torch on to new president Carole Schwartz – who was once coached by Poole back in 1977 while making her way through the system.
“She always has a great sense of enthusiasm and an enormous smile on her face,” said Schwartz, who joined the executive three years ago as a volunteer. “She wanted everyone to just enjoy the sport and learn to trust each other.
“Her commitment is just incredible.”
Poole is certain that the association remains in good hands. She will remain on in a minimized capacity as past-president just to help with the transition.
“There are lots of good local people with lots of energy and ideas and the focus on the kids, definitely if it doesn’t increase, it will hold its own.”
Ringette will always have a special place in her heart for the way it has brought her family together. Not only does Poole continue to play, her mother – who will be 74 this year – also still plays in the Thursday morning recreational league, the only remaining player from that original league in the early ’70s.
Poole’s three daughters, Jennifer, 29, Amanda, 20, and Michelle, 18, have also played the sport since they were old enough to skate.
In a neat twist, Poole has played on the recreational team with her mother for many years now, and 10 years ago they were joined by her eldest daughter, Jennifer. Last season, Amanda also joined the team and Poole is hoping to have Michelle in the ranks this coming season as well, her first year of eligibility.
“It’s really unique to play with your kids. We’ve got a really good relationship and don’t have to speak on the ice, we know where each other will be,” said Poole.
“I was involved in coaching all three of them so with them knowing how I think and coach we just know where to be.”
To say the sport has changed since she first signed up as a precocious 13-year-old would be an understatement. From broom handles to basketball knee pads, the equipment was a little less refined than it is today. There were no facemasks or teeth protection in those days, either, and often players had to wear a pair of ski gloves to protect their hands.
Eventually they started ditching the broom handles and began using old hockey sticks with the blades sawed off, still a far cry from the composite and aluminum ringette sticks available today.
“I still like wooden sticks, though,” smiled Poole. “Good, old-fashioned wood.”
Pulling their weight in Elora
Check out these great images from the Elora Tractor Pull on August 27th at the Grand River Raceway.
