The Citizen, 2012-09-06, Page 9THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 6, 2012. PAGE 9. Summer’s over, school’s in for columnist, bus driver
It’s September and it’s back to
normal. No more sleeping in.
Children wait to be picked up and
taken to school. Excited to see their
friends, their new teacher, their bus
driver! Well, maybe not the bus
driver, but it is always great to see
my “kids” again. It is always fun to
see how much they have grown, their
changes in looks as they have
matured and even their personality
changes. The shy ones have become
more outgoing and the little ones
more confident and the older ones –
too cool to talk to the younger ones.
An interesting mix of one and all,
but makes for an interesting drive.
Welcome back to school and it’sonly three weeks until the first P.A.day and only four months untilChristmas break.
Jean Bewley has returned from an
enjoyable trip to the west. She was
attending the wedding of her
nephew, Ian Hopchin in Edmonton.
She flew to Calgary with her
daughter Mary Baker of Bolton and
stayed with daughter Brenda and
Dan Raven in Airdrie. They went to
the wedding in Edmonton and had a
great time. Jean’s grandsons John
and wife Jilly and Scott and wife
Heather of Alberta, and grandson
Matt and girlfriend Maggie of
Toronto also attended. The highlight
was Jean’s great-granddaughter
Bree, who was the flower girl. Bree
and her little brother Corbin, were
on the dance floor all night and
danced up a storm with everyone.
Jean enjoyed a great visit with all her
family in the west and returned after
eight days away. Welcome back
Jean.
Get-well wishes go out to two
Procter women. Grace Procter
suffered a fall and has some brokenribs. She is coming along and wehope she is feeling better every day.Mary Procter also suffered a fall that
resulted in a nasty cut on her knee.
She required quite a few stitches and
we hope she is healing nicely.
Agnes Ten Pas has returned from a
trip to Hope, British Columbia and a
visit with daughter Linda and family.
Accompanying her were her son
Paul and his son Drew from Toronto.
Linda picked the trio up from
Abbotsford Airport and they went on
their first adventure. They went to
see the Hope Chainsaw Competition
and then to the Hope Museum. The
next day they travelled to Yale, B.C.
and went on the Hell’s Gate Air
Tram. It is a trolley that transports
people from one side to the other,
over water, at Yale.
Linda and her son Kirk, Paul and
Drew spent the next day hiking Hope
Mountain. The boys found many
treasures on the hike and more when
they went to the ocean later. A
former Brussels boy, Chris Conaboy,
met up with Paul and Drew and he
took them out on a boat toVancouver’s Granville Island andthey toured the Pacific VancouverHarbour. They had a great day
together.
The group then travelled on the
B.C Ferry to Nanaimo to meet with
Linda’s husband Pete and son Nick.
Nick was in “Gold in the Net”
hockey training camp. Nick is only
one camp away from receiving a
hockey scholarship. The group
camped at Parksville. The boys
watched Nick at hockey camp and
went for a swim in the Pacific
Ocean. Their journey then took them
to Duke Point where they caught the
ferry to take them to Twassen and
then home to Hope which was full
day’s travel. They spent the next day
hiking to the Othello Tunnels near
Hope and the next day it was back to
Abbotsford and the flight home. It
was certainly a jam-packed
adventure for the 10 days they were
away.
A special honour for Linda’s
husband Pete, was his presentation
of a Queen’s Diamond Jubilee
Medal on Sept. 3, by aCommissioner of Ottawa, for hiscontinued efforts in volunteering inthe community, while working for
the Government of Canada. Pete and
Linda both worked for the Federal
Corrections Centre. Congratulations
to Pete and welcome home Aggie!
Progress was certainly made on
the shed on our farm on Thursday
and Friday. Scott assembled some
extra help on Thursday and a lot of
the strapping was done. Friday
morning, the crane arrived and a
crew of about a dozen men went to
work. In just over three hours the
trusses were in place and the crane
was pulling out. The second layer of
small truss work was accomplished
by mid-afternoon. What a great job
the guys did.
The house on the former George
Love farm, North Line, was knocked
down this past week. The Terpstras
are taking down a shed and have cut
the trees down on the old Fisher farm
on Hullett-McKillop Rd., and the
house has started to crumble. The
trees and house on another of their
farms on Canada Company Road has
also suffered damage and will be
coming down as well.
By Jo-Ann
McDonald
Call
887-6570
PEOPLE AROUNDWALTON
NEWS
FROM WALTON
Band members return from Scotland trip
A group of five members of the
Brussels Legion Pipe Band have
returned from an extraordinary
adventure in Scotland. They were
part of the Can/Am Pipe and Drum
Band that travelled for 21 days
playing in many towns and villages
across Scotland. Two of the
members were Walton and Brussels
folks, Joan Perrie and Donald
Martin, with wife Yvonne. The
group arrived in Glasgow and had
three days of rehearsal with the rest
of the 60-member band. They stayed
at Holly Hall at the University of
Edinburgh. They were mostly
Canadians from Ontario, the Yukon
and western provinces as well as
some Americans.
The Pipe Major was Jamie York, a
United Church Minister from
Bowmanville. The group had 30
different tartans represented. They
travelled to many places and played
sometimes twice a day. They would
either parade and the townspeople
would line the parade route or play
mini concerts by themselves or with
the town’s own pipe bands. They
would be treated to civic receptions
in some of the towns and met many
friendly local people.
Some of the 22 places they played
in included Edinburgh, Glenco,
Inverness, Fort William, Lairothol,
Bitlockie, Carlisle, Hawick,
Werewick, Blairsthol, Berewick
Ypon Tweed, Sterling Castle in
Sterling and at Dunfermline.
Dunfermline was the home of
Andrew Carnegie (of Carnegie
Library fame). He left Scotland to go
to America where he made his
monies and when he returned to
Dunfermline, he bought a park and
donated the lands to the town. The
group of 60 band members and 30
others report having a wonderful
time and thoroughly enjoyed their
time in Scotland.
Grandma Pat Dalton was
accompanied by her seven-year-old
grandson Jordan to visit her sister
Gerry in Montreal last week. Jordan
has always been fascinated by trains,
so a train trip to Kingston was
planned. They travelled to Kingston
on Friday and the trip took longer
than usual because of delays, but the
trip home on Sunday was about six
hours. Jordan has asked Grandma if
they can have a special train trip
every year.
Steve and Marni Knight have
returned from a trip to the east coast
and a visit with Steve’s sister Joanne
and family. They were away from
Sunday to Saturday evening and
report having the best weather ever
while visiting New Brunswick. The
highlight of the week was a trip to
TreeGo. It is an adventure resort in
ziplining, tree climbing, tight-rope
walking, and log balancing, across
interesting terrain. There are four
levels to the adventure and the group
accomplished one, two and three.
Marni reports it is quite a workout
and hopefully next time they go,
they will complete level four. Joanne
and Weldon’s son, Andrew is
starting University in Fredericton
this fall and they had a family “good
luck, have fun and enjoy your year at
school” night. Steve and Marni
report having a great holiday.
Heather (McGavin) Kelso, Jessica
and Ella from North Bay, spent a
week at Pine Lake at the McGavin
trailer. Heather had many of her
friends over to visit and they had a
great week of fun and visiting.
Students are heading back to
school and that includes schools
near and far. Brandon McGavin
has returned to school in Olds,
Alberta. Brandon, Shelley and Tyson
drove to Olds, heading out last
Wednesday. They had a few days
together after settling Brandon in
and then, Shelley and Tyson flew
home again.
Pat and Brent Melady and a friend
also drove west last week. Brent and
a friend are attending school in
Olds also. Pat was going to spend
time visiting cousins in Edmonton
while out there and will fly
home mid week.
A motor vehicle collision last
week has resulted in Catrina Josling
being hospitalized for awhile.
She has suffered a badly broken
ankle and broken forearm. She is
now in Wingham Hospital after
spending four days in London
Hospital and undergoing surgery
there. We hope she recovers quickly
and we hope she has lots of visitors
to help pass the time while in
hospital.
Celebrating birthdays this past
week and kicking off the month of
September include Mary Lou
Driscoll, Maxine Houston, Jason
Shortreed, Vicki Carter, Jaedon
O’Neill, Brent Pryce, Shirley
Skinner, Barb Finlayson, Joelle
Glanville, Terry Thompson, Kim
Humphries Kruse, Daniel Forbes,
James Emmrich, Bryan Finlayson,
Jamie Mitchell and Haden Flood.
Happy birthday to all.
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McGavin earns dancing awards
After four years of dance, Teegan
McGavin, from the Walton area, has
quite a bit of hardware to show off.
McGavin, a former Brussels
Public School student, is now a
Grade 7 student who started at the
F.E. Madill Secondary School
earlier this week, has brought home
enough awards for her solo
contemporary and acrobatic dancing
over the past year to fill a trophy
case and has no plans of stopping.
“This year I went to five
competitions and I plan on doing
five dances again next year,” she
said.
The fact that she participates in
five dances and officially practises
three times a week keeps her at the
1st level of competition but only
just. The decision to stay there was
one made based on suggestions from
her dance instructors, but she’s got a
bright future ahead of her.
“Next year I’m going to be
auditioning for the National Ballet
School for their summer program,”
she said. “My teachers suggested I
do that.”
Coming to the competition of
acrobatic and contemporary dance
was a long path for McGavin and the
decision was made based on the
suggestion of a friend.
“My friend, Lorren Poland,
wanted me to try and it just sort of
went from there,” she said.
McGavin’s mother, Shannon, now
a teacher at F.E. Madill and formerly
at Brussels Public School, said that
Teegan went through a lot of
different activities before she settled
on dance.
“She tried everything,” she said.
“She tried hockey, figure skating,
horseback riding, just everything
and then she found dance.”
When McGavin found dancing,
however, it seems that dancing
found her according to Shannon.
“Teegan’s graceful, it’s kind of a
hidden talent,” she said. “You can’t
always see that kind of grace
on skates but she has really
taken to dance.”
Teegan explained that her
instructors, Courtney Nelson and
Jenna Hart of Danceology M.W.O.
in Lucknow, felt her true strengths
are her legs and her feet and that
they try and showcase what she can
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Continued on page 10