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The Citizen, 2009-07-09, Page 10PAGE 10. THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, JULY 2, 2009. It was a special day, June 30 for Bruce McDonald. Bruce along with his friend Linda, mom Marilyn McDonald and her sister Janie, Jim and Linda McDonald were in Toronto for a special event. They travelled to Queen’s Park and were received in the Lieutenant Governor’s Suite of the Honourable David C. Onley. Bruce was presented with the Governor General’s Caring Canadian Award by Lieutenant Governor Onley. Bruce was nominated for the award for his many community activities in Hanover and area and his work with the juvenile diabetes. Bruce was very honoured and pleased to have his family members present for the award ceremony. They had a nice time following the afternoon ceremony. Congratulations Bruce! George and Ruth Townsend travelled by train to Ottawa for Canada Day. Graeme and Helen Craig, Jim and Janet Papple, Fred and Karen Uhler, Gerald and Nancy Smith and Jack and Mary Helen McLachlan drove there and met up with them. They enjoyed the “cultural experience” for four days before returning home. Enjoying time away before Canada Day were Rod Fritz and Helen Brenie. It was a working holiday for Rod as they travelled to the Niagara region for him to assess a few bushes of the area. They went to a 50-acre botanical garden. At Niagara Falls, they went to the new casino. There was some time spent shopping to complete the holiday away and too soon it was time to return home. Rod recommends the Niagara-on-the-Lake area for a great getaway. Ken and Anne Williamson and other members of their family headed to Engelhart for the wedding of grandson Chris Regele to Anna Flewelling. Chris is the son of Charles and Carolanne Regele formerly of the Brodhagen area. Guests attended from Brodhagen, Dublin, Atwood, Newry and Walton area. They were treated to a beautiful outdoor wedding held in a clearing in the middle of a bush. The trees were decorated with flowers, and the path leading to the area was beautifully adorned as well. The meal and reception were held in Engelhart for the nearly 200 guests. Guests stayed at Engelhart, Earlton and New Liskeard, while some camped on the Regele farm. An open reception for the couple for their Huron and Perth County friends is being held this weekend at the BMG Community Centre. Our world traveller, Lily Fincham and her daughter Valerie Gratto, have returned home after enjoying a seven-day trip to Cape Cod and New England. Their first day of travelling on the bus had them seeing the Hudson River and the scenic Berkshire Mountains of New England. Heading into Hyannis and the port city of Newport they toured the area to see the many beautiful summer mansions built during the 1800s. Lily reports the highlight of that day was visiting the small white church the Kennedys attended. Their next four days were spent on the “70 mile arm” of Cape Cod that reaches into the Atlantic. This is a very popular resort area with its scenic countryside and sandy beaches. At the very tip of the arm isProvincetown, the first landing placeof the early settlers in 1620, thePilgrims.They saw salt marshes, sanddunes, cranberry bogs and seacaptain’s homes. They went whalewatching and the cruise was longer than expected because there were so many whales around the boat, absolutely amazing. Martha’s Vineyard is a beautiful island with many outstanding homes of the elite. It’s a very peaceful and serene atmosphere for a resort haven. The group saw Plymouth Rock and the Mayflower II. They enjoyed wonderful food including lobster dinners a couple of times. The tour then headed into Boston where they had a chance to tour the Kennedy Museum and Library and Quincy Market for shopping and eating. Their last night was spent in Albany, then they headed home. Lily says it was a wonderful tour and she had a wonderful time with her daughter. She reports the accommodations were excellent as were the food, the tour guides and the bus driver. They had wonderful weather and met many friendly folks. Congratulations to Don Williamson and Kaleigh Flynn on the birth of a baby boy, Carson. Carson is the first grandchild for Heather Williamson, the first great- grandchild for Ken and Anne Williamson and the first great-great- grandchild for George and Marie Blake. Little Carson has created a lot of “firsts” for the family. Congratulations to Bob and Joyce Alexander on the birth of a new granddaughter. Brian and Nancy Alexander of Mississauga welcomed Rachel Anne on July 2. Rachel missed being a Canada Day baby by just 26 minutes. Congratulations to Chad and Kristen Fisher on the birth of a baby boy. Liam is another grandson for Murray and Marlene Fisher to make grandchild number four. Our condolences are expressed to the family of Jean Little on her passing. A memorial service was held following a private burial service on Thursday. Our condolences to the Dennis and Wilbee families on the passing of Grace Wilbee of Napanee. Grace was the wife of Ken Wilbee and sister of Murray and Don Dennis and sister-in-law of Ian Wilbee. Our sympathies are extended to Jim and Barb Fritz and family on the passing of sister-in-law, Marilyn Fritz of Palmerston. Marilyn was the wife of Bryon Fritz. Ruth (Sauve) Schade was excited to have a visit with her granddaughter and great- granddaughter this past week. Lori Cere, daughter of Sandra (Sauve) Giesbrecht was here for a visit with 2 1/2-year-old Hannah from New Jersey. I understand she is quite the little go getter. Greg, Nanci, Evan and Danielle Ducharme were off to Frankenmuth, Michigan for a few days. They spent time shopping at Birch Run and checking out the many shops of Frankenmuth. A stop at Port Huron to shop on the way home completed their time away. Graeme and Helen Craig hosted the Elliott family reunion on the weekend. Mary Elliott attended from Vancouver, Emily and husband Scott from Haliburton and Bob and wife Sharon from Kitchener. Guests stayed at the Walton Inn and at campground Craig. They had a wonderful weekend together and had everything cleaned up prior to the rain arriving on Sunday evening. I hope everyone saw the double rainbow on Sunday evening. The one rainbow was quite vivid and the second a little paler. Beautiful.A gathering of the family ofOrville and Lila Storey at their farmon the weekend was dubbed StoreyCampout 2009. It was for a pre-celebration of Orville’s 90thbirthday this fall and for JerryStorey’s 50th birthday now. Orville and Lila had seven children, who have stayed mainly around the area. They are Pat, Goderich; Shirley, Whalen’s Corners; Jack, Clinton; Donna, Goderich; Sherry, Walton; Jerry, home and coming the farthest, Gail from Melford, Saskatchewan. The trailers started arriving on Tuesday evening and after everyone arrived, by Friday, there were 66 members of the family in attendance. The weekend was packed with activities for all including fiddling, music, dancing, eating, survivor team games, family games and just sitting around enjoying each others company. A special gift for all was a t-shirts with “I Survived the Storey Campout 2009”. Sunday afternoon a few extra folks dropped by for a visit with the Storeys and even into the evening, more stopped in. In was a great time for all and the weather co-operated for the many daytime activities. Murray and Sherry McCall were happy to have their family in attendance. Home from England is Carali McCall, and she will be around the area for a couple of weeks. John, Marci and Alivia McCall MacBain arrived for the weekend, then continued on to Vancouver. Shawna, Doug, Jadon and Kolton O’Neill also attended for the weekend festivities and had a great visit among the three sisters. Speedy recovery wishes go out to Edith Wey who suffered a broken hip in a fall last week. The manse has been cleaned up following the renovations. Members of both Duff’s United and Bluevale United were on hand to get the job done. The dozen or so women washed and cleaned and after a few more small jobs to do, the manse will be ready for Rev. Peter and his wife to arrive sometime later this month. Remember, that both churches are on holidays for the month of July. The church basement was beautifully decorated for the celebration of Lavern and Marion Godkin’s 50th wedding anniversary on Saturday. The Godkins had seven children, Dianne, Bruce, Ron, Gary, Donna, Nancy and Sharon. The open house in the afternoon had a great turnout of friends, neighbours and relatives drop by to congratulate the couple. There was a dinner for the family and extended family held following the open house catered by Grace Campbell Catering. Congratulations Lavern and Marion. The Walton Hall was the place for a Blyth Festival Country Supper. The Walton Area Sports Club was the host group as part of their fundraising efforts for the year. Helping to make the supper enjoyable for the 40 theatre patrons were Gloria Wilbee, Jo-Ann McDonald, Heidi McClure, Val Shortreed, Clyde and Cathy McClure, Judy Emmrich and Linda McDonald. Our son, Scott McDonald, plays for the Kitchener Waterloo Outlaws fastball team and they were in a qualifying tournament in Oswego, New York on the weekend. The team arrived on Friday night in Oswego and began play on Saturday morning at 10 a.m. They played four straight games with game one against the hometown CPI Oswego team losing 14-4. The second game was against the Quebec Quyon Flyers, and they won 8-0. Game three had them playagainst an ISC I team, the New YorkGremlins which they lost 3-2. The final game of the day wasagainst Ottawa Easton which theywon again by a score of 8-0. Theyfinished second overall for the dayand advanced to Sunday play. They had a tough game against theOttawa Easton but were the winners in extra innings, 5-4, to advance to the finals. The Outlaws had to play the New York Gremlins, which have a record of 51 wins and no losses for the year. The Outlaws only had nine players for the weekend tournament, but they played well and earned the victory with a 4-3 extra inning win to capture the tournament win. The Outlaws earned the right to play in the World ISC II tournament to be played in Quad Cities, Iowa in August. The team was fortunate to have borrowed a motor home and were able to camp on the lawn of the owner of the Oswego team. He treated them royally with access to food and hospitality and he hosted all of the teams for a barbecue on Saturday evening. Scott reports that it was a great weekend. Celebrating birthdays this past week were Craig Baan, Merton Hackwell, Jeff Linton, Burt Lobb, Ken Pethick, Mike Ryan, Hope Williamson, Bob Humphries, Allison Stevenson, Jonathon Blake, Ralph Bos, Dianne Blake, Lorne Glanville, Brad Knight,Allan Carter, Emily Mitchell, Sean Mitchell and Jasmin Roth. The Walton Brewers travelled to Goderich to play the Orioles on Monday evening. Walton won 12 – 0. The Walton Wonders had a great game against the Chicksters on Thursday evening. It was a back and forth game with teams exchanging the lead six times until the bottom of the seventh had the Chicksters go ahead for the win with a score of 21-16. The Wonders had three batters going four for four at the plate. The Chicksters had some outstanding hits including a grand slam homerun. Teams play NEWS FROM WALTON By Jo-AnnMcDonaldCall 887-6570PEOPLE AROUNDWALTON FRANCOIS AND NICKI RISDON The beautiful French River was the setting for the marriage of Nicki Gropp to Francois Risdon. The bride is the daughter of Mark and Bonnie Gropp of Brussels. The groom is the son of Dr. Eva Kubikova and Gordon Bullock of Ancaster, and the late Michael Risdon. Close to 50 family members and friends gathered at The Lodge at Pine Cove on Friday, June 19, 2009 to begin a weekend of celebration, socializing, boating, fishing and communing with nature. The wedding ceremony was held at 4 p.m. Saturday, June 20, 2009 with pastor Dwight Fryer of Alban officiating. Maid of honour for the occasion was the bride’s sister Ashley Gropp of Toronto. Bridal attendants were Fiona O’Connor of Oakville, a friend of the couple and Anne-Marie Risdon- Pasternak of Rochester, NY, the groom’s sister. Best man was Michael VanMeeteran of Greensville. Ushering guests were Tyrone Laporte of Oakville and Alain Lafond of Fisherville. All are friends of the couple. Special music was provided by guitarist Joshua Gropp of Stratford, brother of the bride, while her older brother Jason Gropp of Kitchener was emcee. After guests departed on Sunday morning, the newlyweds stayed on for a week-long honeymoon before returning to their home in Greensville, near Dundas. Ph o t o b y R o n S c h e f f l e r , H a m i l t o n WW ee dd dd ii nn gg AA nn nn oo uu nn cc ee mm ee nn tt