HomeMy WebLinkAboutHuron Expositor, 2000-08-09, Page 1AIMINIMMINA
August 9, 2000
Si
(includes GST)
€4,.‘
2000
BLUE
RIBBON
In brief
Chuck
Zehr
joins
Seaforth
OPP,
Akey
heads.
to Exeter
Chuck Zehr has
joined the Seaforth
office of the Huron
OPP.
Zehr trades placed
with Charles Akey
who has taken a
transfer to the Exeter
detachment . where
Zehr had been
stationed until June.
14, when he
officia,ily came to
Seaforth. .
Zehr is now on
regular patrols in the
community and
comes to Seaforth
after 20 years .of
experience with the
Mitchell Police
Service.
He joined the OPP
in March, 1997, after
OPP began providing
police services in
Mitchell under a
municipal contract,
like Seaforth's.
He spent time with
London OPP,
patrolling the 401
and surrounding
country -side and
eventually
transferred to Lucan
and then Exeter.
"1 like small-town
policing," he said,
adding he has
already enjoyed his
. time spent in
Seaforth.
"I'm quite
impressed with the
town," he said,
especially of its
friendliness.
He is married, has
two children and
lives in Mitchell.
His son is a staff
sergeant with the
police in St. Thomas
-and his daughter is a
constable with the
Hamilton/Wentworth
police.
Inside...
Fire
convention
coverage
continues
on Pages
3, 6, 7,
and 13
Firefighters overwhelmed
bv response to convention
By Susan Hundertmark
Expositor Staff
Firefighters attending the
annual Firefighters'
Association of Ontario
convention in Seaforth over
the weekend were
"overwhelmed" by the
town's hospitality, says
Seaforth deputy fire chief
Tom Phillips.
"Everyone said we did a
great job. I heard that over
and over and they don't say
that unless they mean it,"
says Phillips of the response'
visiting firefighters had
during a receiving line at the
end of Monday morning's
parade.
The town almost doubled
in size with about 2,000
people. 'attending the
convention from all over
southwestern Ontario and as
far away as Fort Erie.
Phillips said the
firefighters had only positive
comments about all the
decorations around town,
especially on Main Street
where merchants displayed
firefighter toys and
memorabilia in their
storefronts.
' Shoppers were pleased
with the participation of all
downtown merchants who
decorated in the firefighting
theme, says Liz Cardno, of
Cardno Men's Wear.
"And, the local firemen
were commended highly by
anyone who came in the store
from the convention," she
says.
Firefighter and local
merchant Pete Martene says
he's heard other downtown
merchants benefitted from
the convention being in town.
"1 heard the liquor store
and grocery store did very
well and it was just a great
weekend overall," he says.
Phillips says visiting
firefighters were also
impressed by the "little
extras" provided during the
convention, such as water
supplied to all the marchers
in the two parades and
volunteer nurses available
throughout the convention.
He says both nights of
entertainment, including the
Saturday night dance at the
Agriplex and the Sunday
night dance and fish fry at the
arena were sold out.
As well, the firefighter
games went smoothly both
Saturday and Sunday
afternoons, with the Seaforth
ladies' auxiliary placing
second in both the bucket
race, with a time of one
minute, 30 seconds and the
water ball competition.
The Seaforth All -Girls
Marching Band also placed
first in the best band
Sao CLOSURES, Page 2
Members of the Seaforth Fire Department led Mondays parade.
Jimmy Campbell with the Clinton Pipe Band in Monday's
parade.
Scott Hilgendorff photo
Firefighter games were held Saturday and Sunday afternoon at the Agriplex.
New play by Dave Scott to be read. at Blyth
By Scott Hilgendorff
Expositor Editor
A third play written by Seaforth's Dave Scott
will receive a reading at the Blyth Festival Theatre
Aug. 11.
Set in the early 1980s, in Across the River, Scott
has told the story of a couple, refugees from Laos,
who have come to live with a Huron County
family.
After more than a year of research for the play,
Scott said, "1 basically created the characters and
transplanted them [from Laos] into coming to
Huron County, not really knowing fully what rural
Canada was like."
From experiencing snow for the first time to
coping with local people's racial fears of
immigrants, Scott said the script covers a wide
range of issues relating to the refugees that came to
this region as "boat people" as they were known at
the time to escape communist rule in countries like
Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia, following the rise of
communism in those countires after the Vietnam
War.
Unlike headlines today of .ilegal Chinese
immigrants arrive in the west coast or' being
smuggled across the boarder from Walpole Island
into Michigan, the refugees in Scott's play are
based on those who came to the area in the early
1980s after escaping their countries to Thailand
where they were linked with Canadian and
American immigration programs that found places
for them to live for at least a year, with several
coining to Huron County.
After being commissioned by Blyth to write a
play about that subject matter in 1998, Scott began
interviewing families who housed Laotian,
Cambodian and Vietnamese refugees and some of
those refugees who still live in the area.
"1 did quite a lot of research before 1 wrote a
single word," said Scott.
Before starting on the project, Scott didn't
realize the refugees came from countries other than
Vietnam, after the war.
IJe discovered that thousands of tons of bombs
had been dropped on Laos during the conflict and
that after the Vietnam War, communism continued
to spread through neighbouring countries like
Laos, leading to more than just Vietnamese
families fleeing their home countries.
See CLOSURES, Pogo 2
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