Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Goderich Signal-Star, 1981-11-04, Page 17Dorothy Wallace was recently honored in Halifax with a Heritage Canada Foundation Community Service Award for her involvement in the preservation of historic architecture in Goderich. ( Photo by Cath Wooden) Dorothy Wallace honored with heritage award In Halifax on October. 22, Dorothy Wallace received • a Community Service Award from The. Heritage Canada Foundation for her involvement in preserving the historicarchitecture in Goderich. Goderich Town. Council nominated Mrs. Wallace for the award and she was one of two Community Service Award winners from Ontario. The other *as Gerry Musselman of Preston who won a long battle to save the 127 -year-old Preston school and turn it into a senior citizens' housing complex. . There were 26 award winners in four categories named from 105 entrants. Mrs. Wallace was presented with a medallion and scroll by Honourable John E. Shaff- ner, Lieutenant -Governor of Nova Scotia. Mrs. Wallace was nominated for her service as a volunteer on many heritage:- related eritage-related societies and boards. Hier leadership saved the historic Huron County Gaol,, now a museum and popular tourist attraction Her own funds were used as an emergency measureto secure the century- . old Polley's Livery Stable for future use by the Goderich Art Foundation. She purchased and had renovated one of Goderich's earliest houses, the c. 1854 Whitely House, noW used as an' office building. Mrs. Wallace is founder and current president of the Huron County Branch of the Architectural Conservancy of Ontario. She organized, an Architectural Con- servation Committee for Goderich which developed a heritage district study. In 1977, , she co -edited .(with Mrs. Mac Campbell and Nel Coates) the book Memories of Goderich for the town's 150th anniversary.. Mrs. Wallace says her energies are all going toward .getting. the Livery Theatre operating. "We're trying very hard to get it on the road," she says of the Performing Arts Foundation. "We're extremely op- timistic about it." New Huron County FACS director name Jim Cargin 4 Replaces former director John Penn BY JOANNE BUCHANAN Jim Ca rgin is the new director of Huron County's Family and Children's Services . (FACS). He arrived Monday to replace John Penn who has gone to work for the FACS in Windsor. Cargin was born and raised in Toronto. He received his bachelor of arts degree from a college in Tennessee and his masters degree in social work from the University of Buffalo. From 1970 to 1978 he waked as a family counsellor and supervisor for the FACS of the Niagara Region. He then worked as a supervisor with Metro Toronto Children's Aid Society for one year. He Iastworked as an organization development consultant with Manufacturers Life Insurance in Toronto. Cargin, his wife Lois and four-year-old son, Sean are now in the process of moving from St. Catharines to Goderich. After settling in, Cargin says he hopes to build on the positive direction taken by former director Penn. He will be responsible to the board of directors for the administration of the agency. This involves overseeing ,casework, budgeting, planning and community relations. ' evaiLis tank iagfarizta a._ =N with Huron County's FACS because he says it is progressive and has a good reputation. S 10 ed m.elodrs: CC 77What a corny plays BY JOANNE BUCHANAN There's nothing like a good old-fashioned melodrama to cheer a person up! I had a bad day last Thursday. But on Thursday evening, I attended the opening performance of Goderich Little Theatre's `Egad, the Woman in White' and was able to laugh despite my day. What a corny play! And you could tell the cast really enjoyed hamming it up. A melodrama doesn't really require you to think; just to sit back and be en- tertained. It's bad versus good. The villains and heroes are made obvious. The main villain in Egad is Sir Percival Glyde, played by Arie Vander Ende. With his mustache, black cape and evil laugh, he convinces the audience that he is not above dirty tricks—he is below them! Sir Percival is aided in his villainous schemes by Countess Fosco, an equally evil woman who runs an insane asylum, portrayed by Ann Coulter. Diana Scott plays Laura, a rich heiress who promises her dying father that she will .marry Sir Percival even though she has fallen in love with her drawing master, Walter Hartwright played by Stephen Longwell. Scott and Longwell are comically dramatic as young romantics. Other cast members include Maureen Penn who plays Dora, Sir Percival's mistreated and slovenly housekeeper; Jim Thompson who plays Lawyer Gilmore, the man who tries to keep the gambling Sir Percival's, accounts straight; Eloise Thorne who plays Mrs. Catherick, a woman who claims Sir Percival married and then deserted her 20 years ago; Kathy Jenkins who plays Fredericka Fairlee, Laura's comical hypochondriac aunt; Caroline Cass who plays Marian, Laura's concerned cousin; and Heddti Bolsby who plays Miss Peach, one of the insane asylum's attendants. Pat Madden an- nounces each scene change with a bright yellow sign. A very important aspect of the play is the piano music provided by Irla Stewart. This gives the audience a sense of the silent movie era and is an ecouragement for them to hiss Sir Percival's dastardly deeds and cheer when he is brought to justice as villains always are in such plays. Set designer Gwen Kiar is to be congratulated for her creations of Sir Percival's library at Blackwater Park; the drawing room at Limmerage'House; Countess Fosco's asylum; and a small room in a parish church Those sets must have taken a great deal of painting! Costumes in the play, most of them made from scratch, were excellent turn - of -the -century creations. Director Stephen Norton has been successful in introducing melodramatics to the GLS' stage. Let's hope we see more of it in the future. Egad continues at the MacKay Centre this weekend with performances at 8:30 p.m. Arie Vander Ende plays the villain, Sir Percival Glyde and Diana Scott plays his victim, Laura in the GLT melodrama, `Egad, The Woman in White'. (Photo by Joanne Buchanan) Godericth- IGNAL STA 133 YEAR --44 • WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 4,1981 , GODERICH, ONTARIO SECOND SECTION relaxing hobby for Pat eavers to show at River Mill BY JOANNE BUCHANAN Sunlight streams throng!) a large, curtainless window. A cat sits contentedly on the sill. The only sound in the cheery, well -organized room.is the elakety-clak of a large four harness floor loom as Pat Lee works the treadles. For Pat, weaving is not only a hobby but a way of relaxing. Sitting in her special room dominated by her loom and equipped wan a radio, pattern books and snemves of bright yarn , and other materials, Pat explains that weaving is a hobby that has given her much satisfaction since she took it up four years ago through a Goderich Recreation Board course taught by Evelyn Hardy. Pat will be only one of many weavers who will display and sell her work this Saturday and Sunday at the River Mill in Benmiller. Each year, the Huron Tract Spinners and Weavers Guild of which Pat has been a member since it was formed three and half years ago, holds a spinning and weaving sale and exhibition at the mill. "We always have a good variety of nice things for sale. In the past, we have sur- prised ourselves with the success we've had," she explains. Pat Lee took up weaving four years ago through a Goderich exhibition and sale at the River Mill'this weekend. Here, she makes Recreation Board course. She will be one of many weavers who will pincernats on her four harness floor loom. (Photo by Joanne take part in ti?e Huron Tract Spinners and Weavers Guild Buchanan) Pat, who also dabbles in photography, will be taking slides of the event for the guild. And, as the treasurer of the guild, she will be looking after all the money from the event. She says she is still not at the point where she produces many woven products to sell to other people. She mostly makes things for herself or things to give away to family as gifts at Christmas time. Such things include articles of clothing, rugs, place mats and afghans. She works mainly with yarns but ex- plains that many different fibres can be used. "I have even seen people weave wood and feathers into wall hangings," she says. Pat simply took up weaving because she thought it looked like one of the more in- teresting courses offered in the recreation board's brochure and because she had seen. some woven articles she thought looked nice. She learned simple frame loom weaving from Mrs. Hardy first and then took private lessons in four harness loom weaving from Ruth Knight of Goderich. The former involves weaving by hand while the latter is more mechanical. The art of weaving came easy to Pat but she says she also finds it interesting because there are literally thousands of patterns to be made depending on the way you thread and treadle your loom. She herself enjoys doing fine, complex work, getting some of her patterns from books and making up others on her own. Pat explains that weaving can be a cheap or expensive hobby, depending on how extensively you want to get into it. Her floor loom, which she was lucky enough to receive as a gift, cost x'700. But once you have a loom, she says, you can make really practical items cheaper than you can buy them. Also, you have the satisfaction that comes with making them yourself. t Weaving does not have to be a time- consuming hobby either. Once your loom is set up, you can work away at your own leisure, stopping and stetting at any time. If you are interested in the old-fashioned arts of spinning and weaving or if you simply want to purchase some exquisite handmade Christmas gifts, visit Pat and her fellow guild members on the weekend 3t the River Mill, five miles east of *odericih from 1i -a.- n. to 6 p.cr... 4an ear% aa-kom 11 a.m: to 4 p.m. on Sunday. There will also be demonstrations in nature dyeing.