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The Wingham Advance-Times, 1983-02-23, Page 14Page 14 -The Wingham Advance -Times, Feb. 23, 1983 SPOTLIGHT BRIAN CRONKWRIGHT of Wingham r'S one of thousands of young adults stricken with a disabling disease. in 1975, he was diagnosed to have a degenerative disease which causes tumors to grow on muscles and nerves. But in spite of his ailment, Brian tries to remain active in the community and lately, is busy with his new pup, Blackie. Brian Cronkwright is forced to accept new limitations .. but keeps optimism By Margaret Arbuckle Each year, hundreds of young men and women across Canada are struck with disabling diseases. Brian Cronkwright of Wingham is one of those people and, like the rest, he has been forced to accept his new limitations and adjust to them. Brian, 32, was born and raised in Wingham. He was educated at the Wingham Public School and the Wingham high school. After he completed his education, he went to work at Douglas Point as a laborer. Several years ago, he noticed a growth on his back. He went to the doctor, who ordered it removed. A short while later, a similar growth appeared on his stomach and it, likewise, was removed. More growths began to appear until finally, in 1975, Brian was diagnosed as having multiple neurofibromatosis (NF), a disease which causes tumors to grow on the body's nerves and muscles. An estimated one in 3,000 people is stricken with this degenerative disease. Since then Brian has had numerous operations to remove tumors, but was able to work until 1979. The big blow came in 1980, when a large tumor on his leg was found to be cancerous. Brian said he pleaded with his doctors in London to remove the leg and halt the spread of the cancer, because since he was immobile, the leg "wasn't any use to me anyway. But they refused and operated to remove the tumor. After the 1980 operation, Brian was forced to undergo extensive chemotherapy treatments. He became so ill from the chemotherapy that he made a big decision and refused to take any more treat- ments, quoting the old saying : Sometimes the cure is worse than the disease. That was almost three years ago, and although he has lost the use of his legs, Brian said he feels pretty good and has never regretted his decision to discontinue the chemotherapy. Adjusting to a sedentary life after being active for so many years has not been easy, but Brian has tried to face it with the determination to stay involved. Today he lives at home with his parents, Mr. and Mrs. Norman Cronkwright of Victoria Street in Wingham. He does some leather working at home, but still wishes he could get a job. Brian said he would like to go into computer work, but is not sure how long he will have the use of his hands since NF is degenerative. Has the disease changed Brian's outlook on life? Not in the least, he said; he still believes what he always has: "What's meant to be is meant to be. You have to live one day at a time." Brian takes a great interest in his community and is an active member of the Wingham Optimists and the Wingham Legion. In keeping with the Optimist focus on youth; Brian's main goal these days is to see a drop-in centre established for Wingham's young people. Wingham's 12 -18 -year-old residents are basically "good kids", according to Brian, but are at loose ends because they have nothing to do and nowhere to go. He said he wishes council and Wingham's adult residents would get together and see if a centre could be established to keep the kids off the streets. There are several locations in town, like the old Bank of Commerce building for example, which would be suitable for a drop-in centre and it would not take a lot of money or materials to start one, he said. Some people today tend to be afraid to give teenagers any free rein, he added. But putting them in responsible positions is the only way they will learn to be responsible themselves. Another cause Brian has undertaken is to try to make public buildings and stores in the area more accessible to people in wheelchairs. There are only three public places in town which Brian can enter on his own : the hotel, the pool hall and Zehrs. And he's not the only person who would take advantage of ramps or railways if they were installed. According to Brian, there are a lot of disabled people in the area who don't come out, just because they can't get into most buildings. Recently, Brian was supplied with a new wheelchair by the Ontario March of Dimes and he hopes to attend a March of Dimes camp this sum- mer. Every Thursday evening, he travels to Vanastra for swimming and social events, but a recent bout with the flu has forced him to miss a few sessions. However, he said he hopes to get back out soon. A Under the marvelous directorship of Ron East, the Mime Company Unlimited of Toronto came to F. E. Madill Secondary School and gave a performance without saying a word. The show concerned the life of George Orwell, famous author, of such well- known` books as 1984 and Ani- mal Farm. It covered his en- tire life from England to France to Spain, completely in motions, gestures' and music. Beautiful props ac- cented the show, and helped create an idea and put forth a meaning which were, henceforth, made easier to understand. The players of the produc- tion were David Langois (spokesman), Martha Ross, Derek Scott and William Finlay (who played Orwell) . Their stage manager, who did an excellent job of running props, music and lights was Susan Murphy. After the show, the players came out and answered any questions asked by the audience. The four people who had done the show were courteous and kind in an- swering any and all questions. When the crowd dispersed, I asked some queries of my own. The reason they used vocal chords to do the noise of the typing, telephone, opening and closing the file drawer, and filing, was to get away from Classical Mime. This was also the reason for Personality Day Mr. Personality Day was held on Monday, Feb. 7. Ms. Personality Day was on Fri- day, Feb. 11. The object was to get (by almost any means) as many ribbons as possible from girls or guys, respectively. There was no physical harm allowed. Wayne Bott of 12A was chosen. Mr. Personality with 19 ribbons accumulated by the end of Monday and Judy Hanula of 11C managed to get 17 ribbons and become Ms. Personality. Michelle Hooftman Carnival king and queen contest At the Kick-off Assembly held at F. E. Madill SS, the events of the week were generally described. The most important event of the assembly itself was the elec- tion of the Snow King and Snow Queen. The contestants for Snow King were Michael "Ted" Whitcroft and Allan Kieffer. Those running for Snow Queen were Sandra Merkley, Karen McMichael, Carol Blackwell and Pam Shaw. Each contestant had to describe himself or herself in terms of name, grade, hobbies and other interesting statistics. Then, each was handed an impromtu question which all answered in an appropriate and inter- esting way. The judges had a hard decision, because all of those who entered had been ex- ceptionally well chosen by their nominators. As the votes were gathered, the judges' decision was Karen McMichael and Al Kieffer for this year's Snow King and Snow Queen. They did a fine job of reigning over the whole week's activities. Thanks go to Joan Ar- buckle, Liz Black and Caroline Mulvey for running this contest. -Liz Wilkins Sadie Hawkins school dance The final day of the Winter Carnival was Ms. Persona- lity Day, so it was hard for the girls to get an answer from any guys concerning the Sadie Hawkins dance that night. Plenty of guys roust have lost their ribbons, though, because there was a good turnout. The music was clear and loud, but maybe many of our "Valentine" couples would have preferred it not so fast. it was good music and a good atmosphere — with the D.J. onlyaying the best — and even the prefects on duty 'Friday night enjoyed just standing there listening. —Liz Wilkins without a not using white faces — the Classical Mime feature. By saying "Type, type, type", the players caused a note of humor that gave the whole performance a high techni- cal quality and made people laugh. It is allowed — this use of vocal chords as imper- sonal sounds — provided that the sounds do not personify the one saying them. Things like "What?" or "Really?" cannot be said. Ron East, the director, came up with the idea of do- ing Orwell and did a lot of the research on Orwell himself. The show took three months to put together. While these players did an excellent job, they said that °"`• a" not always work to - 11 gether — during the fall tour, a different man played the part of Orwell. Reasons they gave for joining Mime Theatre were so that they could collabor- ate their dancing or sports skills with theatre. Others said they liked it, and wanted to do something other than acting. A deep debt of gratitude7 goes to Mr. Robert McCall, Superintendent of Curricu- lum from the Huron County Board of Education, for allowing us, the students of F. E. Madill SS, the oppor- tunity to see this fabulous production, on Tuesday afternoon. —Liz Wilkins Carnival Student -teacher broomball game On Thursday, Feb. 10, the students challenged the teachers to a broomball match at the Wingham Arena. A full arena cheered the students on to another victory against the teachers. Some great goaltending kept the teachers scoreless, while some spectacular goals were scored by the students. John Henderson, un- assisted, scored the first goal of the game. Two for- mer Wingham Iromen teamed up for the next two goals, the first being scored by Jim LeGrand and set up by Rick Scrimgeour. The second was scored by Scrimgeour on a setup by LeGrand, with a little help from the teachers' goalie, Mr. Cardy. The final score was 3-0 for the students. The victorious student team consisted of the follow- ing: Greg Humphries and Al Kieffer (goalies), Christie Messenger, Doug Blackwell (playing coach), Sheila Anderson, Rob Helfenstein, Jennifer Drennan, John Henderson, Liz Palmer, Mike Pletch, Dave Mont- gomery, Rick Scrimgeour, Caroline Mulvey, Ken Atkin- son, Jim LeGrand, Pam Shaw, Jim VanOsch, Paula Kieffer, Dave Edisbury, Sheldon Baker, Andrew Creighton and Ken Deichert (coach). The hard-working yet fruitless team of teachers was made up of: Mr. Simp- son, Mr. Mali, Mr. Train, Mr. Willis, Mr. Lobb, Mr. Cardy, Mr. Blach, Mr. Gavreluk, Mr. McLennan, Mr. Taylor, Mrs. Lyle, Mrs. Underwood, Mrs. Aitchison, Ms. Joanisse, Donna Green and Peggy Gibson. Thanks go to the referees Keith Rutherford and Mr. Campbell and to both teams for supplying a humorous and competitive per- formance in the game of broomball. —Nancy Moore S To trace r not to trace I was asked recently if the art I send to the paper for the Madill Mirror is my own, or if I trace it. I thought I'd better set the record straight here and now. Everything • I have ever sent to the paper I have drawn free hand, in pencil, a number of times until it looks right; then I proceed to draw it in ink; again free hand. At no time do I trace anything, not even my final copy. I may, and have on more than on incident, draw my pictures while looking at a magazine cover or other pictures, sometimes from the TV. But, once again, I do not trace at any time. If you think you may have seen one of the drawings on TV or on the cover of People of Movie Screen, probably you have. But most of my work does indeed come just from me, I do not trace! —Bonnie Burchill 1 1 TTe one an for so e Spending a long winter in a school is not exactly the favorite chore a student has to do these days; so much time is spent hoping and wishing for a stormy day so that the buses cannot make it to school. These "storm days" as they are called, serve as a welcome break in the monot- onous routine of school, homework and studying for tests. Without this break in routine, many students get restless and begin to slack off in their studies. They also become drowsy and find it difficult to concentrate dur- ing classes. This is very bad for stu- dent morale, because bad marks start appearing and teachers, along with parents, start to lecture and com- eScohooh*ttisb BASKETBALL On Wednesday, Feb. 16, the boys' basketball teams went up against Goderich. If basketball games were 24 minutes long, the Senior Mustangs would have had an upset victory over the God- erich Vikings. Leading by 13 points at half time, the Mus- tangs' lead gradually disappeared and at the three quarter mark the score was Mustangs 49 and Vikings 47. The last quarter saw the lead exchange five times, the final outcome being God- erich 68, Madill 64. The starting five players played exceptionally well and after running into foul trouble ( three players fouled out) the bench filled in quite adequately. Top scorers. were Ken Atkinson, Phil Rintoul, Ed Hunter, Ken Deichert and Jody Dennis. This was a very sound, intense and competi- tive game played by the Mustangs, but most im- portantly, it was a team effort. The Juniors lost to God- erich 74-35 in a tough and ex- citing game. Ed Sweeney and Paul Kenyon were top scorers. Mitch Braun had the top number of offensive and defensive rebounds. TlieeMidgets also lost to Goderich in a hard-fought game by a score of 78-44. Top scorers were Sandy MacDonald and Todd Hamil- ton. Top rebounders were Sandy MacDonald and Jeff Walden. VOLLEYBALL On February 15, the Junior and Senior volleyball teams travelled to Stratford to take on the number one teams in the league — Stratford Central. The Juniors played' very fine volleyball, with few un - YELLOW ROSE OF TEXAS was the theme for this number, skated by Sharon Kramer, Kelly Anderson, Nancy Armstrong, Cheryl Beattie, Lisa Fisher and Janice Daer, during the Wingham Figure Skating Club's Rainbow on Ice carnival Friday night. forced errors, and defeated Stratford Central in the first game 15-13. The second game was just as close and exciting, only this time Stratford won 'the game. Madill played good solid vol- leyball again, but some errors were just enough to allow Stratford Central the victory. Madill then faced a hard - serving Seaforth team. In both games Seaforth took a big lead early in the game. Madill managed to come from behind and ruin the first game, but was unsuc- cessful in the second. The Juniors finished the season with 14 points. This will probably put Madill in sec- ond or third place. Next competition is the semi- finals in Stratford. The Seniors broke Strat- ford Central's perfect record of 17 wins and no losses by defeating them in a close and exciting game 15-13.1 The team also defeated Seaforth in two games and finished the league play with a re- spectable 15 wins and five losses. CROSS-COUNTRY SKIING Friday, Feb. 11, at Minto Glen, the Huron Perth Cross Country "Ski Meet was held. In spite of the lack of snow and the difficulty of the course which included finishing up the downhill ski run, our team finished well, placing second to St. Marys in team totals. In the Senior Boys' Individual race, Jack Simp- son placed first by over two minutes from his nearest competitor. To most of the racers Jack was just a blue blur. John Leedham finished eighth in spite of a swollen elbow and forearm. Other finishers included Phillip Foxton at 130, Mark Weber 14 and Mike Webster 16th. in the Junior Boys' Individual race, some very fast times were turned in by Andrew Kaufman who finished second and Shawn Bremner who finished third. Both these skiers had lap times faster than a good portion of the senior skiers. Other good racing was put forth by Don McLean who finished 15th, David Simpson 16th and Tim Treleavin 17th. The Senior Girls raced to the best of their ability over a very tough course. The best individual was Patty Barger eighth, followed by Peggy Gibson ninth, Donna Green 11th, Kate Boon 13th and Lisa Webster 14th. The Junior Girls raced over a grass course, but in spite of this still managed to place well. Top Junior girls' skiers were Julie Clark fourth and Kelly Anderson fifth. Other finishers in- cluded Paula Rutherford seventh, Melody Ireland 15th and Pauline Webster 16th. in the relays all teams skied to a second place finish behind St. Marys. The Senior boys managed a second place finish in spite of Phillip Foxton breaking his ski pole and Mike Webster breaking his ski tip. Next meet will be WOSSA. —Liz Wilkins February is heart Month" throughout Canada, so be generous when you're contacted. o ly ple plain. Overall, the general atmosphere about the school becomes very depressing. This trend was beginning to appear this year because lack of snow meant no extra time off. Fortunately for some of us however, that long awaited "storm day" arrived, and just in time. On Wednesday, Feb. 3, freezing rain made the roads treach- erous and many students had the day off. A few unlucky students did have to go to school that day, but those who did not were very happy, and this happi- ness was spread through the school the following day. The students once more had a re- newed hope. This first "storm day" of the year proved that even though there is not much snow lying around, Mother Nature still knows that we all need a break once in a while, and we may be in for a couple more before the win- ter is over. —Nancy Moore MAGNETIC SIGNS For Cars, Trucks, Offices, Mailboxes Eliminates costly lettering Removable when trading or painting LISTOWEL BANNER MOUNT FOREST CONFEDERATE WINGHAM ADVANCE -TIMES Pep Rally What does the normal everyday student at F. E. Madill wear on a normal Wednesday at school? Clothes! But what does this normal everyday student wear on Purple and White day when a Pep Rally has been organized for our boys' basketball teams? If you said purple and white, pat yourself on the back! What is a Pep Rally? It is a time when all the kids from Grade 9 and up (including some teacheiS who will never grow up) proceed to the gyms where opir teams are playing an opposing school's team and cheer themselves crazy! They blow horns, bang drums and shout like mad in hopes that this cheering session will en- able the Mustangs to charge on to victory! Do pep rallies work? Well, most of the time. If you're at a rally lacking pep, just ask some students of F. E. Madill to help you cheer, then look out! —Bonnie Burchill DENTURE THERAPY CLINIC 665-7818 R.R. 1, NEUSTADT or Horst Feige D. T. 1-336-6580 RRSPs Now is the time to start your Retirement Annuity Plan Your RRSP with The Co-operators offers you a choice of two ways to make your money grow. Call or come in to The Co-operators and find out about the right now advantages of our Retirement Annuity Plans. 0„.., the.P .co -o elatots V insuring Canadians in the co-operative spirit KEITH ADAMS Bus. 357-3739 Res. 357-1847 LIFE • HOME •AUTO - COMMERCIAL • FARM • TRAVEL Counselling Assistance to our Small busin' essErrterprises has a big friend Many businesses are looking forward to better times. Business growth, in order to be stable, must be built on a strong foundation. That's why the Federal Business Development Bank offers Counselling Assistance to Small Enterprises (CASE). CASE counsellors are retired business people selected for their administrative talents and management experience. As the owner or manager of a small business, you can build the required foundation and identify new opportunities by getting advice from CASE. Whatever you need - developing new markets, rationalizing your resources, reducing costs, improving productivity - you can help your business step ahead with CASE counselling. CASE could also help you increase sales, upgrade billing procedures, even develop purchasing and control policies. Call us and find out more about CASE counselling. F. J. Daly 10 Ph. (519)432-6705 Federal Business Banque foderale Development Bank de developpement Your success is our only business 197 York Street, London, Ont. N6A 192 Canada'