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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Times Advocate, 2007-09-26, Page 66 Times -Advocate Wednesday, September 26, 2007 Opinion Forum News Donations are needed This summer the national blood inventory dipped down to critical levels. Although plans are in place to recover, it will take several weeks of higher -than -usual dona- tions to rebuild our blood supply to meet hospital demand. From Sept. 24 to the end of October, Canadian Blood Services will need over 100,000 people nationally to make a blood donation. In southern Ontario, we are looking for almost 20,000 donations during this time. The Exeter community can help save lives by coming out to the blood donor clinic at South Huron Rec Centre Wed., Oct. 10 from 12:30 to 8:30 p.m. We have a particular need for new donors and people who haven't donated in a while. If you haven't donated in 2007, patients need your help now. The weeks approaching and directly following the Thanksgiving weekend are diffi- cult times to collect blood because people are away or busy with family activities. As well, there is one less day of the week for blood collection. Meanwhile, the demand for blood remains strong due in part to higher traffic on the roads, which can result in traumas requiring blood. Walk-ins are welcome, but to reserve your spot at the clinic, call 1 -888 -2 -DONATE (1-888-236-6283). Thank you, Exeter, for your continued support of the blood program. We look for- ward to seeing you at the clinic Wed., Oct. 10. ERIN BRYDON, Canadian Blood Services Recruitment co-ordinator erin.brydon@blood.ca Thanks forTerry Fox support We wish to inform your readers of the overwhelming support given to the Terry Fox Run in Exeter Sept. 16. The community support through the participants and following businesses all helped by raising approximately $13,444. A special thanks to the Len McLeod family for all their support and spirit in the event. Thanks to the following for their support: New Orleans Pizza, Kentucky Fried Chicken, McDonald's, Holtzmann's Foodland, Exeter Times -Advocate, Stratford Memorials Ltd., Gar's Bar, Ausable Bayfield Conservation, Gail Baker Esthetic, Godfather A LePizza, Movie Gallery, Tim Hortons, Culligan, Iters Exeter Legion, Bio -Connections, and individu- tO the als who placed run signs on their yard. We are extremely proud to live in a commu- Editor nity which provides such a strong network for a great cause. Thanks to all who helped and participated in the search for a cure through cancer research. Thanks Exeter and Community! ANN DEVRIES, For the Exeter Terry Fox Run 2007 Principal's message EXETER — Although it is still quite early in the school year, it is already time for senior students to start thinking about post -secondary life, especial- ly if they are planning to attend university or college. The annual University Information Program (UIP) takes place Mon., Oct. 1, from 7 to 9 p.m. at Goderich District Collegiate Institute. This program is open to students in all grades, but it is especially important for Grade 11 and 12 students considering university as a post -sec- ondary destination. All of Ontario's universities will be represented at the UIP, and this will be a great opportunity for students to speak to university representatives. While many universities will be sending representatives to South Huron this fall, not all of them will; so, for many of our students this will be the only local opportunity to ask questions about programs in some of these schools. Fanshawe College will be holding its College Information Program two weeks later, with an evening session Oct. 16 from 6 to 8 p.m. and a morning program from 9 a.m. to noon Oct. 17. This will be a good opportunity for students and parents to see what community college pro- grams have to offer. We encourage students and parents to explore these options. During that same week, from Oct. 15 to 19, our School Council, in conjunc- tion with the school, will be holding a "Futures Week," during which stu- dents and parents will have the chance to gather some important career planning information. We have a series of afternoon and evening sessions planned, focusing on many different career areas, from entrepreneurship and small business to industry and agriculture. There are events planned for every day that week and we encourage parents and students to attend the sessions, which we hope will provide some valuable information. More information on the sessions can be found on our school webpage: www.shdhs.ca/. Just click on the link "Career Week at SHDHS." After you have perused the Career Week information, you might want to check out a new feature on our webpage — the Panthercasts. So far, we have three student -created podcasts posted on the site, featuring interviews with some of our staff about extracurricular program opportunities at SHDHS. More episodes will be added each week as we explore the communi- cation possibilities of podcasting. We also have two other important events coming up in the new future, both on Fri., Oct. 5. In the morning we will be holding our annual Academic Awards assembly to recognize last year's achieve- ments for students in Grades 9 to 12. That night, we will hold our annual Commencement ceremony, starting at 7:30 p.m. in the large gym. Students who graduated last year will receive their Ontario Secondary School Diplomas, and we will hand out scholarships, awards, and bursaries for outstanding achievement, leadership, and citizenship. Finally, I would like to remind everyone again of the upcoming School Council fundraiser, the Parachute Plunge. On Oct. 19, a sky- diver will land on the soccer field at SHDHS and five lucky individu- als will win prizes based on where he touches down. The field will be divided into 529 squares, each of which we hope to have sold for $20: the person who "owns" the square on which he lands will win an all -expense paid trip for four to Toronto to see "Dirty Dancing," courtesy of Ellison Travel (a $1,500 value with travel on Via Rail, four tick- ets to the show, accommodations at the Fairmont Royal York Hotel, and a Keg Restaurant gift certificate.) Additional prizes of $1,000, $500, $200, and $100 will be awarded, again based on where the parachutist touches down. The squares will be assigned by a random draw following the closure of ticket sales. All proceeds from this event will be used to support ongoing School Council programs: Commencement Awards, Student of the Month Awards and our community forums. Tickets may be bought from School Council members, at the main office in the school, and at Curves. We hope you will support this venture and join us to watch the "plunge" Oct. 19 at 11:45 a.m. (inclement weather date is Oct. 22.) JEFF REAB PRINCI MESSA URN PAL'S GE Update from the South Huron mayor SOUTH HURON — This past week was an interesting one for me. I received an e-mail from an acquaintance of mine at the University of Guelph request- ing a few hours to talk to a fellow from Japan. The last time I had a request from a friend at the University of Guelph to talk to two Japanese professors from the University of Tsukuba, it resulted in an enjoyable evening over supper and I was asked if I would consider coming to Japan. The gentleman I met last week was a professor from the Meiji University who teaches in the Department of Agricultural Economics. He was interested in facts and figures on how our municipality worked. He wanted to know what I thought worked very well and what I thought needed improving. I did tell him that he was hearing one person's feelings and my ideas might be right or wrong depending on who was interpreting my thoughts. He needed to know what departments we had and how many people were required to run each department. Japanese people have a difficult time believing how little staff we have to run the operation of our municipality and you could see this on his face. I reminded him that I had the pleasure of touring the town hall in Iitate, a municipality of 7,000 people in Japan, and it seemed like they had 100 employees in their town hall. We later took a tour of our town hall so he could see for himself the number of employees we had. He took lots of pictures of our employees at the town hall as I think he needed proof how few we do have to run our municipality. The conversation was quite interesting. This fellow only started to learn to speak English roughly six months ago. Most of the questions and even some of the answers at times had to be repeated two or three times and then some of them had to be rephrased to be understood. We did manage to get all of our conversation understood. We ended the meeting with a tour of Exeter. He said he was amazed at what we had in our municipality as he had already toured the rural parts of our municipality. I asked why he had chosen our municipality to tour and to study. He told me Ken Oke that he felt he already knew me before he left Japan as he had read some of the manuscripts I had written for a friend in Tsukuba. He wanted to meet me and see the municipality that I spoke so highly of. I became friends with one of the two professors from the first visit. He majored in a rural study to bridge Japan and the world. I have written arti- cles for him about rural life in my municipality. Apparently, he has shared my articles with other universities. Visit to Canada — Dr. Masatoshi Ouchi, left, a professor from Meiji University in Japan, visited South Huron last week to learn more about how we run our municipality.With Ouchi are Mayor Ken Oke and Dr. Ellen Wall of Guelph University. (photo/submitted)