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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Times Advocate, 2008-05-07, Page 66 Times -Advocate Wednesday, May 7, 2008 Opinion Forum News LETTERS TO THE EDITOR • LETTERS TO THE EDITOR • LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Donations needed, not garbage A week or so ago Exeter was the site of another very successful rummage sale. The citizens of town and the surrounding area are to be congratulated on their gen- erosity in donating items and time to raise a lot of money for the South Huron Hospital. Unless you have attended a rummage sale in the last few years you have no idea how much stuff is donated. This year the sale was held on the ice surface and while there was a lot more room to walk down the aisles the place was still overflowing. It restores one's faith in rural community life to see so many volunteers working at this event. Tuesday morn- ing a crew organized the tables, set up the clothing frames and put up the signs. Donations were dropped off all day Tuesday and by the time the Tuesday evening sorting crew arrived they were faced with a gigantic task. Wednesday six crews with pickup trucks worked all morning to complete the town wide pick up. Meanwhile about a hundred volun- teers emptied bags, sorted donations and got the stuff to the right sales area. This group worked steadily all day until 4:30 p.m. The doors opened at 5:30 p.m. on Wednesday for the sale. Thursday there was a live auction from 11 a.m. until 2 p.m. Then the volunteers had a massive cleanup of the leftovers. Some of the leftover stuff goes to Good Will, some to the Cerebral Palsy Centre, some to recycling, and far too much to the Exeter landfill There are a couple of problems with the rummage sale. A few years ago my pickup crew would have three truck loads of donations from the quarter of town that we service. Since the town no longer provides a large garbage pick up we now have six to seven loads of "donations" many of which go directly into the garbage truck. Unfortunately, folks put out broken furniture, stained clothing, old shoes, out dated computers, etc. that nobody would ever buy. My crew feel obligated to pick up whatever is put out and so we load it, unload it, sort it and then pitch it. In the future we should only pick up donations that appear to be saleable. Even then, only about half the good stuff will sell and it is a huge sorting job before the sale and disposal job after the sale. The other problem is the Tuesday afternoon and Wednesday morning drop off. Believe me, we really appreciate folks bringing their donations to the arena, but this spring way too much stuff was dropped off in the doorway. It would be a great help if folks who drop Letters to the Editor off stuff would take five minutes and carry it to the appropriate area. Somebody has to carry it in and sort it and by Wednesday morning there was no place for the trucks to get near the door for unloading. The rummage sale is a great community fundraising event. It is a lot of work and long hours for the many volunteers. Let's all work to make a good thing better. ARNOLD MATHERS, Exeter Donations help cancer research Hope blooms! Each spring, large refrigerated trucks bring more than six million daffodil blooms across the country from growers in British Columbia to Ontario for Daffodil Days, and in 2007, volunteers in Ontario raised $2.9 million from the sale of daffodils. We would like to thank everyone who purchased daf- fodils during our campaign this year. Together, we were able to raise over $59,000 in Huron and Perth counties. Your donation will help the Canadian Cancer Society fund life-saving cancer research and vital community-based support programs for people affected by cancer. A sincere and heartfelt thank you to each and every one of our dedicated volunteers who gave their time to organize this campaign and sell daffodils across Huron and Perth counties. We really appreciate your support and dedication. The daffodil is the Canadian Cancer Society's symbol of hope and we would not be able to offer programs and services or fund important research without the gener- ous help of our volunteers and donors. DELIA HUITEMA, Fundraising co-ordinator Huron -Perth Unit 1-800-294-0086,519-271-4270 Amazing response I would like to take this opportunity to thank all the staff and families in the Catholic School system for their amazing response to our "Stuff the Bus" campaign. Every school in our system participated in this event providing approximately 20,000 food items for the needy in our counties. We truly are a "Catholic Community of Caring." LARRY LANGAN Director of Education Huron Perth Catholic District School Board Buckle up challenge hits South Huron High School EXETER — The Huron OPP along with four secondary schools in Huron County, including South Huron District High School in Exeter will participate in a "Buckle Up" competition this week. The event is a challenge designed to show students how quick and easy it is to buckle up when entering a vehicle. In teams of four, students and faculty will compete to see which team can buckle up and unbuckle and rotate through four positions in the vehicle. The fastest team wins. Since 1976, when seatbelt legislation was first intro- duced in Ontario, an estimated 8,000 lives have been saved and more than 300,000 people have walked away from collisions who would have suffered injuries. Approximately one third of all drivers and passengers killed in motor vehicle collisions were not wearing seat- belts. Wearing your seatbelt is the single most effective thing you can do to protect yourself and others in a motor vehicle collision, police say. Seatbelts are designed to spread the impact forces of a crash along the stronger and broader areas of the body, such as hips and shoulders thereby limiting injuries. Seatbelts also prevent you from being ejected from the vehicle or thrown around inside the vehicle. Wearing your seatbelt will also protect your head and spinal cord and can keep you from being knocked unconscious, improving your chances of escape. SHDHS is holding its competition tomorrow (Thursday) at 9 a.m. Other schools participating include Central Huron Secondary School and St.Anne's Catholic Secondary School in Clinton and F.E. Madill Secondary School in Wingham Update from South Huron mayor SOUTH HURON — The sanitary sewer project in Centralia and Crediton is basically completed with the exception of a few minor deficiencies. Property owners are now able to hook into these sewers. An information package has been sent to all property owners on the procedure of this hook up. This package contains an information sheet, a connection agreement to be signed and returned to the municipal office and a permit agreement to be signed and returned to the Huron County Health Unit with applicable fees. Your Board of Health representative requested the fees be wavered and was turned down by the board. Once the two signed agreements have been received, the Health Unit will issue you a permit to hook up which must be given to your contractor who will be hooking you up. The contractor must notify the Health Unit when the work is proceeding as the work has to be inspected. The Health Unit will then notify the municipal office that the work has been done to their satisfaction and the file is closed. Payment for the use of the sew- ers will start the following billing period. This sounds easy, but we are running into a few problems and dealing with some Walk upcoming The Annual Huron Perth Juvenile Diabetes Walk To Cure is being held in Mitchell at Lion's Park Sat., May 31. The Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF) is the largest non-governmental, non-profit funder of diabetes research in the world. JDRF is dedicated to finding a cure for the over two million Canadians that are afflicted with this chronic disease. Many of these children and adults live in our communities and you may even know some of them. Usually one child who is living with Juvenile Diabetes is chosen to be the youth ambassador in their area; however, this year we are having three. Taylor Hotson, daughter of John and Christina from Stratford, will be the youth ambassador for Perth County. Sister and brother Maddie and Luke Melady, children of Kevin and Leigh from the Seaforth area, will be the youth ambas- sadors for Huron County. Registration will begin at 10:30 a.m., rain or shine. There is going to be live entertainment, activities for children, and much more. We are also going to be hold- ing a silent auction that day which is shaping up to be quite exciting. Many items have been graciously donat- ed by several businesses all over Huron and Perth coun- ties. For the sports enthusiasts out there we have a signed Darcy Tucker jersey, a signed Brian McCabe jersey, two 18 -hole rounds of golf with a cart and much more. There will also be prizes to be won. We encourage everyone to come out and participate in the walk either individually or as a group. If you would like to register or pledge a walker, please go on line to www.jdrf.ca/walk JOANNE FELTZ, DONNA WATT, Co chairs/host family Communities in Bloom Greentalk Q. I would like to landscape my yard, but want no maintenance. Any suggestions? A. Landscaping deals with nature and therefore you will find there is no such thing as 'no maintenance.' However, /"- there are some tips to create a 'low Communities coHHH` maintenance' landscape: In Bloom en flews • choose clump forming plants • choose drought tolerant Be, ?a rt of Iv plants • know the mature size the plant will reach and accommodate accordingly Q. I find that during the hot days of summer it is difficult to abide by the watering by-laws. How can my garden survive only getting watered every other day? A. Here are some ideas to beat the heat: • choose drought tolerant perennials and orna- mental grasses • collect rainwater in a rain barrel to use when needed • use diapers as a base in annual containers; they will absorb and retain the water that would other- wise run through • Mulching your beds with a shredded bark mulch will help to retain the moisture "Go Green" Start composting! Composting reduces waste and creates a healthy garden fertilizer. (More informa- tion on composting coming soon.) Save water. Keep a cold water pitcher in the fridge rather than running the water. Also, turn off the tap while brushing your teeth or shaving. Leaving the tap running can waste up to 17 litres of water a minute. troublesome rumours. We feel we have the procedure perfected, but if a mistake is made, please call the municipal office and we will gladly rectify the situation. If you cannot find your information package, please call the municipal office and a new package will be sent out. If you hear some of these rumours, and have any doubts, call the municipal office. If you feel more comfortable talking with your area representatives or your mayor, please call them. A bylaw will be passed this summer which will require a mandatory hookup to the sewer system by a specified date. In the meantime, hooking into the system is voluntary. All hookups should be completed by the end of the year. We need your co-operation and patience for a little longer until everyone gets hooked up and everything is back to normal. A question was put to me, "What if I refused to hook up?" If you refuse to hook up by the specified date in the bylaw, you will be in contravention of the bylaw. This bylaw is very serious as it deals with matters of the Ministry of the Environment and the Huron County Health Unit. Secondly, if South Huron is going to be an outstanding municipality, it has to have strong communities. Strong communities are the result of hard working community builders and a negative statement such as this is not from a com- munity builder. Ken O ke