The Citizen, 2013-08-01, Page 18PAGE 18. THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, AUGUST 1, 2013.Walton Raceway hosts outdoor sports camp
Putting pressure on those grips
Tanner Boven, shown here after landing a big jump on a
racetrack at the Walton Raceway, was one of many youth
who enjoyed the Outdoor Sports Camp at the site last
week. (Denny Scott photo)
It’s official! Don and Pat Dalton
have retired as Pioneer representa-
tives in our area. After 24 years and
plenty of changes, Don has decided
to take it easy. They have enjoyed
their years of meeting many farmers
and serving their needs with Pioneer
seeds. Congrats to Don and Pat and
watch to see them spending more
time on the motorcycle!
Pat Dalton spent four days with
her grandson Jordan, visiting her sis-
ter in Ottawa. They went by train,
which Jordan says is great, for their
holiday. This is their second adven-
ture together on the train. While in
Ottawa, they took the ferry to Wolf
Island for fun and helped at the Tuck
Shop at the hockey camp there. They
had a lot of fun with sister Hiliary
and husband Doug and Gerri.
The hot weather around here
prompted the children of Gerrid and
Val Dalton to try and help people
beat the heat with slushies. They set
up their stand on the front lawn and
Dad thought it would be fun to text
CTV news of his children’s adven-
ture. What a surprise when Scott the
reporter from the television station
arrived to film and interview the
kids. The segment aired that night on
TV on the celebrating ”Human
Week”. Braelyn, Sydney and
MacKenzie were thrilled!
Welcome back to the Neil and
Marie Mitchell family. They have
returned from a wonderful trip to the
west. They drove through Northern
Michigan, Minnesota, Wisconsin
and North Dakota to go and visit
with Mitchell relatives on a farm
outside of Kelfield, Saskatchewan.
They had only a few days visit and
then went on to visit with Cuthill rel-
atives in Unity. They continued on to
Drumheller, Alberta, where the
Dinosaur Museum is. They enjoyed
the scenic drive to Canmore and
onto Banff, where they went shop-
ping and toured the area. They
enjoyed a gondola ride to the top of
the mountain and enjoyed the mag-
nificent view. They went on a cruise
of Lake Minnewanka and went to
the Columbia Icefields near Jasper.
On the way to Jasper they stopped at
many of the scenic view points and
at the Ice Fields, they rode up the
Glacier on a special bus, that was
designed for travel on ice. They went
to Lake Louise and Moraine Lake
where they went canoeing and had a
great time. They toured back through
the mountains to go to Calgary,
where they spent a day at the
Calgary Stampede. They toured the
area, went on rides, watched the
rodeo and the chuck wagon races.
Neil flew home from Calgary, as the
wheat harvest was imminent and he
needed to get ready. The rest of the
family started the drive home and
went through Montana and stopped
at the World Heritage Site – Head
Smashed in Buffalo Jump. They
went to Yellowstone National Park
and saw the geysers, hot springs and
mud pots. Touring back through
Wyoming, South Dakota, Minnesota
and Wisconsin they headed for the
ferry out of Miwaukee to arrive at
Muskegon, Michigan and drove
home to Walton. It sounds like a fun
trip for the family of six and they
had a great time. Welcome home to
Neil and Marie, Sean, Emily, Sarah
and Claire.
Celebrating birthdays this past
week included Jim Blake, Kathy
Elliott, Jayne Ross, Liz Ross, Tina
Driscoll, Dorothy Kelly, Tyler
Eckert, Donna Blair, Cathy
Flaxbard, Tyler Leslie Ribey, Olene
Dennis, Sandra Huether, Paul Ryan,
Jordan Shortreed, Margaret Bennett,
Bridget Blake, Jeanne Dionne and
Jennifer Grobbink to finish July.
Happy birthday to all!
It was party time for the McNichol
clan last week. The family of Anna
McNichol gathered at Bruce and
Marg Lamont’s home and had a
great time. The whole clan of 75
family members enjoyed the barbe-
cued beef cooked by Bruce and the
rest of the meal was provided by
everyone else. Many of the family
stayed over camping in tents or
sleeping where they could. Anna
reports that they might as well party
while they can. Anna’s family
includes Don, Gary, Neil, Marg, Ray,
Dianne, Jim, Murray and Larry.
Anna is really good stuff at 90 to
party with the group until the late
evening, but she does admit, it takes
a few days to recover!
The Walton Raceway was the
venue for a new sports camp last
week. The camp was organized by
Brett Lee and his partner Melody
Hodgeson. They had a great turnout
with 29 boys and one girl attending
the week’s activities. The first day
was a team building day with timespent on the low rope challengecourse and with team activities.Tuesday had special guests on handto help teach the kids about the envi-ronment and water sports and safety. Erin Dolmage of the MaitlandValley Conservation Authority spenttime with the children around the
marshland and ponds. They learned
about natural habitats and bugs,
frogs and insects. Dwayne of Timber
Outfitters in Seaforth had kayaks for
the kids to learn water safety and
how to handle the boats in the water.
They also learned about how to tie
knots and spent time in the bush
building a shelter and a fire.
Wednesday was the day for the
experts in motocross riding and
BMX bike riding to pass on their
knowledge of their sport. Bikes were
graciously provided by Hully Gully
and Motorpark, who also sent
Michelle, an instructor from
Yamaha. Thursday the group was
bused to the Regional Equine and
Agricultural Centre of Huron
(REACH) in Clinton to spend the
day learning about horses. They
went riding and learned about roping
cows. They finished their day swim-
ming. The final day of their week
was a Big Games Day. They all par-
ticipated in many activities in teams
and had a great time. They had a
small awards ceremony with parents
invited to attend to complete the
week. A hot air balloon arrived tofinish the day. The kids had a greatweek, including the weather, andthey went home very tired at the endof each day.I understand that Doreen Hackwellis back in Seaforth Hospital as sherecovers from an infection. Our get-well wishes go out to Pat
Langlois as she has suffered a bro-
ken bone in her foot. She knew she
had hurt her foot, but had no idea it
was broken until a week later.
The east coast is a very popular
place this year as a Walton family
has spent three weeks visiting rela-
tives there. Sarah Grobbink and chil-
dren Lily, Jack and Parker, flew to
Newfoundland to spend time visiting
with her sister Amanda and her hus-
band Blair and son Hunter. They
spent plenty of time enjoying out-
door activities including hiking,
swimming, jumping off cliffs into
beautiful refreshing waters, seeing
gorgeous waterfalls, cod jigging and
fishing. They went on a whale tour
and saw whales and dolphins. They
took the ferry to the Change Islands
in the Bay of Islands and went off
coast fishing. They spent their time
in the Corner Brook area and
enjoyed great weather, only one day
of rain and a fabulous time. Welcome
back to the Grobbink family.
Welcome back to Neil and Marie
McGavin. They have spent a couple
of weeks in the west. They attendedthe World Plowing Match being heldin Olds, Alberta. Neil spent timeassisting at the match as well asenjoying the action. The top titleswere won by two Austrian girls,aged 21 and 24, and the top finishingCanadian was 11th. The McGavins were met by
friends from Ottawa, who picked
them up from the airport and took
them for a tour around the area. They
ran into many folks from Ontario
while at the match including Helen
and Michael Craig and Helen’s sister
Mary. They also had a former Walton
boy looking for them. While at the
tractor pull, a gentleman approached
Brandon McGavin to ask if he knew
if any McGavins were in attendance.
The answer was “there are three
McGavins right here” – Neil, Brian
and Brandon. The gentleman was
Ken Ryan, the son of Joe and Rose
Ryan, raised on Canada Company
Road, cousin of Gerry and Jack
Ryan. He now lives in Burnaby, B.C.
Brandon McGavin, who is living
in Alberta at this time, was working
at the match. He did the demo plots
of plowing of sod and stubble. He
also did all the scratches ( starting
lines) for the competition plowing.
Neil and Marie attended the Calgary
Stampede for a day, toured around
the area, and visited with Mark
McNichol and Matt McNichol and
family. They visited friends at
Brooks, Alberta, who have a farm.
They learned that it takes 35 acres of
grazing land per cow to raise them
and their friend has 300 cows. They
went through the High River area
and saw the devastation the floods
caused. Not a blade of grass and the
lower two to three feet of vegetation
is all brown and dead looking from
being underwater. Homes were
destroyed and cleanup is continuing
everywhere.
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NEWS
FROM WALTON
Locals retire after 24 years