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The Citizen, 2008-05-01, Page 1The CitizenVolume 24 No. 18 Thursday, May 1, 2008 $1.25 ($1.19 + 6c GST)Serving the communities of Blyth and Brussels and northern Huron County Inside this week Pg. 10 Pg. 12 Pg. 15 Pg. 20 Pg. 23 Area couple receive Helen Keller award Are you prepared for an emergency? Organic farm hosts open house Blyth students celebrate reading Student art exhibit opens in Blyth The symbols of two local soldiers’valour are coming home to stay. On Monday, April 21 Dave Thomson of St. George contacted The Citizen regarding medals belonging to a First World War veteran and his son’s Memorial Cross from the Second World War. They, along with other relevant papers, including the official Canadian government condolence card to the mother were up for auction on e-Bay. Private Frederick Crawford, was born on Nov. 23, 1894 in Hullett and enlisted in Clinton on Jan. 13, 1916. His son, Private Jack Bertram Crawford, whose name is also on the plaque at Memorial Hall, was born April 14, 1920. He was killed in action on Jan. 17, 1944 and now rests in Moro River Canadian Cemetery, Ortona, Italy. Thomson has made it a personal mission to see that these kinds of medals don’t fall into the hands of collectors. Making contact with communities through the media his hope is to inspire individuals or groups to raise the funds to purchase the items. He then monitors and bids. His internet searches have returned more than 125 medals, which he turns over at his cost. Contacted by The Citizen for comment and suggestions on whether the money could be raised, North Huron councillor Greg McClinchey took the bull by the horns. He contacted Thomson, who purchased the medals for McClinchey. “The medals are home,” said McClinchey. “Selling them should never happen, and while initially we paid more than expected, it wasn’t a gigantic difference.” The medals sold for $675.84 Canadian. McClinchey had first suggested a price of $500 for purchase. Now he waits for the medals to arrive at which time he pledges to do a little work into the story behind them. “There is the potential for these men’s relatives to still be in the area.” “But for now the underlying theme is one Mr. Thomson has said. These men’s valour is not for sale anymore. It is not going to be traded as a commodity but brought to the community and treated in the appropriate fashion.” Valour off the auction block Riding high Becky Jervis of Blyth holds aloft a bike donated for auction at the Mikayla Ansley benefit in Blyth on Friday night. This particular item brought in $500 to help the family of the little girl who is currently undergoing chemotherapy for retinoblastoma, a rare eye cancer. (Vicky Bremner The Wingham and District Hospital will be closed to visitors until at least Saturday due to an outbreak of a gastro-intestinal flu virus. Symptoms were noticed in the first patient early Friday afternoon and the hospital was closed to visitors soon thereafter. By the weekend, says Listowel and Wingham Hospital Alliance CEO Margret Comack, several patients had come down with the ailment, as well as several staff members. However, as of Monday, there was just one active case of the flu-like bug, with one possible case under investigation. However, due to public health protocols, the hospital will have to remain closed to outside visitors for at least four symptom-free days to ensure that the outbreak has subsided and the hospital is safe for visitors once again. “Public health has very particular guidelines in regards to managing the spreading of an infection like this. We have to follow them very carefully and one of them is to close the hospital to visitors, as well as monitoring symptoms as they show up with staff or with patients and we have to stay closed to visitors for a particular amount of time,” Comack said. “We will not be able to open to visitors again, at least until the weekend, the event that there are no more new cases of patients with new symptoms. We have to wait for 48 hours to make sure they are indeed symptom-free and then another 48 hours on top of that to make sure there are no new cases.” Symptoms of the virus include vomiting and diarrhea, and after three patients were noted to have these symptoms on Friday, the hospital quickly moved into outbreak status and began working with public health to get the virus under control. “There was one new case on Sunday and a potential case Monday that is being monitored. There were also several staff members sick over the weekend,” she said. “We’re now down to one patient and one possible patient. The other cases have been resolved. Now we just have to wait for these ones to resolve and we can open again. It’s not a lot, just one or two.” As is often the case in situations like this, there are obvious exceptions to the visitor ban. Comack says that patients with potentially life-threatening ailments or who are seriously ill will still be able to receive patients under some precautions. On the hospital floor, Comack says that cleanliness is the key to keep staff healthy and most patients are being kept in isolation to prevent possible spread. “We follow isolation protocols and we go into all kinds of activities that we need to do in order to monitor and manage this outbreak, to prevent the spread,” she said. “Patients stay in their rooms, patients who are demonstrating symptoms are on isolation and there’s lots of hand-washing for our staff.” Any appointments or tests patients have booked for the ground floor, as well as the emergency department, remain unaffected by this outbreak, so it is business as usual on the first floor, says Comack. The ban only applies to the second floor, with in- patients. “We will be closed to visitors at least until Saturday with this last case on Sunday,” she said. “Appointments will go on as usual. Any affected patients are on the second floor, so anything that happens out of the emergency department with ambulatory patients is fine. We just don’t want extra people wandering around the hospital.” Blyth has once more demonstrated its heart and soul raising more than $30,000 to help a family in need. Friday evening, more than 600 people came together in the Blyth arena for a benefit to assist little Mikayla Ansley and her parents Mike, formerly of Blyth, and Katie. Mikayla had not yet celebrated her first birthday when she was diagnosed Jan. 28 with retinoblastoma, a rare childhood cancer. The illness affects only 25 children each year in Canada. It is curable if caught early. However, as the tumours cannot be removed from the eyes the only options are to remove the eyes or try chemotherapy to see if the tumours will shrink. Mikayla started four, three-week cycles of chemotherapy at Toronto’s Sick Kids Hospital on Feb. 5. Her mother has stopped working to be with her, while her dad has also cut his hours. The idea of putting together a fundraiser to lessen their stress by helping them financially began with the local Lions. However, said one of the organizers Bev Blair, what eventually came together was all about small town. “Other organizations helped, the Legion did the bar, the Ladies Auxiliary did the food. It was true community event.” Blyth Lions treasurer Steve Howson gave the approximate total raised saying he was sure it would be more than $30,000 when all was said and done. Blair couldn’t be happier with the result. “This was an unbelievable evening. It blew my mind and warmed my heart to see what a community can accomplish.” By Bonnie Gropp The Citizen Benefit raises $30,000 for family By Bonnie Gropp The Citizen WDH still closed to visitors By Shawn Loughlin The Citizen