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The Times Advocate, 2008-10-01, Page 66 Times–Advocate Wednesday, October 1, 2008 Opinion Forum News EPSTerry Fox Run a success On behalf of the staff and students at Exeter Public School, we wish to inform and thank the parents and students for their wonderful sup- port in raising the most money ever for Terry Fox Run in support of cancer research. Through the baskets raffle at Meet the Teacher evening and `bring a toonie for Terry' on Fri., Sept. 26, which was the National School Terry Fox Run, the students, staff and communi- ty raised $1,769.82! A huge thanks to all! Pleasant memories The article about Wuerth's Shoes brought back pleasant memories of Mr. Wuerth. Thirty-five years ago I wanted to buy roller skates but I had limited funds as a 13 year old in Exeter. I offered to bring in my $20 Baby Bonus every month until I had paid for the skates. Not only did Mr. Wuerth agree, but he let me have the skates right away so I could use them all summer at Grand Bend. His kindness was a formative experience for me, and I have always tried to be generous to others. The fact that the business is still going strong 70 years later is a tes- tament to the Wuerth family's way of doing business. SANDRA MCLEOD-BARBEAU Kapuskasing Lettersto .the dztor BARB DIETRICH AND ANN DEVRIES Teaching Staff at Exeter Public School October is 'in motion' month HURON — Taking a walk, raking leaves or joining a fit- ness class — Huron County residents are being encouraged to find ways they enjoy being "in motion" during the month of October. Community partners from recreation, health, education and workplaces are organizing events across the county to help residents to make physical activity a part of their daily lives. Organizers have declared October "in motion" month in Huron and Perth counties. The goal is to encourage children and adults to be active for 30 minutes at least five days a week to improve their health. Co -chairperson of the in motion group, Marilyn King, says there's lots of ways to be active. "Many local recreation cen- tres are offering free or low cost activities for people of all ages to get involved. We really encourage people to include physical activity in their day — whether it's adding 10 minutes to your reg- ular walk or starting a routine of walking at work. It's impor- tant to discover your own rea- sons you want to improve your health through physical activity — it might be because you want to sleep better or gener- ally feel better about yourself." A list of events can be found at www.hpinmotion.ca King says people can play "in motion" bingo and enter a draw for prizes. Names will be drawn randomly. Bingo cards will be in local newspapers and at recreation centres, YMCA's and the health unit. The co-ordinating group pur- chased the rights to the in motion strategy, which was developed in Saskatoon, Sask., in 1999. Since then, in motion has been successfully increasing Farmers told to be critical at appreciation night By Pat Bolen TIMES ADVOCATE STAFF EXETER — The annual Borland Farm Service customer apprecia- tion night was held Sept. 18 with a bus tour, speakers and a barbe- cue. One of the speakers was Mervyn Erb of Erb Crop Management Systems Inc. in Brucefield, with a review of the wheat crop this year and fall plant- ing tips. Erb said since 2000 there have been phenomenal yields in Ontario and "If you didn't have your highest yields this year, you're missing something ...this year had it all." Erb said last fall saw the best conditions ever for planting wheat. "The crop set up perfect- ly." He added that with all the money they spend on seed, farm- ers have to be critical of their methods when they plant and they should have someone else drive so they can observe the seed going in. "You'll see things you've never seen while planti- ng," said Erb. Another fac- tor to watch for, Erb said, is the amount of trash that has been left on the field from combines. "If your hammers aren't sharp, you'll plant in trash and it dic- tates the outcomes." the physical activity levels of Saskatchewan residents, and has received international recognition. Several other Ontario communities and regions are also "in motion". King says in Huron County only about half of residents aged 12 and over are active enough for health. More than half of adults are overweight or obese and heart disease is the number one cause of death. As well, over one quarter of chil- dren are overweight or obese. King says encouraging people to be "in motion" can help address some of these con- cerns. .}};{{{{•;{{.}};{OX.X.:0X. ; X.X cooking with memories BY DEBBY WAGLER BROCCOLI CASSEROLE WITH RICE WHEN WE LIVED IN SARNIA WE HAD GOOD FRIENDS WHO LOVED TO ENTERTAIN. THE WIFE WAS A STAY AT HOME MOM AND SHE LOVED TO EXPERIMENT IN THE KITCHEN. THE FOLLOWING RECIPE CAME FROM NANCY AFTER SHE SHARED HER GREAT FOOD AND WE HAD HAD ANOTHER TIME OF ENJOYING GOOD TIMES WITH THEIR FAMILY! 10 oz frozen chopped broccoli 1/3 cup long grain cooking rice 6-8 oz mozzarella cheese or your own favorite type I can celery soup 1/4 cup water Cook rice in I cup water for 10-15 minutes. In casserole mix thawed broccoli, grated cheese, soup and the rice and water. Bake at 325 for 40 minutes or till bubbly. If you like you can top with a crispy coating of buttered crumbs or canned, crushed fried onions. This is an easy to assemble, tasty casserole! Enjoy! Panther Profile September is now finally over — one month down, sev- eral more to go. Our last full week of school in September was fairly eventful right up to Friday. First of all there are all the sports that are always going on. As well, auditions for this year's musical "Zombie Prom" ran after school from Tuesday until Thursday. Those who auditioned didn't have to wait long and were able to check the cast list on Monday. Friday was our first hat day of the year, which may not sound that exciting to you, but I personally very much enjoy a good hat -wearing. I would defi- nitely say that Tim Thornton had the best hat that day, a very wicked black and white checkerboard fedora remi- niscent of the two-tone era of Ska. As well the Terry Fox School Run Day took place on Friday where students walked or ran the Morrison trail and raised money to help fight cancer. Speaking of which, next Wednesday (Oct. 8) is Pink Day and students can wear pink to show their support for breast cancer research. In music, the White Jazz band had their first gig of the school year on Sunday playing at the Trivitt Fish Fry, which I thought went very well. So ends our first month of school and I am looking for- ward to October, my favourite month of the year. JACE DOUGALL PANTHER PROFILE Huron County does provide a top notch ambulance service SOUTH HURON — For anyone who has called an ambulance, it sometimes seems like a long time before the ambulance shows up. The larger the crisis, the longer the time seems to be. The magical number in Huron County that the ambulance is supposed to take is 17 minutes and 22 seconds in the 90th percentile response time. Where did this number come from? Apparently the last year the province ran the ambulance service in Huron County, this was the figure that they used. There has been discussion that 17:22 minutes was the time they hoped to achieve and another discussion is that it was the actual time they had achieved. I don't believe anyone knows for sure. Since Huron County took over the ambulance service, this has only been achieved in 11 months over the years 2001 to 2007. On a yearly average, it has never been achieved over the seven years. Before you get too upset on our failure, I should tell you that our average over the last seven years is 17 minutes and 42 seconds. Each year we come up with new ideas to get our response time down, only to run into unforeseen problems. Bad weather conditions play havoc with timing and rise in call volumes is counter productive to timing Ambulances are spread throughout the county to give a fairly even coverage. If an ambulance is in service, ambulance locations might have to be moved to continue to be spread fairly evenly over the county area. Now getting back to the 90th percentile, you are allowed to use 90 per cent of your best times for an average. In 2008, we were over on our times during the win- ter months and since April we have been quite a bit lower than our set time, leaving us with a average time for this year so far of 17 minutes and 14 seconds. It doesn't matter how you cut it, when you call for an ambulance every effort is made to get the machine to your location as soon as possible. The province is coming out with new standards in "Regulation 267/08." The new response time for patients that are severely ill, requiring resusci- tation will be eight minutes and the new time for cardiac arrest will be six minutes. We are not sure of all the rules of the new legislation, but panic was the first response of hearing of the new time allotments. Staff will be in contact with provincial people to iron out misunderstand- ings and hopefully logic will prevail. Huron County does provide a top notch ambulance service to our resi- dents. Staff and council are also continually working at monitoring and improving the service at all times. Ken 01 ce