Carol Steedman, For the Expositor

Carol Steedman, For the Expositor

LATEST STORIES BY CAROL STEEDMAN, FOR THE EXPOSITOR

 

Society cultivates love of gardening

The Waterford and District Horticultural Society has been a longstanding part of the community. People who have an interest in gardening and learning more about various aspects of flowers, shrubs and more are encouraged to participate in the society’s public meetings. Monthly meetings and events provide many opportunities to enjoy time together with guest speakers and tours. In July, a flower and vegetable show permits members to compete with each other to show the results of their labour. At February’s meeting, the guest speaker was Darren Heimbecker, owner, designer and builder of Whistling Gardens, which opened in May 2012. Six years were spent transforming 20 acres of farmland, east of Wilsonville, in Norfolk County into a garden centre and six separately purposed botanical gardens, including one featuring unusual types of peonies. Heimbecker said that, by November, the collection will approach 1,200 peonies, including prized Itoh peonies, donated by Joe and Hazel Cook, who are on the board of directors for the American Peony Society. He said that Dr. Toichi Itoh, a Japanese botanist, successfully crossed a tradional graden peony with a tree peony, a feat thought not genetically possible. Heimbecker’s interest in horticulture started as a child. His mother and both sets of grandparents were involved in gardening, privately and in caring for public gardens in the Paris area. He and his wife, Wanda, have worked hard to develop Whistling Gardens, which depends solely on donations and earnings from admission fees, as well revenue derived from hosting events, such as bus tours and weddings. People fly in from all over the world to view the gardens. The Heimbeckers already are booking tours into 2020. For more details, see the Whistling Gardens website at www.whistlinggardens.ca or phone 519.443.5773. For the March 4 meeting, the horticultural society has invited Roman Bodnar from Eising’s Greenhouse and Garden Centre, 814 Cockshutt Rd., Simcoe, to speak about invasive species of plants in Norfolk. He’ll explain where these species came from and what to do to get rid of them. Bodnar’s interest in horticulture also started at a young age. His father, who attended University of Guelph for agriculture, introduced him to horticulture at their home in Lynedoch, west of Simcoe. While in high school, Bodnar worked at King’s Flower and Garden in Simcoe and went on to attend Niagara College for public horticulture. From there, he went on to work at Eising’s, starting as general help and progressing to managing the trees, shrubs and outdoor hardy plants. Bodnar can be contacted at roman@eising.ca or plan to attend the March meeting. Eising’s got its start in 1966 in Renton, when Henry Sr. and Lena Eising operated a small glass greenhouse where they grew tomatoes for a roadside stand. It has developed into a thriving business with 2 1/2 acres of greenhouses and is one of Norfolk’s largest garden centres. It has been passed to Henry Jr. and Marjolein Eising, who continue to produce high-quality garden plants and offer gardening advice. The horticultural society’s monthly meetings are held at at 7:30 p.m. at Trinity Anglican Church (enter at the side door on East Temperance Street). Annual memberships cost $8, though members of the public can attend meetings for a nominal fee. Other speakers lined up for 2019 include Lynn Leach from the Stedman Community Hospice in Brantford on April 1, and, on Nov. 4, local historian and author Jack Jackowetz. For information, check out waterfordhort@hotmail.com or find the society on Instagram. Carol Steedman is a freelance writer who lives in Waterford. Readers can contact her at goffsteedman@execulink.com.

February 18, 2019 Local News
Darren Heimbecker, owner of Whistling Gardens, near Wilsonville, talks to tour group at the 20-acre botanical garden.

In Simcoe, let there be lights - and a song

This year is the 60th anniversary of the Simcoe Christmas Panorama River of Lights, which is held in downtown Wellington Park. Panorama began in 1958 when miserable weather forced organizers of the Santa Claus parade to cancel the event and assemble the floats in the park so they at least could be seen by people. Strings of lights were hung over the floats, and that was the beginning of an annual event that draws crowds from across North America. The five-week celebration will kick off at 6 p.m. on Dec. 1 with a ceremony that will include special guests, a carol sing and the turning on of thousands of lights on over 60 exhibits through the park. Panorama director John Davies got permission from Gloria Mitchell to use for this year’s event a song called, Christmas in Simcoe, Mitchell wrote the music for the song and she and her former husband, Derek, colloborated on the lyrics. The song begins with a sentimental, country feel, then changes to a joyful, toe-tapping invitation to turn on the lights. Mitchell was born and raised in Montreal where she developed her talent for acting and singing. In 1978, the couple and their son, Brad, moved to Simcoe for Derek’s job with Texaco. The family enjoyed opening night of Simcoe Panorama. “That moment the lights came on always brought a lump to my throat,” she said. In 1980, Gloria and Derek wrote Christmas In Simcoe, which she would perform at concerts. The following summer, she professionally recorded the song. Gloria and Derek and the band, Twilight, under the leadership of Ian Mudge, rented the cheapest time at a Toronto recording studio. They recorded from 11 p.m. to 5 a.m., producing two songs for a 45 RPM record. Madge was on keyboard and synthesizer, Brian Berry on guitar, Jarri Bezzo on drums, Bob Wingrove on pedal steel guitar and Allan Guacci and George Morellato on percussion. Mitchell recalled the fun of being in the studio with a headset, in jeans and barefoot. After three hours of sleep, they took the tapes to a vinyl-pressing company in Toronto to make their records, with a minimum order of 500. Back in Simcoe, they were ready to sell the records. They were in time for Simcoe’s Friendship Festival. People bought the records to send as Christmas gifts around the world. Family members who had moved away to Africa, Australia and Europe were delighted to receive their copy of Christmas in Simcoe on one side of the 45 and the original calypso song, Christ Was Born, on the other. Mitchell has an extensive list of venues where she has performed and worked behind the scenes as program manager. For this year’s Panorama, she said she looks forward to seeing the lights turned on, accompanied by the Christmas In Simcoe song. … On Thursday, at 7 p.m., Waterford Heritage and Agricultural Museum, 159 Nichol St., will host historian and author Moe Johnson. He will talk about his recent research of historic Ontario pottery, with focus on significant Brantford pottery that was produced from 1849 and 1900. Admission by donation. For more information, call 519-443-4211. … On Dec. 1, at 7 p.m., the sixth annual Carol Sing will be held at Waterford Bible Church, 68 Main St. S. This community event will feature the Lynn Valley Voices and the Brubacher Family from Hamilton. Donations of non-perishable food items are welcome. Light refreshments will follow. Carol Steedman is a freelance writer who lives in Waterford. Readers can contact her at goffsteedman@execulink.com.

November 25, 2018 Local News
Gloria Mitchell holds a 45 rpm record of Christmas in Simcoe, a song she wrote about the Simcoe Christmas Panorama. The  song will be featured during the Dec. 1 lighting ceremony for the event's 60th anniversary.

Camp helps those with asphasia

On the first weekend of November, about 100 people gathered at Camp Trillium, near Waterford, for Aphasia Camp 2018. Among them were 38 adults with aphasia, 23 family members or friends, 11 volunteers, 14 speech-language pathology students from London’s Western University, four personal-care attendants and three support staff from March of Dimes Canada, as well as eight members of the camp planning committee. Aphasia is a loss of language caused most often by a stroke, which is a blockage of blood flow in the brain. Generally speaking, the left side of the brain controls the ability to speak, read, write and understand numbers, as well as the physical movement of the right side of the body. People with aphasia have their intellect intact, but have difficulty processing language. Aphasia is a customized condition. Some people can talk with only difficulty in finding the right words but might not be able to read. Others might speak very little but are able to read or write. It all depends upon which area of the brain was affected. At this camp there were people in their early 20s affected by stroke. Trained volunteers and speech-language pathologists use techniques, such as printing key words, to help people with aphasia communicate in conversations with others. The camp is special to everyone since it provides a place for people with aphasia and families to interact and meet others in similar circumstances. They participated in a variety of activities and programs. Camp Trillium’s staff attended to meals and behind-the-scenes details. And they organized and ran activities along with aphasia camp staff and local people who provided workshops and programs for the attendees. Some of the Camp Trillium activities included adapted fishing and archery. yoga, tai chi, classes in art, card-making, horticulture therapy, cookie making and more. People were encouraged to try new things. Gale Lemery, the keynote speaker, focused on how art is her extension of self as she encouraged the audience to develop their talents. Norfolk County illusionist Lucas Wilson, holder of four Guinness Book of World Records, provided entertainment. He drew in one of the campers to help suspend a table in mid-air! Campers came from southern Ontario and as far away as Penetanguishene. Many people expressed the feeling that the camp felt like a holiday and were looking forward to the next one. This is the 10th overnight weekend camp. Aphasia Camp 2008, the first in Canada, was inspired by my husband, Steve Goff, who has aphasia. He and I, along with speech-language pathologist Jan Roadhouse initiated the teamwork needed to create the camp. Adult Recreation Therapy Centre in Brantford was first to support it, joined by a strong partnership with March of Dimes Canada. Taz Moosa, a lecturer in Western’s School of Communication Sciences and Disorder, has been involved since the camp’s inception. Western and University of Toronto have each provided speech-language students, depending upon the camp’s location. Aphasia weekends and retreat days depend upon extensive fundraising, with 2018 donations coming from the ARTC, March of Dimes, Western, Ontario Harmonize for Speech and the Jan Roadhouse Aphasia Camp Memorial Bursary. Numerous local donors provided items for door prizes, welcome kits and more. To learn more about aphasia, programs and the camp, check the websites of the ARTCand March of Dimes. The Aphasia Institute in Toronto and the National Aphasia Association in the U.S. can provide further information. Carol Steedman is a freelance writer who lives in Waterford. Readers can contact her at goffsteedman@execulink.com.

November 11, 2018 Local Sports
Laura MacDonald and her service dog, Wilbur, pose with Steve Goff, Carolyn Goff, Carol (Steedman) Goff and Lynda Rankin during games night at the 2018 Aphasia Camp for adults and family members that was held Camp Trillium, Rainbow Lake, near Waterford.

Book casts familiar in different light

Have you ever wondered what other job you might do? Jack Jackowetz did more than wonder. For 30 years, he worked as a corporate software developer and specialized in client relationship management. He travelled all over North America and had no real time for hobbies. Jackowetz, born and raised in Brantford, had enjoyed photography as a kid and so he started dabbling in digital photography. He experimented with composition and lighting, using various software tools. He found he could turn a photo into an image similar to a painting. Increasingly dissatisfied with the demands of his job and time spent away from family, Jackowetz decided to quit and pursue the joy he had discovered in photography. “I found I’d developed a USP, or unique selling proposition, by using photographs to connect people to their community,” said Jackowetz. He captured the ordinary in photographs, which were then altered with his “post-impressionism photography” to resemble paintings of buildings, advertising signs and nature. The idea to collect these into a book about a distinct area or community blossomed into an opportunity to meet people. Jackowetz found Waterford, with its historical buildings and homes, to be an interesting place to photograph. He created a 36 page book, The Places We Live: A Short History: Waterford, Ontario. It featured 8.5-inch square pages that appealed as an art form. His second edition about Waterford was the size of a trade paperback, with photos among blank pages allowing readers to write in it as a journal. He added descriptions about the images he had created, as well as provided a one-page brief history of Waterford. Now a third edition about Waterford expands on the community’s history. It’s an easy-to-read 72-page spiral-bound book, with captivating pictures that show familiar scenes in a different light. Residents of Waterford will enjoy seeing Alice and Main street buildings. Historical houses of the Beemer, Bowlby, Clark, Little, McCool, Merritt, Parney and Sovereign families are also featured. The artwork is different from those of the previous two editions, so it creates a trilogy for those fortunate enough to have collected the previous books. The third edition is available in Waterford at Nifty Gifty, 21 Alice St., where prints also can be purchased and ordered. The books are also at he Old Town Hall, 76 Main St. S., and at Waterford Historical and Agricultural Museum, 159 Nichol St. Jackowetz’s photography also led to the Finger Lakes in New York State, with books which featured the buildings and points of interest in the towns of Geneva and Penn Yan. He accepts commissions for personal, business or commemorative occasions. Check out www.jJackowetz.com or email jack@jJackowetz.com or phone 519-751-0720. Carol Steedman is a freelance writer who lives in Waterford. Readers can contact her at goffsteedman@execulink.com.

October 14, 2018 Local News
Jack Jackowetz has released a third edition of his book on Waterford.

Program explores Haudenosaunee principles

Within the binder entitled “Coming Together for Reconciliation: Called to Action by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada,” there is a statement by Russell Moses who told of abuse at the Mohawk Institute residential school in Brantford from 1942 to 1947. Written in 1965 when he was 33, recalled that he worked in the market garden where most of the produce was sold, except for potatoes, beans and turnips, the animal fodder variety, which were foods for the children. It was a practice to go begging at various homes in Brantford where they knew people might give some scraps. Instead of school for half days and field work for half days, they were in the fields most of the time. Beatings were administered at the slightest pretext. Punishment for a bed wetter was to have his face rubbed in his own urine. Those who ran away were usually caught and returned to the school, where they had to go on hands and knees under the outstretched legs of a line of boys to be hit with anything at hand. Moses wrote: “Our formal education was sadly neglected: when a child is tired, hungry, lice-infested and treated as sub-human, how in heaven’s name do you expect to make a decent citizen out of him or her, when the formal school curriculum is the most disregarded aspect of his whole background? “Religion was pumped in at a fast rate with chapel every evening and church twice on Sundays in order to be a shining example of Christianity.” Moses wrote that, when asked to write about his memories, things that had been dormant for years came to the fore. “This situation divides the shame amongst the churches, the Indian affairs branch and the Canadian public.” He had some misgivings but felt he had to be honest and tell of things as they were. “This in not my story, but yours.” The introduction was written by his son, John Moses, who states: “Russell Copeland Moses refused to be defined by his residential experiences and went on to be a loving husband, father and grandfather as well as a proud Korean War veteran of the Royal Canadian Navy and later the RCAF and finally a federal public servant specializing in employment equity matters. He died in Ottawa on May 22, 2013 and is buried at his home community of the Six Nations of the Grand River Territory.” Within this binder is a combined work by Nations Uniting Sharing Centre and the United Church of Canada to address the commission’s call to action No. 59, which states: “We call upon church parties to the Settlement Agreement to develop ongoing education strategies to ensure that their respective congregations learn about the church’s role in colonization, the history and legacy of residential schools, and why apologies to former residential school students, their families, and communities were necessary.” Waterford United Church is hosting a one-day program on Oct. 24 called: “Understanding Haudenosaunee Philosophies and Guiding Principles.” Guest speaker will be Lance Logan-Keye, a youth justice worker, who will discuss the legacy of residential schools, inter-generational trauma and the effects of colonization historically to present day. Marilyn Antkiw said she wanted to present the local program after being impressed by how Logan-Keye worked with participants at a workshop she attended in Hagersville earlier this year, She said that the message was one of positive co-operation to find solutions to move forward. The program will run from 9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. The church is at 135 Main St. S. The parking lot is on Church Street East and at back of parking lot is a wheelchair entrance and accessible washrooms. Tickets, which include lunch, cost $20 a person, Registration is required. Contact Antkiw at 519-718-8416 or register online at www.haldimandnorfolk.snapd.com. Carol Steedman is a freelance writer who lives in Waterford. Readers can contact her at goffsteedman@execulink.com.

September 30, 2018 Local News
Books detail residential schools in Canada. On Oct. 24, Waterford United Church will host a program called: “Understanding Haudenosaunee Philosophies and Guiding Principles.”

House story brings people together

My column last month about a stone house on 26 Sylvia St. in Waterford brought responses from as far away as Alberta. The structure was painstakingly built over a span of two years by William E. Culver and, in 1948, was sold to the Slavic Pentecostal Church. It remained as a church with upstairs living quarters until 1973 when it was sold and converted to a single-family home. Elly Esson, who now lives in Alberta, lived at 32 Sylvia St, next to the church, when she was Eleanor de Vries. Her brother, Barend, sent a copy of my column to her and wondered why it mentioned nothing about the Kibalenko family. In an email, Esson states: “There were a number of young girls my age living on Sylvia Street and one of them was Angela Kibalenko. Her family attended the Slavic Pentecostal Church and lived on the top floor. “Angie had an older brother, Gary, a younger sister, Ledya, and the youngest, David. At the back of the building was a door leading up to their apartment, but there were also tiered steps and places for flower and vegetable gardens by the steps. I remember stone pillars on each side of the property at the front and we kids would put huge piles of leaves by one and jump off the side of the pillar.” Esson also sent photos of herself and her sister, Tilly, as children, as well as a photo that showed the back door of the church building and the stonework. My friend, Ledya Burton, is the younger Kibalenko sister who lived at 32 Sylvia from her birth to age four when her family moved to a house on Church Street West. She remembers that her mother grew lots of flowers, especially roses. And she recalls attending services with Sandra Senko, daughter of Rev. Walter Senko, who was pastor of the Slavic church from 1966 to 2010. By coincidence, I was contacted by Sandra Senko, now Sandra Nunn. She tells the story of her Ukrainian parents in her biography, He Loves Me Not … He Loves Me, which she wrote with Rose McCormick Brandon. Nunn’s father met her mother, Martha, at a German work farm in the 1930s when he was 14 and she was 12. they had been taken from their homes in Ukraine. The book book tells of the couple’s loss and their journey to Canada, where they settled in the Waterford area. Sandra is the oldest of nine children and was given the heavy responsibility of tending her two-year-old brother when she was only four and her parents had to work on the farm fields. The book is also is an affirmation of faith for Sandy and her husband, Ernie, recounting their journey through decades of bitter estrangement to their renewed love. Lives so often intertwine, and it’s amazing how a simple story about a house can bring together people. During a visit to Waterford a few years ago, Esson and her sister, Tilly, met a man playing a guitar. He said he lived at 34 Sylvia St., next door to where they grew up. So, they had a good chat and each went their own way. Carol Steedman is a freelance writer who lives in Waterford. Readers can contact her at goffsteedman@execulink.com.

September 16, 2018 Local News
Sandra Nunn from Simcoe displays pictures from her biographical book, He Loves Me Not ... He Loves Me, including one of her father, Walter Senko, who was pastor of the Slavic Pentecostal Church in Waterford for over 40 years.