Eric Bunnell's People: Some serious business – and some western dress
Local Women's Institute members gather in Lawrence Station for annual convention
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Go Country!
That was the theme – and an explanation why – as 80 women in western dress gathered Saturday in Lawrence Station for the 109th annual convention of Women’s Institute members from Elgin, Kent, Middlesex and Oxford counties.
There was serious business, including reports on a variety of institute initiatives.
Locally, these branches support the Children’s Hospital of Western Ontario. Another display Saturday detailed an initiative that led to a truckload of diapers being dispatched to meet need in northern Ontario.
A current concern of a number of branches in Ontario is human trafficking, says the organization’s provincial website.
After a morning of business and lunch, there was time for fun: chair- and linedancing, card making, and the conclusion of a silent auction of donated prizes.
People Who Care
Can lightning strike twice?
Following the huge success last year of a charity fundraiser, the Elgin St. Thomas Community Foundation sure is hoping so.
The annual funder is 100 People Who Care, where 100 folks pledge $100 each, with the $10,000 pot awarded to a charity that makes the most successful pitch for the money at a night out.
Well, that’s how it’s *supposed* to work.
But last year, those People Who Care, really did: 153 folks ponied up, and two charities went home with cash from an evening at the Canada Southern station.
Hoping to build on that success, the community foundation this year is looking for 200 People Who Care, and to give money to each of five charities it wants to sign up for pitches.
“Our hope is each presenting charity will receive money at the wrap-up,” Natasha Newby, the foundation’s executive director, says.
So far, 68 supporters have pledged for the Nov. 28 evening.
“That’s a great number,” Natasha says.
And three charities had signed on as of midweek. (There’s still a bit of time for non-profits to get their names in. Deadline for that now has been extended to this Friday.)
At last year’s wrap, Harvest Outreach International went home with $10,000. The organization rescues food from growers, retailers and processors, and redistributes it to food banks, soup kitchens, shelters and others.
And because the fundraiser exceeded its goal, the Thames Valley Education Foundation received $5,200 for its Caring Fund that responds to emergency requests to support students in need in St. Thomas and Elgin.
They were two of six charities that presented.
And while not all were successful that night, Natasha knows they benefited by raising awareness of their initiatives.
“That’s what I really love about this event, the awareness component.”
For details on the campaign, click through the foundation’s website at escf.ca.
Flagship Erie
The tale of a tragedy 82 years ago in Elgin is being retold.
It’s the story of the fiery crash of American Airlines’ Flagship Erie on Oct. 30, 1941, near Lawrence Station that claimed the lives of all 20 persons aboard the ill-fated DC-3.
It was, to then, Canada’s worst aviation disaster.
But the cause of the crash remains a mystery. In spite of two investigations, none was ever determined in those days predating flight recorders. (If there was some good to come of the incident, it was that it helped spur the creation of cockpit voice recorders and black boxes.)
The accident and its effect on the families left behind was the subject earlier this year of a new play.
Now, its cause is to be the topic of discussion of a one-day panel of four aviation professionals who are coming together on Tuesday next at the Canadian Aviation Museum in Windsor.
It’s a one-day course offered by ElderCollege, a program offering life-long learning for people 55 and older and supported by University of Windsor-affiliated Canterbury College.
Colours found
Meanwhile, a bit of a local history mystery solved.
On May 25, 1916, with great ceremony as it readied to head overseas and into battle in the First World War, our 91st Battalion received two very important symbols for the unit, its colours behind which members would march.
As is tradition, the Battalion Colours and the King’s Colours were consecrated before their presentation. During the war and until the 91st returned home to be reorganized, and as holy objects, the two flags were deposited in historic Canterbury Cathedral.
Then, in 1935, the Silver Jubilee year for King George V, and with new colours coming for the now Elgin Regiment, the old colours were retired on June 30 of that year to a regimental memorial chapel at Trinity Anglican Church, there to rest as they slowly grew old and aged.
There they remained until January 2020. With the closure and sale of Trinity, the colours were removed and disappeared from sight, their fate never confirmed.
On Saturday, the colours – now properly cremated, as per protocol, and inurned – are to be marched by the 31 Combat Engineer Regiment – today’s Elgins – to St. Thomas Cemetery, where they are to be interred.
The parade is 1 p.m. from the Wilson Avenue Armoury, and the public is invited to witness.
Big Bandemic
Sounds of the big bands that once played Port Stanley’s famous Stork Club are to echo later this month through Port Stanley Festival Theatre’s Grace Auditorium.
Big Bandemic, a 17-piece London ensemble, is to tune up Nov. 25 in Port for two shows with crooners Rick Kish and Connor Boa, recalling the days the dance hall attracted all the big band names.
Ironically, everyone is coming together because of the pandemic and its forced isolation.
The band is made up of a number of music professionals from London and area (including Laura Jasper of St. Thomas on sax).
But while they each knew and performed with some of the others, they never had all played together until the pandemic hit and gigs were cancelled left, right and centre.
“All of a sudden, the pandemic hits and you’re stuck at home in your basement practising – in my case, the trombone,” says band co-founder Karl Hermann.
After a little while, and out of a whole lot of boredom, he and John Thompson – also trombone – decided to get musical friends together by Internet.
“We kind of took it to the nth degree and we did it with an entire big band.”
The Big Bandemic was born – and gained its apt name.
Today, freed from lockdowns, the ensemble rehearses weekly at the Lambeth legion and regularly concertizes, performing the music from the heyday of the Big Band era, as well as some contemporary Big Band compositions. For more, click to bigbandemic.ca.
Playing up the coming concerts’ Stork Club theme, Karl notes that probably at least half the musicians in the ensemble actually played the popular dance hall before it was destroyed in 1979 by fire.
Tickets – and info on other off-season events at the summer theatre – by clicking through psft.ca.
Changing times
I guess there’s no denying the fact it snowed overnight Tuesday. Not a lot. But enough to wake up to on Wednesday morning and know that more is sure to come.
And even the time change Sunday morning, when our clocks fall back to give us an additional hour of daylight to start the day, doesn’t make it any better.
Even so, stay well.
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