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12 | 01 | 2016 VOLUME 21 | ISSUE 47
LIONA BOYD RETURNING TO ELMIRA ARTS PAGE 19
COMMENT PAGE 6
GOVERNMENTS PUT THEMSELVES AHEAD OF THE PUBLIC
Council gives formal approval to Breslau splash pad
Park Manor students craft Christmas cards for troops Link to returning soldier suffering with PTSD leads to yuletide push from group of Elmira students
STEVE KANNON SCALING BACK THE PROJECT to reduce operating costs, the Breslau Lions Club this week won approval from Woolwich council for a splash pad in the village. The facility is slated to be built adjacent to the Breslau Community Centre, which offers access to water, sewer and hydro services, as well as nearby parking. The club made changes to the project when council expressed concerns about costs associated with operating splash pads planned for Elmira. Revisions include reducing the footprint (to 260 square metres from 350 sq. m.), eliminating a water re-circulating system in favour of a cheaper option, and the installation of water-saving measures Operating costs have now been pegged at about $30,000 a year, with the bulk of it ($25,000) paying for water. While the Breslau pad, like the one planned for Elmira’s Bolender Park, will be built entirely with donated money, annual maintenance and operating costs fall to the township. In a presentation to township council Tuesday night, Janet Elliott of Wellesley-based Openspace Solutions, who’ll be building the facility, outlined some of the features slated for the Breslau park. It’ll feature a mix of 26 SPLASH PAD | 32
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WHITNEY NEILSON
Grade 7 student Abbi Storey initiated a project at Elmira’s Park Manor Public School, which saw Grade 7 students craft homemade Christmas cards to send overseas to Canadian troops. [WHITNEY NEILSON / THE OBSERVER]
CANADIAN TROOPS OVERSEAS WILL receive a little piece of home this Christmas. Grade 7 students at Park Manor Public School in Elmira made handmade Christmas cards to send to the Canadian military in Afghanistan after Abbi Storey was inspired by a newspaper article she read. “I was working on a letter that I wanted to send to a troop, as something nice to do. And my mom said that she had a friend named Tim Nightingale that would get me an address. And then I thought that maybe I could talk to Ms. McEachern about sending Christmas cards,” Storey explained. Her mom – a friend of Nightingale’s since high school – encouraged her to pursue the idea and she brought it to her teacher, Sara McEachern. McEachern asked two of the Grade 7 classes if they would be
interested and they agreed after hearing Nightingale’s story. “The class thought that it was a good idea to write Christmas cards to send over just because some people might not have other people at home or haven’t talked to them in awhile,” Storey said. Nightingale served in Afghanistan and struggled with post-traumatic stress disorder, more commonly known as PTSD, when he returned to Canada. Storey learned about PTSD and how many soldiers don’t want to go out and ask for help. Nightingale did, and has since recovered from his PTSD. The classes started making the cards last week, getting rough copies done, thinking of notes to write in them, and then making the good copies and adding pictures this week. They’re sending more than 50 cards. CARDS | 2