Friday’s kitchen ceilidh organized by Paul Tenger and Stuart Robertson to raise money for our local food bank and the Dunvegan Recreation Association hit a wall of snow and had to be postponed. Regrettably, this meant Terry and I had to miss it. We were on the road to Sudbury (land of Terry’s kith and kin) to surprise her cousin on the occasion of her 90th birthday. So this week’s column is a bit of a community effort. For a glimpse of what happened at the rescheduled ceilidh, I’m grateful to Vivian Franklin for her observations.
“Last night was a great time. We raised $628, after expenses. I would like to say a huge thanks to Stuart Robertson who told me last year that he would like to hold a fund raiser for the DRA, and then made it happen. It goes to show you what a difference one person with an idea can do in the community. A huge thanks also to Gabrielle and her students for helping pull off the show. It was very much chaos with nights switched due to bad weather and people missing due to this change. Others did double duty, filling in for missing people and some having two engagements the same night. For example, Madelynn Reijmers came to sing in Dunvegan before going to her friend’s birthday party. And Grace Garham also had a second engagement, but stopped off at our ceilidh first!”
Vivian remarked on the talent of the young performers. She was especially moved by Anabelle Menard’s rendition of I See Fir. “It gave me chills,” Viv wrote. She them remarked on the many volunteers who contributed to the night’s success. “Paul Tenger and Louise Heim not only worked the door, sold 50/50 tickets, but also shovelled out the front steps. Hallelujeh! Anne Forrester-Bertrand also deserves to be recognized. She did all the snacks, including the baking of two kinds of awesome cookies. And the audience showed their appreciation by throwing $200 into the snack table’s donation jar.”
It was obviously an evening of giving. Naturally, the performers gave their all. But sound technician Scott Campbell slashed his fee in half. And Sue Tessier, winner of the evening’s 50/50 draw, donated her winnings back to the DRA. “There was complete agreement to do it again next year,” Vivian said in her email to me, “and apparently I have to do a better job on the weather.” Thank you Ms. Franklin and good luck with that weather thing.
If you’re a Doc Martin fan…
Our next contributor is Laurie Maus. She emailed me with a quick word about what’s playing on February 15th at the DRA’s Saturday Night at the Movies event: Saving Grace. “Brenda Blethyn stars as Grace Trevethen, whose late husband jumped out of a plane without a parachute. Grace has been left with a manor on the Cornish Coast – and the massive, suffocating mountain of debt her husband had been secretly amassing. Now, with creditors and repossessors on her heels, Grace is faced with the prospect of losing everything. Desperate times call for desperate measures, so when Grace is asked to tend an ailing, if illicit, plant she gets an outrageous idea. It’s a light bit of fluff by the same team that made Doc Martin. I call it a senior’s retirement fund training film.” Thanks Laurie. Sounds like just what we need to lift us out of the February blahs. The screening starts at 7:00 and admission is free (although donations of cash are never refused). Forget ye not a comfortable chair or soft cushion, and your refreshment of choice. Cost free hot-buttered popcorn awaits you.
Two-stroke heart
Who says accounting types aren’t romantic? Retiree Bruce MacGillivray has put shot to this rumour with the whimsical chainsaw sculpture he carved for wife Lynn. When one of the trees along their long lane bit the dust, Bruce decided to give the stump a second life. Rather than the traditional valentine, he carved a lovely 3-D heart atop a dendrological pedestal. Next time you pass by Bruce and Lynn’s place, slow down and cast a glance north. Thanks Bruce. The rest of us poor saps will have to make do with store boughten fare.
Who stole my Canada?
You know how a tune sticks with you, playing over and over in your head, driving you mad? I’ve often heard it aptly described as an ear worm. Well, I’ve got a head worm. After writing in last week’s column about the surprising number of children who showed up on Dunvegan Carnival day without the wherewithal to partake in the outdoor activities, I haven’t been able to set the image to rest. Apologists have jumped to these waifs’ defence, telling me they have no easy place to skate, no hill down which to slide. Bollocks. For eons, children have made their own play world… when permitted to do so. In wintertimes past, squares of cardboard or even shovels could be seen serving as magic carpet rides down the most rudimentary of “hills.”
I suggest at least part of the problem might be the lack of winter tempering. The 0 degree day that feels like a deep freeze in November is almost t-shirt weather in February after a week of minus teens days. One gets used to the cold, if one is allowed to. But all to often, I see cars idling at the bottom of even short laneways to keep the young toasty warm as they get on or off the school bus. Forbid the thought of fingers too numb to upload the day’s nuggets of nonsense to Twitter or Instagram. But all may not be lost. As recently as a month ago, I glimpsed a gaggle of young ones by the lane to the former Colquhoun farm west of the crossroads. They were skating merrily on an insta-rink, the fortuitous combination of a snap freeze and melt waters in the roadside drain. Their obvious delight brought a smile to my crusty heart.
Perhaps a partial solution, as reader Gord White suggests, is to give young carnival goers access to the tools they need to have fun in the Great White North. Gord took the idea of having a local business donate a few sleds and greatly expanded on it. As he points out, hidden away in cellars and garages of old farts like us is a treasure trove of long forgotten winter gear. All we need do is convince folks to donate it. He admits that refurbishment and off-season storage are issues, but not insurmountable ones. We could then actively promote the fact we have lots of loaners to hand out next year.
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