To ensure that he sees each and every little Dunvegan girl and boy, Santa will be making two appearances this coming weekend.
Old Saint Nick will first touch down at the Dunvegan Recreation Hall on Saturday morning, December 12th at 10:00. From then until to 11:30, Santa will oversee Yuletide games and crafts for the kids, read the children a story and, of course, take careful note of each youngster’s Christmas wishes. Plus, there will be free hot-buttered popcorn and other refreshments.
The DRA has also made arrangements to take a photo of your child while he or she is spilling secrets in Santa’s ear. This photographic memento is completely free. All the rec group asks is that you bring along a donation of non-perishable (unexpired) food items for the group’s Food Drive to help those who are less fortunate.
So, if you have a young family, why not drop in and take home a photographic memento of Santa’s 2015 visit to our hamlet? The Dunvegan Recreation Hall is located at 19053 County Road 24.
Kris Kringle… Part II
On Sunday, December 13th, the jolly old elf will return to visit with the Sunday school kids at Dunvegan’s Kenyon Presbyterian Church. However, before Santa checks in, there will be the annual Children’s Christmas Service. It starts at 11:00 AM.
Following the service, everyone’s invited to gather in the church hall for delicious lunch followed by a children’s program, the highlight of which will be a visit from Kris Kringle. I had a peek at some of the photos from last year’s do (they’re on the church’s web site: www.kenyondunvegan.ca), and it looks like the kids were having a grand old time. Everyone is welcome, so bring your kids and grandkids to this special event. For information, call Dona Addison at 613-527-2858.
DRA Concert a Smash Hit
As I predicted, last week’s Christmas show at the Dunvegan Recreation Hall had people rolling in the aisles, or almost. In the words of Susan Joiner from Lochiel, “Fantastic… we all laughed ourselves silly.” In addition to delighting the audience with 90 minutes of sparkling, Christmas-themed entertainment, the concert raised over $750 for the Alexandria Food Bank.
Rosemary Chatterson, who had led a similar fundraising troupe where she used to live in Cambridge, Ontario created the truly unique revue. In 2011, she and her husband, Allan J. MacDonald, moved to Allan’s family farm on the 4th of Kenyon, and we’re glad they did.
The revue, called Music & Mayhem, is the latest in a long string of annual concerts held at the start of the Christmas season by the Dunvegan Recreation Association. A number of years ago, Dunvegan’s Bruce MacGillivray started the tradition by organizing an annual Christmas Carol event modeled after the popular CBC concerts. The goal of these events was, and still is, to raise much-needed funds for the St. Vincent de Paul food bank in Alexandria.
Rosemary and her fabulous group of volunteer performers and crew (from all across Glengarry) have taken the tradition of entertainment and charity to a whole new level. As Heather Bentley, the volunteer in charge of membership with the Glengarry Pioneer Museum told me, “I can’t say enough about last night’s performance. Before last night, I couldn’t have envisioned (my neighbours) in a grass skirt or dressed as a snowflake, but now…”
If you missed last Friday’s performance and want to find out what Heather is talking about, you still can. Chatterson and her troupe have agreed to do an encore performance this coming Friday, December 11th. The redux of Music & Mayhem begins at 7:30 PM this coming Friday at the DRA Hall, 19053 County Road 24, just west of the intersection of County Roads 24 and 30. Admission is $10 per adult. Children are free. Light refreshments will be served after the show. Everyone is invited to attend. It’s a wacky, wonderful way to start off the holiday season.
Milk Calendar’s local roots
It turns out that the Milk Calendar, which was featured in last week’s column, has a solid Dunvegan connection. In fact, it owes its very existence to Bonnie Laing of Dunvegan East.
Bonnie used to be the Advertising Manager of the Ontario Milk Marketing Board. It was she who first commissioned the calendar in the 1970s. Bonnie tells me that the idea was modeled on a similar Milk Calendar that had been launched with great success in the United Kingdom. I’ll let Bonnie continue the story:
“Over the next three years, we sold (the concept) to every province in Canada and it became the most imitated calendar around. Even after I left the Board in 1979, I continued to write the text and approve the recipes as a freelance writer, right into the 1990s. The calendars made a substantial contribution to the amount of milk used in cooking at a time when liquid consumption was declining.”
Not surprisingly, Bonnie has a complete collection of the first 20 calendars or so. She, like I, gave up on the calendars when, to keep costs down, the Milk Marketing Board started playing with the format and allowing third-party advertisements in the calendars.
Tears fall at Lafleche
A reliable Dunvegan source that I count on for waste-related news recently told me a sad tale that took place at Lafleche Environmental Inc. in Moose Creek a few weeks ago.
Apparently, Lafleche workers were saddened, almost to the point of tears, when Canada Customs & Excise agents turned up at the facility to dispose of a load of illegal alcohol. Under the watchful eyes of government supervisors, the staff destroyed countless bottles of hooch by rolling over them with their trusty bulldozers.
The very next day, the scene was repeated, but this time it was the OPP who rolled up with loads of contraband cigarettes. The black market smokes also met their maker under the steel tracks of the yellow machines.
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