Wow ... what a week 2nd Smiths Falls Beavers, Cubs and Scouts have had !
First off, all groups signed onto the annual Pitch In! to clean up the Town of garbage pigs have left laying around for the weekly meetings. Really ... I believe it's a disgusting character flaw to leave crap laying around. I had my children conditioned by 2 that littering was unacceptable. Period.
Anyhow our kids did a great job of cleaning up the assigned locations .... to the tune of about 120 hours combined. GREAT JOB !
Just imagine how spiffy the Town would look if each minor hockey team put an hour and a half in repaying the community a bit for the mucho deneros they receive ... and ya, that's a challenge.
This weekend the Cubs held a fundraiser for our big year-end trip .... and holy freakin' holy. Grand-slam is an understatement. This year we decided to get seedlings from Ferguson Forest Center in Kemptville and sell them for 2 bucks a pop at some fine business locations in Town. A really big Thanks !!! to those who allowed us to peddle our wares ! Well ... we initially ordered 300 to sell and ended up running very early Saturday morning for another 400. SOLD OUT .... early Sunday. So, with the trees that were purchased for Cubs to plant there are over 1000 new trees in Lanark County.
Does this look like a dump?
It is, or was .... and you'd never know .... save for the signs and test well heads. For the past 15 years, Scouting groups in Lanark County have been reforesting the old Drummond/North Elmsley dump. We're just about done completely rehabilitating the land back to deer paradise. Next weekend there's 300 more going in, and that's just the Smiths Falls group !
And now, the reward. I'm really looking forward to this .... overnight in the barracks at Fort Henry in Kingston !!
No classroom experience will equal the excitement and fun of the Soldiers' Overnight Program. It is by far the premier learning experience we have to offer. Immerse your students into the lifestyle of Fort Henry's garrison, exposing them to actual routines of the 1860's. In essence, your students will become soldiers for 21 hours at the Citadel of Upper Canada. Your students will be provided with an Interpreter to teach and guide your class in their experience as soldiers in the British Army in 1867. The following is a list of activities that your students will participate in. These will be much more in depth to allow your students to immerse themselves in the living history and fully appreciate the experiential learning:
* Guided Tour
* Issued uniforms
* Muster
* Schoolroom
* Fatigues
* Barrack Room Inspection
* Ghost Tour
* Flag Raising and Lowering
* History Hunt /Historical Detectives
4 comments:
"Just imagine how spiffy the Town would look if each minor hockey team put an hour and a half in repaying the community a bit for the mucho deneros they receive ... and ya, that's a challenge."
Oh Pleeeeeeeeease educate yourself Mike. LOL! NO minor hockey team receives any "deneros" from anyone. The fact is that the town has a rink. People who play minor hockey pay the town, "mucho deneros" to play, thus supporting a rink. IF there was not a rink in this town, these people would go somewhere else to play, thus taking "mucho deneros" OUT of this town. This one is getting worn out. LOL! NO rinks, pools, parks, festivals. Wow! WHat a commuinity we would have. Not sure how many people would want to commute in order live to here under those circumstances though. Do the scouts meet in your basement, by the way, or do the meet in a government funded or subsidized place. Do Scout use government supported or subsidized parks to partake in activities? Come on Mike. Hmmmm...I wonder. I don't understand why you have such an axe to grind about hockey. IT is another form of recreation and social connection, that serves the same purpose as scouts. Etc. Thank God for a diverse availability of options where recreation is concerned. Can you imagine if the only place where scouts could go was privately owned land? No provincial parks. No public areas suppported by the government. Sad situation that would be.
Mike,
Surely you know that "Old Fort Henry" costs the government a bundle to provide to us, for our education and enjoyment. Not everyone appreciates that kind of history experience, nor would all consider it a good use of government money, yet it is there for you to enjoy. I'm glad it is, and I hope you do. But, under your philosophy of, if all don't use it, not all should pay, that would not be available to you and the kids who have worked so hard to be able to go there. Could Old Fort Henry exist as a privately owned venture? Maybe, but it doesn't. Kind of challenges your argument that if bowling alleys etc can be privately owned, so should pools and rinks. If that's the case, so should Old Fort Henry, and you'd be going somewhere else with your kids. I, for one, am glad you don't have to.
I'm not sure how you are making the argument that hockey receives no government funding when the building is provided by provincial ($6 mil)and municipal ($2.5 mil+) taxpayers and the municipal taxpayers are on the hook for a portion of the operating budget, since the hourly rental and other revenue streams don't cover expenditures.
So .. just for yucks let's take skiing, just cuz they are so comparable.
As part of a lift ticket you pay a bit toward the infrastructure (land, lifts,chalet), a bit toward operating expenses (staff wages, hydro, equipment), a bit toward the many kinds of taxes (municipal, EI,CPP, WSIB, on and on) and hopefully a bit 'o' profit.
Enroll your kid in hockey and you pay $0 in infrastructure, $0 in municipal taxes, $0 in profit and 20% less than what it costs to operate the facility.
Doesn't seem right to me. Is it just sheer numbers that justify it ?
Anyway, we've been down that road before.
This time, I was just sayin' that it woulda been nice to see the hockey teams helping out in their community. Really, is it too much to ask of them ?
To answer you questions about Scouting the answers are no and no.
We meet in Westminister church, who have graciously hosted us for about 80 years at no cost. We do help out with maintenance of the church and some functions.... not enough to cover the freight though. We are thankful and appreciative of the support.
There are a variety of camps we go to but in the area there are two that are owned by Scouts that were purchased long ago .... and one is on land that was given to the RV Conservation Authority by a private donor for preservation in perpetuity. Local Scout groups have a lease on the land that includes $ and sweat equity to maintain the property (trails for use by the public, etc. No government hand-out here.
As for Fort Henry ... well, given that it costs almost $40 a kid for the overnight experience, I think we are paying our freight.
I don't really have an axe to grind with hockey ... I just don't prescribe to the religion. I'm not even saying it's not worthy of some funding ... just nowhere near what it gets ... really, what other recreation comes even close ?? And this is not the right time.
As for the economic benefit ... I don't know that it's even close to being revenue neutral, and I'm not sure how that could be measured. Sure, teams come to SF for tournaments, but teams from here go elsewhere, taking money out of the local economy. I'm not really sure how they come up with those numbers, but show me a study that says so and I'll believe it.
I've always thought the world would be a lot better place if only 10% of the time, money and energy spent on hockey were spent on some other worthwhile community project like the PitchIn!.
I'm just sayin'.
You think me slammin' hockey is old ?? Look at it from my side of the fence ... for the playoff months it takes over my radio station ... it's all a lot of people talk about ... UGH !
Forgot to add ...
The "other" ice surface in Town ... the curling and squash club not only receives no municipal support, it pays $14000 in taxes to the Town.
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