2 FOCUS - JANUARY 2018 The Canada 150 theme rocked this year at Bakersville! Dear Editor What a great response we had for our 22nd Animated Bakersville Gingerbread Display at the library during the Holiday Season! Thank you to everyone who participated by making a creation celebrating Canada 150 – it was a huge success. There were 60 wonderful entries of varying styles and skills and once assembled into a town, the moving parts of the train, and animation including the skating rink, hockey players, and snow boarders brought it to life. It was great to see so many individual entries as well as those from a local Beaver group, Girl Guides, Scugog First Nation and various schools and businesses. This village wouldn’t be possible without the wonderful support of our library’s administration and its staff. We greatly appreciate the financial support that we have received this year from Mississaugas of Scugog Island First Nation; this allowed us to get more signage and visibility, Vos Independent for processing the pictures for the visual boards and Foodland for supplying gingerbread cookies on our opening day. Thank you to the Hvidsten family who have offered space for us within the Focus on Scugog building as we were desperate for ongoing storage for all of our accessories associated with the village. The Township of Scugog and BIA were helpful with regards to approving signage for us, and Landon’s Tree Service was so helpful putting up the downtown banner from Sue’s Signs. It takes a community to make this village happen! Thanks again to Master Engineer Alan Locke and conductor Neil Bradley, who kept the village train on its track and Brianne Mercer for being our fabulous social media queen and publicist – again, great work! Our local press, were wonderful with all of the support, printing our releases in a timely matter in our community newspapers. Thanks also to our patient families who never mentioned how many dinners were late because of our pre-occupation with everything gingerbread. We already are thinking ahead and have December 1st marked down as opening day this year. It is never too late to start thinking about what to design – we LOVE the original ideas in gingerbread. This is a community event made by and for the community – so it’s never too late to start baking! Sincerely, “The Village People” Sue Bradley, Tracy Pastic, Kathy Payne-Mercer, Terry Glenn, Carolyn Humphrey, Alana Andrews, Lynda Brownson, Bonnie Solomon, Linda McMillan, Marian Barltrop and Carole Matthews A big ‘paws’ up! Dear Editor The Therapeutic Paws of Canada Port Perry/ Uxbridge Team would like to send a big thank you to Vos’ Independent Grocer, the staff and all their amazing customers. The Port Perry/Uxbridge Team hosted a Therapy Dog Awareness Day on December 9th. Vos’ Independent gave us space in their store, their staff was fantastic and very supportive of this event and the kindness and generosity of their customers was more then we ever expected. It was so very greatly appreciated. Eileen Gerber Therapeutic Paws of Canada, Team Leader Port Perry/Uxbridge T’was the season of true christmas spirit! Dear Editor On behalf of Operation Scugog Food Bank and ourselves, we would like to thank Focus on Scugog and most especially MaryAnn Fleming, for your enthusiastic participation in, and support of, the Operation Scugog “Hoodie” Drive - 2017 Campaign. Highlighting our efforts in the magazine to bring a little Christmas warmth and cheer to those in need in our community has given us the gift of a far greater reach and furnishing a drop-box in your offices allowed many to contribute. As a result, we are pleased to report that between friends and family on Facebook and the Focus collection box it has been a banner Christmas! At the time of this writing we have collected over 120 hoodies with the number still climbing, pyjamas, socks, slippers, sheets and towel sets, art supplies, toiletries and cash donations. A special shout-out to the Canterbury Knit Wits who have gone above and beyond this year with an array of hand-knit outerwear garments and lovingly produced dolls and toys. For showing up, stepping up and living the spirit of Christmas we thank all who have contributed. We have been humbled by your generosity and know lives will be changed for the better this holiday season as a result. Merry Christmas! Karen Teed and Sandy O’Hare Editors Note: On behalf of Scugog residents, we thank you ladies for the hard work and commitment on your end, to give those in need a special Christmas as well! There will be a Christmas Hamper update in the next issue, as we didn’t have all the details finalized by press time! ...................... Letters continued on page 8