The Dundas Star News is wishing a happy retirement to one of its most faithful and well-loved columnists.

Helen Beswick, who commonly addressed her audience as “Faithful Readers” has penned a weekly column for more than 30 years.

The tradition began when Helen, a potter, served on the Carnegie Gallery’s board of directors. The non-profit organization was shy on funds to advertise its numerous events, so Helen approached the Star News editor with a proposition.

“I made a deal with the editor at the time that if I included other artistic events, would I be allowed to write a column about the arts in Dundas?” Helen recalled.

And so began a relationship between the newspaper and the potter/columnist that has spanned three-plus decades.
Dundas Star News senior editor Debra Downey said Helen’s columns have been an invaluable, folksy addition to the paper for a very long time.

“We thank Helen for her tremendous dedication to the community and the newspaper,” said Downey. “Over the years, Helen became a weekly fixture in our newsroom and many staff consider her a valued friend.”

In the early days, Helen hand-wrote her column and delivered it to the newspaper office each week. This personalized method of submitting her column soon gave way to the use of a series of old typewriters. A friend gave Helen her first computer a few years back, and the octogenarian admits she struggled with the new technology. Helen sometimes made her carefully crafted prose mysteriously disappear; more often than not, the computer would refuse her request to print.

“Times have changed,” said Beswick. “I used to be cornered at the market, but people can find out information on their own now. It’s sort of sad because there is something about newspapers that are special. You can sit down in the corner of the deck in the sunshine with a piece of paper.”

Nancy Gray, chair of the board at the Carnegie Gallery, met Helen not long after moving to Dundas from the United Kingdom 30 years ago.

“Helen’s special contribution through her column is her shared love of this community and her enjoyment of the many things that happen in it, plus the sense of how the arts enrich her life and the pleasure they give her,” said Gray.

She added that as a long-time, active board member of the Carnegie, Helen’s enthusiasm for pottery is infectious and her love of anecdotes a charming trait.

“Helen’s contribution to the gallery has been immense in many ways, and we are very grateful to her for all she has contributed,” said Gray. “I also love her garden, another work of charm and imagination.”

Stan Nowak, president of the Dundas Valley Historical Society, said Helen is one of the greatest story-tellers he has ever known.

“Her writings about the Carnegie, the Dundas Valley School of Art, Dundas Little Theatre and the Dundas museum were that much more special because her views and opinions were very heart-felt and very personal,” said Nowak. “Her column offered a great connection between the cultural institutions about town and the community.”

Nowak, who moved back to the Valley Town in 1999, said Dundas’ 2009 Citizen of the Year is one of his heroes and a true inspiration.

“I’ve met and gotten to know so many not only great but exceptional, people — and even one or two of the living Dundas icons — and Helen is definitely one of those.”

And with three decades in the public eye, Helen, too, has been inspired by the people she has met on her travels around town and beyond.

“Without a doubt, my most wonderful memories of being a columnist are the people I have met,” she said. “I still get Christmas cards from readers, and people still recognize me.”

As Helen has done throughout her career as a columnist, the staff at the Dundas Star News send out a “twenty-one gun salute,” and thank her for her contribution to the paper.

Ontario’s education minister is keeping tight-lipped on whether Hamilton-Wentworth District School Board trustees can expect to find a pot of gold at the end of three reviews that could close seven of the city’s 18 public high schools.

In an exclusive interview, Laurel Broten praised trustees for taking on the “challenging” reviews, but wouldn’t say if they will be rewarded with money to act on recommendations designed to cut 2,600 surplus classroom seats across the system.

She instead trumpeted her government’s record of financing the construction of 25 new public and Catholic schools in Hamilton since 2003, along with providing funding for 99 full-day kindergarten classes.

“I can’t speak specifically as to decisions that may be made in the future with respect to that capital investment,” Broten said of funding two new high schools proposed by board staff in exchange for closing seven existing ones.

“I very much recognize the leadership role that the Hamilton board is taking, knowing as they do that they have declining enrolment, that they will have declining enrolment for the foreseeable future and that we need to spend the dollars that the province provides to Hamilton school boards on kids and classrooms, and not on empty buildings.”

Trustees have already approved the closure of Delta, Parkview and Sir John A. Macdonald in the lower city and Parkside in Dundas as part of a plan to build a new lower-city school and renovate Highland in Dundas.

They are set to debate a staff proposal on May 23 to close Sherwood, Mountain and Hill Park in exchange for a new school south of the Lincoln Alexander Parkway – potentially at Jerome Park on Upper Wellington Street.

Trustees hope to tap into $350 million in capital funding available to the province’s 72 school boards for new schools opened in September 2015.

But they also regularly complain that existing schools fall into disrepair because the board only receives about $1 in provincial funding for every $18 of maintenance needs.

Broten said her government is doing its best and has made significant progress on school repairs since taking office.

“I think the bottom line is we had a lot of ground to make up,” she said. “We’ve made every attempt with additional investment to be able to do that, so in times of declining enrolment, we’ve continued to see increased investments year over year.”

The Toronto MPP acknowledged her government’s recent decision to cut so called top-up grants that helped boards keep under-used school open is forcing many boards to make tough decisions because most also face declining enrolment.

The Hamilton board is expected to approve the launch of a similarly wide-ranging review of elementary schools this fall.

“Our commitment is to protect the classroom experience, to keep our class sizes down, to roll out full-day kindergarten, to make sure those test scores are up and those grad rates are up,” Broten said.

“We need to make some choices and my choice is for kids rather than empty buildings.”

Mountain trustee Laura Peddle insists this will be her final term on the Hamilton-Wentworth District School Board.

The Ward 6 representative publicly announced she will not run again during a debate last week on whether trustees should adopt a common decision-making framework to assess school-closure recommendations.

“I will not be back at this board table. That is a guarantee,” she told her colleagues, who opted against a common framework.

Afterwards, Peddle said she’d promised to serve only one more term when she ran in 2010 and is making her intentions public now to give others with “fresh blood” time to consider running to replace her in 2014.

While not ruling out a future in politics at another level, she said she definitely will not run for trustee again and is hopeful a Ward 6 candidate will emerge who she can endorse, since her successor will implement any closure decisions from this term.

“I won’t be changing my mind. It’s someone else’s turn,” said Peddle, who was first elected in 2000 and sat out the 2003 to 2006 term when she lost to Kathy Archer by 65 votes.

She won the rematch with Archer by 89 votes in 2006 and was re-elected by a more comfortable 588 votes in their 2010 rubber match.

“I’m satisfied I’ve done my service in this area,” said Peddle, who moved to Dundas last term. “I want to do other things with my time and life.”

A program director at the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board, Peddle said she will focus the remainder of her term on the school closure reviews, finding a suitable spot for new administrative headquarters and revising the board’s governance.

The latter is dear to her heart after trustees censured her last fall following a $50,000 probe that found she broke the rules by disclosing the topic of a secret December 2009 meeting that removed Westmount from a Mountain secondary closure review.

Trustees chose not to sanction her, including because board lawyers advised them they should have ratified the decision in public session – along with a litany of other decisions made at 14 closed-door meetings over more than two years.

Peddle said she’s encouraged a board subcommittee is addressing all the issues she raised in February in successfully pushing for a review of governance practices.

“They’re on the right track,” she said. “It could have some serious impacts on the timing and opening of meetings.”

On her other priorities, Peddle said she supports keeping the board’s headquarters downtown and will try to ensure school closure reviews provide a fair process.

She said she will base her closure choices on a number of factors, including value to students and the board, minimizing disruption to students and reducing the risk of an appeal by disgruntled school communities.

Peddle said she will ignore a school’s score on a facility condition index that measures estimated repair needs because it is “too controversial” and has prompted accusations the board manipulates maintenance spending to target certain schools for closure.

“I don’t want this process to run amiss because of public lack of assurance, lack of confidence in what we’re doing,” she said. “If I think we’re going to face a huge appeal one way versus another, then that’s going to weigh into my decision-making.”

They may be set to lose one of their two high schools in 2014, but Dundas students will have a noticeable presence at the Hamilton-Wentworth District School Board this fall.

Highland’s Lexi Ewings and Parkside’s Sydney Stenekes have been elected to serve as the board’s two student trustees for the coming school year.

Superintendent Pat Rocco said the successful candidates were drawn from 12 student applicants who were interviewed for the post as part of a process that whittled down prospective trustees to four hopefuls.

Members of the student senate, which draws membership from student councils, then elected Ewings and Stenekes after the four were given a chance to address them.

The other students in the final four were from Orchard Park in Stoney Creek and Westdale.

“Any one of the 12 finalists that we did interview would have been fantastic candidates,” Rocco said.

While joining others in ratifying the decision, east Mountain trustee Laura Peddle trustee suggested the board needs to find a way to ensure more balanced representation in the future.

“There’s nothing negative intended,” she said. “We represent a broad geographical area, we represent urban and rural, and we only have two student trustees.”

But others noted previous student trustees have been drawn from across the system and the balance changes from year to year.

“If you look over the years, the students that have been on (the board), I think we’ve covered all the wards,” west Mountain trustee Wes Hicks said.

“The main thing is that the student trustees will represent their student body,” central Mountain trustee Lillian Orban added.

Dundas trustee Jessica Brennan said Parkside and Highland haven’t had a student trustee in 12 or 13 years, after having one each during the first two years the position was established.

Ancaster High School meanwhile enjoyed “a long string” of student trustees and in other cases the representatives have lived within blocks of each other despite going to different schools, she said.

“Yes, it is an issue and has been an issue in the past. This one just makes it a little bit more obvious,” Brennan said, injecting some levity into the debate.

“But as you know, some people in Dundas believe the two schools are extremely far from each other and therefore wouldn’t even be conceived as the same geographical area.”

Student trustees receive an honourarium of $2,500 for a completed term. Their votes are recorded, but don’t count.

They can attend all board meetings, except those in closed session that deal with intimate, personal or financial information about a board member, employee or prospective employee, or pupil and his or her parent/guardian.

Sarah Cannon vividly recalls the day her daughter came home from school and talked about putting a bag over her head to suffocate herself.

Diagnosed with bipolar disorder when she was five, Emily had endured two weeks of being ostracized by Grade 8 classmates, who scorned her as “The Virus” because she seemed so different from them.

When she walked down school hallways, her tormentors would jump back against the lockers as if she were a contagious disease.

“These kids weren’t getting into trouble at the school because they weren’t touching her; in fact, they were staying far away from her,” Cannon said.

“I was feeling like I had no recourse with the school because the school would say, ‘They’re not beating up on her or anything like that.’ And, of course, there was such a wide group of kids doing it, it was really easy for them to hide behind one another.

“And even the kids who didn’t do it, nobody was saying, ‘That is really not cool.’”

It was just one of the times Emily talked about killing herself, telling her mom she just wanted to be accepted – or, at the very least, ignored.

“Not only was her illness causing her so much pain and grief that she was having enough time struggling with that, on top if it she was feeling like everyone around her now was suffering because of her,” Cannon said.

“The only person who thought she was worth anything was her mother… and she would say, ‘You’re my mom, you have to like me.’ She wants somebody to like her because they don’t have to like her, because they obviously like her.”

Executive director of Parents for Children’s Mental Health, Cannon recounted the story to students at Orchard Park Secondary School as part of OK Day, an event designed to create better understanding of mental health issues.

She said bipolar disorder is hereditary and characterized by extreme mood swings. In Emily’s case, her father was also what was once called a manic depressive – and committed suicide around the time she was diagnosed.

Cannon said her husband used to tell her that every single cell in his body ached and there wasn’t anything anyone could do to relieve the pain he felt every minute of the day.

“This is the type of emotion, this is the type of pain and strain and effect that this illness, even though we can’t see it, is having on people, our friends, our family, our classmates,” she said.

“It doesn’t discriminate, that’s the one thing in mental illness. It doesn’t care where you live, it doesn’t care where you’re from. All it cares is that it can take a home up in you.”

Cannon said Emily is now doing better. She attends a vocational high school in St. Catharines and wants to be mechanic, like her father was.

She now also has a group of friends, even if her mom doesn’t approve of their fondness for drinking, drugs and sex.

But Emily suffered years of bullying and having awful things said about her, including via online social media, and switched schools because things got so bad at one point.

Cannon said one in five children have a mental illness and her advice to students is to show them compassion and at least not be mean to them if they don’t like them.

“Just don’t make it worse,” she said. “I’m not asking you to pick a person in the hallway that you’re going to bring into your inner circle because I don’t think that would be real and I don’t think that would last really very long anyway.

“What I’m asking you to remember the severity of the consequences and remember how some of the things that you say and do can affect other people at a really, really deep core level.”

A freak accident with a cell-phone battery is being blamed for a scare that brought in the Hamilton police bomb squad and kept students out of class at R.A. Riddell Elementary School on Friday afternoon.

Hamilton-Wentworth District School Board spokesperson Jackie Penman said police and firefighters were called to the west Mountain school at about 12:30 p.m. after “a device” fell from a locker, releasing sparks and smoke.

An investigation has since determined the object was a loose cell phone battery that was crushed between the metal door and frame when the locker was closed, she said. Firefighters confirmed the smoke posed no air-quality concerns.

“It was purely accidental. It was a fluke,” said Penman, noting students were on their lunch break at the time.

“The battery lost its shape and it couldn’t initially be identified by the police,” she said. “There was enough concern because of what it did that it could have been more than what it appeared to be, so they erred on the side of caution.”

Penman said parents were notified via automatic phone messages on Friday and the school also posted an explanation on its website. A follow-up letter from principal Nancy Radojevic was sent home on Monday.

The letter states the incident has prompted a review of the school’s cell phone policy.

“Our policy will require all students to ‘turn off’ their cell phones and secure them in their lockers upon entry until dismissal at the end of the day,” it states.

“As a school we will continue to model the use of technology devices for instructional purposes only to avoid any distractions during the school day.”

Sgt. Terri-Lynn Collings said police sent in the bomb disposal squad because “of the way the call came out.”

“It turned out to be nothing,” she said.

Amanda Cicero told the more than 220 people at the Stoney Creek Chamber of Commerce Achievement Awards gala that she doesn’t see her name in flashing lights in the future, but she does see herself making a difference in the world.

Cicero was honoured as Stoney Creek’s Junior Citizen of the Year at the May 10 gala at Galileo’s Garden banquet centre for the difference she has already made.

“I don’t do what I do to be recognized, but it feels good knowing people out there are proud,” she said.

Cicero was recognized for bringing awareness and raising funds for Crohn’s disease, from which she suffers. She was named Ontario’s Gutsiest Citizen by the Crohn’s and Colitis Foundation of Canada and been honourary chair and top fundraiser of the local CCFC walkathon.

Cicero also manages to sing in Cardinal Newman Catholic Secondary School’s glee club and do watercolour paintings, which she donates for charity fundraisers. She also helped organize her school’s arts fundraiser and mentors young Crohn’s sufferers.

Another young person honoured May 10 was Colin Heyens, who received the chamber’s first Humanitarian Award.
Heyens has logged 80,000 kilometres travelling the world, including helping to construct two schools in rural Ecuador with Me to We, helping build homes in Thailand and assisting in rebuilding a house destroyed by Hurricane Katrina as part of the St. Bernard Project in New Orleans.

He has also volunteered at Best Friends Animal Sanctuary in Utah, Clean the World in Florida, Helping Others Make the Effort (HOME) homeless shelter in Florida and Walt Disney marathons in Florida and California.

“The only person who can tell you that you can’t is you and you don’t have to listen,” Heyens told the crowd, which included Hamilton councillors Maria Pearson and Brad Clark, Mayor Bob Bratina and MPP Paul Miller.

Donald V. Brown Funeral Home received the Outstanding Small Business award. The company, which is managed by three generations of the Brown family was started by Donald and Norma, who have been married for 63 years.

In addition to “helping people in a difficult situation,” which was the reason they opened the business, the  Browns also help the community by supporting many charities and community events.

“It is a privilege to care for the Stoney Creek community,” said Julie Brown, a third-generation partner.

McHugh Mowat Whitmore Ionico McPherson received the Outstanding Large Business award. The company was recognized for delivering legal services using a team approach, as well as participating in many community organizations and charities.

In addressing the crowd, Michael McHugh acknowledged the firm’s staff as the key to its success.

Arcelor Mittal Dofasco received the Community Recognition Award for its service to the community. Sean Donnelly, vice-president of manufacturing, cited the company’s ability to adapt to changing times for the reason it will celebrate its 100th anniversary in September.

Pointing out that of its more than 5,000 employees, 900 live in Stoney Creek, Donnelly reminisced about Dofasco’s old slogan, “Our product is steel, our strength is our people,” saying that it stands true today.

Bertram and Barry Insurance received the Legacy Award. The company was started after Hugh Bertram moved to Saltfleet Township from Scotland in 1892. Hugh’s son Ron took over before his son-in-law John Barry joined the firm in 1977. Since 2008, the company has been run by his children, Ron and Christine Barry.

Linda Shuker was honoured as Stoney Creek Citizen of the Year for her dedication to organizations including the Saltfleet Figure Skating Club and the Winona Peach Festival.

Shuker thanked her husband Glen and daughters Melissa and Pam for their patience and understanding regarding all of her endeavors.
She called her award an “extremely great honour and one of which she is very proud.

For more photos, visit the Stoney Creek News Facebook page.

 By Mark Newman, News Staff

With local radio celebrities Sunni Genesco and Matt Hayes lending a hand and their voices, Tracie’s Place has grabbed an early lead in the fourth annual Mountain Bar Challenge.

The karaoke bar on Upper James raised $1,894.35 over two hours last Friday night with proceeds going to support the tutoring program at Neighbour to Neighbour Centre.

“We raised $300 per song,” beamed bar owner and karaoke enthusiast Tracie Rowe-Huskins, who even had a couple of patrons inquire about becoming volunteer tutors. “It’s an incredible start.”

She noted Sunni and Hayes teamed on I Got You Babe and Love Shack.

Rowe-Huskins said she struggled with reading as a child and didn’t hesitate to participate when she learned about the bar challenge to support literacy.

Deban Brunette, coordinator of the free tutoring program that is helping youngsters in grades 1-3 at 12 Mountain elementary schools with their reading and comprehension skills, said a record 10 bars are taking part this year with the goal of raising $20,000 by the time the challenge ends on July 31^st.

The bar that raises the most money gets bragging rights and a plaque donated by central Mountain councillor Scott Duvall.

“I think the (campaign goal) is very doable,” said Brunette, who noted the tutoring program is about to wrap up its ninth year of service. “We have over 200 kids in the program and 100 volunteers.”

The other participants this year are former bar challenge winners Cagney’s Pub and the Wobbly Scotsman, along with Boomer’s, Bottom’s Up Bar and Grill, Ace Family Restaurant, Frankie’s Bar and Grill, Jack’s Roadhouse, Rumak Eatery and Bar and Stone Roads Bar and Grill.

Brunette said the bars are running a variety of fundraising activities including karaoke, 50/50 draws, meat draws, golf tournaments and baseball games.

She noted about 1,400 children have used the tutoring program since it began and the bar challenge has raised nearly $40,000 in the last three years.

It costs Neighbour to Neighbour Centre about $7,000 per school to run the tutoring program.

Dennis Hauser and Kristopher Kitson barbecued hotdogs and hamburgers at the Mud Street M&M Meat Shops location, as part of the nationwide M&M Meat Shops charity barbecue day to support the Crohn’s and Colitis Foundation of Canada.

Across the country, the event raised more than $1.5 million.

Glendale Performing Arts will present AIDA: The Timeless Love Story May 23-31.

Based on the story from the classic Verdi opera, AIDA is a new musical with Elton John’s modern pop score.
Winner of four 2000 Tony Awards, AIDA is the story of lovers who are entrapped by their predetermined stations in life, man’s animalistic need for power, the conquerors and the conquered and the constant task of sorting what is “Written in The Stars.”

AIDA is a rock and roll journey that stays true to the essences  of ancient Egypt. With a pop-rock score that features  ballads and choral numbers, Elton John and Tim Rice’s AIDA is a modern crowd pleaser that embraces multicultural casting and exuberant dancing, staging and singing.

This production of AIDA is the work of more than 200 of Glendale’s students, staff and community members.

Tickets are $8 and are available for reservation at (905) 560-7343, ext. 250 or at the Glendale Performing Arts Centre (145 Rainbow Dr.) Evening performances begin at 6 p.m.