On Memorial Day in Toledo, Ohio, at the Pacesetter Invitational Tournament, the boys played well, but fell short of advancing to the playoff round.  They defeated the Fort Wayne Indiana Fever Academy 4-1, tied the Pacesetter Club team 1-1 and lost to the eventual semi-finalists, Nova Black from Michigan 3-1.

At the Heritage Days Tournament in Ancaster, the team went undefeated in four games, recording wins against Guelph Royals, OKD, Dundas and the Kitchener Spirit in the final.

The boys amassed 12 goals and did not concede a marker in the tournament.

On Canada Day weekend, the team competes at the Robbie International Tourney in Toronto.

The Titans compete in the Premier Division of the SRSL and are currently undefeated in league play.

Team members are Alex McClung, Jesse Di Domenico, Lukas Picado, Mitchell Cassar, Emerson Amorim, Damian Kirkelos, Nolan Wright, Sam Jenkins, Rayyan Ben Rayes, Robert Tomale, Riley Hambly, Jay Thabane, Nick Barbieri, Mitchell Urech, Joseph Campanella, Marcus Rizzutti, Connor Russell and Mathew Scholes.

 By Debra Downey, Senior Editor

It’s somewhat ironic that a man best known for his grumpy television persona is actually a delightful octogenarian moving his audience to both laughter and tears in the Drayton Festival Theatre’s performance of Tuesdays With Morrie.

Ian Downie and his equally cantankerous sidekick have become household names as the two grumpy old characters who debate the conveniences of modern banking in the long-running TD Canada Trust commercials.

And while many people recognize Downie for the humourous advertisements, his life-long body of acting work includes everything  from feature films Rock My World and Butterbox Babies, to the Shaw Festival’s Expo 67 Major Barbara, episodes of the television series Street Legal, Murdoch Mysteries and Rookie Blue, and leading roles in stage plays like On Golden Pond and The Fly Fisher’s Companion.

Downie said he is recognized across the province in a variety of situations, not for his more serious work but a quirky TV commercial that caught and held the imagination of viewers.

One day, Downie was leaving the Shaw Festival  and a woman stopped, nudged her husband, pointed and whispered, “It’s him.” Another time while shopping in Ancaster, a male passerby chuckled and said, “I’d like to make an appointment.” And while walking along Toronto’s Yonge Street, a businessman in an expensive suit stopped Downie and stated, quite seriously, ‘Don’t you take advice from anyone.”

But rather than be taken aback by his fans’ reaction, Downie is amused.

“I’m delighted. I just love those commercials,” he said. “We were in everyone’s homes for five years and millions saw me every day.”

More than 30 TD Canada Trust commercials featuring Downie and Ben Hammer, known for his recurring role on the hit television series, Law & Order, were shot over the past five years. Some appeared on television, others on the Internet and some in bank branches.

The original plan, said Downie, was to produce only a couple of ads, but the chemistry between the two veteran actors prompted TD executives to order more.

“The plan was just to do two, but it was such a hit, and their (TD Bank’s) brand recognition jumped by about 50 per cent so, bingo, we did more,” said Downie.

The series of commercials that began in 2007 wound up earlier this year, but Downie’s days in the spotlight continue in Tuesdays with Morrie, an uplifting autobiographical account of a sports journalist’s friendship with his former college professor.

Tuesdays with Morrie has earned high praise from audiences and the Guelph Mercury newspaper whose reviewer states:  “With a cast of two actors against a simple grey backdrop and nothing more than the power of their performances to draw in the audience, Tuesdays With Morrie is one of the most riveting, moving and emotional pieces of theatre seen on any stage, anywhere.”

Downie said the role of the witty, aging academic Morrie Schwartz is  challenging, as Lou Gehrig’s disease begins to have a devastating effect on the dying man’s mission to share lessons on life and love.

“The play is a wonderful workout,” said Downie. “I start out dancing and end up motionless in a bed, and with it comes all the degradation of the disease. It’s interesting and challenging to make the physical and vocal changes.”

Like all his roles, Downie  said the audience’s reaction to the play makes his on-stage efforts worthwhile.

“Everyone is coming out (of the theatre) delighted. When you hear them laugh and they have a few tears, you know you’ve hit the jackpot,” he said.

After Tuesdays with Morrie wraps up July 13, Downie doesn’t quite know what’s in the cards, but the 80-something-year-old isn’t quite ready to let the curtain fall on his acting career.

He still has two projects that have not yet been available for public consumption. First Martian War, 1913-17, is a joint docu-drama project of BBC America and The History Channel in which  Downie plays a veteran of the Canadian artillery, and Mine is a Bravo short film that features the Ancaster resident as a dying man who mistakes his wife for someone he knew long ago.

Both are serious projects that called on Downie to put his acting talents to the test, but he knows his legacy will always likely be as a cranky older fellow.

“It was such a wonderful run,” he said of the TD Bank commercials. “ We were in Puerto Rico for the bank’s annual meeting and they gave us an enormous standing ovation, and hooted and hollered,” said Downie. “…Two hundred people lined up around the room for a photo with us. It was the most incredible experience.”

In his younger years, Downie  performed with various local community theatre productions, including Dundas Little Theatre. When he retired in 1987  from a career in education, he became a full-time, professional actor. He and his wife, author Jill Downie, live in Ancaster. When he is not working, Downie spends some of his leisure hours in the woodworking and ukulele groups at the Ancaster Senior Achievement Centre.

Tuesdays With Morrie ran at the Drayton Festival Theatre until June 22, before moving to Grand Bend at the Huron County Playhouse II until July 13.

To order tickets, go to www.draytonfestivaltheatre.com or by calling toll-free 1-855-DRAYTON (372-9866).

By Gord Bowes, News staff

St. Jean de Brebeuf is getting an artificial turf sports field this fall.
An exact date isn’t yet known, said Ward 7 trustee and Catholic school board chair Pat Daly, but the design will begin immediately and te project will be tendered soon.
““We’re really pleased, because it will make a huge difference for the Brebeuf community,” said Daly. “Unfortunately it won’t be September.”
Brebeuf’s field is the fourth Catholic high school in Hamilton to install artificial turf. St. Thomas More on the west Mountain was first, in 2011.
There is no schedule for when each school will receive the updated field, said Daly. It just turned out that this project could be fit into this year’s budget.
“But I would say we are ahead of schedule,” he said.
The field will be made from recycled tires for increased performance resilience and safety. An underground drainage system will alleviate the current ponding problems, reduce regular field maintenance costs and extend the playing season for school sports programs.
“One of the benefits of the artificial turf field is that it offers consistency in playing quality,” said Daly. “In the past, many of our teams were impacted by flooding and poor field conditions.”
There shouldn’t be any delays such as happened with St. Thomas More’s artificial turf. That project was delayed several months because of storm water management issues, but Daly said the board will be working with the city to ensure it is not an issue with this project.
The new field will cost about $1 million. The school will contribute to an undefined portion of the cost through its own fundraising, said Daly, and rentals by community groups will help defray ongoing costs.
A rubberized six-lane running track at St. Jean de Brebeuf was installed this past year, replacing the old track.

Pets that have microchips have a far greater chance of being reunited with their family when they get lost, or even stolen. Microchips are approximately the size of a grain of rice and are inserted beneath an animal’s skin, between its shoulder blades.

The process is painless and takes about one minute.

Each microchip has a unique identification number and contains contact information for the pet’s owner. A scanner is used to collect the information on the microchip once it has been inserted. Each microchip (only one per animal is necessary) costs $25, and provides a permanent means of identification for each pet.

All pet owners are encouraged to microchip their pets.

“Pets with microchips are returned to their owners sooner,” says Dr. Jennifer Farr, director of the HBSPCA companion animal hospital.  Farr adds, “Lost pets have shorter stays at animal services and fewer unclaimed animals means more resources to help animals in need.  Microchipping is a wonderful thing you can do for your pet.”

Pet owners microchipping their pets at the clinic will have their names entered into a raffle draw to win a cat or dog gift basket.  All proceeds from the clinic will go to support the HBSPCA.

Visit the microchip clinic on Saturday, June 22. No appointment is necessary. All dogs must be on-leash and cats must be in carriers.

Coverage begins at 6:45 p.m. with a pre-game show looking at the battle for positions during training camp, Hamilton’s new head coach Kent Austin, and what’s in store for ‘Cats fans who make the trek to the University of Guelph for 2013 home games.

The Cats are calling Guelph’s Alumni Stadium their home for the 2013 season. The Cats will play 8 of 9 home games in Guelph. The other game will be played in Moncton.

Kick-off is slated for 7 p.m. at Guelph’s Alumni Stadium. Live coverage will feature play-by-play announcer Todd Crocker, colour commentator Don Edwards, and side-line reporter Mike Fortune, and will be available to cable TV subscribers in Hamilton, Haldimand, Niagara, and Burlington (on tape-delay).

Scared. Uncertain.

That’s how Stoney Creek couple Jill and Adam Dallaway felt when their three-year-old son Andrew was diagnosed with arthritis at age two and a half.

“We didn’t really know what to expect. How is this going to affect the rest of his life? Is it something he’ll grow out of?” Jill said. “We just wanted to help him, so that he was not in pain. It’s really quite maddening as a parent to watch your child in pain and feel helpless to be able to do anything about it.”

According to the Arthritis Society, juvenile arthritis (JA) is one of the more common disorders resulting in chronic disability in children and adolescents, affecting about 61,500 kids and youth in Canada.

JA can be defined as continuous inflammation – pain, stiffness and swelling – of one or more joints lasting at least six weeks for which no other cause can be found.

Andrew began to experience swelling in his knee last year.

“At first, we noticed that he was limping a lot, especially in the morning and his knee was quite swollen. The doctors did X-rays, ultrasounds and an MRI to determine the cause,” said Adam, adding the diagnosis took quite some time. “Finally, it was more of an elimination process. The doctors ruled out everything else and came to the conclusion that it was arthritis.”

Andrew was diagnosed with juvenile arthritis last August.

Jill said one of the hardest parts about finding out Andrew had the disorder was and continues to be not knowing how bad it will get as he gets older.

“All of the medication that has come along with the diagnosis and not really knowing the effects it might be having on his poor little body also is particularly hard,” she said. “Having arthritis hasn’t stopped Andrew from doing anything that he wants to do. Sometimes, he just needs to approach things a bit differently.”

Andrew’s life now includes many doctor appointments and numerous eye doctor visits, as he was also diagnosed with uveitis, which is a silent inflammation of the eye. The condition sometimes occurs in children with arthritis.

Andrew takes 18 pills a week for his arthritis and two eye drops a day to help keep the uveitis under control.

He also has undergone physiotherapy a few times at the Arthritis Society in Burlington.

While at the location, the Dallaway family found out about the organization’s annual Walk to Fight Arthritis. The walk takes place each June in more than 30 communities across Canada and raises money for arthritis research, education and support programs.

The Dallaway family, along with a number of friends, formed Team Andrew and hit the pavement for this year’s event on June 9 at the Royal Botanical Gardens, helping to raise about $3,000 for the cause.

Const. Debbie McGreal-Dinning said a 44-year-old woman was exiting a trail in the area of Old Ancaster Road at Osler Drive at about 9:15 p.m., when she observed two men standing by a vehicle. As she passed the men, they asked her for cigarettes.

The woman refused their request. The men threatened her by stating they had a gun in a garbage bag in the trunk of their car. The perpetrators then assaulted the woman by punching and kicking her.

The victim threw her purse at their vehicle during the assault, breaking the windshield in a spiderweb design. The suspects grabbed the discarded purse and fled in their vehicle. The woman had medication and a small amount of cash in the purse. She then ran to the roadway, where a passing pedestrian contacted police.

The victim suffered minor injuries.

The first suspect is described as a white male in his early 20s, five foot one with a slim build, short dark hair, light brown eyes and a thin moustache. He was wearing a light coloured T-shirt, jeans and white running shoes. He was called “Mecca” by the second suspect.

The second suspect is described as a black male in his early 20s, five foot ten to five foot eleven with a slim build, short black hair and an extremely clear complexion. He was wearing a darker T-shirt, jeans and running shoes. He was referred to as “C” by the first suspect.

The vehicle is described as a dark green, two-door sedan.

If criminal charges are laid as a result of an Ontario Provincial Police investigation into e-mails that were deleted by staff in the Premier’s office, NDP support for the Liberal government could quickly evaporate.

“It would give us a big pause,” Ontario NDP leader Andrea Horwath said yesterday (Monday) when she was asked about the possibility of criminal charges being filed as a result of the probe into deleted e-mails relating to the cancellation of gas plants in Mississauga and Oakville.

Horwath was participating in the inaugural editorial board meeting of the Metroland South newspaper group, which includes The Independent & Free Press, in Brampton.

The Hamilton Centre MPP reiterated that her party will support the Liberals today (Tuesday, June 11) when the Legislature votes on the budget.

But she made it clear that her party’s support is not unconditional.

“We’ll have to see if any charges are laid,” she said.

The NDP leader defended her party’s decision not to force a spring election, saying it heard loudly and clearly from a sizeable portion of the population who oppose another vote so soon after the Oct. 4, 2011 vote that reduced the Liberals to a minority position.

“People elected a minority government. They gave us a job to do and we’re trying to do it,” the former Hamilton city councillor said.

She claimed her party has won valuable concessions for the public through reduction of auto insurance rates by 15 per cent, introduction of a financial accountability office, the bolstering of home care and the continuation of committee hearings into what she called the “gas plant fiasco.”

Had her party prompted an election, former Premier Dalton McGuinty and other Liberal officials wouldn’t be coming forward to testify again at an all-party committee probing the decision to cancel the Mississauga plant proposed by Eastern Power just 11 days before the 2011 provincial vote.

“We want to see how deep the rabbit hole goes,” Horwath told the editorial board meeting. “If an election campaign is called, that all dissolves into the ether.”

The NDP leader said she is particularly proud of the financial accountability office which is intended to stop scandals such as the ORNGE and e-Health debacles from getting started by bringing more public scrutiny to government spending in its early stages.

“I think we’ve shown over the past year that we are the party that is willing to do the heavy lifting,” Horwath said.

Although she supports a long-term transit plan for the GTHA, Horwath said it shouldn’t be paid for on the backs of middle class earners. “It’s difficult to ask people to pay more money now for public transit because in 20 years you might get to use it. The main users are working class people who can’t afford to do that.”

Metroland South Publisher Dana Robbins said the intention of the editorial board meetings is to foster “collective thinking about big issues” across the 22 newspapers in the group, which are distributed to 750,000 homes each week.

Hamilton Food Share got a hearty helping of healthy protein last Wednesday.

The non-profit charitable organization received 4,992 portions of fresh lean pork as part of a new Ontario Pork Program launched by Ontario Pork and the Ontario Association of Food Banks (OAFB). Ontario Pork is donating ground pork to food banks this summer across southwestern Ontario with hopes of benefiting up to 412,000 children and adults living with hunger in the province.

Hamilton Food Share’s cut will be distributed to food banks and hot meal programs in the community.

“I think it’s really amazing that Ontario Pork has stepped up to the plate to help feed the needy in this community and across the province; it does not surprise me that the association has stepped up to the table because farmers, as a rule, are very generous people,” organization resource development director Rachel O’Reilly said. “The food that’s been donated is fresh, it’s lean and nutritious protein is one of the hardest things to get in at food banks. The fact that we’re getting the quantity and quality of this donation is fantastic and the fact that an opportunity exists for this program to benefit hungry Ontarians throughout the province is also amazing.”

Association representative Mary Jane Quinn said through the Ontario Pork Program, Ontario Pork, in cooperation with the OAFB, Elanco, Zoetis, Shur-Gain and Mabel Honor Farm, will deliver about 10,000 pounds of ground pork to food banks this summer across southwestern Ontario.

There are hopes of expanding the program this fall throughout the entire province, she added.

“Food bank use often increases throughout the summer because children who rely on breakfast clubs and school-meal programs no longer have access to these services when school is not in session. With many families experiencing increased living costs associated with summer childcare and reduced access to these programs, they often have no other choice but to access their community food banks throughout June, July, and August,” Quinn said. “The ground pork donation will make a tremendous impact in ensuring children and adults living with chronic hunger have access to healthy protein, the most needed in food banks. This is a way that Ontario pork farmers can give back to their communities and we are pleased to be involved in such a worthy cause.”

Ontario pork farmer Tony Stam, who’s been a pork producer for the last 32 years, said it’s “heartwarming” to know that what pork farmers are producing is going to help others in need.

“Historically, farmers have been doing this all along,” he said. “We support our own, whether it’s through our church agencies, our small food banks that are local, we’ve done that for a long, long time, but never have we done it to this scale. It helps us beam inside, I guess, to say that other families that would have probably done without are now at least getting a couple meals of good food with protein.”

O’Reilly said ground pork is a food that can be enjoyed by the entire family.

“There’s so much you can do with a pound of pork,” she said. “It’s so versatile in terms of what you can make with it. It’s so nutritious and it’s so healthy that we are just truly grateful for this (donation) for all of those reasons.”

Collegiate Avenue elementary school held its first Fun Fair and Open House last Wednesday.

The event featured crafts, face painting, games, multicultural food and a number of guests from various community organizations, including Hamilton Emergency Services – Fire, the Hamilton Police Service and Scouts Canada.

It also included a demonstration by Dynamic Karate and performances by dance group Kud Bosnia in the Heart and Persian dancer Jemiah Ghorbani.

“We wanted to do something fun to bring the community together and we haven’t had an opportunity before this to really pull it all together. We’re been planning this event for months and everyone’s really come together to make it happen,” principal Laurie Behr said. “We’re a small school – we only have 270 kids – so to see this many people come out to the event is amazing. We’ll definitely do an event like this again next year with hopes of making it even bigger.”