Vol 21 No 5 March 6, 2013community powered stories and events

The Canadian Parents for French KISH Chap-ter, grades 7 to 9, is a group formed of parents

who are there to support the children and teach-ers of the French Im-mersion and core French

program. French Immer-sion teachers are: Mm. Johanna McLellan, Ju-lie Delisle and Ghislaine

Duplain. The original ex-ecutive have been instru-mental, since the begin-ning of the late French

immersions creation, in supporting the teachers and students of KISH with their time and re-

sources. At the beginning of this

year they have passed the

Supporting French Immersion at Kensington Intermediate High School

cont’d on p. 2

In photo right (front) Tara Davson-President of CPF KISH Chapter and (back) Lori Coulson-Past Treasurer

and one of the founding members of CPF at KISH.

Preliminary Ladies BL-R: Laura Davison-Sherwood/Parkdale 3rd Place,

Shannon Hill-Kensington 1st Place and Marilyn Sheen Kensington 2nd Place.

2013 ADL Junior Starskate Championships A Success Perfect weather pre-

vailed for the 2013 ADL Junior Starskate Cham-pionships held Saturday, February 23 at Communi-ty Gardens. This year the championship saw 107 single skaters competing with six teams competing in the Preliminary Team Event, 9 teams competing in the Pre-Preliminary A Event, 8 teams in the Pre-Preliminary B Event, 2 Pre-Preliminary Dance Events and 1 Preliminary Dance Event.

Club Winner for the 2013 ADL Club Point Award was the Char-lottetown Figure Skating Club.

Club Winner for the

2013 ADL Club Par-ticipation was the Sum-merside Figure Skating Club.

Winners from KensingtonPre-Preliminary Dance B1st Place Emma Gillis/Marilyn Sheen

Preliminary Dance1st Place Shannan Hill/Kristan Coughlin

Pre-Preliminary Team B1st Place Kensington Team 2

Preliminary Team3rd Place Kensington Team 1

Introductory Ladies B1st Place Emma Gillis

Pre-Preliminary Ladies B1st Place Shannan Hill2nd Place Marilyn Sheen

INTRODUCTORY LADIES FRESTYLE “A”1st Sophie Trainor Ch’town 2nd Jessica Gorveatt Ch’town 3rd Aimee Gallant S’side

INTRODUCTORY LADIES FREESTYLE “B”1st Emma Gillis Kensington2nd Sarah Hart O’Leary3rd Kiera Marshall Ch’town

INTRODUCTORY LADIES FREESTYLE “C”

cont’d on p. 4

Page 2 March 6, 2013The County Line Courier ~ your community newspaper

NEW LONDON Community Complex

February Draw Winners

•Wayne & Pat Barlow, Kensington•Sandra Stavert Long River•Parkview Farms Cavendsh•Linda Durdle Kensington•Warren Ellis Summersdie

$1000 Dollar Winner Nancy Key Summerside$100 Dollar Winners

King George Place61 Broadway Street Kensington, Prince Edward Island

Published twice monthly by MJS Marketing and Promo-tions. The contents of this newspaper are protected by copyright. To make use of any of the material, you must first obtain permission from the publisher. Publisher: Michael J. SmithEditor: Isabel SmithFeature Article(s): Andy WalkerMailing address: PO Box 601, Kensington, PE, C0B 1M0Tel: 902 836-3196 Fax: 902 836-4889E-mail: thecourier@eastlink.ca

E-mail: thecourier@eastlink.caNext edition March 20(deadline for submissions for this issue is March 13)

We Welcome Your Letters:The County Line Courier welcomes letters on topics of interest to our readers. Publishing of any letter is at the discretion of the editor. Any submitted articles, letters or features, may be edited for length, clarity, grammar and content. All letters mustbe signed with the writer’s name and telephone number forverification purposes. Unsigned or anonymous letters will not be considered for publication. Short letters have more impact.Opinions expressed are those of the people who submit themand not necessarily those of The County Line Courier.

Draw made by Brenda Montgomery.

Brenda Montgomery and Fred Doughart

torch on to a new execu-tive and we would like to thank them tremendous-ly for all their hard work and effort to the program,

without you it would not have been possible.

Today we are support-ing the students with French Board Games, motivational posters and magazine subscriptions

to help with their learning in a fun and unique way.

The Chapter welcomes

any parents and students to join us. The group meets at the KISH library the first Thursday of ev-ery month and we hope to see some more people get involved. Many hands make light work

Flea Market April 21st:

CPF will be having a Flea Market Fundraiser at the Kensington Legion. Great time to spring clean, purge and make

some money. The pub-lic are welcome to rent a table of their own for a small fee per table. It will be first come first serve on table rentals. Flea Market will run from 8am -4pm. Set up will be available Saturday be-fore between 6-9pm. If interested in booking a table please contact Tara Davison at tara-davison2@msn.com or call 432-0066(after 6pm). Funds raised from this will go towards supplies and support for KISH Students and Teachers.

French Immersioncont’d on p. 2

Members of the Kens-ington Seniors’ Group are looking forward to hosting an OPEN HOUSE Wednesday, March 13th-from 1-3pm at the Se-niors Centre on Garden Drive (storm date March 20) to showcase pieces of the beautiful art form ‘Swedish Weaving’ that they have crafted during a 10 week LEAP program (Learning Elders Arts Program).

The LEAP project, an initiative administered by the PEI Senior Citi-zens’ Federation and, funded from the PEI Department of Tour-ism and Culture under the direction of Minis-ter Robert Henderson, provided area seniors with the opportunity to learn the art of Swed-ish Weaving from local artist and instructor

Audrey Glover.

Swedish Weaving is

an old method of sur-face embroidery used to create beautiful af-

ghans, runners, towels etc..

Iva Schurman, Lois Brown, Maria Kowalski, Grace MacLeod, Ruby Cousins, Joan MacGillivray, Audrey Glover and Pearl MacCallum. Missing from photo:

Lourdes McGrath, Virjene Cole, Barb Connick and Mary Hickey.

cont’d on p. 4

Seniors Plan Open House To Showcase Beautiful Art Form

Page 3March 6, 2013 The County Line Courier ~ your community newspaper

Industries Working Together to Attract Workersby Andy Walker

Editor, Island Farmer/Freelance journalistPresident, Canadian Association of Journalist, PEI

Vice president, Atlantic Farm Writers Association

The province’s three main industries have strong roots in Kensing-ton.

The town has long been a service centre to the surrounding farming and fishing communi-ties. The area around the town boasts, and rightly so, of being one of the best potato growing areas in the province and, per-haps, the country. Har-bours like Malpeque and French River have long seen some of the best sea-food in the world come ashore at their ports.

The area has also been a long time tourism hub for visitors, and next year should be a milestone marking both the centen-nial of the town’s incor-poration and the 150th anniversary of the 1864 Charlottetown Confer-ence that laid the frame-work for Confederation three years later.

In the past several years, all three indus-tries have faced signifi-cant challenges. Many of

those problems are spe-cific to that industry but there is one problem they have in common—trying to find workers.

Even in areas of high unemployment, the pri-mary sectors have often been forced to rely on for-eign workers from as far away as Mexico and Rus-sia. It is not uncommon to find workers from oth-er provinces at fish plants or campgrounds.

Now all three sectors are worried that new Employment Insurance rules that shorten the length of time seasonal workers can draw ben-efits may make the job even tougher. All three sectors are worried that some of the experienced workers they have been using from year to year will be forced to look for full-time employ-ment, and there is a good chance that will be in Al-berta.

The president of the PEI Fishermen’s Associ-ation is predicting there

could be a reduction of up to 30 per cent of work-ers returning to work on boats for this spring’s lobster season. Mike Mc-Geoghegan said the feed-back he has been hearing is people are reluctant to leave positions they have secured in Alberta for what could be an uncer-tain future on the water.

To help combat the problem, all three sectors have pledged greater co-operation when it comes to attracting and retain-ing workers. They start-ed the process with a re-cent forum in Charlotte-town that attracted over 40 people from all three sectors.

“We were really pleased with the turnout and the ideas that came forward,” said Lloyd Dalziel, the executive di-rector of the PEI Agri-culture Sector Council.

His organization co-sponsored the event with the Tourism Human Re-sources Sector Council. There was no shortage of ideas including the possi-bility of making it easier for workers to shift from sector to sector. Dalziel said the three industries

want to look at a pilot project that might allow a worker in the fishery sector, for example, to move into an agriculture job at the end of the fish-ing season.

The participants dis-cussed such suggestions as greater sharing of re-sumes, expanding the seasonal employment services offered by the Agriculture Sector Coun-cil to include fisheries and tourism and, ways to enhance the profile of the three sectors within the education system.

One participant not-ed some professions like lawyers or doctors are “glamourized” by educa-tors but occupations in the primary industries are often viewed as low skilled.

Participants suggested work could be done to pro-file the average worker within the three sectors, and see if there are op-portunities to teach what were called “soft” skills like computer training, that are common to all the sectors.

There was also a sug-gestion to reach out to the PEI Association of Newcomers to Canada to make newcomers more aware of prospects in the three industries. The par-ticipants also suggested developing a Human Re-sources Committee with representatives from the three sectors and the de-velopment of employee focus groups to discuss with employees and po-tential employees how to attract people to primary industries.

Several participants

suggested the three sec-tors approach govern-ment jointly to discuss a pilot project that could allow workers to move between sectors as well as a way to extend the length of employment for seasonal workers. Dalziel said there is no question the more weeks of em-ployment a worker can get working within the primary industries on PEI, the greater the like-lihood they will remain in the province from sea-son to season.

“If a worker goes to Al-berta and gets a full-time job, the chance they are going to leave to come back to PEI for seasonal work is slim,” an-other participant said.

Kathy Livingstone of the Tourism Human Re-

sources Sector Council characterized the forum as a “good beginning.” She said the sector coun-cils in the three industries can hopefully be the fo-rum to co-ordinate the ef-fort and allow for both sec-tor to sector and operator to operator cooperation.

This effort has tremen-dous potential and, hope-fully, the efforts will soon bear fruit. What is really bothersome is the atti-tude among many people that seasonal work has no value and that people should move if there are not full time jobs.

Perhaps if those peo-ple went hungry for a few days or rode out a storm in a fishing boat their at-titude might change.

Dawn Marie McGuirk has been diagnosed with T-Cell Lym-phoma cancer and is presently undergoing treat-ments and is un-able to work.

A Benefit Auc-tion will be held at the Kensing-ton Legion on Sat-urday, March 30, 2013 at 7pm. Auc-tioneer is Allison Smith with mu-sic by Undertow

Benefit AuctionDawn Marie McGuirk

of KensingtonSaturday, March 30

at Kensington Legion

(Mark Wall).

If intereted in donating items for the benefit they can be dropped off at the Kensington Legion or Fam-ily & Friends Restaurant.

An account has been set up for Dawn Marie at Malpeque Bay Credit Union in Kensington.

Contact for further info: Charlene Gill 902-836-4626 Cindy McGuirk 902-836-3007 Stacey Homes 902-598-8017

Page 4 March 6, 2013The County Line Courier ~ your community newspaper

Ruth McKenna

KensingtonHeritage Library

Hours of OperationTues. 9:30am to 12:30pm 1:00pm to 3:00pmWed. 12 noon-5pmThurs. 2pm to 7pmSat. 9:30-12:30pm to 1-3pm

6 Commercial Street836-3721

Email: kensington@gov.pe.cawww.library.pe.ca

March is here already and the days are getting warmer and longer!

On Valentine’s Day,

we had a wonderful and fun evening here at the library. We had an Inter-Generational Program where a group of chil-dren came in and met with a group of seniors who brought in some very interesting artifacts from days gone by.

The children asked questions and learned many interesting facts about how life has changed for children in the last few decades!

The children present-ed the seniors with Val-entines which they had made for them. I want to thank all the ones involved

in this program--you all made it a great success!

A special “thank you” goes out to Lilah MacPherson-Pendleton and Ruby Cousins for helping me bring the two groups together.

We have a good selec-

tion of used books for sale so come on in to browse through them and stock up on some paperbacks.

See you at the library!

1st Kathleen Mann S’side2nd Sarah Hynes S’side3rd Madeline MacDonald Sherwood/Parkdale

INTRODUCTORY MEN’S FREESTYLE1st Robert Greer Pownal

PRE-PRELIMINARY “A”1st Sara Rixon Ch’town2nd Rachel MacKay Ch’town3rd Drew Hackett Tignish

PRE-PRELIMINARY “B”1st Shannan Hill Kensington2nd Marilyn Sheen Kensington3rd Laura Davison Sherwood/Parkdale PRE-PRELIMINARY “C”1st Karina Terentiev Ch’town2nd Madeline Smith O’Leary3rd Isabelle Gallant Evangeline

PRELIMINARY FREESTYLE “A”1st Hannah Hardy S’side2nd Tsukasa Iwamoto Sherwood/Parkdale3rd Diana Shea Alberton

PRELIMINARY FREESTYLE “B”1st Samantha Milligan Tyne Valley2nd Lucie Bauby Sherwood/Parkdale3rd Nathalie Richard Evangeline

PRE-PRELIMINARY DANCE “A”1st Kaitlyn Smith/Jane Gillis Summerside2nd

Jessica Gorveatt/Jaclyn Chandler Charlottetown3rd Julia Davison/Madeline MacDonald Sherwood/Parkdale

PRE-PRELIMINARY DANCE “B”1st Emma Gillis/Marilyn Sheen Kensington2nd Colby Arsenault/Isabelle Gallant Evangeline3rd Kathleen Mann/Sarah Hynes Summerside

PRELIMINARY DANCE1st Shannan Hill/Kristan Coughlin Kensington2nd Makenzie Hayes/Jerika Richard Evangeline3rd Kourtney Mills/Anna Herget Alberton

PRE-PRELIMINARY TEAM “A”1st Summerside Sparklelites Summerside2nd Evangeline Team 2 Evangeline3rd Sherwood/Parkdale Team 2

Sherwood/Parkdale

PRE-PRELIMINARY TEAM ‘B”1st Kensington Team 2 Kensington2nd S.S.J.J. Charlottetown3rd Gangnam Girls Charlottetown

PRELIMINARY TEAM1ST Sherwood/Parkdale Team 1 Sherwood/Parkdale2nd Alberton Team 1 Alberton3rd Kensington Team 1 Kensington

Rowan Caseley-Town of Kensington, Amy MacMillan-Section Chair Skate Canada PEI, Shannon Hill Kensington, Karina Terentiev Charlottetown, Rodney Mann-ADL

Representative and Ivan Gallant representing the office of The Hon. Wes Sheridan.

Yourlibrary

Come

on in!

ADL Resultscont’d from p. 1

Page 5March 6, 2013 The County Line Courier ~ your community newspaper

Maria Kowalski, for-merly of Ontario but, who now makes her home in French River, was one of 10 participants taking part. Maria, who lives life to the fullest and is al-ways open to new experi-ences, LEAPed at the op-portunity to take part in the program.

Though she doesn’t consider herself a crafty person, Maria felt the LEAP Swedish Weav-ing Project offered her a fun opportunity to try a unique art form, meet new people, share some social time, expand her life experience and keep her mind sharp.

Maria feels that cre-ativity in projects, such as the one the LEAP pro-gram offers, helps keep seniors healthy and, is an important element in keeping these old art forms alive so they are not lost. For Maria the Swedish Weaving proj-ect gets an A+ as it was fun and gave her a great sense of accomplishment when she completed her piece.

Ruby Cousins, Coordina-tor of the Swedish Weav-ing Project of the Kensing-ton Seniors Group, invites Kensington and area resi-dents to drop in to the Open House, March 13th to check out the beautifully crafted Swedish Weaving pieces and chat with the crafters.

LEAP Programcont’d from p. 2 Winner of the 4th Annual

Valley Cup Snowmobile Race The 4th Annual

Valley Cup Snow-mobile Race was held on Friday, February 22 in Indian River.

Jamie Profitt (left) is shown presenting and c o n g r a t u l a t -ing Ashley Mac-Millan of Wilmot with the winning Valley Cup Tro-phy.

Each person has his or her own place- running, painting, gardening, fishing, weaving. The activity

itself is important but, no less important than the act of drawing on ones own resources.

March is known as the “Spring Equinox” in the northern hemisphere. Why is it called equinox?

On the equinox, night and day are nearly exactly the same length – 12 hours – all over the world. This is the reason it’s called an “equi-nox”, derived from Latin, meaning “equal night”.

The March equinox oc-curs the moment the sun crosses the celestial equa-tor – the imaginary line in the sky above the Earth’s equator – from south to north. On any other day of the year, the Earth’s axis tilts a little away from or to-wards the Sun. But on the two equinoxes, the Earth’s axis tilts neither away from nor towards the Sun.

SPRING BEGINS

Page 6 March 6, 2013The County Line Courier ~ your community newspaper

Area Volunteer Receives Diamond Jubilee MedalThis prestigious award serves to honour significant

contributions and achievements by Canadians within their community on the 60th Anniversary of Queen

Elizabeth II’s ascension to the throne. Each receipient received a folder which included a

group photo and an individual photo commemorating the special event.

MP Wayne Easter and Lieutenant Governor Frank Lewis present Isabel Camp-bell with the Queens Diamond Jubilee Medal. Isabel has an extensive resume for her involvement in the agriculture industry, Women’s Institute, missionary soci-ety and her local church. She has been a valued volunteer and has made a signifi-cant contribution in all that she has been involved in.

Credit Union Donates $5,000

Marc LeClair, Manager of Malpeque Bay Credit Union, is shown presenting a cheque to Trevor Moase, Chairman of the F.I.T. Committee. Also pictured are Rodney MacArthur, Principal of Queen Elizabeth Elementary School, and Kim Crozier, Treasurer of the F.I.T. Committee.

Standing in front are Megan Moase and Ashton Bernard, students attending Queen Elizabeth Elementary School.

Mr. LeClair explained that it all started when the credit union decided to try to reduce the amount of paper it was generating thereby reducing its environ-mental footprint. Credit union clients were given the opportunity to stop receiv-ing paper statements in the mail and instead view them on line. The credit union offered to donate $2.00 for every statement that they did not have to produce and mail.

The credit union would like to thank its members for jumping on this initia-tive. It is not only saving the environment, said Mr LeClair, but it has resulted in a donation to the QEES Playgound Fund of $5,000.

Credit Union Makes Donation To QEES Playground Equipment Fund

Ever wonder what a Quinzhee is? A quinzhee is a shelter made by hollowing out a pile of settled snow, in contrast to an igloo, which is made from blocks of hard snow. A quinzhee is for fun, winter camping and/or survival purposes.

The photo right depicts Maya Connick and her dad Arron Clark with a Quin-zhee they made in their back yard. This is the second time this father and daugh-ter team have made and slept in one. The above quinzhee is the biggest one they have made. Maya, who is 4’ 6 inches, is able to stand up in the middle of it while Arron, who is 6’ 8 inches had a little bit of trouble. The night they slept out it was -14 degrees with wind gusts up to 47km/h, but they said it was quite nice. They slept on a queen size air mattress, and dressed in regular fall camping gear.

Winter Camping Fun In A Quinzhee?

Page 7March 6, 2013 The County Line Courier ~ your community newspaper

Allan Taylor was a dedicated and hardworking member of the PEI Scouting movement both as a youth member and an adult leader. Allan provided a supportive and encouraging environment for the youth to enjoy the various aspects of the scouting program and developed a stimulating and challeng-ing program with opportunities for camping locally, in summer and winter and, at provincial and nation-al events. Dedicated to running his prograam with nature as his backdrop. Allan did as much as possi-ble to keep the “out” in scouting. His love of camp-ing and outdoor activities was a valuable asset to-wards the operation and success of the Spring Park Troop. The Allan Taylor Youth Award is presented to a youth member who most represents and exhibits the attributes of a Scout: outdoor and environmen-tal activities - camping, exploring the outdoors, and developing good conservation practices; citizenship and community service - relating with adults, being of service to others; leadership - developing self reli-ance, teamwork; personal development including in-dividual interests, hobbies and skills - working coop-eratively with others and achieving personal goals; with emphasis on outdoor activities (camping, in-cluding camping events within and outside the prov-ince, pioneering, hiking, map and compass, water ac-tivities, etc.).

On behalf of the Town of Kensington Rowan Caseley, Deputy Mayor, presented a $2,000.00 cheque to

Tara Davison, Scouts leader. The monies will help with the cost of sending 17 area Scouts to

the upcoming CJ’13 Jamboree in Sylvan Lake, Alberta.

Bonnie MacRae, Malpeque Bay Credit Union repre-sentative, presented a $1,000 cheque to Lois Brown,

Group Committee Chair person. MBCU actively supports Kensington Scouting and this $1000 makes a

total of $12,500 given to the Kensington Scout Movement over the last 12 years.

Venturer Ashton Cole is presented and congratulated by Waldron McDonald, Scouts Canada PEI Council with the Medal of the Maple. The Medal of the Maple is

a service award presented to youth members of Scouts Canada to honour those youth who have significantly

contributed to the Movement and the spirit of Scouting through community service, extraordinary Scouting participation and a solid system of personal values.

The award consists of a certificate signed by the Chief Commissioner of Scouts Canada, a cloth emblem and a

medal on red and white striped emblem.

Kensington Scouting groups held their annual banquet Friday, February 22 to celebrate the anniver-sary of Scouting by honor-ing their own Scouts’ mile-stones and to acknowledge the birthday of founder Lord Baden Powell.

The banquet was held at the Royal Canadian Le-gion Branch No. 9 in Kens-ington with the hot turkey dinner prepared by many dedicated volunteers.

Master of Ceremo-nies Mark Wall welcomed Parents and Guests and thanked the following for their support to the Scout-ing movement in Kens-ington: Royal Canadian Legion Branch No 9 61+ years, the Group Commit-tee, parents and the many dedicated volunteers. Toasts to the Queen, Baden Powell, and to the Parents followed.

MC Mark Wall intro-duced special guests: Guest Speaker Senator Elizabeth Hubley, Dep-uty Mayor Rowan Case-ley and his wife Melissa, Ivan Gallant representing the office of the Hon. Wes Sheridan, Carol Evans from Holy Family Parish who gave the blessing, Les-ter Davison-Branch No. 9 President, Linda Hunter-1st Vice President Ladies Auxiliary, Bonnie Mac-Rae, Malpeque Bay Credit

Scouting Groups Celebrate The Scouting Movement In KensingtonUnion Rep, Waldron Mc-Donald-Scouts Canada PEI Coucil and his wife Ann, Lois Brown-Kensington Scouts Group Committee Chair, Roscoe Pendleton-Kensington Scouts Group Committee Secretary and his wife Jean and Scout-ing Leaders: Beavers-Lilah Pendleton/Trevor Moase; Cubs- Kevin Dy-ment/Katherine MacLeod, Scouts-Tara Davison/Kev-in Arsenault and Venturer Shelley Cole.

Roscoe Pendleton wel-comed and introduced Guest Speaker Senator Elizabeth Hubley. Senator Hubley noted that Febru-ary 22nd marks the birth-day of Lord Robert Baden-Powell, the founder of the Scout Movement, and that it is celebrated as Found-er’s Day.

She also highlighted part of what Baden-Pow-ell wrote in his final letter to the Scouts about Hap-piness ...make yourself healthy and strong while you are a boy, so that you can be useful and so you can enjoy life when you are a man ...but the real way to get happiness is by giv-ing out happiness to other people. ‘Be Prepared’. In closing Senator Hubley en-couraged Scouting mem-bers to follow their dreams and be part of their com-munity.

Senator Elizabeth Hub-ley presents Lois Brown with the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Medal at the annual Kensing-ton Scouting Banquet. Lois, a WWII Veteran, is an active volunteer in the community and is involved in many spe-cial projects such as: Legion Children’s Christmas Party, Legion Christmas Baskets, Le-gion Poster & Essay Contest for Youth, committee member of group recording/photograph-ing all war monuments on PEI for a book, committee member of group gathering information for new Kensington Legion His-tory Book and also committee member of group gathering in-formation and photos of Veter-ans who served in times of war for the legion Remembrance Booklets. Lois has been a val-ued volunteer and has made a significant contribution in all that she has been involved in.

This prestigious award serves to honour significant contributions and achievements by Canadians

within their community on the 60th Anniversary of Queen Elizabeth

II’s ascension to the throne.

Waldron McDonald presents Trina Lockhart with the Alan Taylor Youth Award.

Area Volunteer Receives Diamond Jubilee Medal

To help mark and celebrate Lord Baden-Powell’s birthday

Roscoe Pendleton and Lois Brown display a large birthday cake.

Page 8 March 6, 2013The County Line Courier ~ your community newspaper

Doreen Cole (left), Provincial President of the PEI Women’s Institute, presented Fannie Roberts, a member of the New London Women’s In-stitute, with a “Cer-tificate of Apprecia-tion” at their Feb-ruary meeting. The certificate recognizes Fannie’s 50+ Years of service in the W.I.. Fannie acknowl-edged and expressed her thanks to all the members present.

WI Certificate of Appreciation Presented

Show your support!

March 17th

3pm

Kensington Scouts

Do you like to Dance? Well, this is the perfect event for you.

The objective is to dance until you can’t dance anymore. There wil be cash priz-

es for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place.

There will be a DJ, a concession stand with pop and chips and a 50/50 DRAW.

NO DRUGS OR ALCOHOL! Security will be at the door.

More rules to follow day of event!

We advise participants to be thereat 2:30pm to sign in. Doors will close

Dance-athon to take place at

the Kensington Legion

(across from the Haunted Mansion)

Registration Date:

March 10th, 1-2pm

at the Kensington Legion

Ages: 12-19 (parents of children contact

Tara Davison at 432-0066)

at 3pm sharp. Once you leave you do not get back in.

BULLYING IS PROHIBITED. You wil be immedi-ately disqualified and removed from the Legion.

Page 9March 6, 2013 The County Line Courier ~ your community newspaper

EI Changes Going In Wrong Directionby Andy Walker

Editor, Island Farmer/Freelance journalistPresident, Canadian Association of Journalist, PEI

Vice president, Atlantic Farm Writers Association

Even those Canadians who agree that abusers of the Employment In-surance system should be dealt with harshly may begin to draw the line at the latest tactics being put in place by Hu-man Resources Canada. The department is now visiting random recipi-ents in a bid, they say, to ensure compliance. This is, pure and simple, a tac-tic to instill fear in recip-ients.

It goes hand in hand with the other bit of news to come out about the program in recent days. Those investigators collectively have a tar-get of trimming $485,000 from the system annu-ally. Critics of the move maintain that means the investigators have quo-tas they have to meet. Hu-man Resources Minister Diane Finley admits the target, but denies the in-vestigators have quotas they must meet.

The idea of house vis-its definitely has a big brother feel. The union that represents the work-ers has objected to the move, saying it puts the safety of workers at risk.

After a series of protests in Tracadie, New Bruns-wick, the home visits were suspended in that area.

There must also be con-cerns raised about the le-gality of the visits. While homeowners have the right to restrict access to their residence, it is un-likely most people are go-ing to exercise that right if they feel their benefits might be cut off.

Finley has left the im-pression that fraud is widespread and the loss-es come out of the pocket of Canadian taxpayers. Both of those claims are questionable. The Em-ployment Insurance sys-tem paid out over $20 bil-lion in benefits annually before the current round of the changes was in-stituted. Even using the $485,000 “target”, that is still a small percentage.

It is a common miscon-ception that Employment Insurance is a drain on taxpayers. In fact, that is far removed from the truth. While Ottawa does administer the program, it doesn’t pay for it. That comes from premiums

paid by both employers and employees.

The fact is the program is more than self- sustain-ing and it is not uncom-mon for governments to take surplus money and divert it to other govern-ment programs. The Lib-eral government of Jean Chretien, for example, moved some of the $57 billion surplus into gen-eral government spend-ing to help combat a bud-get deficit. The Harper government introduced changes in 2011 that see the premium fluctuate with employment levels in an attempt to ensure large surpluses don’t happen in the future.

Since Atlantic Canada has a higher percentage of seasonal workers than many other parts of the country, the changes have a bigger impact here. On PEI, for example, the three major industries of agriculture, fisheries and tourism all have a strong seasonal component.

Over the past few months, there has been no shortage of commen-tators and letter writers telling people in this re-gion they should move if they can’t find full-time work here. Critics of the Conservative gov-ernment are also fond of pointing out the measure seems to fit in with Prime Minister Stephen Harp-er’s depiction of the re-gion as having a “culture

of defeat” when he was in opposition.

What is really insult-ing is the inference that farmers who work 12 to 16 hours, often for little in the way of profit, or fishermen who risk their lives on the water to de-liver seafood to market, have no value. According to many of these critics, they are simply relics of a bygone time. I wonder how many of those peo-ple eat a lobster when they visit PEI—served, no doubt, by a seasonal tourism worker who I’m sure they feel has no val-ue either.

It would be a minor po-litical miracle if the Con-servative Party didn’t suffer politically in this region when Canadians go to the polls in 2015. Certainly, the precedents are there—the Progres-sive Conservatives lost seats when they made major reforms in early 1990’s. The Liberals were almost wiped out in At-lantic Canada in the 1997 election after they insti-tuted major reforms.

That has to make Tory MP’s in the region, like National Revenue Minis-ter Gail Shea, extremely nervous. However, so far, they have failed to devi-ate from the party line. While that may win them brownie points with the prime minister, voters may well see things dif-ferently.

Kensington Lions Club

Update

The Kensington Li-ons Club held two meet-ings in February. The fol-lowing donations were made:

•$50.00 to Muscular Dystrophy Canada,

•$50.00 to Autism Soci-ety of PEI,

•$50.00 to the East Prince Music Festival

•$100 to the Joyriders.

Card Party Results for:Friday, February 011st-Lois Sinclair2nd-Glynn Paynter3rd-Lindsey SeamanLow-Joyce CampbellDoor Prize- Theo Crozier50/50-Dot PaynterFriday, February 081st-Don MacLellan2nd-Betty Carr3rd-Wallace MacLeodLow-Walter GiovanniniDoor Prize- Nancy MacKenzie50/50-Betty Carr

Friday, February 151st-Madeline Roberts2nd-Duncan Cole3rd-Dot PaynterLow-Lindsey SeamanDoor Prize- Ernestine Simpson50/50-Marjorie Moase

Friday, February 221st-Lois MacLeod2nd-Joyce Campbell3rd-Ronnie ClarkLow-Emmett HagenDoor Prize- Eleanor Harding50/50-Diane Cole

Crib Card results for:Tuesday, February 05

1st-Betty Carr & Ivan Gallant

2nd-Ronnie Clark & Wendy MacLeod

50/50-Ronnie ClarkFree Night- Barry ChappellHigh Hand-Emmett Hagen with 22Tuesday, February 121st-Hilda Jorgensen &

Connie Reeves2nd-Ivan Gallant &

Dana Coulson50/50-Grant BuhananFree Night- Brad MacArthurHigh Hand-Grant Buchanan with 23Tuesday, February 191st-Ken Simmons & Ja-

net Lyle2nd-Dana Coulson &

Dave Walker50/50-Dianne EvansFree Night-Betty CarrHigh Hand- Mary Rogers with 24

Tuesday, February 261st-Doug Perry & Dana

Coulson2nd-Norbert Peters &

Mary Rogers50/50-Gail ChappellFree Night- Fannie RobertsHigh Hand-Claude Lyle with 24

Please let us know how we are doing in your community, by e-mail at kenlions@eastlink.ca or phone 836-5060.

We the Lions are there for you.

Our Moto is WE SERVE

Meeting the needs of our local communities

Page 10 March 6, 2013The County Line Courier ~ your community newspaper

Cedar Waxwings Visit Privet HedgeThe following is from

an email from John Rowe of Union Road: I have been feeding the birds for many years and they nev-er cease to entertain me. I have all the regulars: red polls; blue jays; chick-adees; finches; juncos; crows; a couple of squir-rels; the odd woodpecker; etc. However, what made me write, yesterday and today (Sunday and Mon-day) we were visited with a flock of cedar waxwings -- about two dozen strong. Of course, the weather was too nasty to try and get a picture and they are pretty flighty birds any-way. Hadn’t seen them around all winter. They never went near the feed-ers but were dining on the buds and twigs in my Eng-lish Privet hedge. It was quite a surprise. They don’t stay long and it is interesting to see their swooping flight as they take off.

I also saw a flock of snow buntings last week as I was driving up our road; first time this win-ter.”

Thanks for the email, John. It seems that I nev-er hear of anyone seeing

“a” cedar waxwing. They tend to come in flocks and the Cornell website tells us that they tend to move about in flocks all year round. There’s a simple elegance to the ce-dar waxwing, unlike the dramatic beauty of the rose-breasted grosbeak or the stunning appear-ance of an evening gros-beak, for example.

The Cornell Lab of Or-nithology tells us that the cedar waxwing’s nest is built by the female bird. She weaves “twigs, grass-es, cattail down, blos-soms, string , horsehair and similar materials” to form the main body of the nest. She lines it with fine roots, grass-es and pine needles and may decorate the out-side of it with “fruiting grasses and oak or hicko-ry catkins”. It’s interest-ing to contemplate what is going through that lit-tle bird’s mind when it is

selecting the decorations for the outside. Cornell tells us that the male and female search for a suit-able nest site together but she makes the final decision.

It is interesting to note that cowbirds that hatch out in a cedar waxwing’s nest typically don’t sur-vive because the diet is largely berries. They feed mainly on fruit year-round but do eat some in-sects in the summer.

You mentioned snow buntings, John. I’ve only seen them along the road once or twice this winter. But I did have a solitary snow bunting dining on my deck on the weekend. Nan Ross of Roseberry also reported seeing a lone snow bunting on sev-eral occasions this win-ter. I wonder how birds like that which are usual-ly in large flocks manage to get off by themselves and I wonder what the fu-ture holds for them?

Five StarOne blustery morn-

ing recently, to my sur-prise, what should be on my deck picking away at the sunflower seeds but a squirrel. You are likely wondering how that could

possibly be note-worthy but when you consider that it’s the first squir-rel that we’ve seen in the four and a half years that we’ve been here......

So where is Mr. Squir-rel holed up? He has five star accommodations. Cozy, a short dash from a food source, private..... He’s living in my wood shed. Once it’s cleared out, I expect that he’ll move on too.

Are you doing battle with squirrels at your feeders? Are they haul-ing away too much seed for your liking and, are they chewing your feed-ers to bits? I see that Veseys catalogue has a collection of feeders in-tended to befuddle the squirrels but they come at a price. One doubles as a shield from rain and snow as well as a squirrel baffler.

SeedsI’m always on the look-

out for something new and different in the seed department. I acquired a copy of the Ontario Seed Company catalogue and they list what they call “micro clover”. It’s a tiny little clover that stays green when heat and drought have made turf grasses go dormant

– so they say. They also claim that it tolerates close mowing and wear and tear actually en-hances it’s dominance in lawns. Might be worth a try if you have a spot where you know before you start that conven-tional grasses are going to have a struggle to sur-vive.

These are the days to watch for deals on seeds – not in May. I like to pick and choose my sunflow-ers, for example, from the huge assortment that is available to us in seed catalogues. But when it comes to cosmos or alys-sum, I’m happy with a run of the mill mix and if I can get three seed packages for a dollar, I’ll go for it.

Pondering seed cata-logues? Read the descrip-

tions carefully. What are you looking for in a crop? In sweet corn, for instance, I want flavor. Compare the different listings in the same cata-logue. What stands out with a given variety? Is there more said about the cold soil vigor and the rows of kernels than there is about the flavor? It’s hard for a variety to be all things to all people. I planted one variety a couple of years back that was very early but boring in flavor. Look for super-latives – like “Excellent eating quality”.

Bird watching com-ments or questions? Send us your backyard bird reports. Drop a line to 471 New Glasgow Road, ebenezer, PE, C1E 0S8 or bcobb06@gmail.com.

Page 11March 6, 2013 The County Line Courier ~ your community newspaper

The tea will be held at the church at 47 Victoria St. East. Tickets are available from

church members or at the door. Proceeds for the Building Fund.

For more info contact Astrid Johnson 836-4200

St. Patrick’s Day Tea

Sat., March 1611am to 1pm

hosted by The Kensington Church of The Nazarene

(Storm date is March 23)

Where: Mt. Zion Masonic Lodge

Victoria StreetKensington

Every Sunday Evening at 6:30pm

Pastor Gene CarsonRR1 Kensington, PEI, C0B 1M0Tel: (902) 836-5220CSSM Ministries

Kensington Community ChurchPastor Gene Carson

Margate Pastoral ChargeRev. Anne Dalziel Singer

Princetown United ChurchSouthwest River United Church

“All are welcome, all are welcome in this place.”

Our Community ChurchesEvents

Calendar

KensingtonNew London

Presbyterian ChurchRev Alan Stewart

Kensington United Church of Canada

Rev. Robert McCarthy

Worship Meeting: Sunday 11:00 a.m.Adult Study and Discussion Group at the Church Wednes-

day evening 7:00 p.m.

Kensington Nazarene Community Church

47 Victoria St., Kensington

Pastor Rev. Ray Hinchey

Anglican Parish of New London

Rev. Margie Fagan

Lauretta Balderston free-lance writer

“Weepng may endure for a night, but joy comes in the morning.” Psalm 30:4 (NKJV)

“His compassions fail not. They are new every morning. Great is Your faithfulness.”Lamentations 3:22b, 23 (NKJV)

This Too Will Pass

St. Mary’s Holy Family Roman Catholic Parish

Kensington Father John Molina

Masses:Saturday: 7:00pm Sunday: 9:00am

St James Church (Summerfield)Sunday at 10:30am

Clinton View Lodge:Every first Friday.

Prayer Service At Clinton View Lodge

every second Wed. at 1pm.

Fellowship: Last Sunday of the

month following Mass in the parish centre.

Meetings:Knights of Columbus:

Second Monday of the month at 8pm.

Catholic Women’s League: Second Tuesday of the month at 7pm.

Spiritual Meditation: Each Monday evening 6:00 to 7:00pm

All are WELCOME.

March 10•Kensington Worship &Sunday School 9:30 a.m.•New London Wor-

ship & Sunday School 11am.

Guest Speaker Rev. Dawn Griffiths.

March 17•Kensington Worship

& Sunday School 11am •New London Worship & Sunday School 9:30 a.m.

Guest Speaker Rev. Dawn Griffiths

We live in an world of overloaded expectations and frantic routines. We place such high demands on ourselves to do every-thing that we sometimes wish we could run away and hide for just one whole day- alone!

One Friday I was drop-ping our daughter off at Brownies when she looked at me and said, “Oh, yeah. You need to bring sandwiches to the meeting because it’s par-ents’ night.” Those were the fastest sandwiches ever made! This too will pass.

Our son was not a morning person so Mon-day to Friday was a hec-tic push to get him out the door to school. I re-call the morning he an-nounced, as he exited the car, “I need to have my science project done to-day.” Needless to say, it wasn’t done and he had to ask for an extension. Did I feel I had failed? Sure, but I told myself, this too will pass.

Some weeks are all Mondays! The week seems like it will never end and the tasks mount like an overloaded laun-dry hamper. But this too will pass. Tomorrow will come and some things left from yesterday will get done and new jobs will be added, but that’s ok.

God allows each day to be brand new. We can start fresh. “But to You I have cried out, O Lord, And in the morn-ing my prayer comes be-fore You.” Psalm 88:13 (NKJV)

When we have nothing left, He supplies what we need to keep on, knowing that whatever difficulties we face, tomorrow will come and this too will pass.

Our children did get

their education and get out on their own. We may be a little ragged looking from the ordeal but we did survive.

Oh, even in retirement there are days when we need to stop, reassess what we are doing and realize that all the curve balls life throws at us don’t have to knock us down or lessen our joy. We still need to remind ourselves that this too will pass. (Sometimes we still need to remind our grown children that this too will pass and to-morrow is a new day!) God promises us that “joy comes in the morn-ing.” Psalm 30:4b (NKJV) What a beautiful promise of hope!

We are all on a journey in life and our faith may be challenged, tested or even battered by illness-es, age, loneliness, frus-trations or anything that may leave us feeling un-appreciated or unworthy. But remember, this too will pass!

We can strengthen our determination to face each new day with hope, love, enthusiasm and joy by claiming these words: “For to You I will pray, My voice You shall hear in the morning, O Lord; In the morning I will di-rect it to You, And I will look up.” Psalm 5:2b, 3 (NKJV)

No matter what we face or who challenges us, we have our God by our side, walking with us and whatever the prob-lem- this too will pass!

“The Lord is righteous in all His ways, Gracious in all His works. The Lord is near to all who call upon Him.” Psalm 145: 17-18a (NKJV)

Claim it! Believe it!

Live it!

March worship: 9 am – St. Mark’s11 am – St. Stephen’s

and St. Thomas’ Lenten Mid-week ser-

vices: March 6, 13 and 20 at 7:00 pm at St. Mark’s

Bible Study: March 7,

14 and 21 at 10:00 am at St. Mark’s

Service of OrdinationA service of Ordina-

tion of a Priest for Rev. Margie Fagan will take place on Sunday, March 17, at 4 pm at St. Paul’s Church, Charlottetown.

March 109:30 Sr Sunday School

& Handbell Practice10:30 – Worship Ser-

vice & Sunday School(Note: There is no Sun-

day School March 17th and March 24)

Wednesdays from Feb. 20 – March 27

Lenten Midweek Com-munion Service 7 p.m. in Amy MacKay Parlour.

For updated informa-tion and to view all our programs,check out our website at:

www.kensingtonunit-ed.ca

Worship and Sunday School:

9:30 am - Princetown11 am - Southwest Riv-

er

March 12 - Princetown UCW

March 19 - Southwest River UCW