Vol. 44 · Issue #7

Tuesday, February 8, 2011Loyalist College · Belleville, ON · Canada

Rooted in tradition · Exploring the future

Mariza Dunham Gaspar

A flyer from the Flyers Cheerleading All-Starz performs during competition at the K-Rock Centre in Kingston. Also performing were the Napanee Golden Hawks cheerleading team who impressed the judges with their title-winning routine. For the full story, see page 3.

Nathan Rochford

Charlie Benson, former Loyalist registrar and financial administrator, recently received a kidney from his son Philip following almost a year and half on dialysis. Both are currently recovering from surgery and will be for at least two months.

By Nathan Rochford

It was a late Christmas gift, but one former Loyalist College registrar and financial administrator Charlie Ben-son will never forget.

In January, Charlie’s son Philip donated one of his kidneys to his fa-ther, giving him back a quality of life he hadn’t experienced since first go-ing on dialysis over a year ago.

Charlie couldn’t be more thankful.“It’s the greatest gift I ever got,”

said Charlie. “It’s an amazing feeling to say my son gave me my kidney.”

For roughly 20 years, Charlie suf-fered from kidney disease. He post-poned complete failure early on by making major changes to his diet, including reducing his sodium and potassium intake. But things took a turn for the worse in December 2009, and he was put on dialysis and he needed a donor to step up to the plate.

“When I was on dialysis, I would get that spurt of energy in the morn-ing that would wear off by after-noon,” said Charlie.

Seeing his father like this both-ered Philip. He was used to the busy, energy-filled man he grew up with. The man who loved to tell the story of how his student number at Loyal-ist College was 001, making him the first registered student at the college in 1967.

...See Kidney, page 2

Son gives gift of life to dad‘Greatest gift’of kidney received by former Loyalist staffer

Facebook image of Alex Brooks.

By Janek Lowe

Grief counsellors were sent to Bel-leville’s Quinte Secondary School on Monday after 15-year-old Alex Brooks, a Grade 10 student, was found dead Saturday afternoon.

“Child and youth counsellors are sent whenever there’s a tragic event that occurs,” said Kerry Don-nell, communications officer for the Hastings and Prince Edward District School Board.

Brooks’s body was discovered at 2:30 p.m. Saturday in a snow-covered field south of the VIA and CN Rail tracks.

Local storeowner, Tony Best said Belleville Police searched the field and rooftop of a CN maintenance building to the east of the scene. But by Mon-day morning, there was no sign in the field that the incident occurred.

Paul VandeGraaf, Belleville’s depu-ty police chief, said Monday police

consider all deaths suspicious until proven otherwise. He had no further information to report. A post-mor-tem was to be conducted in Ottawa Monday. Results from the autopsy have not yet been released.

Donnell said a memorial would not be planned by school adminis-tration, which is school board policy in the case of any death.

A Facebook group announced that a candlelight vigil is scheduled for Friday evening at the field where the body was found. Another Facebook group dedicated to his memory asks for respect and prayers for family and friends.

No answers yet released in death of 15-year-oldGrief counsellorssent to Quinte Secondary School

By Irene Fior

While most of us are sick of shovel-ing snow and trying to fend off the winter blues, there is a party going on in another part of the world.

On February 3, China rang in the start of a new year and the festivities have only just begun. For the next 15 days, there will be major celebra-tions going on for Chinese people everywhere.

“It’s the biggest holiday in China, and it’s a very special time of year,” said Paul Li, Chinese Ministry lead-er at First Pentecostal Church and board member of the Quinte Chi-nese Community Association.

“It is a time for family reunions. Millions of people will be travelling all throughout the country to spend time with family and friends. Chil-dren receive money and gifts, and there is lots of food,” said Li.

On Saturday, together with the First Pentecostal Church on Dundas Street West, the QCCA played host to a New Year’s party.

Performances by people of all ages, many in cultural dress, in-cluded dancing, singing, skits, piano solos, and special guest speakers. Refreshments and fel-lowship concluded the evening program.

Along with decorations, cards, and shopping discounts, the cel-ebration may sound to Westerners a lot like Christmas.

However, because the Chinese New Year is based on the lunar cal-endar, the actual date changes every year, normally falling between Janu-ary 20 and February 20.

Blessings for finances, health, and good fortune are also part of the tradition. Mr. Wei Jin, renowned composer and musician from Beijing shared spiritual reflection in his New Year’s message.

“Before you get the blessings, you have to know where they come from. If you believe in God, then the bless-ings will surround you,” said Jin.

Another element of the Chinese New Year is based on their zodiac,

which is defined by the signs of 12 animals. This is the Year of the Golden Rabbit. In addition to be-ing a symbol of luck, the rabbit also brings a year of taking time to slow down, go with the flow, and negotia-tion.

Based on the characteristics of the animals, Li said each year “is a means of living a more balanced life.”

Of course, what would New Year’s be without some form of resolution?

Xiaohui Cao, chairman of the QCCA, said he would like to go back to China to visit family. Although his in-laws were just here a couple of months ago, it’s been five years since he’s been home and he really misses it.

There are about 100 Chinese families in Belleville and Cao said the numbers have been stable over the last decade. Statistics Canada’s numbers from Census 2006 indicate that just over 1.2 million people living in Canada are Chinese.

Chinese ring in the new yearwith special celebration

Page 2 · The Pioneer · February 8, 2011

Nathan Rochford

Smokehouse Blues owner Alex Pierson has only been in business officially since January but has already built up a name for his southern-style barbecue res-taurant. Smokehouse Blues is a local restaurant sitting among a number of chain restaurants on North Front Street.

By Nathan Rochford

It was a series of trips to the south-ern United States that led Alex Pier-son into the restaurant business.

The barbecue culture south of the Canadian border piqued Pierson’s interest on visits during his career with Nortel. While he would never class himself as a “foodie” or “res-taurant person,” the idea of open-ing a southern-style barbecue joint back home in Belleville started to cross his mind.

“I wanted to do something local,” he said, adding at the time, legiti-mate southern barbecue didn’t exist

in Belleville.In October 2010, after almost a

year of planning, Pierson opened Smokehouse Blues at 300 North Front St. with an official opening in January 2011.

The restaurant is a small, take-out style operation serving smoked bar-becue staples, including pulled pork and brisket as well as sides such as sweet potato fries, homestyle chips and a variety of salads, all prepared in-house.

“Nothing is frozen or shipped in,” Pierson said. “We prepare all our food here and try to use local pro-viders for as many things as we can.”

However, while business has been good so far, operating a small in-dependent restaurant in the sea of chain restaurants that flood North Front Street could prove to be a

challenge.“Independent restaurants al-

ways have more difficulties,” said Paul Dinkel, owner of Dinkel’s and Paulo’s restaurants in downtown Belleville. “It takes a real commit-ment.”

Dinkel‘s has been in business in Belleville since 1978 and the owner said he understands the challenges faced by many small restaurant own-ers competing in markets saturated with fast food.

“The challenges really haven’t changed that much,” he said. “Peo-ple have less time to sit down and have a meal but that’s the same ev-erywhere.”

Dinkel said there are benefits to operating an independent restau-rant as well.

“We can be much more flex-

ible,” he said. “A fast-food chain is controlled by what head office tells them to do. We don’t have that problem. We do things from scratch.”

Pierson said he doesn’t expect he will have any trouble growing his business in the community, add-ing advertising has been easy with much of his popularity dependent on word of mouth.

“Word of mouth is everything in cities like Belleville,” Pierson said.

Pierson said he plans to expand the business in Belleville initially but is considering franchising down the road.

“We’ve built everything from the ground up to be replicated,” he said. “From our logo to our restaurant co-lours, with the intention of replicat-ing it ourselves.”

Local restaurant opens among sea of chainsalong North Front Street corridorSmokehouse Bluesserving upsouthern-style barbecue

With this in mind, Philip sat down with his family and discussed the possibility of donating his own kid-ney to his father.

“It wasn’t really a hard decision,” said Philip. “When you see a parent who is used to living such an active lifestyle in dialysis, it makes the de-cision pretty easy.”

Initially, other donors came for-ward but none were as strong a match as Philip who at the time hadn’t passed the medical require-ments for donation.

But after receiving a clean bill of health, the decision was made and Philip began to mentally prepare himself for surgery at the Ottawa Hospital.

According to Diane Dumont, renal transplant co-ordinator with the Ot-tawa Hospital, donating and organ can be a major emotional process.

“When you look at the long-term effects, it is a big decision,” Dumont said. “Like with any surgery, there is a risk. There is a risk of mortality. The risks are small but they do ex-ist.”

She added post-surgery effects like a risk of increased blood pres-sure are also factors donors need to consider.

However, risks aside, Dumont said successful renal transplant is the best option for the donor recipient, which many living donors can take comfort in.

“Renal transplant offers the best long-term results,” she said. “In terms of quality of life, a successful transplant has better results than dialysis.”

Which is exactly what Philip had in mind in the weeks leading up to the surgery.

“It was a good feeling,” said Phil-ip. “But it’s scary at the same time. It’s major surgery, but once you get past that, it’s a good feeling.”

Now back in Belleville, both father and son are recovering at home from the successful surgery.

“I’m feeling quite well,” said Charlie. “My colour has come back.”

In addition to maintaining a strict sodium-reduced diet, Charlie is cur-rently spending $900 a month on 20 different medications, including an anti-rejection drug that requires him to stay out of the sun because of an increased risk of skin cancer.

Although he does have health insurance covering most of his medical expenses, he said for other people the recovery costs could be devastating.

But for Charlie, that’s a major improvement from six months ago when he was spending 10 hours a day on dialysis.

Philip, on the other hand, is strug-gling with some of the lifestyle changes he’s had to make.

“It’s been strange,” Philip joked, referring to not being able to lift more than 10 pounds for the du-ration of his eight-week recovery period. “You do some things out of habit and then you think, ‘I can’t do this,’ – like picking up groceries or my son’s hockey bag.”

Kidney…Continued from Page 1

Michelle Berg

Chad Duff, secondyear nursing student at Loyalist, practises on Hal, a $25,000 newborn human patient simulator. Duff is working at the Belleville Hospital on the maternity floor with a team of six students as part of the Loyalist/Brock collaborative program.

By Michelle Berg

Faculty and students in the nurs-ing program at Loyalist College are getting political by taking their con-cerns to Queen’s Park to push for a healthier Ontario.

Nurses want to know which health policy recommendations will be ad-opted by the parties ahead of the provincial election on Oct. 6.

Elizabeth Edwards, the Quinte chapter president of the Registered Nurses’ Association of Ontario, at-tended the 12th annual Queen’s Park day on Feb. 3 with three Loyalist nursing students and presented each MPP with a document called Creating Vibrant Communities: RNAO’s Challenge to Ontario’s Politi-cal Parties.

More than 200 registered nurses gathered at the provincial legisla-ture to hear speeches from Health Minister Deb Matthews and the two opposition leaders, Tim Hudak of the Progressive Conservative and Andrea Horwath of the NDP.

The RNAO document was devel-oped a year ago in anticipation of the 2011 provincial election “so that they know what we thought the pri-orities should be for health care,” said Edwards.

Edwards’ concern in the upcom-ing election is a “commitment on whoever is elected on the determi-nants of health, income, housing and accessibility of health care in terms of primary care.”

The Quinte area has been doing well – improving access to primary health care, she said.

“We are one of the lucky ones to get a nurse practitioner led clinic,” said Edwards.

Ontario has the lowest percentage of working registered nurses in Can-ada. There are 72 registered nurses per 10,000 people in Ontario.

The Dalton McGuinty government said it would hire 9,000 more nurs-es and “we’ve actually hired 4,500 nurses, so we’re halfway there,” said Edwards.

In that sense, Edwards believes the Liberals have been successful but it will take 15,000 more to bring Ontario’s population ratio up to Can-ada’s.

The average age of nurses in On-tario is 52. “There are a lot of us hop-ing to retire in the next five years and we’re not in the position to re-place people,” said Edwards.

Chad Duff, a second-year Loyalist nursing student, joined Edwards at Queen’s Park for the first time.

Duff said he is excited to give nurs-es a chance to make a solid choice in voting by providing the political

parties with the vibrant communi-ties challenge.

“The parties were pretty tight-lipped,” said Duff. “The PC leader, Hudak, was the most direct but un-fortunately with things he would not do,” said Duff.

The PCs were more interested in reduction of taxes and reduced spending, he said, whereas the Lib-erals were more into “steady as she goes,” said Duff. And the NDP leader had a nice speech but didn’t talk about anything concrete, he added.

“Nurses are overworked like nev-er before,” said Duff. “They are often put in positions where they are not able to spend the time they need with each patient to provide them with optimal health and comfort. Then you pile the threat of losing their job on top of that.”

Over 150 nursing positions have been cut at the Peterborough Re-gional Health Centre in the past year, said Edwards.

“The hospitals have to balance their budget and nursing is an obvi-ous place to pull from because it’s a big chunk of any hospital’s budget.”

“What they don’t look at is that the cutbacks work in the short term

but there are so many issues that nurses are able to address, prevent and actually reduce costs of hospital stays that cutting nursing positions is usually a mistake,” said Edwards. She believes that money spent more efficiently in hiring nurses saves money in the long run.

“The harmonized sales tax has up-set a lot of people but we want our government to pay for a lot of things and the money has to come from somewhere,” said Edwards.

When McGuinty was first elected on a platform of no new taxes, he established a $900 health tax for ev-ery worker in Ontario, said Duff. He believes it is a lot of money, but that it’s necessary.

“We’re an aging population and we’re also a population that isn’t as healthy as we were 20 years ago,” said Duff. “We’re not as active and there’s going to be complications to that.”

The Liberal party said it has im-proved health care for those who don’t have family physicians and im-proved wait times.

“They’ve brought us 25 nurse practitioner clinics with 50 more coming,” said Duff. But there are still

many Ontarians who don’t have ac-cess to primary health care.

“The government has put a man-date in place where the hospitals cannot run deficits. They have to maintain a budget. Often it comes on the backs of nurses. Nobody ever hears of physicians getting laid off. It’s nursing care,” said Duff.

Duff is concerned about finding a full-time nursing position in Ontario but is thankful for the new graduate initiative.

“The new grad initiative has meant the world of difference for students getting jobs right out of school,” said Edwards.

According to the grad initiative, nursing students at Loyalist are guaranteed six months of full-time work at nursing homes or hospitals and that experience can lead to fu-ture full time-positions.

“Most people don’t see nurses as be-ing politically active but in the degree program at Loyalist, that is one of the six program outcomes – learning how to be politically active,” said Edwards.

“It’s being aware of the politics that drive health care and where nursing fits in and how if we’re un-happy with something, then we have the power to make that change hap-pen,” said Edwards.

Nursing students and staff get political

By Kristine Benham

Loyalist will once again be hosting 80 employers interested in hiring current and alumni students.

With the college’s annual Career Fair, February is a time for students to start seriously thinking about the future, especially those graduating in April.

The employment and career cen-tre at Loyalist is open to all students who are interested in preparing their resumes to meet potential employ-ers.

Laura Naumann, manager of the career centre, says she is confident that this will be another busy job fair, despite the economic difficul-ties of the past year.

“We even have employers who are graduates, which is good,” Naumann says about the rewards of holding these job fairs.

The list of employers participat-ing includes businesses such as Belleville Police Services, GoodLife Fitness, Kingston General Hospital, and others which are all geared towards the programs offered at Loyalist.

The purpose of the fair is to offer part-time, full-time, summer and en-trepreneurial opportunities to stu-dents who are ready to pursue their career choices. Over 50 different em-ployers are accepting resumes at the fair this Thursday, which runs from 10 a.m. until 1 p.m. in Loyalist’s caf-eteria.

Renal transplantoffers best inlong-term results

Job fairbringsemployersto Loyalist

The Pioneer · February 8, 2011 · Page 3

Give us a heads-up! E-mail The Pioneer with your game schedules and scores at pioneer@loyalistc.on.ca

Terry Tingchaleun

Loyalist Lancer Kyle Donnan drives in a crushing serve in the final set versus the Durham Lords Monday night.

Mariza Dunham Gaspar

Kayla Shepherd (left), and Meagan Benn of the Napanee Golden Hawks strike a pose during their winning perfor-mance at the Big East Blast cheerleading competition at the K-Rock Centre in Kingston. The team brought home three major titles: third in the athletics association’s ranking, first in senior novice and novice grand champions.

Napanee team ‘cheer’ful over performanceGolden Hawkstakes several awardsat Kingston event

By Mariza Dunham Gaspar

Cheerful cries, loud music and glitter were in good supply during the Cheer Evolution Big East Blast at Kingston’s K-Rock Centre last weekend.

Created just five years ago, the event brought in about 4,000 specta-tors to watch the energetic and ac-robatic cheerleading routines, com-plete with pyrotechnics.

“This event is one of our favou-rites,” said Cheer Evolution events co-ordinator Marcy Kuzemchak.

“The teams and our fans here are something special. There is definitely a more community feel. People really come out whether they know the kids or not. It’s more about cheerleading or supporting the sport.”

Among the 87 teams and 2,000 par-ticipants at the event Sunday were the Napanee Golden Hawks. In their gold and navy outfits, the Golden Hawks performed a well-organized and tight routine, earning three ma-jor titles: third place in Kingston Area Secondary Schools’ Athletic Associa-tion, first place in senior novice divi-sion and grand champions in the nov-ice division.

“We did so well today. It was in-sane. We couldn’t believe it,” said Karen Gurnsey, coach and creator of Napanee’s cheer team.

This year, 80 per cent of the team was made up of first-year cheerlead-ers, many of whom were Grade nine students. Gurnsey decided to drop the team from intermediate to novice division to accommodate the various experience levels and focusing their winning routine on more basic, yet precisely executed moves.

The decision to do so appeared to be the right choice as the team was

0.4 points from beating intermediate division Sydenham Golden Eagles, to second place in KASSAA. The Holy Cross Secondary School Crusaders from Kingston took home first place.

Gurnsey explained she was “shocked but pleased” with the high scores as they dealt with what they had thought would be a setback. A main flyer, the person who gets lifted and is on top of the pyramid or stunt, had just been replaced only two days before the competition with a junior girl who had never done the stunts before.

“I was so proud of her and her group … Everything is all based on weight and timing and it’s really hard to put a new person in. Her and her base group were just troupers!”

“The other day, our stunts weren’t going up, but today we did good and pushed it to what we could. We did really great overall. I feel really good,” said 16-year-old Rebecca Duphney, who has been with the Golden Hawks for three years.

The team members hope to display the same type of determination and spir-it when they compete against 300 teams at nationals in Niagara Falls in May.

Competing and being part of a cheerleading team provides numer-ous benefits, according to Gurnsey.

“Cheerleading offers a whole dif-ferent side of school. The more kids are involved in school sports and are linked to their school, the better they do academically. It’s really important ... It’s neat because if offers a whole differ-ent group of kids an activity in school.”

Kuzemchak said cheerleading is a unique sport for the athletic chil-dren who aren’t always successful with team sports but want that “team spirit” feel.

“It takes every single person on the floor to hit that pyramid, to make that stunt work and get the routine done,” she said.

“The best part of cheerleading is performing at competitions, and hav-ing fun. And showing people what I like to do,” said Duphney.

By Janek Lowe

The Lancers volleyball squads sent the visiting Durham Lords home defeated Monday night, with women winning 3-0 and the men fighting back in the fifth set to win 3-2.

'That was a really good step toward the next level,” said men’s head coach Dave Templar in a post-game talk with the team. “We just handed them their first loss and it feels fantastic.”

This was a critical team-building win for the third-place men as they go into the last three matches of the OCAA’s eastern division regular season. Friday night, the men travel to fourth-place Algonquin, followed by La Cité on Saturday, and then cur-

rent second place Seneca visits next Wednesday. Templar said he was proud of the men’s team’s comeback

after nearly coming apart through the third and fourth sets. The men refocussed, Templar said, proving that they are gelling as a team after some struggle with attitudes over the season.

“I think that’s been a big thing for us, and certainly a rea-son why we were able to win today.”

Walking off an ankle injury, Lancer power Kyle Donnan confirmed the heart of the men’s team is only getting stron-ger. The key now will be to maintain the momentum of their six-game winning streak.

“The chemistry is all together right now. We’re firing on all cylinders,” said Donnan.

But Monday’s battle foreshadows what the men face in the week to come. Algonquin and Seneca, defeated the Lancers in first semester.

“I think everyone just needs to step up and fill their own roles,” said Donnan. “If we do that and execute our offence, we’ll win.”

Tyler Pollard

Belleville Bulls Luke Judson battles for the puck with London Knights Colin Martin during game action Saturday. De-spite battling back from a three-goal deficit to tie the game, Belleville lost 5-4 in overtime.

By Nathan Rochford

After coming back from a three-goal deficit to tie the game late in the third period, the Belleville Bulls lost 5-4 against the London Knights Sat-urday.

The Bulls played before a home crowd of 2,583 people.

“It was a good comeback for awhile,” said Bulls’ defenceman Ste-phen Silas in an interview Monday. “But it wasn’t enough.”

The Bulls battled through the first period but began to flail early in the second when London scored three goals, two of them on power plays, to jump to a 4-1 lead.

Early in the third, Belleville started to come back when Silas scored a pow-er-play goal, closing the gap to 4-2.

From there, Belleville continued to battle through the third period, eventually tying the game with a power-play goal from Austen Bras-sard with just under two minutes left in the game.

Overtime left both teams at a standstill, but London prevailed in the overtime shootout, beating Belleville goalie Tyson Teichmann twice.

However, according to Silas, goal-tending isn’t the team’s problem. Despite outshooting London 38 to 28, Belleville wasn’t able to score enough goals, he said.

“We have all the right guys in the locker room to be successful,” Silas said. “But lately we’ve been having a hard time putting the puck in the net.”

Despite losing, Belleville walked away with one point, which Silas said is important for the team to fo-cus on.

“It’s always good to get a come-back,” Silas said. “It wasn’t a big loss because we did get one point, but it was a loss.”

This latest game gives Belleville a 14-31 record this season, placing them fourth in the east division, one posi-tion above the Peterborough Petes.

Bulls drop comebackin overtime loss

Lancer men serve Lordstheir first loss of season

“The chemistry is all together right now. We’re firing on all cylinders.”Player Kyle Donnan

By Irene Fior

If you’re tired of freezing your ass off from shovelling so much snow, why not have some fun running through it instead?

The first Frozen Ass Snow-shoe Race was held at Batawa on Sunday. It’s the second event of three that make up the Dion Eastern Snowshoe Running Se-ries. The series is sponsored by Jeff and Sandy Musson of Tri & Run in Trenton and co-ordinated by Derrick Spafford of Spafford Health and Adventure in Yarker.

“There has been real growth in snowshoe running and it’s the fastest growing winter sport in North America,” said Spaf-ford. “The Canadian Snowshoe Running Championships will be held on Feb. 26, near Wakefield, Que.”

While snowshoe running is not difficult to learn, there are differ-ences from traditional running, so you should be prepared for some challenge.

“It requires more leg lift and the body positioning is differ-ent,” said Sandy Musson. “Many people get lazy and fall into a heel strike when running. Snowshoes cause a mid-foot strike, which puts you in a perfect running body position. It requires your muscles to be used differently, making it a great cross-training

workout.”With another layer of fresh

snow the night before and the temperature hovering around zero, conditions were perfect for racing. Beginner and vet-eran participants set out for fun and competition as they gathered at the starting line on the packed and groomed trail.

“Down-hilling on snowshoes is almost as good as mountain biking,” said Carl MacDonald of Frankford, who placed first in the eight-kilometre race with a time of 46:33 in his very first snow-shoe run. “It was great. I highly recommend it.”

The activity is also another option for those looking to main-tain their regular summer fitness through the cold months.

“It’s a great tool in the winter for runners, trail runners and cy-clists to build strength in other ways and avoid injuries,” said Musson.

The equipment is also differ-ent from the traditional hard-wood frame and rawhide lac-ings. For example, the Dion Snowshoe is constructed out of lightweight aircraft grade aluminum, which is exception-ally durable. The frame and the cleats are also coated with Tef-lon to prevent the build-up of snow and ice.

Participants embracewinter with snowshoeing