Dispatches from "Coming from the Heart"

"Boozhoo" (warm hello)! This group, led by long-time Action Read staff member and elder Jan Sherman, explores creative writing through a First Nations, Metis, and Inuit perspective.

Since returning from the summer break, this devoted group of learners has explored a number of writing topics.  They have responded to quotes from a traditional perspective based on spirit, heart, body, and mind; have written about traditional to contemporary Indigenous music; have written about what a Territorial Acknowledgment means to them and have written responses to other people’s writing from River Bundles a local publication.  They have even done some nature based creative writing exercises (e.g. what kind of tree you would be and why!). Members continue to show greater understanding of their uniqueness as learners at every session.

Jan Sherman discussing the medicine wheel with learners

The group has also explored Anna Bowen’s writing about the land we live on, and spoke to Anna directly when she lead a special class. 

There is so much to cover in this group, and the energy and passion of the learners continue to drive it forward!

Aboriginal Writing Group Poem

Action Read's Aboriginal Writing Group meets weekly to work on reading and writing skills, and to make connections to indigenous worldviews and principles. These include the importance of balance, storytelling and community; the significance of elders, respect for traditional knowledge and connection to the land; the importance of silence and listening, experiential learning and mentorship, and much more. The group also learns about the seven grandfather teachings and honouring and connecting learning to the different aspects of the medicine wheel - intellectual, emotional, physical and spiritual.

Informed by this approach to learning, the following poem was created by the group in observation and celebration of the beauty and colour of the changing seasons. We hope you enjoy the vivid images and feelings they create!

Spotlight on Learner and Volunteer Cassandra-Lynn Garrett

Cassandra-Lynn Garrett

Cassi came to Action Read in 2013 to attend our computer and cash register training groups. At the end of the groups, Cassi decided to stay to work on improving her writing and math skills.

Cassi’s main interest and focus is on her writing. She has a large collection of poetry and is currently working on her personal life story with her tutor, Sophie.

Cassi also volunteers at Action Read and at the Guelph Y, working with children. She has shown real leadership by speaking publicly about her personal struggles and what she has gained from coming to Action Read. Soon she will put those leadership skills to further use by joining the Action Read Board of Directors!  She works on our front desk (her smile is contagious), as well as helping with other community activities such as our “Scrabble in the Square” at the Downtown Gives Back event.  She recently participated in a United Way video, a link to which can be found on the Action Read homepage.

 

Cassi has overcome many barriers in her life and has not let her disability stand in her way of setting and reaching her personal goals and dreams.

 

A few months ago, Cassi wrote a poem to submit to the Canadian Mental Health Association – Hamilton Branch” during Canadian Mental Health week. Cassi won 2^nd place and her poem has been put up for auction!  Cassi's courage and impressive communication skills are evident in her well-received submitted poem:

 

 

Why is the world such a difficult place?

Why are my problems getting harder to fight?

Why is my past coming to haunt me?

Surfacing above me; causing me to suffocate.

Why is something so easy, so difficult for me?

Just tell me why I have to be the consequence of your many mistakes.

Problems arise daily for me, all because you chose to drink.

Generation to generation, mother to daughter,

My life is a reflection of your drowning in misery.

My life is my life, but I didn’t choose this,

To be defined as a failure because of a bottle.

My life is challenging, it will never be easy.

It will never be easy to live with a disability.

 

   Written by Cassandra-Lynn Garrett

 

 

 

Learner Poetry - Ode to Action Read

Action Read is the place to be,

It's filled with fun to learn you see,

It's Reading, Writing and Arithmetic and a whole lot more,

And if you're not sure, check it out.

And without a doubt,

  You'll find out,

Action Read so give a shout.

Written by Debbie

 



(Random Artsy Photo by Denia)

 

My Favorite Birds

Purple Finch

Description Length: 14-16 cm. Adult male: Head, back and breast rose red, brighter on rump; wings and tail dark brown, feathers edged with red; lower breast paler red, shading to white on belly. (This plumage is not acquired until the male is about two years old.) Adult female: Upperparts light olive-brown, streaked with dark brown; under parts white, boldly streaked with dark olive-brown, shading to white on belly.
Remarks The male Purple Finch's song and bright red plumage are notable characteristics. The name "Purple" is a misnomer, for the male is rose-colored. His song in its fullness is a rich, rapidly enunciated, loud ecstatic warble, sometimes poured out in a torrent of melody as he hovers on outspread trembling wings. I heard one male attempt to sing very early in spring, but its tremulous, feeble rendition bore little resemblance to the song just described.

At nesting time some bird species show a preference for locations close to human habitation—Tree Swallows and Yellow Warblers, for instance—but others have a strong opposite preference. The Purple Finch is quite impartial in this regard, building its nest just as often in our gardens as in remote forested areas. There is little justification for confusing the male of this species with any of our other birds, except possibly the House Finch, but the female is a different matter. She is a heavily striped, grayish brown, sparrow-sized bird with a conspicuous whitish line extending back from above her eye.

Purple Finch

Do You Know About Little Chistmas?

Little Christmas (Irish: Nollaig Bheag) is one of the traditional names in Ireland for January 6, more commonly known in the rest of the world as the Celebration of the Epiphany. It is so called because it was the day on which Christmas Day was celebrated under the Julian calendar, before the adoption of the Gregorian calendar. It is the traditional end of the Christmas season and the last day of the Christmas holidays for both primary and secondary schools in Ireland.

In the Scottish Highlands the term Little Christmas (Scottish Gaelic Nollaig Bheag) is applied to Hogmanay, New Year's Day, also known as Là Challuinn, or Là na Bliadhna Ùire, while Epiphany is known as Là Féil nan Rìgh, the feast of the King.

The name Little Christmas is also found other languages including Slovene (Mali Božič), Galician (Nadalinho), and Ukrainian.

Little Christmas is also called Women's Christmas (Irish: Nollaig na mBan), and sometimes Women's Little Christmas. The tradition, still very strong in Cork and Kerry is so called because of the Irish men taking on all the household duties for the day. Most women hold parties or go out to celebrate the day with their friends, sisters, mothers, and aunts. Bars and restaurants serve mostly women and girls on this night. Children often buy presents for their mothers and grandmothers.

The tradition is not well documented, but one article from The Irish Times (January 1998), entitled on the woman's day of Christmas, describes both some sources of information and the spirit of this occasion. night. Children often buy presents for their mothers and grandmothers.

The tradition is not well documented, but one article from The Irish Times (January 1998), entitled on the woman's day of Christmas, describes both some sources of information and the spirit of this occasion.

Will’s Fire House Museum - by Brenda

I am describing the museum for anyone who has never been there.

Will’s Fire House Museum is located in Gatineau, Quebec across the bridge from Ottawa. It is in a large garage. The front exterior has three big doors that will open when the alarm goes off.

The two gentlemen that run the museum are Will and George. They have worked long hours collecting equipment, clothing, trucks from both the present and the past. They are always happy to have young children come to the museum to learn about the firemen and their job.

When you come for a visit, go to the back of the driveway and enter by the single door on the right hand side. As you walk in, you smell the smoke on the hoses from many fires and the fuel from the gas tanks of the trucks. You also can smell the rubber from the tires and the suction hoses.

The first things you see are three red fire trucks. The smallest one is the oldest and then there are two medium ones. On the right side is a work bench with many artifacts from past fire stations including a Gamewell alarm machine and a log book.

On the back wall, you find the equipment in their lockers, for example; helmets, pants and coats from the past. You can feel the soot on the old long coats. Cheryl’s stairs going to the second level are also on the back wall. They were made from the wood stored in my Dad’s garage in Durham. If you walk up the stairs, you will see a pole that the firemen use to slide down when responding to a call.

You can hear a Gamewell alarm machine tapping and an old fashion red fire bell ringing. Will or George can push the button for the siren. You can use your imagination to hear the sounds of the engines.

I think all citizens old and young should learn the history of firemen, their equipment and their stations. At this museum, you can touch the equipment, trucks and clothing. I think this museum is a great place to visit.

The End

Field Trip 2009

On October 8^th Lynda, Cheryl and I went on a field trip to the “Wings of Paradise Butterfly Conservatory.” Cheryl and Lynda are working on a science course. They were learning about Butterflies and wanted to check out the conservatory for more information. I went along for the ride and to enjoy the butterflies.

 

 

We saw the following butterflies:

Rice Paper butterflies are white with dabs of black. They are found in Southeast Asia and the wing spread is 10-14cm.

 

The Owl butterflies is gray on the top and the lower half of the top is brown with a white ring in the middle that looks like the owl’s eyes. The underside is yellow and brown. It is found in Central and South America. They can spread their wings 12to15cm across.

The Monarch butterflies are orange and black and are found in North America and Australia. Its wing spread is 7to9cm.

The life cycle of a Monarch butterfly is:

1.The egg- eggs hatch 2 or 3 days after being laid.

2. Caterpillar- can eat up to 20 times their weight a day. They must shed their skin several times in order to grow.

3. Chrysalis – Inside the body of the caterpillar breaks down and reforms into a butterfly.

4. The Butterfly emerges from the chrysalis and hangs underneath while pluming fluid from its abdomen into its wings. When its wings are fully expanded and dried it can fly away.

The migratory Monarch butterfly lives 6 to 8 months. They leave Ontario in the in fall and overwinter in Mexico. In the spring they mate on the milkweed plant in southern Texas. It takes 3or4 generations to make it back to Ontario by mid May.

As a child the butterflies that I remember are the Monarch and a white one called cabbage butterfly.

 

Brenda

The facts are found on the butterfly conservatory’s guide

The Church of Our Lady Immaculate

Historical buildings in Guelph

When John Galt founded Guelph on April 23, 1827, he picked the highest spot in the centre of the newly found town to the Roman Catholics as a favor to a friend Bishop Alexander McDonnell who had given him on the foundation of the Canada Company. When John Galt cleared the road by the spot where the church was to go. he named it after the bishop which is now called McDonnell street. In the Guelph Public Library wrote the following statement in the deed to where the church would stand, “On this hill would one day rise a church to rival St.Peters in Rome.” The Church of our Lady is the third to stand on this site. The first church, a framed wooden church named St. Patrick’s had been built in 1835 and was the first structure to be painted on the inside as well as the outside. It burned to the ground on October 10th 1844. Construction on St Bartholomew’s church began shortly after St Patrick’s was destroyed. The new building was completed in 1846. This church was also consumed in flames. Construction of the new church began in 1877 under Irish Canadian architect Joseph Connolly who designed many churches in Ireland, England and Ontario, notably the St Peter's Basilica in London Ontario. It was built of limestone in gothic revival style. The Church of our Lady is considered to be Connelly’s masterpiece. Mathew Bell, a well-known Guelph artisan was responsible for some of the carvings on the exterior and the pillars on the inside of the church. Mathew Bell died in 1883 as a result of injuries sustained in a fall while working on the building. In 1888, almost twelve years after construction started, it was dedicated as the Church of our Lady. The twin towers, which rise to heights over 200 feet, were not completed until November 13th,1926. In 1958 a new entrance from McDonnell street was constructed, but the outside appearance of the church has changed very little since 1926. The complete building of the church took more than 50 years, probably make it the longest construction project in the city’s history. The church is a national historical site. This was a brief history lesson about the Church of our Lady.

My Graduation

Lynda and I went for an interview in April 2007 with Betty, the head of Continuing Education, to sign up for courses for me to get my grade twelve. She told me that I would only need three credits. Betty recommended “Health for Life” and “English for Everyday Living.”
I started in mid April with Health for Life through Wellington Centre for Continuing Education sending in my lessons by mail. I wrote my lessons on a computer with the aid of zoom text at Action Read and guided by my tutor Lynda. There were sixteen lessons. I had some sight problems when I wrote both the mid term and the final exam. It took me one year to finish with a final mark of 69. I started English for Everyday Living in June 2008. I still was having problems after doing the English mid term and Betty suggested having someone write out my answers by hand. This worked out great and was repeated for the final exam. In May 2009 I received a final mark of 79.
Action Read gave me a party on June 10th with staff and other learners. My second party was at King Buffet on June 14th with family and friends. My big night was on June 17th, when Cheryl and Lynda came to watch me receive my diploma.
I would like to say a special thank you to Betty and Wayne at Continuing Education, the staff at Action Read and my daughter Cheryl for all their help. A very special thank you goes to my family and friends who came to my parties bearing gifts. A very extra special thank you goes to my tutor, Lynda who stood by me all the way to the end on June 17th 2009.

The Church Of Our Lady

John Galt founded Guelph on April 23rd 1897. He picked the highest spot in the center of town and gave it to his friend whose name was Bishop Alexander MacDonnell because he gave John Galt some good advice. A road was later cleared leading up to the hill and it was named MacDonnell Street. According to the Guelph public library archives John Galt wrote the following statement in the deed transferring the land on which the church would one day stand: “On this hill would one day rise a church to rival St Peters in Rome.”

The Roman Catholic church of our lady is the third church to stand on this site over looking the town. The first church, a framed wooden church named St Patrick’s had been built on the hill by 1835 and was the first structure in Guelph to be painted on the inside as well as the outside. It burned to the ground on October 10th 1844. Construction on St Bartholomew’s church began shortly after St Patrick’s was destroyed. The new building was completed in 1846.

Construction of the new church began in 1877 under Irish-Canadian architect Joseph Connolly who had designed many churches in Ireland, England and Ontario, notably the St Peters Basilica in London Ontario. Built of local limestone in Gothic revival style, the church of Our Lady is considered to be Connelly’s master piece. Mathew Bell a well-known Guelph artisan, was responsible for some of the carvings on the exterior as well as on the inside pillars of the church. In fact, he died in 1883 as a result of his injuries in a fall while working on the building.

In 1888, almost twelve years after construction commenced, the church was dedicated to The Church of Our Lady. The twin towers, which rise to a height of two hundred feet, were not completed until November 13th 1926. In 1958 a new entrance was from McDonnell street was constructed, but aside from this the out side of the church has changed very little since 1926. The complete building of the church took more then 50 years, probably qualifying it as the longest construction project in the city’s history.

When I first saw the church I was in awe of it. When I read about The church of our Lady and the rich history that it has it was just incredible. I’m so glad I chose to do this piece for the blog I hope you enjoy reading it.

Barack Hussein Obama

Grandad, mom, sister and Barack Obama

 

Barack Hussein Obama II born August 4, 1961) is the 44th and current President of the United States. He is the first African American to hold the office. Obama was the junior United States Senator from Illinois from January 2005 until November 2008, when he resigned following his election to the presidency.He disclosed that he used alcohol, marijuana and cocaine during his teenage years to "push questions of who I was out of my mind."[21] At the 2008 Civil Forum on the Presidency in 2008, Obama identified his high-school drug use as his "greatest moral failure."

Before attending Harvard Law School, Obama decided to visit relatives in Kenya. He uses part of his experience there as the setting for the book's final, emotional scene.
As well as relating the story of Obama's life, the book includes a good deal of reflection on his own personal experiences with race and race relations in the United States.

Michelle and the girls

 

 

Source: Wikipedia and Google Images

 

Brenda's Lucy Maud Montgomery Story

Lucy was born on November 30th 1874 in a yellow house in the town of Clifton ( New London ) on Prince Edward Island .

Her mother died September 14th 1876; Lucy was almost two years old. She and her father moved in with her grandparents. Her father, Hugh John moved to Saskatchewan when Lucy was only ten. She was left in the care of her elderly grandparents, who had raised their own six children and had little patients for a rebellious, emotional child.

Lucy’s early childhood and Ann Shirley from Anne of Green Gables have a few similarities between them. Maud’s father was alive for the first twenty-six years of her life but Maud was raised her elderly grandparents. Anne’s parents died when she was a baby, and she lived with Morella and Matthew Cuthbert, an elderly brother and sister. Maud and Anne had a love for nature; they would talk to flowers and hug trees. Most places that existed in Maud’s world existed in Anne’s and girls had some great adventures through haunted Woods down a pathway called Lover’s Lane that leads from Green gables to a meadow.

Lucy went to Prince Albert Saskatchewan on August 16th 1890 to visit her father and stepmother. She was very unhappy and on August 25th 1891 she returned to PEI .

Maud’s first poem “One Cape Leforce” was published in The Daily Patriot on November 26th 1890.In September 1893 Lucy starts teachers training course at Prince of Wales College in Charlottetown PEI . She taught school for the first time in July 1894 at Biddeford and then in 1896 at Belmont . Lucy started studying English in 1895 at Dalhousie University in Halifax Nova Scotia and 1897 becomes secretly engaged to Edwin Simpson her second cousin. In 1900 her father dies and she starts working at the Daily Echo newspaper in Halifax from 1901-02. In 1905 Lucy started writing Anne of Green Gables and it was public in 1908.

Maud became engaged to Reverend Ewen Macdonald in 1906 and after the death of her grandmother, they were married on July 5th 1911. After the honeymoon, they moved to Leaskdale and started a family Chester in July 7th 1912, Hugh in August 13th 1914, he was stillborn and on October 7th 1915
Stuart was born.
Maud was the first Canadian woman to become Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts in England in January 1923. In February 1926 Ewen became the minister at two Presbyterian churches at Norval and Union Ontario. Maud moved the family to the manse in Norval.

In 1935 Ewan retired from the ministry, Lucy and the family moved to Toronto .
Lucy is elected to the Literacy and Artistic Institute of France and is made an officer in the Order of the British Empire in 1935.
In April 24th 1942 Lucy dies and is buried in Cavendish PEI . There were 13 books published after Maud’s death. In 2008, Maud’s books and movies are still popular all over the world.

Tips on Quiting Smoking

By Andy Saunders
Hi folks, Andy here. I have been wanting to quite smoking for along time. I have tried several times to stop in the past. One of the thing’s I tried was the patch but it didn’t work for me. Another thing I did was doing it cold turkey but that was a bust oh well. I just gave up for a few years until one day in September I got a doctor at the Dawson Medical Clinic. When he went on his computer I saw a group that was all about quitting smoking and I said to him ah a Quite smoking group interesting. He asked me if I was interested and I said yes so he sighed me up for it. A few weeks went by and I got a call from a person who was running it and she told me it was a six week course and it started on November the 6th at 6:30pm so I went and it was great. We where all given folders with information in it. She told us about the heath risk’s as well as doing some changes with our habits. She also told us what other things we will be learning in the weeks to come. One of the things we where told to do was to keep a record of how many cigarettes we have in a day and who we where with , what we where doing and what we where feeling at the time like from one to ten. When it was over and I got home I looked at the folder. When I opened it there was a piece of paper that caught my eye it was about changing some of my habits. One was to put less cigarettes in my pack or holder another was to wait to have one for half an hour when I woke up in the morning. I tried doing both of those things the next day I started to put one less in my holder as well as waiting fifteen to thirty minutes after I woke up. It was hard at first but it got easier after a week or two. So now I’m putting eighteen instead of nineteen and I’m going to decrees it by one a week and so far I have decreased my smoking by quite a bit.

That’s it for know stay tuned for further updates.  Ta ta for now.

Science Facts by Cheryl

I never took Science in school but always wanted to learn it. My tutor Lynda and i just finished doing art projects. My mom told me there was male and female plants what did this mean? As a result, Lynda(who taught Science) and I started studying plant cells. I found out some interesting facts about plants

1. The perfect flower with fertile male and female organs both on the same flower. Plants with flowers in this category include apples, plums, lilacs, potentilla, tomato and many ornamental flowers

2. The perfect flower with male and female organs both on the same flower, but with either the male or the female organ infertile. In this category are included plants in the sunflower family and many other hybrid ornamentals. These ornamentals usually have large, showy flowers that are "double" or "semi-double" - with more than the normal number of petals.

3. The imperfect flower with either fertile male or fertile female organs, but not both, on the same flower. Spruce, pines, ash and maples have imperfect flowers.

Did you know?
Question: How do you account for missing kernels on corn in my garden? Some of the cobs have kernels missing here and there. On other cobs, many rows of kernels are absent.

Answer: Corn is monoecious remember. Each cob is actually a flower that contains many female organs. . Above the cobs are the tassles, which are the male flowers. Pollen from the tassles is carried by the wind to the female organs, each of which will produce a single seed, or kernel, when fertilized. If kernels are absent the likely explanation is that pollen did not reach some female organs, probably because the wind carried the pollen away from the cob. Planting corn in squares rather than long rows will help to assure pollination.



information from http://gardenline.usask.ca/misc/thesex.html

picture from http://flickr.com/photos/mellyjean/216579909/

Upcoming Events by Shawn Turner

Tuesday, December 2nd, 2008:
C.N.I.B. Christmas Party at the Holiday Inn.

Wednesday, December 3rd:
Action Read Holiday Party at Dublin Street United Church, 68 Suffolk Street West from 5:30-8:30p.m.

Sunday, December 7th:
Christmas Memoriaol Service at Hart Chapel, 1099 Gordon Street
http://www.gilbertmcintyreandsons.com/

Monday, December 8th:
"Blue Christmas" at Woodlawn Cemenery, 762 Woolwich Street

Saturday, December 20th:
"Messiah" at the River Run Centre $40 for tickets
http://www.riverrun.ca/

Sunday, December 21st:
Longest Night service at Harcourt Church, 87 Dean Avenue and Dublin Church at 7:00p.m.

Action Read will be closed from December 24th, 2008 through Januaryt 5, 2009.

Malignant Hyperthermia

What is Malignant Hyperthermia? When I first heard about it is when my wife told me she had it. When I asked her what it was she told me that it had something to do with the anesthesia that the doctors use in operations. When I heard that, it got me curious so I looked it up on the web. Malignant Hyperthermia effects 1in 5.000 to 50.000 people. It causes a severe reaction when anesthesia is given to someone. There is an allergic reaction to it. It happens when particular drugs are used in surgery or other invasive procedures. Nearly all gas anesthesia are Neuromuscular blocking agents. These drugs they make it difficult to put out carbon dioxide and take in oxygen quickly enough which could lead to circulatory collapse and eventually death if not treated. MH is often inherited but people don’t know they have it until they have surgery. I think it is important that people know about it. I know a lot more now then I did. When I first started this piece I didn’t know much now I’m a little more informed.

Relieve Tension From Depression

When I’m depressed there are thing’s that I like to do that help cheer me up. The first thing that help’s me is reading a book. The next thing is writing a story or a poem. Or playing a game that is fun like a board game. There are places you can go where they will be able to help. One place is Wellington Dufferin Self help it is located on Douglas street across from the resource center. They have people you can talk to about what ails you there are also computers you can use and there is coffee and tea or hot chocolate. The staff is qualified to help you in any way they can.
Another place is The Canadian Mental Health Association. They have computers there and books you can read and people you can talk to as well. It is located at 147 Wyndham and it is a quite and peaceful place to go. If you are having thoughts of worse things then you can call the crisis centre. You can also come to action read and you can use the computers here or read a book. Sometimes going for a walk helps me to relax as well as doing some exercising that really helps me. These are just a few ideas to help with the tension with Depression.

The Other Women in My Uncle's Life

 

My Uncle Will used to be a Fire Chief. He collects fire memorabilias. He also started collecting old fire trucks. I call them the other women in my uncles life.

This is Edna. she is a 1951 Bickle Seagraves Fire Truck built in Woodstock, Ont. She was the first Royal Canadian Air Force Engine Purchased after W.W l l. She was used for the RCAF Trenton from 1951 - 1962. She was then moved to Petawawa. During the years of 1962- 1984 she served as Petawawa's main pumper. She retired in 1984, she was used in community events until my uncle bought her for 0ne dollar. She still has her original engine, short cab and signature ladder mounting found on the RCAF vehicles. She can hit 30/mph and can shoot a fair stream if need be. I have ridden Edna a few times even from the train station it was fun.

This is Liz. She is a 1910 Ford truck. She lives in Gatineau, PQ

Eden Mills Writers Festival a Wash Out

On Sunday, September 7, a group of Action Read learners went to to the Eden Mills Writers Festival. It was a rainy day, One of the readers I saw was the following:

David Chariandy's latest book (fiction) is Soucouyant published by Arsenal Pulp in 2007. It was longlisted for the Scotiabank Giller Prize, and shortlisted for nine other prizes, including the Governor General’s Award, the Commonwealth Best First Book Prize, the Ethel Wilson Prize (BC Book Prizes), the ForeWord Magazine Book of the Year (for fiction), the Amazon.ca/Books in Canada First Novel Award and the ReLit Award. Chariandy lives in Vancouver and teaches in the department of English at Simon Fraser University. His second novel, Brother, is forthcoming from McClelland and Stewart.

Click here to visit the Eden Mills Writers Festival homepage!