The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

RN TR RP RR SR Se EN Ao Re Sra ie i A LA A PE i th A lB ht i 26- PORT PERRY STAR - Tuesday, November 4, 1997 "Scugog's Community Newspaper of Choice" SUMMER DOWN UNDER Port Perry man's off to New Zealand for a six-month stint on the fastball circuit By Heather McCrae Port Perry Star This fall as we prepare ourselves for another cold winter, Todd Smart of Port Perry will be "down under" to join the boys of summer. Smart, 22, learned Oct. 19 that he was selected as a member of the National Mens' Fastball team in Wellington, New Zealand. Dave Kay, Chairman of the Port Perry & District Minor Softball Association, is the person mainly responsible for Smart's new career. As director of special events and fundraising, Kay has had several national mens' teams come to Port Perry for exhibition games, including the Toronto Gators, Sioux City Soos and the team from New Zealand. This past summer Port Perry hosted the New Zealand Under 19 team as they practiced in Scugog before continuing to St. John's, Newfoundland, for the World Championships. At the end of the com- petition, Australia won the gold and New Zealand brought home the silver medal. It was during the team's practices in Port Perry that Mr. Kay met Wayne Nichols, the head coach of a men's softball team in Wellington. Last month he received a call from Nichols, who was looking for a player from Canada: "an infielder, especially a catcher," said Kay. "Every year they take ona player from another part of the world," he said. And when the New Zealand official called him, he suggested Smart. After graduating from Windsor University with a BA in Geography last spring, Smart worked over the summer to make enough money so he could travel for a year before commencing teacher's col- lege next fall. Now, everything is falling into While he paid for his own return flight he will have his room and board looked after during the six months he's in New Zealand. During this period he'll be employed as a teacher's assistant at the local high school. Beginning the first of January, he'll also teach softball at Wellington High School for eight weeks. The only renumeration he receives will be from from his teaching stint. During the next six months, which is summer- time in New Zealand, Smart will be facing some of the finest fastball players from around the world as he goes on tour. He'll be playing a team from Hutt Valley, NZ whose number No. 1 pitcher is Brad Baker from Oshawa. Smart has faced Baker before, in Oshawa Mens' Fastball League action. He'll also face Michael White who last year was the top-ranked pitcher in the world in amateur league. "I feel very fortunate this opportunity came up," said Smart. "It's an opportunity I had to grasp at right now." Smart, who's played ball now for 17 years in Port Perry, said that without Dave Kay this would never have transpired. And there are several peo- ple who have supported him all these years, espe- cially Wayne Venning, who's been his coach all these years. Life has been a whirlwind for Smart since he heard the good news Oct. 19. Since the first of October, he had been in Alberta travelling. Flying home late on the night of Oct. 20 he had a day to pack, say goodbye to his family and friends before hopping on a jet Oct. 22. His first game in New Zealand was on the week- # Since graduating from university last spring, 22- year old Todd Smart planned to travel before starting teacher's college next fall. The Port Perry man's plans are falling into place as he is currently playing playing ball with the National Mens' place. end of the 25th. Fastball team in Wellington, New Zealand. Choir starts Christmas rehearsal next week On Saturday three young ladies - Amanda Bradburn, Julie Obsfelt and Miranda Willey - along with their parents and their leaders Mrs. Shirley Turner and Mrs. Jessie Gunter attended the presentation cere- mony of the Duke of Edinburgh's Silver awards held at Queen's Park, Toronto. Each girl was presented with her award by Lieutenant-Governor Hilary Weston in a very impressive ceremony. On Saturday afternoon a large number of friends and relatives attended the party in honor of Leona (Devitt) Wilson's special birthday held at the St. -John's Parish Hall. Sympathy is extended to Mrs. Roger Simmons and her sons Scott and his wife Brenda and Mark on the recent passing of Roger after a lengthy illness. The funeral service was held at Low and Low Funeral Home, Port Perry, on Saturday, October 25. Our thoughts are with you =all at this difficult time. Curling begins this week with the Men's league on Monday evening and Mixed on Tuesday evening. If you are interested in joining either, call Jan VanCamp, Cam Porter or any member of the club as soon as possible. Several from this area - attended the wedding of Leslie Carnochan and Keith Handley at the Port Perry United Churc on Saturday afternoon. The reception and dance were held at the Blackstock Recreation Centre. Anniversary service was held at the United Church on Sunday morning with the Rev'd Ted Kersey as guest speaker who delivered a thoughtful message "Yesterday and Tomorrow". During the service the Sacrament of baptism was con- ducted by Rev. David Shearman when Kassidy Rae, daughter of Mark and Pamela Roberts was received. Special music was provided by the Junior and Senior choirs as well as a beau- tiful solo by Pauline Langmaid. Dwayne and Carol Bryant and Rebecca from Mitchell spent the weekend with his parents, George and Brenda Bryant and Chris. The annual High School Christmas Craft Sale will be held at the Rec Centre on November 30. Spaces are still available for vendors. If you are interested, call either Anna at 986-5105 or Lorraine at 986- 4608. Be sure to mark your cal- endars to attend this very inter- esting event. The annual High School Commencement will be held on Friday, November 14. Eileen McLaughlin hosted a family dinner on Thursday evening in celebration of her daughter Janis St. John's special birthday. Attending were her three daughters Linda Bradburn, Janis St. Johns and Kelly Gatchell, their spouses and families. Happy Birthday, Janis. Fair Board directors are reminded of the very important meeting to be held next Wednesday evening, November Blackstock 12. A final decision must be made regarding the replace- ment for the fair grandstand and so your input is important now and not at a later date. Harvey and Joan Graham, Cecil and Marie Gibson, Gerald and Joyce Kelly enjoyed the Celebration and Appreciation Dinner hosted by Peter and Elizabeth Peeters on Sunday noon in Omemee. This was a token of appreciation of the wonderful help they received from family, friends and com- munity this past summer when their daughter Kathryn was critically ill. Kathryn continues to make her recovery at home and is amazingly well. There were 15 tables at the Tuesday evening euchre with the following winners: Joyce Kelly, Grace Bassant, Ruby Birkett, Doris Manns, Elsie Pogue, Stuart Dorrell and Jean VanCamp. Lucky draws were won by Nerta Masters, Gary Notenboom, Marie Gibson, Kathleen Watts, Lyle McMahon and Joan Sutcliffe. 4H News Our fourth meeting was held on Wednesday, October 29, 1997. We met at the Blackstock United Church and travelled by car to Port Perry to Reids Independent Grocer. We did a quiz on how much fat and/or fibre are in different products. At the end we were each given a loonie and we were to see who could buy the most healthy foods with the money. We only got three or four healthy foods. On the way home, we ate the snack we purchased. Our next meeting is on Wednesday, November 12 at 7:00 p.m. St. John's News by Colin Beal On Saturday, November 1st, a very happy event took place in St. John's Parish Hall as Loma Edgerton and her sisters hosted an 80th Birthday Party for Leona Wilson. This was not just a "St. John's Event", but we were very happy to be part of the festivities for Leona is a well-loved member of the St. John's congregation. During the course of the afternoon many relatives and friends dropped in to greet Leona and to wish her well and the "Birthday Girl" herself really sparkled as she welcomed everyone. Birthdays were featured at Sunday morning's coffee time too. Voices were raised in song to congratulate Lucy Black, Wendy Bentley and Ben Grunert, each of whom was cel- ebrating what Lucy referred to as "the latest anniversary of my 21st birthday". Sunday was not only devoted to birthdays. This was the day for celebrating the Feast of All Saints, a major feast of the church and always is a big day at St. John's. The Sunday morning Eucharist was accompanied by traditional music for this feast with an anthem during which Father Hugh sang a solo. Then, in the evening, we hosted the 1997 version of our annual All Saints Choral Evensong which brings together the Choirs and Congregations of the Cartwright Churches (St. John's, St. Bernadette's, Blackstock and Nestleton United). Once again this was an evening to remember as all Joined in the beautiful evening service which has been histori- cally, in one form or another, part of the liturgy of all the churches, but which now is only celebrated on special occasions. There were the old traditional hymns and canticles. Anthems were presented by each choir and, as a grand finalé, all the choirs got together to sing the anthem "A River in Judea". A collection taken up during the service will be donated to Operation Scugog. This coming Sunday (November 9) our Bishop, the Right Reverend D.C. Blackwell, will be with us and he will celebrate the eucharist and preach. The Bishop will mingle with mem- bers of the congregation at coffee time after the service. The choir has been working on special music of this visit too! Next week they start rehearsing for Advent and Christmas!