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THURSDAY, MAY 4, 2000 GRAPEVINE Great day for talk radio Any sharp ears hear Acton Coun- cillor Clark Somerville on CFRB's John Oakley talk show Thursday af- ternoon? Oakley said everybody in the 905 region (including Acton's 519) should pay tolls on every high- way going into Toronto to pay for road maintenance. Somerville, identified on-air as "Clark" balked at the suggestion, say- ing he was already paying approxi- mately $300 in property taxes for Greater Toronto Area pooling costs -- including transportation -- so why should he have to pay twice. Somerville, an avid Oakley fan who has 'RB on his speed dial, has made it to air -- and past the popular talk show's picky screeners -- several times in the past. Emergency excellence Kudos to the emergency response committee at Robert Little school that designed a classroom safety guide to be used Halton -wide by both the public and separate school boards. A laminated copy of the one page emergency guide will be placed in each classroom. While the school council had talked about emergency response, the Columbine incident and more re- cent fatal rampages at schools un- derlined the need for clear, uniform emergency response. "You can't be reaching for a binder to find out what to do in an emer- gency," said school council chair Julia Roehrig, who designed the instruc- tion sheet that also includes a detailed map of the school and lists all emer- gency phone numbers. Board offi- Cials saw the form and decided to use it in all classrooms. Widely quoted Seems another publication is now carrying the literary gems of New Tanner columnist Mike O'Leary. In the May edition of the Robert Little (school) News, Heather Morris- Stokes. chair of the Robert Little Par- ent Groupies, asks for volunteers to help with Spring Fling, the next fundraiser and says, "To quote Mike O'Leary from the Tanner. "If you're the kind of person who would prefer to be asked to help out, well then, consider yourself asked'." Computer chaos Credit Union staff spent the week- end posting and reposting entries after their computer crashed last week. The book balances were out by a few days and incorrect so staff spent the weekend re-entering the data. At the ATM. you could with- draw $500, regardless of your balance. Seems manager Harold Postma picked a perfect time for his honcymoon! Badminton winner Congrats to badminton ace Misaki Nishimura, Japanese exchange stu- dent who represented Acton High School at the GHAC (Golden Horse- shoe Athletic Conference) last Wednesday. Misaki -- a Rotary Club of Acton exchange student - placed second in the Halton East ladies' singles and third Halton-wide. At GHAC, Misaki had two con- vincing wins -- 15-1 and 15-3 --against St. Mary's in her first round. Misaki fought hard, but was defeated by the Halton champion. Design wins award Congrats to Peter Zions Construc- tion/ Pat Stuart Developments for their win at the Greater Toronto Area Homebuilders Association awards banquet in Richmond Hill on Friday, The Acton firm's Chickadee | house model -- the only one of five finalists designed in-house -- won in the under 2,000-square-foot cat- egory. "We're thrilled," said Peter Zions after the win, which he credits to hard work and a good team and hopes the publicity will be good for the whole Town. "Acton's always had a stigma at- tached to it that it wasn't the place to live but nobody could ever say why. It's one of the best kept secrets in the GTA and limited growth has been good for Acton," Zions said. Antique sale Acton Cancer Society officials and volunteers are hoping for huge crowds and great deals next week- end (May 12.13 &14) for the third annual Canadian Cancer Society An- tique Show & Sale at Acton arena. Thirty selected dealers will be sell- ing high quality treasures and there will be three door prizes. The show and sale opens Friday at 6 p.m. with tickets at the door. Millenium shrine The Knights of Columbus have taken on quite an ambitious millen- nium project at St. Joseph's Church on Church Street. Crews began to turning a grassy strip into a rock gar- den on the weekend and plans call for an outdoor Celtic shrine. The Knights may include a time capsule in the project and are trying to decide what items to include to best show what life was life in 2000, to whoever opens it in 100 years. Dance tickets available Would you like to help offset some staggering medical expenses for the Lindsay family of Acton whose daughter Susan is in a U.S. hospital being treated for an extremely rare brain fungus? Friendsand family are Staging a benefit dance on June 10 at the Legion. There will be a live band. DJ and live entertainment and a silent auc- tion. There will also be a raffle with three main prizes including airfare and a beachfront condo in Florida, a gas barbecue and a $500 gift certificate from the olde Hide House. Dance and raffle tickets are avail- able at nine Acton locations includ- ing Home Hardware, the olde Hide House and the olde Book Store, Lakeview Flooring, and several churches. Thanks for the coverage To the Editor, : Thank you for Frances Niblock's lead article in your April 27th edition entitled "Christians Here Celebrate the Miracle of Easter." Her article and accompanying photographs faithfully captured the joy that hundreds of people across Acton experienced on Easter Sunday morning. I enjoyed reading about the wide variety of ways in which the Christian commu- nity celebrated and commemorated the resurrection of Christ. Our local churches are an indis- pensable part of our community and contribute much to our town's health and vitality. Please continue to pro- vide this kind of excellent coverage, highlighting the positive contribu- tions that the Church makes in the lives of people who live here. Pastor Shawn Brix THE NEW TANNER WINNING DESIGN: This 1500 square foot Chickadee model in West Meadows proved to be a winner for Peter Zions Construction and partner Pat Stuart Developments. picked up the trophy for Best Architectural Desi They ign in a single dwelling of less than 2,000 square at the Greater Toronto Home Builders' Association awards banquet Friday. Shown with their prototype and the award are from the left Steven Taylor of Pat Stuart Develop- ments, in-house designer Trevor Thompson and Peter Zions. - Maggie Petrushevsky photo There is a yellowed newspaper article struck on our fridge. I cut it out 10 or so years ago. Actually, it's a "Dear Abby" column (Yes - I read Dear Abby. Doesn't every- one?) Over the years, as our chil- dren learned to drive. we made sure each of them read and re-read it. Then we sat each one of them down and discussed it. We harped and harped about how an accident can happen in the blink of an eye when a car is going 30, 50 or 70- miles per hour. For good measure we left the article on the fridge where everyone would see it every day. Even if they only glanced at the headline we hoped they would recall the message. This was more prayer than plan. Ihave often thought of re-print- ing it. Truth be told, until this year, I would forget. The time to run this is in the spring. We're all out en- joying the nice weather. The end of the school year is in sight. It's almost bush party time. Spirits are high We put this article up right after The day I died was an ordinary school day. How I wish I had taken the bus. But I was too cool for that. I remember how I conned the car out of my Mom. "Special favour" I pleaded. "All the kids drive." When the 3:00 bell ran, I stuffed all my books in the locker. I was free until tomorrow morning. I ran to the parking lot, excited at the thought of driving and being my own boss. Free! It doesn't matter how the acci- dent happened, I was goofing around, going. too fast, enjoying my music, taking crazy chances. But I was just being a kid, just hay- ing fun. t could happen? The last think I remember was passing an old lady who seemed to be going awfully slow. I heard the deafening crash and felt a terri- ble jolt. Glass and steel flew every- where. My whole body turned in- side out. I heard myself scream. e A message for young drivers 'The Way I See It with Mike O'Leary our oldest daughter had an accident on Main Street at School Lane. She plowed into a car making a left turn. Fortunately everyone walked away from the accident. The guardian an- gels were working overtime that day. Cars can be replaced. I remember what it was like to be 17. You think you are indestructible. Sure, bad things happen. But they never happen to you. Life is a blast and you live a charmed existence. This is how it should be. It is not, however, reality. The roads today are much less safe than when I was a teen. In addi- tion to higher traffic volumes we now have the phenomenon known as "Road Rage." It's not enough to teach Please God, I'm only 17 Slowly I came to; it was very quiet. A police officer was standing over me. Then I saw a paramedic. My body was mangled. I was covered with blood. Pieces of jagged glass were sticking out of my chest and arms. Strange, I couldn't feel anything. "There should be pain," I thought. Why are they covering me up? Don't pull the sheet over my head! I can't be dead. I'm only 17. I've got a date tonight. I'm supposed to grow up and have a wonderful life. I haven't even begun to live. I can't be dead! Not me! Later, they placed me in a drawer. My folks had to identify me. Why did they have to see me like this? Why did I have to see mom's eyes when she faced the most terrible or- deal of her life? My dad looked like he'd aged 100 years. I never saw him cry before. He told the man in charge "Yes, that is our child." The funeral was a weird experi- Try a Tanner ad -- it pays! = et defensive driving habits. Now you have to watch for some jerk throw- ing a hairy fit because you didn't move over fast enough. Drivers today have to be alert every sin- gle second they are behind the wheel. We also impressed upon our girls that they must never get into a car with a driver they of using booze of drugs. We had a deal with them. They could call at any hour and we would pick them up. No lectures - no recriminations. I think it worked - parents never really know. It made us all feel bet- ter though. As a parent you take the small victories wherever and whenever you can. Our children are our most prized possessions. Getting their liscence was a huge step in their development. But they need to be ranibded that they are not invin- cible. The consequences of a car accident can be devastating. It can happen to them. Reminding them isn't nagging. It's saying "I love you." ence. I watched as all my relatives and friends passed by the casket. I wanted to apologize for causing all this grief. | wanted to explain - I was just having fun, My friends sobbed and hugged each other. And then they left. Please - somebody - wake me up! I want to get out of here. I can't bear to see my parents like this. My brothers and sisters are like zombies. They move like robots. No one can believe this happened. Ican't. This can't happen to me! Please, don't bury me. I can't be dead. I have a lot of living to do. I want to sing and dance. I promise if you give me one more chance, God, Ill be the most care- ful driver in the world. I only made one mistake. All I want is one more chance. I'll be good. i Please, God. I'm only 17.