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THURSDAY, MAY 14, 1998 GRAPEVIN Determined donator Every 56 days Acton's Glen McKenzie, 42, gives blood. Faith- fully, cheerfully and willingly he drives to the nearest Red Cross blood donor clinic and gives the gift of life. McKenzie, who will be honoured by the Toronto Red Cross for mak- ing 100 blood donations at last night's (Wednesday) Red Cross gen- eral meeting at the Acton Legion, has actually donated 143 units. of blood all cross Canada, and even when on holiday in Florida and in Europe. "J donate blood to help my fellow man," McKenzie explained when asked about his commitment to the Red Cross. "I try and put myself in the person's position who needs the blood. They've got to get it from somewhere. One-third of the popu- lation can't give blood for whatever reason.and I believe that if you can give it, you should." McKenzie, who first gave blood on Hallowe'en in 1974, said one of his favourite clinics was in Inns- bruck, Austria, when he was offered several ounces of cognac after he gave blood instead of the usual juice or tea. Wouldn't you love a Vw? A 1971, powder blue Volkswagen Beetle convertible is the prize in a very unique fundraiser being staged by the parent council at McKenzie- Smith Bennett school. When teachers said they needed $20,000 for books the council shifted its fundraising efforts into high gear and decided to raffle a car like the Acton Minor Hockey Association used to do in the '70s. Tickets for I LOVE YOU, MOM: Kathleen Dills Hartnagle (left) hugs son J.D., 8, while her mother Kay Dills poses with Matthew ,6, at Trinity United Church's Mother's Day ham dinner on Sunday at _ the Acton Arena and Community Centre. -- Frances Niblock photo the Beetle will be $10 and will be | available before the end of the -- month. -- Drum roll, please: Kudos to Acton's Devon Lambert, | 15, who drummed her way to a first place finish in the Grade 4 Solo Drum "March" at a recent competi- tion in Toronto, sponsored by the Piper's and Pipe Band Society of Ontario. | Devon beat out seven other con- testants for first place with a well- played, complicated marching score. She's a member of the McDonald Caledonia Juvenile Pipe Band in Milton and will compete this sum- mer in both the Georgetown and Fergus Highland Games. The Grade 9 student at Acton High won third place in pipe band drumming at Fergus last summer. Get me re-write! Student life at McKenzie-Smith Bennett school will be chronicled in anew school newspaper. The as-yet- unnamed paper will be staffed with students from Grades 5 through 8 and will include columnists, horo- scopes and comics. - Staff advisor and one of two chief editors, teacher Janice Scott said they hope to put out two editions before school ends in June. "We staffed the paper by pulling names from a hat because we had such a good response when we asked for interested students," Scott said. MSB students will be invited to name the paper in a first edition con- test. Because ofa very tight budget the newspaper will be available only via computers in the school but hard copy will be available in the MSB library. y . ANTIQUE SHOW: Five members of the Acton branch of the Canadian Cancer Society viewed antiques prior to the Antique Show and Sale at Acton's new arena this week on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, May 15-16-17. The show will feautre 30 selected dealers and three daily doorprizes. Viewing an antique child's rocking chair, tea set, grandma's books and other antique items are left to right, June Tribe, Marilyn Forster Loturco, Pat Kentner, Cathy Gerow and Rena Arbic. The items belong to Rena's daughter Christine, an avid antique collector. -- Hartley Coles photo For the past six weeks our fam- ily has been watching "From the Earth to the Moon" on TV. It was great. The series brought back a flood of memories since "The Bride" and I lived through these events. It was the reaction of our kids that surprised me the most. They were fascinated, especially with the real event footage that was interspersed with the profes- sional studio effects. Overall, I was shocked at how little the kids knew about the space program in general and the Apollo program in particular. I had as- sumed that man's first extra ter- restrial voyage would have been taught in school. Obviously not. For the life of me I don't know why such a monumental achievement is ignored. Future generations will regard Neil Armstrong and the other as- tronauts as important as Marco Polo, Columbus and Cartier. In fact, our first steps off our earth were a defining moment in the history of the human race. Possi- bly as important as the discovery of fire, language and the arch. But our educational system gives it lit- tle interest. Curious, no? The space program gave the children of the 60's something other than adventure. We grew up thinking optimism was a birth- right. Going to the moon provided | that mankind could do anything. This optimism translated into a confidence in our futures that gave our generation a significant ad- vantage as we began life on our own. I wonder, are we able to pass along this same sense of enthusi- asm to our children? It took this t.v. program to bring back the memories which enabled me to realize just how lucky we were. We hear a lot about generation X. Supposedly, young people to- day are aimless and anal retentive. I've never subscribed to that theory. I think young people today stand poised on a future that, if anything, will be even more dy- namic and exciting than we have had for the past 30 years. The chal- lenge we have is to help them see ce The Way I See It |? with | | _ Mike O'Leary Let's face it, the economic news of the last ten years has been any- thing but encouraging. When I was 21 I didn't have a clue what downsizing meant. Many people stayed with companies their whole working life. The middle class was expanding. Computers, they told us, would give us so much leisure time that new sports would have to be in- vented to keep us occupied. Somewhere along the way the master plan took a left turn. Most families have had someone downsized or know someone who was. The papers have been full of plant closures and layoffs. Most of us have seen our real incomes eroded by excess taxation and little or no salary raises. Computers threw thou- sands out of work and those still employed now do the work of two or three. Job related stress is now rec- ognized by the compensation boards a job related disability. Our senses are bombarded with hospital clo- sures. Claims and counter-claims that our schools are going to hell- in-a-handbasket and so on. Is it any wonder that our kids are pessimis- tic? We certainly didn't face such | obstacles. So how can we convince them that their future is going to be even better than ours? Here's how I see it. Our economy is restructuring froma domestic one to a global economy that will feature large trad- ing unions. Even though we have gone through two serious recessions in the last 25 years we had no meltdown like the great depression. You have to assume that govern- ments and financial institutions have areasonable control on the economy. Jobs are being created again, es- pecially in Ontario. Chrysler, for in- stance, just added a third shift. Hous- ing is starting to move. Research jobs Stargazing leads to success. are opening up with world-wide resources available on the internet. Governments, at least some governments, are cutting taxes: Canadians are starting to spend again and retail is doing well. Most of the job growth is com- ing in small to medium sized com- panies. They arereal jobs, not like the short term ones created by government. Although the con- cept of company/employee loyalty has gone'by the wayside, today's young people are not expecting it. Therefore, they won't be subject to the same emotional turmoil if they are forced to change jobs. I think our kids are more resilient than our generation was. The next generation will see fantastic strides in medicine. Ifnot cured, cancer will at least be con- trolled. They know how to avoid heart disease. Now whether they eat properly is another thing. Even baldness will be cured within 20 years (just my luck). The next gen- eration will live longer and gen- erally, be in better health. The space station will begin a new era of space explorations. A little adventure is good for the soul. Like the Apollo program, the space station will cause a quan- tum leap in knowledge regarding medicine and many other sci- ences. These gains will translate into better quality of life just like the moon missions improved ours. Our young people should be facing the future with confidence. They have more technological education than we ever dreamed of. In an information age, they can work they equipment to find the answers they will need. I envy them, especially the cure for bald- ness part. Who knows, they may see the first contact with alien creatures, the cure for many of today's killer diseases or be able to make a big- ger dent in third world miseries than we did. They might even see, dare I dream it, the Leafs win the Stanley Cup. Naw! I'll stick with the Klingon thing to be safe. A Send us your thoughts in a Letter to the Editor! Deadline is Tuesday at noon.