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www.oakvillebeaver.com The Oakville Beaver, Friday June 6, 2008 - 39 Cultural plan draws Seniors invited close to 1,000 replies to sing, play By Tina Depko OAKVILLE BEAVER STAFF "MOM, I WANT TO BE A VIDEO GAME PROGRAMMER" Your 9 to 17 y old g year gamer is already g y good at math but does not work hard at it. Some day s/he may want to p g y y program video g games as a j Not far fetched as there are job. now over 220 Video Game Publishers in Canada alone. RP4K can teach your child or teen REAL PROGRAMMING LANGUAGES such y as Visual Basic, Java, C# or C++. We teach game programming to all levels of kids and g p g g teens. From Pacman for the PC to a 3D Space Combat Simulator for the Xbox. There p are never more than 4 students per instructor. You will wish you had this when you p were a kid! Summer 2008 is RP4K's 7th summer located at St. Mildred's-Lightb School in Oakville. BRANT STREET The preliminary numbers are in from the public consultations held for the Town's cultural plan and they have people smiling. Approximately 1,000 surveys were submitted during the first two weeks of May, with about 130 people attending the four public meetings. It is a significantly higher number than expected, according to Claire Loughheed, manager of cultural and heritage services with the Town of Oakville. "This really indicates that people were ready, willing and able to put their two cents in, and for me, that's fabulous," she said. "I'm just thrilled and so grateful for the effort people made around this. We figured if we had 200 to 250 surveys, we would have enough to understand what were the themes and representative thoughts and feelings about those themes, but to have close to 1,000 verifies and clarifies what people are thinking and wanting. " Public consultation is one part of the Town's $70,000 cultural plan initiative that was launched last fall. The purpose of the cultural plan is to help determine how much money should be invested in arts and culture, and where that money should go. Besides the number of responses, Loughheed said she was also impressed by the thoughtfulness of the comments. "The feedback was really intelligent," she said. "It is not just what we should do, it is the fact it is also coming with a strong sense of how to move it forward." Loughheed said that although they have only done a preliminary review of the surveys, some trends have been identified. "One of the things is that people wanted is a calendar for everything that is going on in Oakville and to be able to see the entire community at a glance," she said. "There were also a lot of requests for programming space in every neighbourhood. And there were a lot of requests for free events for families in Oakville." While the surveys point out certain needs in the community, the diversity of responses regarding opening one or more multipurpose arts and culture facilities in Oakville has created more questions than answers. "We saw it over and over again, but it was slightly different in each instance," she said. "There's a lot of people who understand how the Oakville Centre is an anchor for the downtown, but there's a lot of people who live in the north who feel that cultural infrastructure as it stands is in the south and now it is their time. We also have people in Bronte telling us not to forget the west end." As a result, Loughheed said that a new round of public consultations will likely be held in the fall to hammer out exactly how many arts and culture facilities are needed and where they should be opened in the community. "We're really talking about getting designs down on paper, creating floor plans and getting input," she said. "We need to really take a concerted look at what space we've got, what space is coming online in the next number of years and what needs to be considered." Don Pangman, board chair of Oakville Symphony Orchestra, is a vocal advocate of the cultural plan. He said he is happy with the community's response. "I think 1,000 (surveys) is tremendous and I think this whole project has motivated people in the arts and the cultural sector to really start being more activist-oriented," he said. Pangman said the Town has their work cut out for them, especially when it comes to new facilities. He is a proponent of a single centre that will combine various arts and culture groups, but he said he understands the geographical concerns residents voiced on the surveys. "The original vision was having one great big meeting place, but recognizing that there are geographical impediments to that, I think it is important that this second round of consultations happens in fall," he said. A draft of the cultural plan should be on the Town's website by the end of July, with recommendations put in front of council in the fall, according to Loughheed. The Senior Star singing competition will be held June 18 from 2 to 3:30 p.m. at The WaterFord, 2140 Baronwood Dr. Canadian residents aged 65 and over are invited to participate as contestants by singing or playing a musical instrument. For information, call 905-8272405 and speak to Sarah Healey at ext. 552 or Celeste Laminato at ext. 543. Schedule a FREE NO OBLIGATION TRIAL CLASS by calling Real Programming 4 KidsTM at 416-469-9676 www.realprogramming.com www.oakvillebeaver.com ONTARIO SPA DISTRIBUTORS ER HELD OV T HI S WEEKEND ONLY! THE DESIRE '07 FLOOR MODEL 1/2 PRICE MUST GO! CLEARANCE SALE DON'T MISS OUT! 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