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

OPCC getting ready to move STORY PAGE 18 LIVING EDITOR: WILMA BLOKHUIS Phone 905-845-3824 (ext. 250) Fax 905-337-5567 email blokhuis@haltonsearch.com · WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 22, 2006 Marathon of Golf moves to Glen Abbey By Wilm a Blokhuis OAKVILLE LIVING EDITOR The Community Foundation of Oakville (CFO) is looking for another 10 golfers for its 8th annual Marathon of Golf, and Bonnie Jackson hopes three of them are women. Jackson broke through the male-dominated ranks of the CFO's 12-hour golf marathon two years ago by entering her team of Marathon Madams. "This year I'm hoping to get eight women, two teams of four," she said at last Thursday' s Marathon of Golf kick-off at the Canadian Golf Hall of Fame and Museum at the Glen Abbey Golf Club. "This is a great opportu nity for women golfers to be part of raising money for a wonderful cause," she said. The event, a fundraiser for the CFO, aims to bring a field of 33 golfers to the.Glen Abbey Golf Club on May 15. The past seven marathons were played at Blue Springs near Acton. Each participant or team is challenged to raise at least $3,000 and play 100 holes between sunrise and sunset. The Marathon Madams play in groups of four, each rais ing at least $1,000 and play ing 25 holes. Tee off is at 6:15 a.m. Many of the rules of golf, plus scoring, will be tossed aside in favour of keeping the players moving on the course, said Bruce Etherington, Chair of the CFO Marathon of Golf. Last year's marathon raised $140,000 and over the years it has realized more than a half million dollars. "The Marathon of Golf illustrates the spirit of com munity and all that can be achieved in working together for the benefit of others," said Etherington. The CFO has "grown by leaps and bounds" and cur rently has $24.7 million in invested assets, said CEO Rusty Baillie. "T\vo years ago we had $10 million. "We are a vehicle for peo ple to set up foundations that support charity forever by giving grants," said Baillie. A new initiative, the CFO's Environment Fund, "to help protect environmen tally sensitive lands is a won derful legacy for future gen erations," said Baillie. The Town of Oakville has already given $160,000 to this fund. Baillie said the CFO intends to grow its assets to $50 million by 2009. "The CFO gives about $1 million a year in grants back into the community," said Etherington. LI ESA KORTMANNI OAKVILLE BEAVER FORE!: Ready for the Community Foundation of Oakville's 8th annual Marathon of Golf are, at left, Bonnie Jackson and Jane Newlands of the Marathon Madams, and right, Bruce Etherington, Chair of the Marathon of Golf and Rusty Baillie, CEO of the Community Foundation of Oakville - posing at the Canadian Golf Hall of Fame and Museum at the Glen Abbey Golf Club. "There are a number of Oakville and other charities." The CFO supports a num people in need in Oakville, plus we support the trails ber of charitable endeavours system, arts and sports, and . including social services, we help fill the cracks left ' health care, arts and culture, between the United Way of environment, heritage, edu- cation and community development. Since its inception in 1994, the CFO has given more than $8 million in grants to the community. For more information, call Anne Miskey, Director of Community Initiatives at the CFO, 905-845-5547, e-mail amiskey@thecfo.org, or see www.thecfo.org. Wanted: volunteers to teach English in Lithuania By W ilma Blokhuis OAKVILLE LIVING EDITOR Like to teach in Lithuania this summer? Bridges For Education (BFE) is once again offering local teachers, and others interested in teaching conversational English as a Second Language (ESL) to foreign teens, an opportunity to travel abroad and at the same time experience some Eastern European culture and sightseeing. Henry Ligas, a volunteer with BFE for six years, chose to lead a group to Lithuania this summer, "because I've never been there before and I'm looking for a bit of a new adventure." A retired accountant, Ligas taught and traveled in Estonia last year and has also been to Bulgaria, Hungary, and Belarus and twice to Poland. This retirement passion has prompted Ligas to obtain his ESL teaching certification at the University of Toronto has taught at Bronte College in Mississauga - it originated in Bronte, hence its name - for two years. "I started teaching English but now I'm teaching accounting," he said of his post-retirement career. Ligas is recruiting volunteer teachers and will be holding a meeting on Sunday, Feb. 26 at the -Burlington Art Centre, 1333 Lakeshore Rd., Burlington, from 2 - 4 p.m. Ligas is hoping to recruit 12 par ticipants. "Every year I seem to get four returning teachers, and I usually get about eight from the Oakville, Burlington and Hamilton area." (This core of four teachers includes Ligas, Sam Weller of Burlington, Ann Stolys of Hamilton, and Don Ates of Gig Harbor, Washington.) The group will leave on June 30, and after three weeks of teaching, will enjoy a week of travel and sightseeing courtesy of the host country. Last year the group visited castles, churches, a prison, caves, a ·10,000-year-old crater, and the medieval section of Tallinn, the cap ital city of Estonia. Canadian volunteer instructors - one does not have to be a teacher by profession to participate - can claim their travel expenses as a charitable donation on their income tax as FBE received regis tered charitable status in Canada last year while the group was in Estonia, said Ligas. Participants will teach weekday mornings and afternoons. Evenings and weekends are spent enjoying social and cultural activities, any thing from football to baking, bead ing, macrame, painting, poetry, tal ent nights, dances, movie nights and modern dance instruction. Last year's students produced two newsletters. For example, Ligas brought a football to Estonia, and Burlington volunteer Sam Weller worked with a group who baked apple pies last year in Estonia. "We also walked to the Baltic Sea," said Ligas. "It wasn't too far from our camp." This summer BFE will operate summer school camps in Belarus, Bulgaria, China, Poland, Romania, and Lithuania. Each camp has about 100 students aged 14 - 18 although there may be some older and younger participants. Since it's founding in 1994 as an American-based charitable organi zation, BFE has organized 84 camps in 38 countries where 950 teachers have taught English to 1,100 students. Students at BFE's summer camp in Lithuania, run in coopera tion with that country's ministry of education, will come from various European countries, said Ligas. It operates as an exchange pro gram for European high school stu dents. "All conversation will be in English," he said, adding the lan guage will serve as a "cultural bridge. Because these kids will be coming from all over Europe, English will become their language in hopes of dispelling ingrained cul tural misunderstanding." For more information, contact Henry Ligas at 905-827-1248 or email hwligas@sympatico.ca. For more information see www.bridges4edu.org