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h si 1 'W ikW il ^ S?» M m \ W tu ta 1 i il 1 I lJ 1 $> l'w% 8F \ r< '4| ' <^/W 1 1 i ^ # v O Cleaning Up Al Elyca, a member of the Bovvmanville Lions Club, places a crumpled bicycle on a pile of trash collected Saturday, during a cleanup of the Bowmanville Creek Valley. By the end of the morning, a small mountain of garbage bags, along with at least two shopping carts were collected for disposal. About 30 volunteers participated in the event, which was a Valley's 2000 project. The Bowmanville Lions Club provided a noon hour barbecue for the group. Valleys 2000 is currently working on plans to create hiking trails in the valley. Health Care is the Number One Issue by Jennifer Stone Staff Writer And the race is on! All three Durham riding candidates in June 3's provincial election got out of the starting gates Tuesday morning in the first of several all-candidates debates planned for Clarington. The Clarington Business Group had actually planned the debate long before the call of this spring's election. But the event, held at Silk's Café in Bowmanville, proved to be very timely timely indeed. The Business Group had sent a list of questions out to the public via their web site. Responses and suggestions garnered from the site made up the bulk of the topics up for debate Tuesday. All three candidates agreed on at least one thing. "Health care is the major concern," stated New Democratic Parly candidate candidate Jim Morrison. "Sadly, people have lost confidence in the hospital system," agreed Liberal hopeful Garry Minnie. Incumbent MPP John O'Toole said he's knocked on about 2,000 doors since the election was called, and he's found the same concerns. • "This isn't a phenomenon that's unique to Ontario," said O'Toole. And he doesn't believe his party is to blame. "The federal government has done more to harm health care by removing $4.8 billion in transfer payments to the province. And Durham has been traditionally traditionally under-funded," he told the approximately 30 people gathered. Continued on page 2 by Jennifer Stone Staff Writer "I am here, today because I disobeyed my meth- "cr," admitted Holçcqust survivor Gerda Frieberg to students at Clarke High School Monday. ' SURVIVOR -- Gerda Frieberg, who is in her mid-70s, was at Clarke High School last week, telling students how she survived the Holocaust. Her family was removed from their home in Poland, near the German border, and sent to a ghetto. ghetto. Both Frieberg and her sister wound up in work camps, but by some miracle, both managed to survive. survive. Students at the school presented Frieberg with flowers and a donation to the League of Human Rights when she finished sharing her emotional story, It was April of 1942, the last night of Passover. Frieberg, along with her mother, was living in a ghetto ghetto near Krakow. Poland. Her father had been 'qken by the Nazis horn their home hear the Polish and German border three years earlier, and the rest of the family had been removed from their home and placed in a ghetto. In February, Friebcrg's sister had been sent torn camp. By April, it was Frieberg's turn. "I'll never forget how my mother stood at the door, helpless," watching her daughter be taken away, said Frieberg. "They took away our family our parents, our homes. They deprived us of education. But there was one thing they couldn't take from us / and that was faith and hope." Gerda Frieberg, Holocaust Survivor Frieberg is the founder of the Holocaust Survivor Centre in Toronto. She shares her story with students around the world. In recent years, she has even spoken spoken to students in Germany about what she endured during World War Two. Frieberg and the others taken from the ghetto spent the night in a nearby school. In the morning, as they were marched toward the train station to go to the work camp, mothers stood along the route. They threw packages to their children. Some of the packages packages contained acid and instructions on how to burn themselves, in the hopes they would be considered unable to work, and sent home. The package from Friebcrg's mother contained a bottle of aspirins and a note telling her to take the whole hottlc in the hopes she would faint, and prove herself medically unsound. "No matter what you did, it didn't matter. Any decision you made was wrong," recalls Frieberg. She chose not to take the aspirin. By June of that year, everyone who had come back to the town had been deported to the concentration camp at Auschwitz. Frieberg's decision to disobey her mother mother may have saved her life. "I am the only one alive out of that whole group," Frieberg said. She found herself in a work camp in Czechoslovakia. "If I even tried to describe the conditions in the camp, I don't think you can understand," she recalls. "The only thing that kept us going was a stubborn will to survive." The dream of freedom was what kept the people in the camp alive, remembered Frieberg. "They took away our family, our parents, our homes. They deprived us of education. But there was one thing they couldn't take from us, and that was faith and hope," she said. When the war ended, and Germany had capitulated, capitulated, the prisoners in the camp were called into an assembly. They were told by the Germans in charge that the camp was rigged with dynamite, and as soon as the administrators left, the prisoners would be blown up. The next morning, the camp didn't blow up. Instead, the barbed wire was cut open by South African soldiers, themselves former German prisoners. prisoners. "The day of freedom was not at all how we had envisioned it in our dreams," said Frieberg. Russian soldiers then arrived on the scene. They had no food, and Frieberg said, "the Soviet soldiers would take any woman they could find and they would rape her." On the first day of their freedom, the women went back to their barracks and pushed the beds against the doors. Continued on page 2 Police Seek Naked Driver Most people admit to having the dream in which they arrive somewhere, somewhere, having forgotten to put on an important piece of clothing ... like their pants, for example. Well, reports to Durham Regional Police in Clarington indicate indicate the dream was a reality for someone in Courtice recently. Police say a Courtice resident reported having seen a man driving a Toyota in the George Reynolds Drive area. The man appeared to be naked from the waist down. The incident was reported to police this week, although it was said to have happened in April. The suspect is described as a white male in his early 30s. He is said to have spiky brown hair and was wearing sunglasses at the time of the incident. The matter is currently under investigation by Durham Regional Police. ■on's Schools to Serve As Y2K Shelters Clarington is prepared for anything the Year 2000 challenge has to offer. However, if citizens need emergency emergency shelter at the dawn of the new millennium, they won't find it in muncipally-owncd buildings. The municipality's Y2K committee is recommending that local schools now be designated as shelters in the event of a computer-induced Year 2000 disaster. Clarington, the only municipality in Durham making emergency preparations preparations for Y2K problems, had originally originally planned to use its own facilities as shelters. This plan is being changed, however, however, because it was decided that schools were better-suited to handle emergency emergency situations. The committee found that schools had the advantage of being able to provide provide many separate rooms. This would allow people to be evenly dispersed dispersed in smaller groups. The schools arc also equipped with large bathrooms, which arc more capa- Continued on page 2 Fuel Fight at the Gas Pumps by Jennifer Stone Staff Writer An argument over who had arrived at a gas station first resulted in damage to a car and two gas pumps last Thursday. Reports to Durham Regional Police indicate two male drivers arrived at the gas pumps at Bowmanville's Seven-Eleven Store at about the same time. An argument over who should go ahead ensued, and police say a verbal exchange followed in which at least one of the individuals was sworn at. One of the drivers had a dog in his vehicle. He nan told police the man threatened his dog with a base- hall bat, then used the bat to smash the windshield on his ear. While trying to get away, the man says he hit the gas pumps. Two gas pumps were damaged in the incident, though police have no damage estimate. Police are also uncertain how much damage was done to the ear. One driver went to Durham Regional Police Clarington detachment to report the incident, Police are still seeking the second suspect. gçag gggg bbbbkc manQmmmeBaaaBttBm Celebrating A Century Fred West was honored on Sunday at the Bowmanville Legion. The Bowmanville veteran of World War One celebrated his 100th birthday with over 200 family and friends in attendance. Lync Puddister, Legion President, congratulates Fred and presents him with a Legion jacket from Branch 178. QUALITY PRICED RIGHT 3.0 L 6 Cyl • Automatic • Air Conditioning • Power Windows/Locks • Cruise Control • Tilt Steering Remote Keyless Entry • Power Seat • Aluminum Wheels Anti-Theft System • Light Group • Heated Mirrors • Plus FnIqIiI IM0, fvlwwMrle w>cui!ty and Utot. 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