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Enjoys stories of real war veterans Dear Editor Re: November Focus on Scugog I would like to commend you and your writers for the stories about real people, who actually served in WW1 and WW2. When I look at the list and photos of the young men who did not return, I see the loss to the families — lives not lived, and who knows in that group of 40+ men from just the Port Perry area, what talent, inven- tion, family was lost. I realize that the “enemy” also lost their young sons, husband, brothers and doesn’t matter who won the war, we have all lost the great potential of hundreds of thousands of young men and women. I really enjoyed the article about Arnold Hodg- kins. Photos of an event are detailed. An artist brings the raw, stark emotion of the moment to the scene. Linda Carder, Bethany, Ont. PS. I always pick up your magazine as I find it well written and articles interesting. Take your scooped ‘poop’ with you Dear Editor I would like to give a “thumbs down” to dog walk- ers, in the area of Prince Albert, who pick up after Kele dogs: bul then throw the bag:over the Fence st the General Store. Tunderstand you don’t want to carry your dogs excrement on your walk, however, we don’t want to pick it up either. You are littering on our property. Please have the decency to dispose on your own. property or find a garbage can! Jeanette Fulford Prince Albert our cover Port Perry welcomes Santa Claus to town at dusk on Saturday, December 6.This is the first time Focus has featured the jolly old fella ‘on our cover, but we thought his make-over for this Christmas was too good not to recognize. See our Santa interview on page 19. Photo by Benjamin Markus, 2 FOCUS - DECEMBER 2014 Forum attracted hundreds of seniors Dear Editor The Scugog Seniors Advisory Committee would like to thank Focus on Scugog for the excellent article pub- lished helping to promote the Scugog Seniors Informa- tion Forum held on November 7. The fact Focus magazine is so widely read helped us to attract the highest participation in our event since it started in 2012. We had more than 400 participants and over 50 people Participated i in each of the two informa- tion sessions as well. We would like to thank the staff of the 40 organiza- tions who spent their afternoon talking to our local seniors. They and our committee members gathered some great information to help in the planning of future information events. We also cannot say enough about the 26 organiza- tions that provided bags for the event and door prizes for the participants. There were many ippy seniors who appreciated the donations of the wonderful range of prizes and we sincerely appreciate the support. Finally we want to thank the sub-committee mem- bers and additional volunteers that made the day so successful. This was an event for seniors that was orga- nized and presented by seniors and many hours of hard work went into the success we enjoyed on Friday. Thank you everyone for your support of the Seniors Information Forum. Scugog Seniors Advisory Committee Port Perry - “you have a problem” Dear Editor This is an open letter to the council, the businesses and the property owners of downtown Port Perry. You have a problem. The stores in Port Perry are not doing well. It seems that with the recession Port Perry went from one of “the” day tripper towns in Ontario to just another town. This needs to change if downtown businesses are to be prosperous. As a business town we have to offer something that draws people from our markets 52 weeks of the year. It is not good enough to hold “days” of some sort where all that the merchants do is place goods on the street for the day and then take them back in again. lama property owner on Queen Street and have been associated with Port Perry in one way or another for over 40 years — since the time when it was a day tripper haven. Unfortunately our thinking is still small town. It does have the potential to regain its day trip- per status but it will take a lot of thinking “outside the box”. Ihave received a number of suggestions from vari- ous sources and hope that my comments will result in Please turn to page 45