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"A Family Tradition for 132 Years" PORT PERRY STAR - Tuesday, June 30, 1998 - 7 LETTERS Readers asked for info on Werry clan To the Editor: I'am sure the circulation of your Port Perry Star and Weekend Star can help us with a family search. In the period of 1831 to 1845 eight couples with their young families came to Darlington and to Mariposa Townships. These were children of John Werry and Ann (Congdon) Werry who lived in county Cornwall in England. The families soon established farms in Cartwright and other adjoin- Ing areas. The family names were Werry, Hockin and Philp. These Cornish folk prospered in farming. They were mainly Bible Christian Methodists and five or six small churches were built on the plot of land they dedicated to their faith. This list of churches included Bethesda, Eldad and one in the Valentia area. In 1873 a family picnic was held at a farm home near Tyrone and now in 1998 the Werry family is celebrating 125 years of reunions. During the 1920s and 1930s some of these gatherings totalled up to 300 people. Today we are looking for the children and grandchildren of these families. There is a special celebration planned for Saturday, July 18 at the Blackstock Recreation Centre starting at 11 a.m. until evening. A pot luck lunch and catered meal are included. The 125th Reunion edition of the Werry family tree is now published and will be available that day. The index of this book has over 7,000 names (not all living of course). In spite of an extensive mailing list we have, please understand that we have missed some and that's where your paper's circulation can help. We are calling all Werrys and their subsequent descendant families to call us about the picnic or the new family tree book. Please write or phone to: Glenn and Marion Larmer, Box 221, Blackstock, Ont. LOB 1BO or call (905) 986-4250. Glenn Larmer, Blackstock Workers demanding funding for WCB To the Editor: An open letter to the Honorable James Flaherty, Minister of Labor. Dear Mr. Flaherty: At our meeting, the Board of Directors of the Workers Health and Safety Centre discussed cuts to our operating budget. After careful consideration, we wish to express our extreme concern and anger about the status of funding for occupa- tional health and safety training and prevention services in Ontario. The health and safety prob- lems that face Ontario workers today are real and all too often result in tragedies for working families. The rate of workplace fatalities remains critical. In fact, as examples, there have already been two fatalities in the mining and steel sectors, and three in the pulp and paper sector, in the first six months of 1998. Last week, a major workplace explosion in a chemical plant resulted in two workers being critically injured. One of these workers was massively burned and is now in intensive care at the Hamilton Burn Centre. This accident took place in a plant where the company refused to allow the union to perform an inspection of the workplace. We are also concerned about the increasing rate of occupa- tional disease such as cancer and other illnesses. Deaths and illnesses on the job cost us all. The only real cure for these problems is prevention. For over a decade, the Workers Health and Safety Centre has provided workers with the knowledge needed to identify and resolve health and safety problems on the job. The centre has an exemplary record in the field of health and safety which can be clearly demon- strated. With only 20 per cent of the total prevention budget, the centre delivered more than 50 per cent of the certification training in the province. The government says it is committed to prevention. Specifically, it seeks to achieve a 30 per cent reduction in acci- dents. But actions speak louder than words. This year alone, the gov- ernment directed that $1 million be cut from the 1998 operating budget of the Workers Health and Safety Centre. This came on top of a $1.3 million cut in the centre's 1996 budget. The government plans to compound this already brutal cut to the centre's budget with another $1.3 million cut in 1999. It has reneged on its commitment to transfer centre employees to the new health and safety enti- ties. Government cuts to the Workers Health and Safety Centre and to training stan- dards forced a 40 per cent reduc- tion in staff and the closure of half our regional offices. This "death by a thousand cuts" jeop- ardizes the centre's ability to provide training services across the province. These actions do not serve the cause of preven- tion. Instead, they set it back decades. Compared to the Safe Workplace Associations, the Workers Health and Safety Centre is suffering a dispropor- tionate share of the pain. We believe that funding decisions for all of these organizations should be based on objective criteria, and on performance results, not on the subjective wishes of some employers to eradicate the Workers Centre and worker training. We demand that the govern-- ment keep its earlier promise and restore effective funding of the Workers Health and Safety Centre. Board of Directors, Workers Health and Safety Centre Editor's Notepad FOREVER BEGINS TODAY It was not without some degree of envy | saw the kids - off to school Thursday, their last day in harness before summer vacation. Oh, to be on the brink of two months of sweet noth- ingness, with little to distract one from fine crisp mornings, endless sweltering afternoons, and cool evenings that linger, lit by distant stars and fireflies. God! To be nine years old, when two months is an eternity, and realize that eternity is yours for the taking and enjoying, wasting and savoring. | remember days of hectic busyness, and others which were filled with so much nothing, such sweet interminable boredom, the day seemed like a prison from which there was no escape, only resignation. | remember reading book after book, lazing for hours and reading, just because | could -- Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn and Treasure Island and Hardy Boys. There was puttering around in creeks and outbuildings, and stealing apples and peas and corn (not necessarily in that order). Summer was forever, summer was sleeping in a tent that smelled like feet, it was riding on the handlebars of a pal's bike to the swimming hole because yours had a flat tire, it was mammoth building projects with old lumber (watch out for the nails!) which were never quite completed, it was coming home sunburned and exhaust- ed, and muggy nights, swatting mosquitoes, fending off the alluring vortex of sleep, listening to the Expos on the radio with Duke Snider or whispering across the darkness to a true friend... Later, summer would mean jobs and cars and tove, roaming the night-time world and enduring the day. Intoxicating, sure, but another era altogether. Sophisticated and self-assured. Not a little kid any more. Look at it from the point of view of this nine-year-old boy, who likes to fish and swim and fart around on the farm. Who rides in the car with his arm stretched out the window, catching the breeze. Who has two whole months. ...From this perspective, adulthood, one recalls that those two months passed swiftly, were exhausted all too soon. There you were, not even ten yet and looking back from your position on Labor Day, lamenting over the loss of youth and innocence like and old man at a beer-spattered bar. But not now. Not when you're nine years old, it's hot, and classmates on the bus are shrieking, "No more pen- cils, no more books..." Have a good summer, kids. Enjoy it while you can. 'we can't bring ourselves to sing our national anthem. Let's change that on Canada Day and, no matter where we are, let all those in hearing distance know ; st toc oast "we are a united people who love, and have pride in, | Gazebo, the Port Perry Star vill be announced, and a ceremony ip will take place with Judge Clare kids, and now it's up to parents to try and find enough _ourcountry." Well said! Let's all lift up our voices and sing with e place in Palmer pride this Wednesday during our Canada Day cele- ~ brations in Palmer Park. oy ~~ SCHOOL'S out Last Thursday was the last day of school for area entertainment to keep them busy for the next 10 y there will be lots of fun for area fam- weeks, ilies, with entertainment and fireworks taking place at time August ro ven if the kids aren't ready to go back by the early weeks Algust; You san ba assued, most parents are ready to ship them back, post-hastel ~ Have'a great and safe summer, kids