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"A Family Tradition for 132 Years" PORT PERRY STAR - Tuesday, July 21, 1998 - 7 LETTERS Funding freeze is affecting children To the Editor: Recent announcements by the provincial government regarding growth funding for local hospitals and for long term care services administered by Durham Access to Care (DATC) is welcome news for most, but very discouraging for parents with special needs chil- dren in this community. Across the region, children with diagnosis such as cerebral palsy, autism, downs syndrome, and chronic arthritis are being referred by pediatricians to Grandview Children's Centre to receive the important ser- vices they need. These children don't get their therapy at Oshawa General or Ajax Pickering Hospitals. The hands-on, complex therapeutic services they require are not available through DATC. For many of these children obtaining the physiotherapy, occupational therapy and socialization skills they receive Thanks to all who helped To the Editor: Ralph and I would like to thank the many friends, neighbors, relatives, Rotary members, Haugens and staff, and my real friend Lynda, for all the support at the Big Bike Ride for Heart and Stroke research. It has made and is still making a big difference in our lives today. I challenged myself to collect 1,000, but I surpassed it by $50.35, rais- ing a grand total of $1,050.35. No matter what age, there is always something for everyone to do in their own way, to make this world a better place to live and help others. Thanks again, and I will be riding again next year. Marion Lee, Port Perry at Grandview will mean the difference between functioning independently as adults or the need for institutionalized care later in life. What makes this situation so frustrating is the fact that children's treatment centres are part of the Long Term Care Branch of the Ministry of Health and they have had their funding frozen for the past five years pending a review. At the same time, access centres, which are also part of Long Term Care, continue to have huge infusions of funding. In Durham, our Access to Care Centre has no children waiting for their services while at the same time, hundreds of children are on waiting lists or receiving limited treatment at Grandview. Our MPPs need to under- stand that the complex health care services provided at Grandview, which are critical for our children's development, are not available anywhere else in this community. These children should not have to continue paying the price for this government's inability to get around to doing their promised five year review of children's treatment centres. Grandview needs growth funding now. The five year freeze needs to be lifted now. Kathryn Bremner, Whitby Can you identify these men? a Dear Sir: I am writing to see if you could put this picture, taken about 1914-15, in the newspaper to see if anyone can identify the men in the picture. They are members of the 116th Battalion of World War I and the man in the centre of the front row is Alfred Prescott, my father. He used to live on what is now called Murray Coates Rd. If anyone knows who the other men are, I would appreciate hearing from them. Sincerely R. Kessler 39 Crosby St. Apr. 202 Richmond Hill, Ont. L4C 2R3 Editor's Note: If anyone has information on this picture, The Star would also be interested in receiving the n names. Notepad or by Jeff Mitchell CLOSE SHAVE WITH WEIRD BEHAVIOR What's with this head- -shaving craze? It seéms these days you can't swing a cat (Ooh, do | ever take that back! | remember once, about four years ago, | wrote a fictitious piece in this very space about inadvertently setting a cat ablaze while celebrating Groundhog Day, and sent one lady in town into a hissy fit. She wrote my publisher insinuating | was capable of all manner of evils -- Poking sleeping cats? Letting bugs suffocate in jars? Torturing frogs? Frightening babies? -- but he didn't see fit to fire me, even if | am the Antichrist or something thereabouts. Anyway: No more cats.) with- out hitting some guy or woman who's having his or her bean shaved clean, most often in public, and generally for a good cause. Last summer at Trader Sam's they had a great time -- a regular field day -- shaving the heads of all takers to raise funds for a family in need of a van for their disabled son. Just a few weeks back sportscaster Lance Brown made every paper this side of Toronto by giving it up for the Children's Wish Foundation. And there's hardly a copper. out there these days with hair on his head. They do it en masse. Good causes aside, this is curious behavior. Something - akin to the kind of activity they tell us was being regularly pursued in the waning days of the Roman Empire. Could it be this Millennium Anxiety they're telling us about? You know: Faced with the dawn of a new age and future we fear, we go a little wonky? What's with all this body piercing? No one wants to sound like a fogy, but -- jeez! Do you want your eyebrows pierced? Why? One good reason? What's with this Mel Lastman guy? Is there nobody else the Toronto dailies can find to put on the front page? Is everyone else busy? Is there that little news? Who voted for this guy, anyway? Speaking of Mel(s), what's with this Spice Girls thing? Did the Mayor of Toronto really spend his time com- menting on and writing letters to and about a so-so pop group? Why does the Toronto Star find it necessary to mention them at least once a day, and run pictures of them posing like strippers? Does a phenomenon that appeals largely to little girls need to be front and centre daily for the rest of us? ...If the Spice Girls agree to get their heads shaved, say to raise money for Toronto homeowners feeling the pinch of big tax increases and Mel Lastman is there to grin and gape and maybe relent and give them the key to the city, then there's a front page picture. Believe me, | know news when | see it. SL iinet dota an vealy stat this | year (April), and although we've still got a couple of months of mer ahead... how quickly it's marching along. two weeks we' ve seen two of Port new fo of the best in years. the Highlands of Durham } Flay. July 24 with jon more. ~ Another net event this summer takes place in downtown Port Perry on Aug. 8 as the BIA brings the first annual Jazz Festival to our community. The entire downtown will ring with music from top jazz musicians throughout the day and many of our local eating establishments have booked i in acts for evening entertainment. - Musicians will entertain thrdughout the day in front of the post office, on a moving. stage along Queen ~St., at the Tourist Information Centre, and the main stage at the Gazebo in Palmer Park. Saturday evening the headline act, featuring . . Keiran Qvers Quartet, will take place at Town Hall 1873, climaxing a music filled weekend. Another event which have been part of the summer day t there' s Henly more action Park as the Highland Games ighland Dares. Tug of entertainment package for the past few years is Paul and Charlene Wasson"s annual corn roast, in memory "of country musician Larry Dee. | ~The event honors Larry's memory by bringing together a variety of country music artists to volunteer their time to raise money for the Heart and Stroke Foundation. Te Last year, the 800 people who attended raised more than $3,500 for the cause. This event takes place Sunday, Aug. 9 at the home of the Wasson's at 4790 McKee Rd., Blackstock. . FINAL FAREWELL This Friday, July 24, friends of the museum will gather at Scugog Shores museum to bid farewell to Dan Robert, the museum's curator for the past four years, who is leaving soon to take up a position on the east coast of Canada. Under the enthusiastic guidance of Dan, the museum has undergone many changes which will bode well for future generations to enjoy. We wish Dan every success in his new position in - Nova Scotia and sincerely thank him for the assistance he has provided The Star over the past four years he has been with. the museum.