Peterborough Woman Aiming To Claim Title of Greatest Baker With Votes In Online Competition

What started as a fun hobby has become a possible title of Greatest Baker for Peterborough woman Jamie Troke, who is competing in the online contest and seeking the public’s assistance for votes.

Photo courtesy of Jamie Troke.

Bakers advance to the next rounds based on an online voting system and Troke is currently a quarterfinalist and in third place at publication of this article. She must be in first place by Thursday at 10 p.m. to advance to the semifinals.

Anyone can vote for free with a Facebook account or a credit card once every 24 hours. More votes can be purchased.

Troke graduated from Kenner CVI in 2016 and attended George Brown College to hone her baking skills further. She started at a young age for fun and it grew to be her outlet to express herself, according to her voting profile page.

‘Greatest Baker,’ is an annual online baking contest run by Colossal.org. that supports the Andrew McDonough B+ (Be Positive) Foundation. They help families deal with pediatric cancer.

The winner receives $10,000, has their work featured in Bake from Scratch Magazine and meets ‘Cake Boss’ star Buddy Valastro.

Voting for Troke can be cast online.

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Electric City Football Club Kicks Off Banner Challenge

The newly-introduced Electric City Football Club (ECFC) has started their “banner challenge” as a contest and to promote the brand for the upcoming season in 2022 beginning Wednesday.

The ECFC had their inaugural press conference on Aug. 9 with their logo release on Aug. 13. Photo by David Tuan Bui,

Banners have been placed in Downtown Peterborough on three streets where entrants have to take selfies with the branding of all locations to be eligible for the giveaway.

Participants must also tag ECFC and use the hashtag #WeAreECFC while posting their photos on social media (Instagram, Facebook or Twitter) to be entered into the draw.

The ECFC Banner Challenge Kicks off today!

We've scattered ECFC banners throughout @PtboDBIA on three different streets. Take a selfie with a banner on each of the three streets to be entered into the draw. pic.twitter.com/CLDDJFrcpl

— Electric City Football Club (@ElectricCityFC) September 1, 2021

Three entrants will be selected at random in a draw to win an ECFC t-shirt and an inaugural scarf as part of the giveaway.

The contest ends at the end of Friday where the contest winners will be announced.

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Local Artist Wins Top Art Award

Local artist Lynda Todd painted to first place with “Blossom” in the Spirit of the Hills Art Association competition announced Thursday.

Lynda Todd’s entry, “Blossom” is a 36x60 inch painting selling for $900 on Spirit of the Hills Art Association’s website. Photo Courtesy of Lynda Todd.

Todd’s painting was one of 16 entries in the “Fine Art” category. Results were based on an online voting system by the public.

Born legally blind and mostly colour blind, Todd’s personal challenges did not deter her from earning the top slot.

"Blossom represents how an idea became a reality,” said Todd. “As a legally blind and colour-blind artist, I visualized each petal as the skills, knowledge and actions to reach my dream and occupation as an artist blossomed.”

Todd’s entry on the cover of Occupational Therapy Now. Photo Courtesy of Lynda Todd.

The winning entry was published on the front cover of Occupational Therapy Now for their May/June 2021 edition.

“My life has blossomed every single day since moving to Peterborough,” said Todd. “One thing keeps leading to another, so many doors have opened now that I have the independence to get around myself and embrace city life. I want to help spread the word and inspire others to try it all.”

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Community Care Peterborough Wins National Contest For $20,000

Non-profit charitable organization Community Care Peterborough (CCP) won $20,000 in the 2021 Great Canadian Giving Challenge held by CanadaHelps according to a press release on Wednesday.

Meals on Wheels deliver food from Monday to Friday between 11:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. Photo Courtesy of Community Care Peterborough.

CCP — a charity providing services to senior citizens and adults with physical challenges — was selected from 16,611 other charities. A total of $26,218,918 to those charities were donated last month.

June is considered the month with the least amount of donations to CanadaHelps — a non-profit networking charity organization —as stated in the press release.

All last month, CanadaHelps asked Canadians for online donations to win $20,000 for their favourite charity.

Every dollar donated in June through CanadaHelps or with an affiliated charity gave an entry for the grand prize.

“We are so thrilled to win the Great Canadian Giving Challenge,” said Alicia Vandine, CCP Donor Relations and Communications Lead. “We adapted our fundraising plans, operating virtual events and improving our online presence, to make it easier for people to support this work with their donations, improving our capacity and process to make online donations easy and secure using our Canada Helps charity account.”

Alicia Vandine (left) of Community Care Peterborough speaking with Nicole Danesi (right), CanadaHelps Manager in an online interview following the announcement of the contest winner. Screenshot.

$10,000 will be used towards the Give a Meal program which subsidies Meals on Wheels. The other $10,000 is for their Drive for Dialysis program which drives dialysis patients to medical appointments.

Without this support, many Ontarians living in rural communities are left to cover the transportation costs of these regular appointments that can add up to between $8,000 and $10,000 per patient according to the press release.

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Winner of Peterborough Photo Festival Announced

Toronto’s Lucas DeClavasio and his photo “Focus” won the “Focus on Coffee” photography competition on Tuesday held by Spark Photo Festival back on March 12.

DeClavasio’s photography style has been described as abstract/experimental according to his Instagram page. Photo Courtesy of Spark Photo Festival.

The winning image was unanimously voted as the winner that best represented a creative, imaginative and technically well-executed interpretation of the competition theme, “coffee at home” according to the press release.

“Focus” will be exhibited at the 2021 SPARK Photo Festival in when it will reopen in September and featured on the packaging of a special edition Sparkplug X SPARK Photo Festival 2021 Coffee. This special edition coffee will be released in time for the festival in September and will be available for purchase online across Canada.

DeClavasio submitted a unique series of digital double-exposure images that impressed the judges. They said he planned each of the five images to poetically reflect each stage of coffee at home from the craving, to the first sip and through to the last drop.

“The double exposure is captured in-camera with the intention of portraying the physical effects of caffeine,” DeClavasio described. “The feeling of that first sip, it's like your body is in bloom and your mind is ready for whatever the day has in store for you.”

The Toronto-based amateur photographer credits the pandemic for his return from a photography hiatus.

“I needed a creative outlet,” he said. “My overarching goal with my photography is to embrace the chaos surrounding us, reconnect with my surroundings, and hopefully find a way to mentally cope with all these external factors.”

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Fleming Student Wins Gold Medal In Province-Wide School Competition

Culinary Management student Liam Collins of Fleming College has won the gold medal in the Skills Ontario Competition held from May 3 to 5 announced on Friday.

Liam Collins showcases his three-course meal entered in the Skills Ontario Competition. The Skills Ontario Competition did not have an event last year due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Photo Courtesy of Fleming College

His win makes him the school and Ontario representative in culinary arts at the Skills Canada National Competition (SCNC) in a two-day event on May 26 and 27.

The virtual competition had Collins cook an appetizer, main course and dessert while supervised by a proctor at the campus’s classroom kitchen. Competitors had to detail all the elements used in each dish in addition to being judged by taste and presentation.

Liliane Michaud (pictured) earned silver in culinary arts showcasing her three-course meal at Fleming College. Photo Courtesy of Fleming College.

The following are a list of Fleming students who participated in the event and earned top-three honours in the province:

• Liliane Michaud won silver in culinary arts

• Bailey Wodzack won silver in carpentry

• Nicholas Stock won bronze in welding

• Devin Cartmell-Martin won bronze in metal fabrication-fitter

Nicolas Stock (left) and Devin Cartmell-Martin (right) both won bronze medals in welding and metal fabrication-filter respectively for the competition. Photo Courtesy of Fleming College.

If successful at SCNC, Collins could qualify for the WorldSkills Competition in Shanghai, China. That event was originally scheduled for Sept. 22 to 27 this year but has been postponed for the fall of 2022.

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Here Is Your Chance To Win PTBOCanada VIP Tickets To Royal Wood

PTBOCanada File Photo (Evan Holt)

Lakefield's Royal Wood, multiple Juno-nominated singer and songwriter, is playing Peterborough Musicfest Saturday, August 23rd at 8 p.m. at Del Crary park.

We're giving away 4 VIP tickets for you to sit in our PTBOCanada.com seats (we're a proud sponsor of Musicfest) to see him. For the chance to win, all you have to do is "Like" us on our Facebook page and tell us there why you'd love to see him (if you already are a fan of our page, you already have a chance to win!). We'll be picking a winner from our PTBOCanada Facebook page the week of August 11th so enter now!

Tip us at tips@ptbocanada.com. Follow us on Twitter, Pinterest and Instagram, and Like us on Facebook.

Royal Wood's 1st single FOREVER AND EVER from his upcoming release THE BURNING BRIGHT on MapleRecordings. Due in stores March 18th 2014 The single version. Produced in Co-operation with MuchFACT, A Foundation To Assist Canadian Talent, Supported by Much and M3, divisions of Bell Media Inc. Visit: http://www.royalwood.ca