Peterborough Female & Male Rowers Bare-All In Calendar To Combat Homophobia

Members of the Peterborough Rowing Club are back at it again this year, inviting you to “take one for the team” with their bare-all take on combatting homophobia in competitive sport.

Last year’s semi-nude men’s calendar saw hundreds of calendars sold and thousands of dollars given to Egale Canada—an organization committed to reducing stigmas around sport for LGBTQ youth.

Female version added to calendar this year

This year, there is an addition to the calendar with a female version focusing on body positivity and sisterly-love. This classy, 14-month gold mine of athletic men and women make it all-too-easy for you to help put a stop to homophobia.

The calendar—aptly named “Gentlemen of the Otonabee” and “Ladies of the Otonabee” for the 6 km stretch of the river that runs by their rowing club in Peterborough—features 28 sculpted, dedicated athletes.

“It’s about building an ally base,” says one member of the rowing team who participated in the photoshoot. “Sport should have no sexual orientation. For us, your crew is like your family, and you need to be able to trust that your family will back you up.”

$5 from the sale of each calendar will be donated to Egale Canada, a subset of the Canada Human Rights Trust. The calendars sell for $20 online, and can be purchased here.

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Donate Blood To Carry On Dr. Andrew Chan’s Legacy

Dr. Andrew Chan was a well-respected member of the Peterborough community for nearly 20 years. Born in Hong Kong, Dr. Chan began his education and career in England. He soon relocated to Canada and began his education in Internal Medicine and Gastroenterology.

 

After completing his education, Dr. Chan moved to Peterborough and joined the Medical Centre as a gastroenterologist in 1996.

Throughout the course of his career, Dr. Chan became known as a great leader. He stayed current in his field while investigating innovative medical technologies, was constantly pushing to improve patient care, but never lost sight of the importance of bedside manner. In honour of Dr. Chan’s contributions to his patients and this community, the Peterborough branch of Canadian Blood Services is holding a blood drive in his memory.

See poster below for dates, location and times...

Please spread the word on your social channels.

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County And City's Respect The Collect Program Getting Great Response

The County and City of Peterborough is encouraging residents to “Respect the Collect” by acknowledging the great work of recycling and waste collectors in your community.

“Collecting waste and recycling can be a very challenging job,” says Tara Stephen, Manager of Waste Management for the County of Peterborough. "It is easy to forget how many obstacles and hazards these workers face over the course of a day.”

Each day, recycling and waste collectors in the County of Peterborough will travel 200 km of road and manually lift thousands of kilograms of material. Working outside 8 to 12 hours per day, collectors are regularly exposed to extreme temperatures, rain, snow and wind—all the while working on high traffic, high speed roads.

Since the start of the Respect the Collect Campaign on July 4th, the City and the County say they have received numerous kind emails and phone calls about their waste and recycling collectors.

Residents can email kind notes to respectthecollect@peterborough.ca or call 705.742.7777, ext 1616 to express thanks. All thank-you’s received will be forwarded to the collectors.

You can help your collector further by doing the following:
• sort recyclables into Containers and Papers
• keep waste containers under the limit for your Township
• pass collection trucks with extreme care
• take hazardous items (i.e. propane tanks) to the Household Hazardous Waste Depot
• wrap sharp objects before placing in the garbage

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50 Volunteers Took To Peterborough's Streets To Find Out About Homelessness: Here Are Their Findings

For 14 hours on March 22nd, 2016, 50 volunteers set out in teams to conduct surveys on the street, in shelters, and at meal programs across the city.

They asked questions such as this:

Where are you staying tonight?
How many different times have you experienced homelessness?
What do you think is preventing you from finding and keeping long term stable housing?

Photo via @UnitedPtbo launch event introducing Giving Voice to the Homeless

What emerged from those questions was a story of individuals young and old, educated and working—some suffering from addiction, some fleeing abusive relationships, some agonizing over family breakdown, and most wanting to have their story told and understood.

The United Way Peterborough and District just released to the community more specific results from that night on the streets in their first ever "Point in Time Count" of homelessness in Peterborough. This city was one of 31 communities across the country that took part in conducting this ground-breaking research through the Homelessness Partnering Strategy.

Photo via @UnitedWayPtbo

The 60 page report titled “Giving Voice”—available on the United Way of Peterborough's website—is a detailed snapshot of people who were homeless on March 22nd of this year.

Here are some highlights from the report...

-> A minimum of 120 people were homeless in Peterborough on March 22nd, 2016
-> 54% were chronically homeless, having spent over 6 months homeless in the past year
-> 64% experienced homelessness for the 1st time before their 26th birthday
-> 20% have attended post-secondary school
-> 98% have some form of income
-> The top 3 reasons for homeless among participants were: family breakdown, addiction/substance abuse, and unsafe housing.

The public is encouraged to review the full report here and to reflect on next steps in our community to have a strategic focus on ending the reality of homelessness.

You can also give to an Indiegogo campaign to help a documentary being made on the Warming Room's guests.

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