Someone Put Up These Signs To Remind Motorists To Watch For Turtles
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STOP for Turtles
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Peterborough Teen With Celebral Palsy Has Dream To Meet Justin Bieber
/Falum Gibson is an 18-year-old Peterborough teenager with Cerebral palsy. She is also a huge Justin Bieber fan.
So much so, that this Belieber made a beautiful video (see below) trying to reach out to the pop star.
As she explains in the YouTube video, she will be going to Justin's show in Toronto on May 19th and hopes to be able to meet him.
She says Justin has been a huge inspiration to her over the years during her battle with Cerebral palsy, which has included many operations and trips to Sick Kids Hospital in Toronto.
Justin's music puts a smile on Falum's face more than anything else in the world, and she would love to meet him—for him to notice her.
Falum asks that you help get the message to Justin by using the hashtag #JustinMeetFalum on your social media platforms.
Watch and share her video below reaching out to Justin...
Engage with us on social media on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook. Write to us at tips@ptbocanada.com
King George Mascot Surprises Kids At Peterborough Huskies Special Needs Banquet
/The Peterborough Huskies organization have developed a wide range of sports teams for special needs kids, where everyone plays regardless of their ability.
At the 3rd Annual Peterborough Huskies banquet that took place Saturday night (Aprll 16th) at Knights of Columbus, one of the highlights was when King George—the popular mascot for downtown Peterborough—surprised the kids by crashing the banquet.
The smiles on the kids faces was amazing to see. "The were all over George," Eileen Kimmett tells PTBOCanada. "They didn't want him to go!"
Check out more amazing pictures below Eileen took of George entertaining the kids...
The Huskies are going to put Peterborough on the map further in 2017 when they host an international special needs tournament here with teams coming from around the world.
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12 Great Reasons To Sign Up For Ride Don't Hide
/Below are 12 great reasons to sign up for the Ride Don’t Hide event for the Canadian Mental Health Association, Haliburton, Kawartha, Pine Ridge that takes place Sunday, June 26th...
1. Be part of a community initiative to help break the stigma of mental illness.
2. Be part of something REALLY BIG! Ride Don’t Hide is a National event.
3. Funds raised will stay with your local Canadian Mental Health Association, Haliburton, Kawartha, Pine Ridge to enhance programs and services.
4. Breaking a sweat can help manage stress. Exercise increases natural endorphins to boost the body’s ability to cope with your busy life.
5. Enjoy fresh air, friends and fun on the Peterborough Rotary Trail.
6. Inspire others: find a workout buddy. Connect with local fitness trainer David Kittner and join the Prowess Team to get in shape for the ride.
7. You can dust off your bicycle that’s sitting feeling very lonely in the garage and find out if it’s true that ”It is as easy as riding a bike…..”
8. With a choice of a 4 km, 12 km or 26 km ride, you can find one to suit your ability or register as a virtual rider.
9. Show your kids that you still have it! Create a multi-generational family team.
10. Awesome prizes from diamond sponsor Wild Rock Outfitters, including a $1,400 travel voucher for top fundraiser!
11. One in 5 Canadians experience mental illness in their lifetime but only half will ever seek help. Being part of Ride Don’t Hide means they are not alone.
12. Join the movement—register by April 30th and get early bird rate for Ride With Us on June 26th.
PTBOCanada.com is one of the proud community sponsors of this event.
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Curve Lake Man Writes Heartwarming Campaign To Bring Brother With Down Syndrome To New York
/Tim Jacobs, a 23-year-old electrician from Curve Lake near Peterborough, has written a heartwarming campaign to bring his older brother, Mike, 38, to New York City.
Mike has Down syndrome, and it's been his lifelong dream to go to New York. Mike, who is blind in one eye, is "a really amazing peson and is always eager to help anyone in need," Tim writes. "Mike is unable to work due to his disability but he's always cutting grass or shoveling driveways to make some cash."
Mikey
"He's my older brother, though most of the time I take it upon myself to be his," says Tim. "He's really smart and enjoys playing all kinds of sports. I remember when I was little and would play hockey he would always be on the bench right next to me cheering me on! He called himself my coach."
Tim says as long as he remembers, Mike has always talked about going to New York to meet Vincent from Beauty and the Beast and going to the top of the Empire State building like Kevin did in Home Alone.
"Any time my parents and him are going out for a drive, he always tells me they are going to New York," Tim writes, adding that he is worried with his brother's Down syndrome, that he might not live long enough to ever realize his dream.
"This would mean a great deal to me and even more for him if I could take him on this trip of a lifetime. I love my brother and I would do anything for him, and anyone that knows Mikey would do the same. He's one of a kind, so let's make his biggest wish come true!"
Help Mike realize his dream and give to the campaign here.
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Peterborough Man Leaving To Visit Refugee Camp In Jordan, Writes Eloquent Facebook Post
/Peterborough community ambassador Michael VanDerHerberg—who works at the New Canadians Centre and co-owns Silver Bean Café with his wife Andrea—is about to embark on the journey of a lifetime. He leaves for Jordan, an Arab nation on the east bank of the Jordan River, on Sunday (December 27th).
Jordan, which borders Syria, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Israel and Palestine, is now home to more than one million Syrian refugees fleeing their war torn country. VanDerHerberg wants to view firsthand a refugee camp there: the living conditions, meet some of the families, see what can be done as the world deals with these deepening crisis.
VanHerHerberg pictured with one of his two children.
VanDerHerberg, who plans to post dispatches and photos from Jordan on social media, wrote an eloquent Facebook post about what this journey means to him—and how he thinks he has found his calling sotospeak. Here is an excerpt below...
Image via Unhcr.org
"I'll be staying with a friend, Faris Khoury, and he'll be my guide while in the great Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. I intend to visit a refugee camp while I am there, connecting with a UNHCR office, and working through some other connections to refugee-serving organizations in Amman, the capital city.
I have been involved in the refugee industry for about ten years now, and what began as a keen interest has now turned into a career of sorts with the New Canadians Centre (NCC) here in Peterborough. Andrea's [his wife] grandfather, who did the administrative work to sponsor 600+ refugees from around the world to come to Canada, taught me how to do this work before he passed a few years ago.
I began attending conferences and consultations with the Canadian Council for Refugees / Conseil canadien pour les réfugiés (CCR) and learned much more about what the work they and hundreds of other organizations across the country were doing to facilitate more and better private and government sponsorships, inland protection for refugee claimants, and overseas protection for those still in camps. They do incredible work. I encourage you to check out http://ccrweb.ca/ to learn more if you are interested.
I was then hired at the NCC as an Employment Counsellor and I worked my way into the role of Employment Services Coordinator over the years. While I still attended CCR conferences, served refugees through my role at NCC, and was involved in various local sponsorships, my involvement in private sponsorships became less and less leading into 2015.
Image via Unhcr.org
After a year parental leave, a season at the Silver Bean, and with a keen interest in consulting work, I took a position with Jonathan Bennett at Laridae Communications in March of this year serving the non-profit sector with strategy, projects, and business systems. Very engaging work. Great employer.
In late September, I received an email from a Sponsorship Agreement Holder, the larger organization through which I would have submitted private sponsorship applications, that a family whose application we submitted in 2010 was being called in for an interview. The only catch was that we had to submit all of the paperwork over again. All of it. This equates to about 40 pages per person and a family of four. 160. And, we thought their chances of acceptance were low because of some circumstances. To cut to the quick, we did it, they had the interview, and they were accepted. Hallelujah.
It floored me to realize that I was feeling pulled back into the refugee work and quickly. While working at Laridae, I started volunteering with Tamara offering workshops, attending forums, and jumping back in, head first, into the refugee world. I'm not sure if any of you ever feel 'calling', or vocation. I mentioned to Andrea weeks into this that I was feeling pulled back into this work. If you allow me to be a bit foolish and spiritual for a second, I have learned not to resist these feelings.
How does a young man, with all the privilege in the world, come to feel drawn to working with refugees? Yes, it is a desire to serve in a way that I feel that I can be effective; I won't deny it. It has also been born out of relationship, connections with real people, discovering that who we didn't previously know is often just like us with the same hopes and dreams. I may be nobody to you, and that's fine, but if you fear the other, then I would encourage you to make room, with a thousand steps, to receiving others into your life. For this I thank the TISA - Trent International Students' Association, the Trent International Program, the NCC, the local chapter of WUSC, the Rotary clubs here in Peterborough, the thousands of tourists I have met at our cafe, to those that we've hosted for dinner, to those that we have hosted in our home, and to those that have hosted me in their home on the other side of the world.
So, I'm back at the NCC. Laridae was very gracious to give me up for a bit, understanding that I was becoming much too distracted in it all to actually do both. And I've been hired, alongside Tamara Hoogerdyk, to be a Refugee Resettlement Coordinator, working with sponsoring groups that are assisting privately sponsored refugees as well as building good systems to possibly receive government assisted refugees in Peterborough.
If you're the praying sort, please do pray for me while I travel and while I'm there. Godspeed, as it were."
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Meet A Miracle Peterborough Baby Named Michael
/A Peterborough baby named Michael John was born November 30th at 24 weeks, weighing 1 pound 8 ounces. At three months premature, he was given a 20 percent chance of surviving. Through great medical attention and the Grace of God, young Michael is alive and fighting at Mount Sinai Hospital in Toronto.
Edy holding MIchael for the first time
Michael's parents Amanda Johnson and Edy Jones are living in Toronto (away from work) to be at Michael's bedside—and he is expected to be in hospital there for months until it is deemed safe for him to return home to Peterborough.
Michael was born weight just 1 pound, 8 ounces
