Peterborough Principal Live Tweets His Day In The Life At A School

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St. John Catholic Elementary School Principal Andy Sawada is doing a really neat experiment on Wednesday (May 4th), taking us inside the life of a principal—and school—by live tweeting his day.

Using the hashtag #dayinthelifeoftheprincipal, Sawada is giving his followers a fascinating window into his day.

Principal Sawada with a student

Principal Sawada with a student

"This idea came up last week when one of my friends asked me what I do during the day," Sawada tells PTBOCanada. "Many people have an idea of what the principal role is, but the principal role has changed immensely since you and I went to school. So, I thought of live tweeting my day, which can be a challenge, but I usually tweet out school happenings at the @StJohnPVNC handle. Additionally, I thought that this could be a transparent way of showing and sharing what my job entails."

Here are some of his tweets so far...

Follow him here for more tweets.

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Why You Might See Fog Coming Out Of Sewers In Peterborough

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If you see fog coming out of city sewers, well it's not filming for a horror movie or anything.

Rather, the City of Peterborough is working with Cole Engineering Group Ltd. to identify sources of rain water entering the sanitary sewers and develop a plan to reduce these flows.

Photo Courtesy City of Peterborough

Photo Courtesy City of Peterborough

The sanitary sewer system takes wastewater from houses, businesses, and industries to the treatment plant for treatment before being discharged into the river. Inflow and infiltration occurs when rain and ground water enters the sanitary sewers through cracks or holes in the pipe network or other connections such as catch basins or roof downspouts

This increased volume reduces the capacity of the sanitary sewer pipe network and the treatment plant. This also increases the risk of overloading the pipe network and potential basement flooding.

How The Sewer Testing Works...

-> To identify sources of inflow and infiltration, Cole Engineering is conducting a sewer fog testing program from the beginning of May until the end of August 2016.

-> The fog test consists of blowing a harmless coloured vapour into City sewer manholes and pipes and observing where the fog exits from the system.

-> The fog is expected to exit primarily out of manholes on the street and the sewer plumbing stack at the top of your house. It is also possible for fog to exit stormwater catch basins and downspouts on your house.

-> The fog used in the test has no odour, isn’t harmful to your health, and will disappear after a few minutes.

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Holy Cross Students Walk A Mile In Her Shoes Event Was A Thing Of Beauty

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[***UPDATE: YWCA tells PTBOCanada that the total amount raised for the Holy Cross Walk a Mile in Her Shoes event is $2,383.25—surpassing their goal of $2,000! Awesome!!]

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This year's Walk A Mile in Her Shoes event for YWCA takes place May 27th, but in the build up to the big day many local schools—Holy Cross, Crestwood and Kenner—are hosting their own special events to raise money and awareness among students.

On a beautiful Tuesday (May 3rd), Holy Cross students and staff hosted a great day at their school to show their support for Walk a Mile and promote healthy relationships.

More than 50 staff and students participated, walking four laps on the school track in heels.

Eileen Kimmett was there and snapped these great photos...

There were also great tweets throughout the Walk a Mile event at the school...

The day was further proof that youth in our community—the next generation to make an impact—are amazing.

[Related: 10 Things You Should Know About 2016 Walk A Mile In Her Shoes]

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A Peterborough Pet Portrait Photographer Is Donating Services At Special Event

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A Peterborough Pet Portrait Photographer Is Donating Services At Special Event

Doggone amazing

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PTBOCanada Featured Post: Junior Achievement Business Hall of Fame Event

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PTBOCanada Featured Post: Junior Achievement Business Hall of Fame Event

Sponsored post by Junior Achievement

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$11,000 Raised At 2016 Walk So Kids Can Talk In Peterborough

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Despite a rainy first day of May, almost 100 walkers turned out for the 2016 Walk So Kids Can Talk supporting Kids Help Phone on Sunday morning.

The James Strath Public School Drumline provided entertainment as walkers registered...

Photo by Daniel Morris

Photo by Daniel Morris

Kids Help Phone is a free, anonymous confidential counselling and information service for young people—an invaluable resource for them.

At Sunday's event, there were many great volunteers, including Justine, a first-time volunteer pictured below...

Photo by Daniel Morris

Photo by Daniel Morris

People of all ages came out to support this amazing cause, which raised more than $11,000 for Kids Help Phone.

That included a younger walker sporting a cape on the route...

Photo by Daniel Morris

Photo by Daniel Morris

After the walk, Boston Pizza was kind enough to donate pizza for participants...

Photo by Daniel Morris

Photo by Daniel Morris

—guest post by Beth McClelland

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Happy Gilmour! 2016 Gilmour Street Garage Sale

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It's the 26th Annual Gilmour Street Garage Sale this year—one of the can't miss community events of the year in the city.

File photo by Evan Holt

File photo by Evan Holt

As per tradition, the Gilmour Street Garage Sale falls on the Saturday after the long weekend. This year, it's Saturday, May 28th (with a Sunday rain-date) starting at 9 a.m.—although people have been known to show up as early as 7 a.m. in the hunt for a good bargain.

The biggest street sale in all of Peterborough—it extends out to many other streets in the neighbourhood, and there are also many sales for charitable organizations in town.

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Scouts Just Planted More Than 5,000 Trees On Peterborough Airport Lands

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On a beautiful last day of April on Saturday, more than 5,000 trees were planted by 300 scout groups on YPQ lands in collaboration with Otonabee Regional Conservation Authority.

"This was a great way of protecting the environment on airport lands," Airport Manager Trent Gervais tells PTBOCanada. "It helped provide an understanding to kids on the importance of getting outdoors and seeing what a small difference they can make to protect the environment for the future."

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Faceless Doll Project Teaches Powerful Lesson To Students About Missing Indigenous Women

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Standing side-by-side, in a seemingly endless row that stretched the length of more than five tables, the image of hundreds of Faceless Dolls painted a powerful and haunting image.

It took several hours and the work of 80 students from Grade 7 to 12 in Peterborough to produce the end effect.

Students from St. Catherine Catholic Elementary School and St. Peter and Holy Cross Catholic secondary schools took part in an outreach Thursday (April 28th) to learn about Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women.

The event took place in partnership with the Niijkiwendidaa Anishnaabekwewag Services Circle and the Curve Lake Cultural Centre.

The students heard first-hand accounts about the issues from members of Curve Lake First Nation before taking part in the Faceless Doll Project, crafting hundreds of felt dolls to represent those voiceless missing and murdered women. The dolls will be attached to banners that can travel from school to school.

“We’re getting a first hand experience, so we’re a part of the project— we’re not just hearing about it,” says Brenna Roblin, a Grade 10 St. Peter CSS student. “As you’re making it, you can just see each and every woman or girl that has been affected as you put together each dress or each piece of hair. You just care about the person as you’re thinking who has been affected and who that doll is.”

Liz Stone, Executive Director of the Niijkiwendidaa Anishnaabekwewag Services Circle in Peterborough, helped lead the discussion.

“I’m hoping that the students and the faculty that are involved will start to see that this is a Canadian issue, not an Aboriginal issue," Stone says. "It affects everybody. If individuals at a grassroots level starting at a young age have the knowledge, then they can create change at a large scale.”

Bringing the issue into the curriculum can be challenging for any teacher, says Amanda McInnes, the St. Catherine CES teacher who helped organize the outreach. That’s why having a tangible activity such as the Faceless Doll Project can bring home the lesson as an experiential exercise, she said.

“It makes it real," McInnes says. "Hearing about it is a powerful teaching tool, but putting these dolls together and being mindful that these are women in our community that have faced extreme violence and they are voiceless right now… it’s really important to teach.”

Phillip McQuade, a Grade 12 Holy Cross CSS student, has a new appreciation for the issue:

“I think I’m going to have a lot more awareness about what is going on, the unfairness that is going on in the Aboriginal community—especially towards women. And I think one thing that I will take from it is that it actually impacts me as a community member."

—guest post by Galen Eagle

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