Peterborough Chamber One Of Three Finalists in National Competition

The Canadian Chamber of Commerce has announced the three finalists for the 2016 Canadian Chamber Competition, and Greater Peterborough Chamber of Commerce is among the three along with Burnaby Board of Trade and Calgary Chamber of Commerce.

This is a great honour for the Chamber team and Peterborough to be a finalist in such a noteworthy competition.

Peterborough Chamber team

Each year, members of the Canadian Chamber of Commerce gather for their Annual General Meeting, and the 2016 meeting is taking place September 16th to 19th in Regina, Saskatchewan.

As part of the AGM, the Canadian Chamber holds a competition based on a relevant theme. This year, the theme is “Membership in the Age of Google, How Our Chamber is Reinventing ourselves”. The aim of the competition is to profile chambers of commerce that are innovative in their approach, particularly as it pertains to the theme—and the Peterborough Chamber is one of the finalists.

The Peterborough Chamber submission focussed on the rebranding of the chamber under the “Strengthening Business” banner, as both a slogan and a way of doing business.

Chamber policy analyst Sandra Dueck speaking at OCC AGM 2016 in Oakville

“Our members drive us, and channeling the collective strength of the business community gives us a focused voice on a variety of issues," says Stuart Harrison, President & CEO of the Chamber. "Apart from the lobbying work we do, helping our members grow helps the local economy.”

Learn more about the recognition in this video the Chamber posted to Twitter...

Great news from the Chamber! Thanks to our members! Go #TeamPtbo @CdnChamberofCom https://t.co/FMjIUGx5Zi pic.twitter.com/c6pXRbxjwt

— Peterborough Chamber (@ptbochamber) August 23, 2016

We wish the Chamber all the best at the Finals in Regina.

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Incredible Aerial Pictures Of Main Street Bobcaygeon Rocking Out To Tragically Hip

Among the 11.7 million Canadians to watch CBC's three-hour broadcast Saturday night of Tragically Hip's last show were thousands of people on main street Bobcaygeon—the place from the Hip's beloved song "Bobcaygeon".

Bolton Street was shut down so people could watch the show together on a big screen. Kawartha Adventure Rentals took amazing aerial images of the festivities using a drone that they posted to their Twitter account. Here they are below...

Wow, like look at this...

It was in Bobcaygeon, I saw the constellations
Reveal themselves one star at a time. #bobcaygeon #thehip #ptbo pic.twitter.com/IjlLa0mJl8

— Kawartha ADV Rentals (@KawarthaADVrent) August 22, 2016

Here's what it looked like from the ground on Bobcaygeon under the constellation...

photo via Kawartha ATV Rentals

Photo via TrentSevern Waterway

Music video by The Tragically Hip performing Bobcaygeon. (C) 1998 Universal Music Canada

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Peterborough Police Services Launch Postcard Campaign To Spread Fraud Prevention

Peterborough Police Service have launched a postcard campaign called "You Are Their Next Target" aimed at getting crucial fraud prevention messaging directly into people’s homes.

“Our Service has done a lot of messaging and education around the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) scam yet we are still being inundated with calls from citizens reporting this fraud,” says Detective Constable Keith Calderwood, Peterborough Police Service Fraud Unit. “The scammers involved are extremely aggressive and convincing. There are people today who are losing $4,000 or $5,000 as a result of this fraud.”

One of three postcards available

The Peterborough Police Service’s Alternative Response Unit receives between 15 and 40 calls a day from people reporting the CRA scam. The fraud involves a person receiving a message either by telephone, mail or text message from someone pretending to be from the Canada Revenue Agency requesting personal information and using scare tactics to get people to pay a fictitious debt.

From January to August 2016, approximately 32 people in our area fell victim to the CRA fraud and lost anywhere between $1,500 to $5,600. “Our main message is simple: Don’t make assumptions about who falls for frauds and scams," says Detective Constable Calderwood.

One of three postcards available

“Through this postcard campaign, the message will be delivered directly into people’s homes and into their hands," adds Detective Constable Calderwood. "We want people to know it’s okay to hang up if they receive a scam call. Don’t panic. Don’t react. Don’t send money. Don’t fall for it.”

Through generous funding provided by the Peterborough Northumberland Crime Stoppers and funding from the New Horizons for Seniors, 21,000 postcards have been printed and will be distributed throughout the area served by the Peterborough Police Service: The City of Peterborough, the Village of Lakefield and the Township of Cavan Monaghan.

One of three postcards available

Participating locations include local banks, pharmacies, grocery stores, coffee shops, senior centres, township offices and service clubs.

Mac’s Convenience Stores is supporting the campaign and select Mac’s stores throughout Peterborough will carry the postcards. Mac’s Convenience stores have made it a corporate priority to educate their employees about the fraud in order that they can in turn warn and educate their customers.

The back of the postcard

“Through this education and awareness campaign, our hope is that people will read the message and then mail the postcard to someone they think would benefit from this warning," says Peterborough Police Chief Murray Rodd. "We don’t want one more person in our area to be victimized by this scam. We want people to read it, sign it and send it.”

Peterborough Police also want to spread the message about this campaign and the postcards through the power of social media—they have created the hashtag #postcardsforprevention—so share this campaign with others on your social channels.

For more information on the CRA scam, click here.

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Lacrosse Legend John Grant Jr. Was Just Given A Key To The City

On Sunday (August 21st) in the Peterborough Sports Hall of Fame at the Memorial Centre, Mayor Daryl Bennett presented lacrosse legend John Grant Jr. with a key to the city.

It was a brief and private moment: Since Junior is a private and modest person, he thought a quiet ceremony would be fitting.

This is only the 13th time a key has been awarded by the city—a tremendous honour for Grant who has given so much to Peterborough sports.

This is Junior's last season with the Peterborough Lakers as he is retiring from his beloved team. Grant, 41, has been playing in the Lakers system since he was four years old.

Grant has won five Mann Cups while in Peterborough and MVP twice, and will retire as one of the biggest stars in Peterborough sports history.

—post by Scott Arnold

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A Time Capsule From 1864 Was Opened At Peterborough County Court House

On Friday (August 19th), a time capsule from 1864 sealed in a large glass jar was removed from the site of the Peterborough County Court House—which began construction that same year.

To put this in perspective, at the time this capsule was put in place, John A. McDonald and George-Étienne Cartier were discussing Confederation and the birth of our nation (1867).

Items from the time capsule.

The items in the time capsule will be catalogued and researched with the intent to create a display at the Peterborough County Courthouse.

The time capsule was placed under the cornerstone of the internal jail cell structure in 1864 and was discovered after County staff undertook to find it based on research of the site and assistance from local residents and historians.

Left to right: Daryl Bennett – Mayor, City of Peterborough; Basia Baklinski – Conservator, Lang Pioneer Village Museum; Jeff Leal – MPP Peterborough

The jar was carefully removed from the site and opened by a Conservator from Lang Pioneer Village Museum, Basia Baklinski—along with Warden J. Murray Jones, MPP Jeff Leal and Mayor Daryl Bennett.

Left to right: Jeff Leal – MPP Peterborough; Joe Taylor – Deputy Warden, Peterborough County; Daryl Bennett – Mayor, City of Peterborough

Items inside the capsule included coins, Minutes of Peterborough County Council, The Peterborough Examiner dated June 9, 1864, photos and other documents.

A new time capsule at the site will be placed there in 2017 for our future generations to learn about this era.

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Whimsical Night Motion Photographs Of Westmount Public School Playground

Photographer/videographer Justin Schofield—who did neat "miniature" aerial images of Peterborough we wrote about last year—has created a whimsical set of photos he took at Westmount Public School, where he attended elementary school.

The PCVS grad, who is currently enrolled in the Integrated Media program at OCAD in Toronto, took the photos over the past couple nights.

"It's a nostalgic, whimsical series—I use light to draw attention to the motion connected to each element of the playground," Justin tells PTBOCanada. "Plus this weather gave us perfect clouds."

"I like to return to the location and photograph the change that takes place over the years," Justin, 23, tells PTBOCanada.

View more of the cool photos below...

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Cornerstone Family Dentistry Posted This Heartbreaking Note On Facebook About Dr. Judith Buys

The Cornerstone Family Dentistry clinic in Peterborough is devastated following the sudden death of their clinic's founder and partner Dr. Judith Buys.

Dr. Buys died Tuesday at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre in Toronto after an accident on the weekend. This heartbreaking post was made to the dentistry's Facebook page about the loss of Buys, an amazing woman who was loved by so many in the community...

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