A 131-year-old Bible Was Just Reunited With Sisters of St. Joseph In Peterborough

A 131-year-old Bible that had been on display at St. John Catholic Elementary School in Kirkfield has been returned to its rightful home with the Sisters of St. Joseph in Peterborough.

PVNC Director of Education Michael Nasello and Board Chairperson Michelle Griepsma presented the Bible to the Sisters during a Mass at The Mount on Thursday, September 29th.

The Bible was published in 1885. According to a personal, handwritten inscription (see photo below), Msgr. Dominic Casey of Lindsay gifted this impressive Bible to Mother Mary Clotilde, the second Superior General of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Peterborough.

“It gives me great pleasure to have the opportunity to return this Bible to the Sisters of St. Joseph,” Nasello says. “This important piece of history has been on loan to St. John Catholic Elementary School in Kirkfield for many years and today it is returned to its rightful home.”

The date on the Bible’s inscription is June 1905. Much of the Bible’s history is unknown, but former students of St. John CES in Kirkfield have recalled that the Bible came to the school with some other items when the old rectory in Lindsay was closed. St. John CES in Kirkfield closed in June 2016.

Sister Veronica O'Reilly says the Sisters are happy to receive such an important part of their congregation’s history: "It means a very great deal to us because the history of our Sisters is still very much alive among us and to be reminded of that is a source of inspiration for us always going forward."

“It was a touching moment for all of those who have been involved in Catholic education because the very fact that the current Director of Education and Chair of the Board gave this to us, strengthened that link that has always been there," Sister O'Reilly adds. "We are very grateful and very moved by this gift and we will cherish it in our archives.”

Joe Keast, the archivist at The Mount, said the Bible—which is large, heavy and features a beautifully engraved cover and impressive illustrations—would have been a significant gift from the clergy to the Sisters at the time.

Left to Right: Sister Veronica O'Reilly, archivist Joe Keast, PVNC Director of Education Michael Nasello and Board Chairwoman Michelle Griepsma

“It was a very special gift. It shows how much the clergy respected the Sisters. It would have been seen as a thank you to all of the Sisters and all of the work that they were doing,” Keast says. “Because Mother Clothilde was such a major figure in the early years of the congregation, to have something of hers back will be cherished by all the Sisters.”

—post by Galen Eagle

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Blue Rodeo's Greg Keelor Makes Vintage Finds In Downtown Peterborough

It's pretty cool when rock stars shop in downtown Peterborough. This week, Greg Keelor from Blue Rodeo dropped by Catalina's on Water—a vintage store on Water St.—and filled up his vintage wheels with retro furniture finds from there.

Greg Keelor and Catalina Motta pictured on Water St. outside the store (Photo by Megan Walker)

"Mr. Greg Keelor buys out our store! An amazing day indeed," Catalina's owner Catalina Motta posted to her Facebook page along with the photo above.

Greg & Catalina with what Catalina calls his "uber cool car"

"Greg is a very charming man," Catalina tells PTBOCanada. "He has shopped in my Hunter Street location in the past buying things like quality vintage Italian knit ties and the like. Now with my Water St location, I am able to showcase a larger array of my vintage finds. He walked in and bought my most coveted pieces: mid-century modern dining table with four chairs, and a rather ornate Queen Anne sofa which he claims will be re-purposed. He bought various other bits, too."

Photo by Evan Holt

—H/T to our friends at Fresh Radio

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Peterborough Hallowe'en Houses 2016 Edition

1064 High Street

Looks like people are already getting their houses ready for the upcoming spooky season. Some are even getting into the social aspect of it such as St. Mary's House of Horror.

Email us your photos of your scary set-up and we'll add them to this post.

—post & photos by Evan Holt

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472 Parnell Street

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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A Peterborough Based Startup Has Launched A Device That Could Revolutionize Laboratory Systems

A Made in Peterborough device is set to become an essential component in medical laboratories around the world. Trent University-based Lab Improvements is launching the CapTrack, an innovative, benchtop medical specimen capping and archiving device into the U.S. market.

CapTrack is the brainchild of local entrepreneurs Alex Bushell, 28, and Steve Wright, 56, who have more than two decades of combined experience in the design, installation and servicing of lab automation systems around the world. 

From left: Peterborough Innovation Cluster's Rosalea Terry & Mike Skinner; Lab Improvement founders Alex Bushell & Steve Wright

Bushell and Wright saw a need for a compact, affordable solution for labs that could not justify a full-scale automation system.

“While small labs face many of the same issues as larger ones, the traditional automation systems used by high volume labs are not practical for smaller facilities, such as those found in hospitals," says Bushell.

The CapTrack is a portable device that manages refrigerated inventory and caps specimen tubes for medical laboratories. "Our patented technology uses a combination of robotics, process control and software that saves time and money while reducing risk and increasing the quality of laboratory results," says Wright.

Adds Bushell: "Our device allows for smaller labs to process samples automatically, reducing the risk of sample contamination and decreasing staff exposure to blood borne pathogens and repetitive strain injuries. We like to refer to the CapTrack as a ‘co-bot’, meaning a machine that works collaboratively with lab technicians to make their jobs easier, safer and more efficient. It does not replace them."

Bushell and Wright have been working out of the Innovation Cluster's incubator The Cube at Trent University for the past two years. Along with their team of five employees, the duo have taken the CapTrack from a bright idea to market readiness.

"Alex and Steve have had access to our incubation space located at Trent University as well as our knowledge partners and business experts who provided networking, patent application help and strategic planning," says Rosalea Terry, Entrepreneurship & Marketing Coordinator at the Innovation Cluster.

Members of the Lab Improvements team pictured at Trent University's The Cube

Here Is How CapTrack Works...

-> Once lab technicians have loaded the samples into the CapTrack, the device robotically caps the filled tubes before rotating them through a scanner, reading their bar codes and inputting the information into a database.

-> The samples are then placed into racks for storing. During this process, the device will illuminate any faulty sample that needs a closer look by surrounding it with red light, immediately notifying the lab staff of a problem.

-> Samples that require further testing are normal in any lab, says Bushell: “The CapTrack allows staff to look up a sample on the device and find where it is located within the fridge, versus the current method that could take a lab tech managing the cold in the fridge up to two hours at a time to locate just one sample."

Bushell and Wright recently inked an agreement with Holland, Michigan-based M2 Scientifics to market and distribute the CapTrack to the lucrative American health sciences sector. They plan to market to Canada’s 1,300 hospitals and the broader global market in subsequent phases of development.

"Lab Improvements will manufacture and service every CapTrack in Peterborough," says Wright, adding that the company currently has the capacity to build four devices a week. While traditional large-scale automation systems can cost upward of $3 million, the CapTrack retails for under $50,000 U.S., making it affordable for laboratories of all sizes.

You can watch a video to learn more about how it works here...

Lab Improvements has developed a portable, benchtop-sized device that manages refrigerated inventory and recaps specimen tubes for small-to-medium medical laboratories. Traditional, large-scale automation systems used by high volume laboratories are not practical for smaller facilities, such as those found in hospitals. As a result, laboratories of this size are forced to process samples manually, significantly increasing the risk of sample contamination, and exposing staff to bloodborne pathogens and repetitive strain injury. Our patented technology uses a combination of robotics, process control and software that saves time and money while reducing risk and increasing the quality of laboratory results.

"The invention of this device is a huge step forward for the medical industry and it is very exciting that the manufacturing of this product will continue to remain in Peterborough, which will help strengthen our local economy," says Michael Skinner, President & CEO at the Innovation Cluster.

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