Peterborough's Flying Colours Corp. Is Celebrating 30th Anniversary

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Flying Colours Corp.—the North American maintenance, repair, overhaul and completions business—is celebrating 30 years of successful MRO and interiors operations.

Launched as an aircraft painting business by current President, John Gillespie, the start-up developed into an aircraft sales business before evolving into a fully-fledged MRO and interiors business in 1989.

John Gillespie, Founder and President of Flying Colours Corp.

The privately owned, family run company has grown from a small hangar dedicated to painting turbo-props and small jets at Peterborough Airport to an international company known for:

-> its strong maintenance capabilities
-> creative cabin-interior design resulting in functional, yet stylish completions
-> refurbishments including Flying Colours branded CRJ ExecLiner
-> avionics expertise
-> ability to handle complex special mission projects

Flying Colours is now the largest airport tenant and is currently expanding its headquarter’s footprint with the addition of a fourth hangar measuring more than 100,000 squared feet.

A rendering of the new hangar due to open in mid-2019

“It’s a well-known fact that the business aviation sector is a competitive and challenging industry to succeed in, and we are extremely proud to be marking our 30th anniversary,” says John Gillespie, Founder and President.

Photo courtesy Flying Colours Corp.

“In some ways, it feels like we are just getting started as we still have a lot of exciting plans to implement over the next decades,” adds Gillespie.

“It goes without saying we would not have got to where we are without the support of our elite set of customers, our reliable long-term partners, and most importantly our highly motivated and skilled technical teams.”

Photo courtesy Flying Colours Corp.

Flying Colours is marking its 30th year with internal and external events with customers, partners and its growing in-house team to demonstrate its gratitude to those that have worked and supported the business through the years. 

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Watch: Ashlee Aiken On "PTBOCanada" Show Talking About The Impact Of Kawartha Food Share

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On Episode 35 of “PTBOCanada”, we sit down with Kawartha Food Share General Manager Ashlee Aitken to learn about the huge role the organization plays in the community—and how the community gives back.

Neil Morton in conversation with Ashlee Aiken

Aitken tells PTBOCanada that it’s a big operation running Kawartha Food Share, which has a lean staff. They have 37 agencies they look after and 51 schools that are accessing food all the time.

“We have about a 100 volunteers a week in there… without them, we’d really be nowhere,” she says. Indeed, Kawartha Food Share is feeding about 9,000 clients a month at food banks.

Watch the episode below…

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Over $80,000 Raised In 10th Annual Petes Pink in the Rink Game

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The 10th Annual Pink in the Rink game took place at the Peterborough Memorial Centre on Saturday night (February 2nd).

The Petes may have lost on the ice—6-3 to the Oshawa Generals—but the entire night was a huge win for the organization and community as over $80,000 was raised to fight cancer.

The Petes, in association with the Canadian Cancer Society, announced that the campaign raised $80,811.11, bringing the 10 year total to over $697,000.

A season-high 3,852 fans attended the game—the team’s highest attended game since Pink in the Rink on February 9th, 2013.

The Petes players wore special Pink in the Rink fundraising sweaters, which were sold in a post-game live jersey auction.

Petes alumni Steve Larmer (1977-78) and Cameron Mann (1993-97) were the honourary co-chairs of this year’s Pink in the Rink campaign.

Congrats to all involved!

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A Peterborough Man Built An Awesome Backyard Curling Rink & Rocks For About $100, Eh

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You hear a lot about backyard rinks but not backyard curling rinks. Well Aaron Kempf managed to MacGyver a mint one in his Peterborough backyard—all at a cost of only about $100.

Kempf fashioned lights across his backyard in the summer so he could ride his pump track—a type of off-road terrain for cycle sport—after his daughter went to bed, and the rink was a way to continue to take advantage of the lights throughout the winter and also a good excuse to get out of the house on winter nights. 

Below is his summer cycle track (the rink he built would be constructed on the opposite side of the yard)…

HOW HE MADE THE RINK

“Construction was as simple as I could make it,” says Kempf, who describes himself as “handyish” depending on what the project is and how good the YouTube videos are. “I came across this idea last year and wanted to give it a try. It is basically a landscaping project which I’m comfortable with as it has a high threshold for mistakes. We like having projects on the go so this was a pretty easy one to try.”

At first, Kempf tried just shoveling snow in order to make a rink outline but the first few snow falls they got in November and December all melted. “In early January, I bought a couple 1x4s and made a rough frame for the rink. I then spent a weekend spraying several thin coats of water,” he tells PTBOCanada.

Kempf says the 1x4s did not create a water tight seal so he chipped a bunch of ice from a couple puddles that had formed in the corners of the pump track and used that to fill the gaps. After that, he continued slowly flooding it.

“There were a few leaks along the way,” Kempf says. “Next year, I’ll probably build a sturdier frame and line it with plastic to keep our water usage down. After I had an even coat of ice across the whole rink and it was thick enough to walk on, I installed the rings.”

The outer blue rings are two round plastic tablecloths he got from Dollarama. Kempf measured so each ring was a foot wide and cut the excess off. The red rings are from a single rectangle plastic tablecloth—also from Dollarama. He cut it in half and freehanded two circles with a sharpie and a pair of scissors. After that, he set them on the ice and flooded overtop a few times.

The rink was made on the opposite side of the yard from the pump track

HOW HE MADE THE CURLING STONES

The rocks were made from two $1.25 metal bowls from Dollar Tree—”the bowls at Dollarama were twice the price and too tall,” says Kempf, who punched a hole through the top of half of them with a screwdriver and then cut out a rough circle with a jigsaw.

“I used construction adhesive to attach them together, filled them with concrete and inserted some threaded metal pipe for the handles. Once they were set I trimmed the handles so they wouldn’t stick out passed the edge of the bowl, inserted a small piece of foam on each handle and wrapped them in blue and red hockey tape.”

The last step in creating the rocks required cutting a slit out of foam backer rod with an razer blade and wrapping it around each rock.

“This is to minimize damage to the bowls when they hit each other as I’m not working with an actual chunk of granite like a real curling rock,” explains Kempf. “They are probably half the size and weight of regulation curling rocks but they work well with the dimensions of the rink (about 8’ by 30’).”

After all this ingenuity, it was time to chillax and throw the rocks in the tee (hopefully)…

AARON’S WIFE ALIX GIVING IT A TRY

The family has made good use of the rink thus far, including Aaron’s wife Alix and his folks who are in town from British Columbia for a couple weeks of visiting.

Aaron’s Dad

Kempf himself is no Olympic curler or anything—”I have curled once in my life before this, watched it on TV a few times, and course seen the Paul Gross classic Men with Brooms—but that’s besides the point.

He’s not the best skater so a traditional rink didn’t make sense, wanted to take advantage of Canadian winter, of having a backyard (“we moved from a Toronto apartment a few years ago so we are trying to make the most of it”), plus Google made it look relatively easy to build.


And if you build it, they will come…

Die-hard curlers, might say—as Kempf notes—that the ice isn’t perfect. “I didn’t try to pebble it, and anyone with actual curling skills would probably be irritated with the imperfections.”

But like any sport and any rink, you have to start somewhere. And why not hurry hard and sweep on your DIY backyard curling rink in Peterborough? 

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Peterborough Humane Society Has 8 Adorable Potcake Puppies To Adopt

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The Peterborough Humane Society has eight healthy, happy and busy potcake puppies that are now available for adoption.

These adorable pups from the Bahamas have been in the care of the Peterborough Humane Society for the past six weeks and are now ready to go to their forever homes. Puppies are not often available, so this is a wonderful opportunity for the community and the team at the PHS to enjoy the wonder of cute, wiggly puppies.

There has been much interest in these puppies—Embrace, Destra, Happy, Welcome, Beta, Alpha, Delta and Friend. The cost to adopt a puppy is $500. They have received their Rabies vaccine, are spayed or neutered, and have been microchipped. 

The puppies are a variety of mixed breeds but will all grow to become medium sized dogs. 

An application must be presented to the team at the shelter (385 Lansdowne Street East) in person between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. on Thursday, January 31st.  (Note: No applications over the phone or email will be accepted.)

All applications will be reviewed by their Operations Manager to ensure that they find these beautiful pups their new forever home!

The Peterborough Humane Society advocates for the welfare of animals by improving their lives, alleviating suffering, rescuing, providing shelter, healing, facilitating adoption and reducing pet overpopulation.

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TAS Dance Program Hosting Huge Community Event Thursday, 11 Local Dance Organizations Participating

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The TAS Dance Program is hosting a huge community charity event this Thursday evening (January 31st) at 7 p.m. in the TAS auditorium.

Eleven local dance studios, schools and organizations are coming together to perform. Each group chose a charity and they are donating all proceeds from the door between these charities.

Photo by Sara Connelly

The show includes more than 200 dance students from the community. Participating dance studios include…

-> A. Frost Dance Experience (Charity: Make A Wish Foundation)
-> Imagine Studios (Charity: Parkinson Canada)
-> Jubilation Studios (Charity: Alzheimer Society)
-> Kenner Dance Team (Charity: Teachers For Kids)
-> LCS Dance Company (Charity: Because I’m A Girl Campaign)
-> Move N’ Groove Dance Studio (Charity: Diabetes Association)
-> Peterborough PAC Dance Studio (Charity: Lakefield Animal Welfare Society)
-> Premiere Studio of Dance (Charity: Hospice Peterborough)
-> Revolutions Dance Studio (Charity: Sick Kids Hospital)
-> St. Peter’s Dance Team (Charity: Yes Shelter)
-> Thomas A. Stewart Dance Program (Charity: PRHC Mombassadors Campaign)

Tickets are $10 at the door for the show, which takes place in the TAS auditorium. 11 local dance organizations. 11 charities. 1 night.

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Donation Of Over $16,000 From Holiday 2 Hours Free Parking Presented To Kawartha Food Share

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A total of $16,256 was raised for Kawartha Food Share in December 2018 through the generosity of people who opted to pay for parking during the Holiday 2 Hours Free Parking period, Mayor Diane Therrien announced with program sponsor HotSpot on Monday, January 28th.

This year, Holiday 2 Hours Free Parking was sponsored by HotSpot Parking. Hotspot has continued its support by announcing an additional $500 donation to Kawartha Food Share. “Kawartha Food Share is able to purchase $6 worth of food for every $1 it receives, bringing the total buying power of this combined donation to over $100,000,” Mayor Therrien says. “This donation is helping people throughout our community to put food on their tables.”

“We are so thankful for the continued support of the City of Peterborough and the local shoppers for supporting Kawartha Food Share each and every December,” says Ashlee Aitken, general manager of Kawartha Food Share. “This donation will allow us to purchase $100,000 worth of food which is an amazing help for us as we begin to restock our shelves after the busy holiday season.”

“We are excited to be contributing to the Peterborough community with this donation,” adds Phillip Curley, CEO of HotSpot. “Since we launched our parking app in December, we’ve had 1,602 drivers register to pay for their parking in Peterborough on the HotSpot app. This is a great start and we look forward to a strong future in the city.”

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OPP Are Responding To Numerous Calls About Snowmobiles Going Through Ice, Many Due To Impaired Driving

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After another snowmobiler went through the ice on Saturday night (January 26th)—this one on Chemong Lake near Bridgenorth, and the person is facing impaired driving charges after being pulled out of the water safely by friends—OPP Central has put out a tweet to the public about snowmobile safety.

Photo graphic via OPP Central on Twitter

OPP said this in a tweet that is being widely shared: “Officers across Central Region have responded to numerous calls regarding snowmobiles that have went through the ice. #PtboOPP officers were called to Chemong Lake where a male drove in to open water and was impaired. Luckily he was not injured.”

OPP said in an earlier tweet that alcohol was a contributing factor in 48% of snowmobile fatalities in the province since 2008…

OPP are now deploying aviation and Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) as a tool for speed enforcement, and search and rescue…

Please spread the word about snowmobile safety and not drinking and driving.

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PTBOCanada Featured Video Post: Meet Scott Anderson, Owner Of Anytime Fitness Peterborough

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PTBOCanada Featured Video Post: Meet Scott Anderson, Owner Of Anytime Fitness Peterborough

Sponsored video post by Anytime Fitness Peterborough

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The Peterborough Petes Are Returning To Maroon And White Jerseys With Modern Design

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The Peterborough Petes announced at an exclusive fan appreciation event at the Junction Nightclub on Wednesday evening (January 23rd) that the team will return to wearing maroon and white jerseys beginning next season.

The white jerseys will feature maroon panels and piping, while the maroon jerseys will feature white panels and piping. Both jerseys will feature a single-colour logo and a Peterborough Lift Lock patch on each shoulder. The current black jersey, with cream and maroon accents, will remain as the team’s third jersey.

“While our current jersey design was well received when it was unveiled ahead of the 2014-15 season, fans, players and staff have continued to express their fondness for our traditional colours,” says Petes President Dave Pogue. “We’re excited to continue to pay homage to our storied history, but with a modern design.”

Season ticket holder Patrick McAuley had this to say in a tweet…

The Petes say they decided to make the jersey announcement now for their fans before they encounter jersey designs in manufacturer sales materials for the upcoming season.

The Petes also have longstanding and successful partnerships in place with the Peterborough Minor Hockey Council and Peterborough Hockey Association that they wanted to be aware of the jersey change.

The Petes don’t require all minor hockey teams to change to the new jersey design, but those that wish to change need to know with enough lead time to order new jerseys.

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