Those Without a Family Doctor Can Visit Peterborough Family Health Team For Acute or Problem-Specific Needs

The Peterborough Family Health Team (FHT) has expanded services at their PFHT Health Clinic. Peterborough City and County residents without a primary care provider can now see a family doctor or nurse practitioner in person for acute and problem-specific needs, announced on Wednesday.

Photo courtesy of FHT.

The clinic has two locations at King Street in Peterborough and Strickland Street in Lakefield, increasing the number of available appointments. Residents can now book an appointment on the same day they call or the following day. Unattached patients who have already visited the clinic at least once can now request an appointment to renew their prescriptions through online booking.

Additionally, on March 14 and 21, the PFHT Health Clinic will hold the ‘Don’t Be Late, Cancer Won’t Wait’ screening day for unattached patients who have a cervix and are due for a Pap Test. These screenings are one of the many functions in family medicine and why all Ontarians need to have a primary care provider according to Duff Sprague, FHT CEO.

“We knew action must be taken to support the alarming number of unattached patients in this community,” he said. “While we wait for the Ministry of Health to recognize the seriousness of the crisis in family medicine and primary care, we are using our limited resources to operate the PFHT Health Clinic. This is an interim solution. We are committed to the many thousands of area residents and will do all we can to support their access to high-quality, in-person care by a family doctor or nurse practitioner.”

Despite the positive additions, the recent investments in primary healthcare do not come close to ensuring that every Ontarian has access to family medicine and primary care teams said Sprague.

“Not only is the number of physicians opening a family practice unable to fill the gaps made by those retiring or leaving a practice but add to that the four-year wage freeze in primary care teams that has fewer and fewer other clinicians choosing primary care,” he said. “We are very fortunate to have many clinicians who stay in primary care despite the compensation inequities but without action, there will come a time when even the most passionate will leave primary care.”

The types of non-urgent health concerns that can be addressed at the clinic include:

• Sore throat/ears

• Cancer screening

• Prescription renewals

• Women’s health/contraceptive counselling

• Growth & development concerns

• New sprains/strains

• Chronic disease check-in

• And more

To book an appointment at the PFHT Health Clinic, those without a primary care provider must call 705-651-4866. For details about this clinic or to renew a prescription, visit online.

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Head to Italy With Peterborough and the Kawartha Chamber of Commerce After Partnership With Marlin Travel

In a partnership with Marlin Travel, the Peterborough and the Kawarthas Chamber of Commerce is offering members and non-members to the take in the authentic flavours of northern Italy this fall, announced on Tuesday.

Photo courtesy of the Peterborough Chamber of Commerce.

The Chamber is hosting a nine-day trip to Italy from Oct. 3 to 11.

The trip provides guests with premium accommodations, a chance to try some authentic Italian cuisine and an opportunity to see northern Italy with local colleagues and friends.

The Spotlight on Northern Italy trip includes:

• Try some tiramisu in its hometown of Treviso

• Take in the romance of Romeo and Juliet in Verona

• Check out the glass-blowing foundries of Murano, a city with 1,500 years of glassmaking history

• Take a gondola cruise through Venice

• Trace the steps of Ernest Hemingway through the artist hilltop haven of Asolo

• Journey through the rolling hills of the Prosecco region and visit a local vineyard

• Take a cable car ride through the picturesque Dolomite Mountains

• Enjoy some Grappa (grape-based pomace brandy) in the quaint town of Bassano del Grappa

The trip includes transportation from Peterborough and flights to and from Italy. The vacation package offers a competitive travel protection plan for $499.

Book by March 4 to guarantee availability at the best rates according to the Chamber.

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Partial Lane Closure For Kirkfield Lift Lock; Traffic Interruptions Expected

Expect traffic interruptions at the Kirkfield Lift Lock as there is a partial lane closure until Friday at 5 p.m.

Photo courtesy of Parks Canada.

The closure on Kirkfield Road (County Road 6) is required to facilitate crane access to support the necessary repairs. Traffic controls including flaggers and signage will be in place as needed.

Parks Canada thanks area residents and visitors for their patience and understanding.

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Nominations Open For Community Care Peterborough's 'Grandparent of the Year' to Children

City and County of Peterborough children in grades 1-6 can honour their elders through Community Care Peterborough’s 36th ‘Grandparent of the Year’ contest.

Photo courtesy of Community Care Peterborough.

Children are asked to submit a hand-drawn picture and a piece of writing that addresses what is important about their relationship with their grandparent, elder or special older person and why they think their nominee should win the award.

“Teachers in the City and County of Peterborough have a wonderful opportunity to use this contest as an inspiring writing assignment for their students,” said Danielle Belair, Community Care executive director. “We also recognize that not all teachers may know about this opportunity so we have applications available on our website. If your child is in grades one to six and not participating in their class, they are encouraged to take part.”

Grade 1 students are new to this year’s edition of the annual contest.

“Each year we are fascinated by the variety of heartwarming stories we receive,” said Belair. “Many of the honorees are indeed grandparents or great grandparents of the students however there have been a number of entries that highlight a special senior friend, elder or great Aunt or Uncle as well.”

Applications are available and are being accepted at the Peterborough Public Library, with a writing workshop planned for any students including those whose school are not participating.

The awards ceremony will take place at the Library in early June at the ‘Smiles All Around’ event. The winners and honourable mentions will have an opportunity to introduce and present the award to their Grandparent, Elder, or special older person, with photos taken by a local photographer.

A committee will select one winner and one honourable mention from each group of grades; primary and junior in both English and French categories. Primary is Grades 1, 2 and 3 and junior is Grades 4, 5 and 6.

Community Care has suggested several questions for children to think about when describing their nominee:

• What is important about their relationship with their Grandparent, Elder or special older person?

• What kinds of activities are done together?

• What kind of knowledge have they shared with the child?

• Describe a happy occasion the child and their nominee shared.

• How does their nominee make them feel when they are together?

• Why they are proud of their nominee?

• Why the child thinks their nominee should win the award?

All entries must be received by May 7. Entries may be submitted by mail to:

Community Care
185 Hunter St. E.
Peterborough, Ont.
K9H 0H1

They can also be submitted by email to Pamela Beauchamp at pbeauchamp@commcareptbo.org or online in English or French.

Winners will be announced in early June at an in-person event at the Library.

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Peterborough Police Continue Investigation of a Stolen Vehicle Found in the Water Near Johnson Drive

The Peterborough Police Service continue to investigate after a stolen vehicle was located in the water off Johnson Drive in Peterborough. 

Photo by David Tuan Bui.

When officers arrived, them and Peterborough Fire determined that no one was in the vehicle and believe it was pushed into the water from the road. The vehicle was found to be stolen from a nearby residence. 

Anyone with information is asked to call Peterborough Police at 705-876-1122 x555 or Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477 or online.

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Petes Next Gen Game Gets Away From Peterborough After Six Unanswered Goals From Visiting Kitchener Rangers, 6-2

The Petes started well but let the game slip away as the visitng Kitchener Rangers scored six unanswered goals for a 6-2 Petes loss at the Peterborough Memorial Centre on Monday afternoon.

Photo courtesy of Kenneth Andersen and the Peterborough Petes.

This was the Petes Next Gen game that allowed children selected by Five Counties Children’s Centre to experience the day-to-day operations of running an OHL team.

The children were introduced at a press conference a few hours prior to the game.

These positions included:

• General Manager

• Head Coach

• Assistant Coach

• Scouts

• PA Announcer

• In-Game Host

• Radio Broadcaster

This year’s Next Gen participants. Photo courtesy of the Peterborough Petes.

The Petes had a good start to the period just under six minutes into the game. Caden Taylor had a sharp-angle bid that slipped by Rangers goaltender Tristan Malboeuf for a 1-0 lead.

Peterborough got another goal on the board as Chase Lefebvre drove towards the net while tied up with a Kitchener defender. He managed to get a shot off but was save by Malboeuf. A rebound was available and as bodies piled up in front of the net, Ryder McIntyre pounced on the puck and backhanded it in for a 2-0 lead.

Unfortunately for Peterborough, the game went downhill from there. Just under a minute left in the period with four-on-four action, Kitchener was in the attacking zone and played the puck from behind the net. A pass missed the mark for the intended target but the Rangers but the puck fortuitously ended up on Carson Rehkopf’s stick and he beat Liam Sztuska to the cut the lead in half at the end of the first.

It was not long before the Rangers tied the game as 66 seconds in, they had 1:58 of powerplay time off a late Lefebvre penalty. Eduard Šalé was able to snipe one past Sztuska from the faceoff dot and make it a 2-2 game.

With just under two minutes left in the second period, Simon Motew was able to rip one through traffic from just inside the faceoff circle for Kitchener’s first lead of the game, 3-2.

The Rangers looked to run away with the game early in the third with a pair of goals in 92 seconds with scores from Rehkopf (his second of the game and Matthew Sop with beautiful deking to make it 5-2.

The Petes had a chance to get back in the game as Matthew Andonovski got a foul-from-behind penalty on Nico Addy that resulted in a penalty shot. He tried to go high glove-side with his shot but it was snatched by Malboeuf.

The Rangers finished off Peterborough by causing a neutral-zone turnover resulting in a three-on-one situation. Tanner Lam opted to keep the puck for himself and shoot which resulted in the right decision and a goal. That made it 6-2 as the final score and the Petes take another loss, falling in nine of their last 10 games.

The Petes will get several days rest before hitting the road to Sudbury to take on the Central Divison-leading Wolves — who have already clinched a playoff spot — at the Sudbury Community Arena on Friday. Puck drop is scheduled for 7:05 p.m. with the Official Road Game Watch Party at Shoeless Joe’s on Lansdowne Street.

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Check Out The Business Beat This Week Featuring Nutty Bean Café, Realign Wellness Centre, Trent Research and Dan Joyce Clothing

PTBOCanada is delighted to be running the Business Beat columns each week here, spotlighting new businesses and startups in Peterborough and the Kawarthas. Here is this week’s edition…

The Nutty Bean Cafe in Lakefield is under new ownership.

Sherry Salminen has handed the reins over to April and Brad who plan to continue offering great coffee and delicious food in a cozy atmosphere in downtown Lakefield at 33 Queen St. The Nutty Bean Café starts every morning serving fresh baked goods and breakfast with a selection of sandwiches, house-made soup, and salads throughout the day. They feature organic fair-trade, shade-grown coffee by the cup or beans by the bag.

There’s a new, unique service to elevate individuals who want to look and feel better inside and out.

Angela Hobbs is taking her expertise as a holistic medical spa practitioner of 20 years and going back to her own practice. She offers services that include permanent makeup, paramedical tattooing, hypnosis, and skin specialties like mole removal. Angela is inspired to elevate individuals from a holistic approach connecting body, mind, and spirit. You can find her on Facebook or at Realign Wellness Centre at 157 Charlotte St.in Peterborough.

For more than 25 years, the Trent Community Research Centre has been working with businesses and community organizations, connecting them with students for research projects.

These research projects address some of the biggest challenges our communities face. There will be a celebration of community-based research on March 28 at Market Hall. The event will feature presentations on research, a discussion panel, and an awards presentation. Register or find out more about community-based research at trentu.ca.

Dan Joyce Clothing is hosting a Beat the Blues event at their location at 87 Hunter Street West in downtown Peterborough.

The event is scheduled as a drop-in from 2 to 6:30 p.m. on Thursday and will feature local experts offering advice on various ways to support good mental health. Beat the Blues will feature Jodi from Jodi-Lee Nutrition and Wellness, RJ from Flow Spa, and Tori from Wild Rock Outfitters. Drop in and learn some new methods for improving your mental health. You could also win some draw prizes from the experts.

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Successful Surrogate Pregnancy Gives Chance For Local High School Sweethearts to Start a Family

The Gills are growing after three years of finding a surrogate and six failed embryo transfers, the seventh one proved to be the lucky one for high school sweethearts Brianna and Josh Gill, who had a successful pregnancy at 13-and-a-half weeks in.

Josh (left), Brianna (middle) and Jenn (right) with the former two holding lemons, indicating the rough size of the baby at 13 weeks of pregnancy. Photo courtesy of Brianna Gill.

Brianna was diagnosed with Mayer-Rokitansky-Kuster-Hauser syndrome, a condition that affects women to have underdeveloped uteri and vaginas, causing them to be unable to reproduce. Brianna was born without a uterus though she does have ovaries when she was diagnosed at 16.

The Gills have gone through two surrogates with the first being a family friend in 2022. They had two unsuccessful embryo transfers and eventually put a call for another candidate later that year.

“There have been numerous times where I’ve wanted to walk away,” said Brianna. “It’s just been so hard emotionally, financially and you start to think to yourself, ‘Why am I putting myself through all of this?’”

A woman named Jenn (who saw our first article of the story on Facebook) reached out to be their surrogate in the summer of 2022. She underwent four unsuccessful embryo transfers before the fifth one hit the mark and was eventually revealed to be a baby girl.

“(It was) Complete disbelief, to be honest,” said Brianna. “We actually got together with Jenn and her family, we were waiting for blood work results to come back but got impatient.”

Jenn suggested a pregnancy test since she had a ‘good feeling.’

“Josh looked at it first; the pregnant line was clearly darker than the other, and I just went into complete shock,” explained Brianna. “I couldn’t believe it.”

Brianna said Jenn was a driving factor in continuing to pursue the dream despite the past failed attempts.

“We had originally agreed — which is pretty standard — you’ll try three times and after that, if things don’t work, you’ll break a match and look for a new surrogate,” she said. “Jenn is so determined. She wanted this so badly for us.”

While the Gills had stopped after two failed transfers from their first surrogate, Jenn’s will was unphased in helping them reach their goal.

“She kept saying after each failed transfer, ‘I’m willing to try again if you guys are but I totally understand if you’d rather go in a different direction,’ but I think having her be so determined is what helped us want to continue.”

It also helped that the embryos were expensive to create so stopping could have cost a lot of money for the Gills with no results.

The Gills recently held a gender reveal party earlier in the week and tracked their entire journey on Instagram with over 2,800 followers.

Even 13-and-a-half weeks into the pregnancy, Brianna's thought of having a baby was still surreal.

“We got our first bump picture around the 10-week mark and that really helped make me feel that this was real,” she explained. “It’s hard to let go of the trauma of going through of the negatives and I finally feel like I am able to focus on the future and enjoy where we are.”

With a successful pregnancy and a baby girl on the way, Brianna says that this is the motivation for perhaps a second one to come in the future.

“This journey was a lot harder than we ever thought it would be which definitely played a factor at one point on whether or not we could mentally go through this again,” she explained. “Finally, now that we've had success too and we can start to see the light at the end of the tunnel, I think it will motivate us to try to do this again someday for sure.” 

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Two Peterborough Men To Be Showcased In Internationally Televised Fishing Show

Two Peterborough men are appearing on the country’s longest-running fishing program, ‘The Fish’n Canada Show’ with PTBOCanada’s own Kirtus Evoy and Ben Logan, Fontaine’s Source for Sports owner.

Evoy (left) and Logan (right) showcasing one of their keeper fish used at the weigh-in for the tournament. They two got to represent their team to have their fish weighed. Logan joked that Evoy was compared to the Toronto Maple Leafs for being able to reel in fish during the pre-tournament but failed to haul a keeper fish, similar to the famed NHL team struggling to exit the first round of the NHL playoffs with a series win. Photo courtesy of Pete Bowman.

The show has anglers and hosts Angelo Viola and Pete Bowman travel coast to coast searching for trophy fishing opportunities to educate and showcase the nation’s great fishing locations.

The episode with Evoy and Logan entitled, ‘The Miramichi Striper Cup’ in Miramichi, N.B., is set to air internationally on Saturday. This will be the show’s 547th episode aired in over 35 years of programming.

The Striper Cup was a four-man team fishing tournament held back in May.

“This was a great experience for us since our previous tournaments are ‘usually’ with one partner (two-man team),” explained Bowman. “This was a four-man team, something we have never experienced before so we highly anticipated it.”

Evoy and Logan earned the opportunity to participate in the tournament, partnering up with the hosts after winning an auction from the Lindros Hockey Classic for Easter Seals in November 2022.

“The thought of Kirtus and Ben donating a big chunk of change to the Easter Seals makes this episode extra special,” said Bowman. “From teaching the boys to use baitcasting gear, to ripping them around the Miramichi River and 60+mph, to netting their fish and them netting our fish and the best part, having them walk up the boardwalk to the weigh station to weigh our catch.”

Logan fishes roughly once or twice a year and had never entered a tournament prior to the episode’s filming. Evoy had fished with his ‘papa’ since he was young and often fishes on Chemong Lake with his children.

“It was amazing. There were so many things that I’ve never experienced before,” said Logan. “I’m not an avid fisherman. The stuff I learned from little things to seeing 180-200 boats lined up was something I’ve never seen before.”

“The experience with Pete, Angelo and their team was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity,” explained Evoy. “Everything from the accommodations, dining and fishing on the Miramachi were awesome. Best of all, I got to enjoy the experience with a great friend.”

There was a lot of work and preparation going into the event and episode taping but it was a surreal experience for Logan.

“It was unbelievable. The first day we went there, we met them that night when we bid on it,” explained Logan. “We started from the basics by day four of fishing. We knew what to expect. I started to catch a lot of fish. The weather went from windy to one day when you were bitter cold. The water was whitecapped, sunny and 20 degrees and back to windy. (It was) Unpredictable weather. We fished in every type of condition.”

While the team was nowhere close to finishing near the top, the experience was unforgettable for the Peterborough fisherman every step of the way.

“Going out for dinner with people that ran the tournament with how amazing people were, they treated you like they were one of them,” said Logan. “They brought fresh lobster. The hospitality was unbelievable.”

Photo by Kirtus Evoy.

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Peterborough Child and Family Services Gets a Technological Update After a $23,800 Provincial Grant

The Peterborough Child and Family Centres (PCFC) get ‘plugged in’ with technological infrastructure upgrades after an Ontario Trillium Foundation Resilient Communities Fund of $23,800 announced on Friday morning.

Peterborough Child and Family Services serves roughly 3,000 people and 1,600 families each year. Photo by David Tuan Bui.

This funding allowed the Centre to purchase laptops for staff, an upgraded phone system and an Owl Labs Meeting Camera. The camera allows staff conferences and offers hybrid workshops for in-person and virtual meetings for serviced families.

The Centre says these items are essential for their ongoing operation of programs and services. It helps to better connect with the families it serves, volunteers and staff and adapt to the community's evolving needs without disrupting services.

“We are incredibly grateful to the Ontario Trillium Foundation for their support in bringing our technology infrastructure to where it needs to be to ensure a thriving future for the organization,” said Nicola Lyle, PCFC CEO. “This grant will significantly enhance our ability to connect with families, provide versatility in our service provision, and support our staff and organization for years to come.”

“I cannot say enough about the work that the Peterborough Child and Family Centre does for our area,” said Dave Smith, Peterborough-Kawartha MPP. “To now have the ability to offer these services remotely means that more families have access to programs that benefit the development and growth of our future generation.”

The money was given incrementally since last April. During that time, the Centre had gradually upgraded its technology infrastructure.

For over 40 years, PCFC has helped families with young children and/or is expecting to provide tools, resources and knowledge to support the growth and development of children aged zero to six.

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