Kyle and Leanne Young have taken the reins at Youth Unlimited, and are now in the midst of setting up a youth centre at 2 Victoria St. in Haliburton.

They’re calling it the Building the Bridge Youth Centre and said a Nov. 9 fundraising concert will help their not-for-profit.

Leanne grew up in Haliburton for 14 years, until moving out west at 19 to get her degree in youth ministry. She and Kyle then spent the next 10 years working at a youth centre in Moose Jaw supporting at-risk youth.

“If you have grown up here, or raised kids here, you know that as wonderful as Haliburton is to raise a family, there’s also a lot of limitations living in a rural community. There are fewer recreational opportunities for kids, and economic and social barriers that come with living in rural Ontario,” Leanne said.

“One thing Kyle and I have noticed is there’s a lack of places for youth to go after school if they want to just hang out with friends.” She said that’s important for teens, but can be hard when they come from across the County. She said she recently observed some junior high school boys debating where to go after school, picking the library over the park due to poor weather.

She said it’s important for kids to know who they are, where they belong, and what their purpose is. She added trying to answer these questions can leave youth struggling with their mental health.

The Youngs think a centre could help with that.

Youth Unlimited has been in Haliburton County for the past 17 years, but hasn’t had a building for the past seven and there’s been leadership changes in the past five. They were able to lease 2 Victoria St. in August. They’d like to open Mondays and Thursdays after school starting mid-November. They will be encouraging Grade 6 to 12 students to drop in. They currently offer gym nights once a month for those grades at the high school.

With the Youth Hub on Dysart Ave., Leanne said they get asked how they are different. She said the hub offers clinical resources to help youth with their physical and mental wellbeing, something Youth Unlimited is not equipped to offer. “And they are already at full capacity for their drop-in hours,” she said of the need for another space.

They plan to host more recreational and social programs. “We’re really excited to be able to open the doors… to invite youth in after-school to a warm and safe place where they can hang out with their peers, connect with adult mentors, and learn some fun skills, such as cooking, baking, art, sports, wood working and eat good food.” They’re next to the park and its basketball court, and outdoor rink, and are working to restore the commercial kitchen once used by SIRCH.

“Our hope is to be another resource for youth because one youth centre isn’t able to support all the youth in Haliburton County.

“If you are ever in town from 3-4 p.m., you will see the herds of youth flocking to the park and to the downtown core.

“In the colder months, hanging outside becomes much less appealing and convenient.”

The Concert

Building the Bridge Youth Centre Saturday, Nov. 9, 1 p.m. at 9 Park St. Featuring Drew Allen and Karen Frybort, Ella Gooley and Up River Draw. Loonie auction, fresh baking, local maple syrup. $20 per person or $50 per family at yfc.ca/haliburton-highlands/concert-tickets. For more go to yfc.ca/haliburton-highlands.

After scooping five honours at the Decorators and Designers Association of Canada (DDA) awards in Toronto this month, County-based ACM Designs is providing the blueprint for how a small rural firm can turn heads on the big stage.

The company took home two second place and three third place awards after recently being recognized for work in commercial space design, interior decoration, and kitchen configuration. The event was held Oct. 10 at The Sutton Place Hotel in Toronto.

Nicole Marshall, ACM Designs spokesperson, said the DDA awards are one of the most prestigious events in Canada, celebrating the best interior decorators and designers in the country.

“There are a couple thousand places that compete for these awards. You get people from all over Canada – individual design firms, massive large-scale design firms. It’s a pretty big deal,” Marshall said.

Different from other celebrations, the DDAs look beyond the finished product to consider all aspects of a project, including blueprints, design sketches, and other prep work. All submissions are peer-reviewed by people who work in the industry, Marshall said.

ACM took home silver in commercial space for its Mill Pond Restaurant makeover, completed in fall 2023. Designer Saqib Abdullah was recognized for his work. Company founder Andria Cowan Molyneaux also scooped second in the kitchen under $65,000 category for a home project on Kennisis Lake.

Bronze medals were issued in commercial space for the remodeling of the Baumgartner Realty office on Highland Street – designed by Katie Woodward; interior decoration single room over $35,000 for a Redstone Lake cottage project; and interior decoration single room under $35,000 at a Kennisis Lake property – both designed by Cowan Molyneaux.

“We are truly honoured to be recognized by our peers in such an incredible way. It’s a testament to my team, and I couldn’t be more proud,” the owner said.

Marshall felt the awards for work completed in the commercial sector are significant given the level of competition from big city firms.

“There’s not a huge amount of opportunity for that kind of work, where companies want to do a complete overhaul, in Haliburton. So, it’s incredible to be recognized for something that isn’t necessarily our specialty,” Marshall said.

By competing with some of the biggest and best firms in the country, she feels ACM Designs is putting Haliburton County on the map as an interior design and decoration destination. The firm, launched in 2012, has grown in recent years, now boasting more than a dozen employees – including six dedicated designers.

With opportunities to expand their portfolios in Haliburton County, Marshall said ACM is offering people an opportunity to further their career without needing to relocate to a large urban hub.

This is the second consecutive year the County firm has scooped multiple DDA awards after winning three in 2023. They also garnered three prizes at the Peterborough and Kawartha Home Builders’ Association awards in February.

“The trophy shelf is very full at this point,” Marshall said.

When Linda Coneybeare first started in the travel business, she was a fresh-faced 21-year-old, working for then British Overseas Airways Corporation at Pearson Airport in Toronto in the 1970s.

“When I began, we didn’t have computers,” she recalled in a recent interview. “We literally weighed every bag and gave the measurements to the guys who figured out the weights and the positioning of the bags and the fuel. We hand-wrote the baggage tags.”

It was a big deal when they got their first computer – named Boudica, warrior queen of early Britian. “There was one person in charge of the thing that took up an entire room. It was a game-changer when it came to booking and issuing tickets.

“I used to hand-write my tickets. We had dial phones. Then came faxes. Now, email and scanning and instant communication around the world.”

In the mid-80s, Coneybeare loved her job but decided she loved her hometown of Haliburton more. Her father was ill at the time so she came home. Her dad died in 1985. Coneybeare got married, had children, and divorced.

She started working at a travel agency in Haliburton that “morphed from name to name to name, and, in 2001, just before 9/11, Transat bought a string of agencies including mine.” She has been working for the company ever since.

Her last day was Oct. 25. She said “wonderful” things are happening in her life. She is moving to Ottawa temporarily to help her fiancé there refresh his house to sell, and the two plan to move back to Haliburton County next year.

At 72, Coneybeare jokes, “I’m way past my retirement date.” It’s been quite a career, spanning 9/11, to COVID, and natural disasters.

“9/11 was horrific. There wasn’t much travel for anybody for a couple of months until things were sorted out. A lot of people left the industry. I kept on and business returned.” She had a client in the air that day who told her the pilot didn’t say anything as the plane landed in Halifax, on route to Toronto. She’s seen Come from Away and is “so proud of what Canada did that day.”

With the pandemic, she recalled having a customer on an around-the-world cruise and the boat trying to moor in Perth, Australia. However, the government was not allowing any more people into the country. Coneybeare had to get the client home. She was not keen on routing through the U.S. but got the client back via Vancouver and Toronto. “That was a long haul, and late nights, but it was my job and I was concerned.”

When there was a “terrible earthquake” in South America, resulting in tsunami warnings, she recalled having a client on a cruise from Buenos Aires around The Horn up to Valparaiso, Chile. Ports and airports were damaged and they were not sure how to get passengers home. There was even talk of busing over the Andes to Buenos Aries. It was suggested they turn the ship around and head back to Buenos Aires, which they did, without incident. It was another experience of calls to family members and late nights before getting the client safely home.

Coneybeare added, “COVID changed everything. When my office was closed, I didn’t think I’d be able to continue working. How could I work remote?” She soon mastered that art. Last year, she was one of the top-selling agents in Ontario and won a trip to France with Transat.

The biggest perk of her career is having been able to travel extensively and take her children, and now grandchildren, with her.

“Through the 90s, I travelled a lot with my children in Europe, the Normandy beaches, and going to Yorkshire where my grandmother was born.”

However, she said the industry “is just not that great anymore” with online bookings and discount airlines.

In addition, three years ago, Coneybeare had breast cancer. She is fine now but says “it was sort of a sign. I didn’t want to keep that pace anymore.” Her daughter’s family lives in Grimsby and her son’s family are local but spends six months of the year in Florida. Plus, says the travel lover, “I have books to read and things to do and I just felt it was time to start winding down.”

Asked what she’ll miss, Coneybeare says, “The clients I made happy. It’s all about the details and I’m good on details. Some of my clients I have been booking for 30 years.”

Linda’s top five travel destinations

1. Wadi Rum desert, Jordan – “You walk around and do a complete 360 degrees, and you don’t know what century you’re in. There’s nothing that will tell you.”

2. Iceland – “I stood over the open steam fissures and had the steam from the centre of the earth coming up and covering me.”

3. Scotland’s Orkney Islands – “5,000-yearold Norwegian standing stones you can touch and people don’t know why they’re there.”

4. A big pit coal mine in Cardiff, Wales – She had ancestors work there and, “I’ll never complain about my job again.”

5. Ireland – Ashford Castle, walking in the forest with a falconer – “I’m in Ireland with a falcon on my arm.”

Hitting a long stretch of ice while behind the wheel would be a rare white-knuckle experience for most drivers, but for Minden’s Jim Carrell that’s a regular Saturday come wintertime.

The recently-retired Kinsmen is one of the many faces behind the Minden Ice Races. Each year, volunteers transform the fairgrounds into a winding, frozen-over circuit that draws people from across North America. It’s one of the few “dry land” locations in the country, and the home of ice racing in Ontario.

With winter right around the corner, Carrell said excitement is starting to set in as he prepares for a 35th season of racing in the community. He said the Minden Kin Club has been building and maintaining the track for as long as racing has been coming to Minden.

“It’s the Canadian Automobile Sport Clubs (CASC) ice racing competition for Ontario region. They used to go community to community, but now Minden is the sole home. We have racing here for six weekends,” Carrell said, noting it’s been that way since the 1970s.

“Because of the costs involved and the effort it takes to get the track set up, it wouldn’t make sense for us to do this and have it be a one and done… it’s a great draw, we get people from as far away as Thunder Bay. Aside from snowmobiling, it’s probably one of the things people come to the County most for during winter,” he added.

Carrell, who owned and operated Minden Collision for decades before passing the business to his son, Jeff, this summer, has dabbled in racing for 30-plus years. He’s been racing in Minden for the past 20.

The adrenaline rush while sitting behind his wheel, waiting for the flag to drop, is unlike anything he’s experienced before.

“I’m smiling just thinking about it – I can’t wait to get back out there. Flying down the straight, heading into a turn, looking to your side and seeing one of your buddy’s right there with you, almost door-to-door, I can’t explain it. It’s so much fun,” Carrell said.

His chosen four-wheeled chariot is a 2009 Subaru Forester. The car cost him $500, a write-off for usual purposes, but perfect for ice racing. He estimates investing about $1,000 to get it race-ready, spending another $700 on a set of studded tires. All in, for $2,500, he gets months of excitement and entertainment.

“It doesn’t have to be an expensive hobby by any means – I’m five years in with this car now and running it yearto-year, it’s not a lot of money at all,” he said. “I’ve got to make sure the brakes are good, that the seatbelt is in working order, replace the oil – but aside from that, it’s good to go.”

Races are split into different classes depending on car specification – four-wheel, front-wheel, or rear-wheel drive – and type of tire, either street studs or standard winter rubbers. There are options to ride alone, or with a passenger – where you race as a pair and alternate the lead.

While it used to be the wild west in terms of what was allowed, there has been some new regulations recently. Because of the shorter winters and unpredictably warmer weather at times, CASC introduced limits on the types of studded tires that can be used. It’s important now, when the Kin Club gets the track in racing shape, that it not get ripped up every weekend by longer spikes, Carrell said.

“Last year we only got four weekends in, and that was with the new regulations,” he said.

The races attract about 60 drivers for a six weekend season, usually beginning in January. Carrell said the best resource for anyone wanting to get involved is the CASC website, where all the rules are posted as well as helpful tips and tricks.

When selecting a car, Carrell said make sure it’s not completely rusted underneath – due to the slippery nature of ice racing, collisions are frequent. “We don’t want cars falling apart because that’s when people get hurt.”

Most of the interior can be stripped away, save for the driver seat and seatbelt. Airbags must be taken out, Carrell said. Exterior lights on the front must come off too, while bumpers must be properly secured, and a rear-facing light installed so other drivers know where you are.

“That’s important, especially in the studded-tire class. Those cars throw snow in the air like nobody’s business. It’s like being in the worst blizzard you’ve ever seen,” Carrell said.

He’s been competitive on the circuit, winning a championship recently, but for Carrell ice racing is all about camaraderie and community.

“It’s like having a whole other family. I’ve made some lifelong friendships through racing. Everyone is competing for the checkered flag at the end, but there’s a lot of laughs away from the track when the race is over,” Carrell said.

For more information, visit casc.on.ca.

Percy, a baby porcupine, nibbles on Monika Melichar’s ear as the Woodlands Wildlife Sanctuary founder discusses the 2024 season to date at the Duck Lake Road rescue.

She’s also promoting their Bid Wild 4 Wildlife online Christmas auction, which begins Nov. 1 at 8 a.m. and runs to Nov. 10, at 8 p.m.

“We were successful in saving him,” Melichar says of Percy. “He got deathly sick on us three times, and each time we brought him through it.” Of course, that has come about as a result of staff and volunteer time, and money.

Inside the main complex is a red-tailed hawk they’ve been looking after.

He arrived “very dehydrated and starved,” Melichar says. The animals do not speak and cannot tell their stories but the wildlife advocate says, “a few days not being able to hunt and it’s a quick downhill spiral for them. He was down and out, and we brought him back, and now he’s on an upward spiral, which is great. We will be able to release him in time (to migrate) which is good news, they don’t fly far.”

At times, Melichar had to attend to the hawk every two hours. There was medicine and four live mice a day for food.

Then there’s one of five fawns, which had a fractured hind leg. It was sent to a wildlife vet in Caledon to have pins placed in its leg. Because the vet is a charity, WWS donated $2,000 towards the cost. There was the expense of strong antibiotics for six weeks. A bag of milk for fawns costs $130 and lasts a couple of weeks.

Melichar said they have taken in more than 750 animals already this year. Recently, there were 70 animals at WWS. They average 150 in the summer. “Overall, it’s been a little busier than last year,” she says.

Online auction

Melichar said they are raising money to put a carport-style roof over their existing complex at the rescue. It’s the main office but also the nursery and intensive care unit for animals. “We have all our critical and young animals in there… so we really need a safe place for them.” Now, she said the roof leaks during rain.

She said people can bid on more than 100 unique items donated by local artists and merchants, all starting at low bids. “Whether you’re looking for a special gift or a treat for yourself, there’s something for everyone,” she added.

Register at: new.biddingowl.com/WWS

For more information about the sanctuary, go to woodlandswildlifesanctuary.ca.