Two Island food banks receive gracious donation

By Bo Ford

The Charlottetown and Summerside food banks received a donation today when the Agriculture Union of P.E.I donated a combined 700lbs of meat to both organizations.

This is the fifth year in a row the union has made the donation to the food banks. The union came together as other years and purchased a steer at the local Eater Beef Show in Charlottetown.

Llyod Kerry is the secretary-treasure for the Agriculture Union said the project was first started to get some industry support.

“We decided to do a project which would support the local industry and we decided to purchase an animal at the Easter Beef Show.”

Kerry explained the original idea was to purchase the steer and package the meat and have it auctioned off to the member and donate the money.

“We thought it was a full circle way of doing things. We decided to just donate the meat directly to the food banks. Half to the Charlottetown location and the other half to Summerside.”

The money for purchasing the steer comes from the Agriculture Union and its members, along with money from the Public Service Alliance.

Kerry said the number one goal for them is giving back to people, plus the ability to help out the Agriculture industry.

“Not only to help out the industry, but we are also helping out people on the Island too.”

The meat has been divided in half and donated accordingly with about 350 lbs going to each food bank.

Transformer statue almost complete

By Bo Ford

It has been almost two year since the statue of Optimus Prime was started, but now with the structure standing at 11 feet, it only needs a few more finishing touches.

Chris Ruprecht, started the project as a Halloween costume and he quickly turned it into a process which has taken him about two years to complete.

What started out as a cardboard costume has turned into an 11-foot wooden metal transforming Transformer, and now is about 75 per cent finished.

The Prime statue is as realistic as you can find anywhere. Ruprecht said he has seen a few others but none as realistic as his.

“The arms are fully functional. He has blue LED lights for his eyes, he actually transformers into a semi truck.”

Prime is known as the leader of the Autobots in the franchise series Transformers. He is depicted as a brave powerful, wise and compassionate leader, using his talent to improve the universe.

Ruprecht said he wanted it to be as close to the real thing as he could get it. As for its value Ruprecht said it will have some value for the right person.

“For the right person it will have value, to me I know how much money I put into it and my time.”

The 31-year-old grew up with Transformers and was always into building things, and it sparked his interest to build Prime.

“Every kid likes a car or truck, and this was like a puzzle. I figured why not build a big puzzle for myself, I liked to be challenged,” said Ruprecht.

Ruprecht said he only used a limited amount of tools, drill press, handsaw, jigsaw and a vice. With Prime almost finished his plan is to build another Transformer.

“I’m not sure which one, but it’s all going to be scaled to the size of Prime, compared to the other characters.”

Ruptecht one day plans to show his collection of statues to the public but until then he hopes to rent them out to people.

“I’d like to rent them out to kids parties, or charities or something like that.”

Curl for Wishes take the ice

By Bo Ford

The 2012 Vogue Optical Curl for Wishes for the Children’s Wish Foundation is set to go again this weekend in Charlottetown with 30 teams ready to take to the ice

The event starts up on Thursday evening with a meet and greet at Hunter Ale House with the tournament kicking off Friday at 2 p.m at the Charlottetown Curling Club.

The tournament pairs celebrity skips up with the registered teams of businesses from around P.E.I., something Fundraising Coordinator for the Children’s Wish Foundation Jason MacLean said really adds to the event for businesses to try out a sport.

“It’s a nice way for businesses to get involved. Most enjoy the aspect that they are paired up with a celebrity skip, it’s almost like having a coach for the weekend.”

MacLean said when the event was first created it was more of a high end curling event, but has since evolved into more of a social event.

“It’s for curlers to come out and participate and give back but also for the businesses to come out.”

Kim Schneider, who played third for team Canada this past year at the winning a silver medal at the World Curling Championships will be on the Island to skip one of the 30 teams.

Steve Howard, of New Brunswick is the son of former Brier and World Champion, Russ Howard, will also skip a team.

As well local talent Suzanne Birt, who took home a bronze medal from the 2003 Scotties in Kitchener, and youngster Brett Gallant, winning a silver medal at the 2009 World Junior Championships in Vancouver will put forth their knowledge with the team that chooses their talents.

The Vogue Optical Curl for Wishes raises money for wishes to be granted on P.E.I.

“The money raised goes to grant one, if not two wishes on P.E.I. We are currently working on eight right now,” said MacLean.

MacLean said without the help of its many sponsors the jammed packed event would not be possible.

“Hunters provides us with the food for the two days and the Charlottetown Curling Club provides us with the facility to do it, without help from people like that this couldn’t happen and be the success it is.”

Saturday night there will be a draw to the button for a new 2012 Ford Fusion titanium car. After an elimination process the four remaining players will move onto the ice and attempt to win the new vehicle.

The event closes with a live show from Muddy Buddy in the lounge at the curling club.

Cornwall girl wins puppy naming contest

By Bo Ford

Ten lucky winners from ten different provinces have been announced as the winners on the RCMP Name the Puppy Contest.

One of those winners is six-year-old Elyse DeCourcey of Cornwall. She sent the name Edda for her choice, which means vigorous in German.

 The contest asked Canadian children under 16 to send in names for ten new puppies at the RCMP Police Dog Service Training Centre, there were two rules for the contest, the name must start with the letter “E” and could only be one or two syllables. Among some of the other puppy winning names are Ephriam, Elek and Enoch.

Decourcey’s mother Rachel said her daughter was excited to find out her entry was selected as one of the winners.

“She was excited, a bit surprised. Her face lit up with a big smile.”

The family found out about the contest through one of Rachel’s home schooling friends on Facebook, from there the family worked together and made a list of names and between the three children they each picked a name.

The family was notified at the end of March that Elyse’s entry was chosen as a winner, not only did she win the contest but was given bragging rights in the family.

“Her little brother was not very happy, but her older sister was excited for her, a win for her is a win for the family,” said Rachel.

Rachel also said the family couldn’t be more excited for her in winning the contest.

For winning the contest Elyse will receive an 8 x 10-inch photograph of her officially named puppy, and RCMP ball cap, a plush dog named Justice and a certificate.

“We will receive the picture of the puppy when they get a bit older,” said Rachel.

The RCMP was pleased with the hundreds of names they received from Canadians all over the country and would like to extend a Thank-you to everyone who participated.

These ten dogs will now go under training and potentially become service dogs around the country. RCMP police service dogs are an integral part of front line policing.

A rare find

Blank coin found in Charlottetown

Bo Ford

April 9, 2012

Every morning most Islanders drive through their local coffee shop to pick up their morning coffee and receive a hand full of change after purchasing their items.

In 2007, Frank Murphy had purchased a coffee at Robin’s and received his change. In his change, he noticed something a little different, one of the quarters was missing most of its lettering on one side.

Seeing the coin made Murphy very curious and he decided to try and find out if the coin had any rarity or if there was any added value.

“I’ve asked around, not many people have seen one before, I’m trying to find out some information on it.”

The quarter is missing the caribou in the centre but still has the writing around the outside of the coin.

Five years later Murphy has been searching to see if he can find someone else with the same rare coin.

“ I’ve been looking around to see if anyone has picked one up before, I did find one in Nova Scotia.”

Murphy has also contacted the Royal Canadian Mint to see if they have heard of this coin before.  The mint didn’t have anything on the coin and has made Murphy’s search a continuing one.

One of the people Murphy showed it to say it looks like someone buffed out the centre of the coin. Murphy said it wouldn’t be possible.

“It couldn’t have been buffed, it doesn’t have any marks on it in the centre,” said Murphy.

Murphy has also looked into the value of the coin, with not much success.

One English school board to be introduced by Island government

The two English school boards will be amalgamated into one before the end of the end of the current legislative session, the P.E.I. government announced today.

The announcement came during the Speech from the Throne this afternoon at Province House in Charlottetown.

Lieutenant Governor Frank Lewis delivered the speech and said the learning of Island students is important to growth on P.E.I.

“Learning is the key to social and economic growth. It is a process that is nurtured at a very young age.”

Finance Minister Wes Sheridan said it is a very exciting move towards education on the Island.

“All of our educational effort is making the very best decisions for Island students. We want to insure the very best of what we provide inside the education system.”

Sheridan said with the amalgamation of the two school boards the government will be able to save around $1.4 million, but that isn’t the only reason for the move.

“It’s very important not only for the money saving but we can create a much easier, more transparent way to deliver very important curriculum to our students.”

The consolidation will give the ability to make great efficiency and decision-making, said Sheridan.

“Taking all that is good in the two old school boards and directing it into one true effort that will continue to push our education ideals forward and that is what is important.”

Other education initiatives in the speech included increasing the George Coles Bursary, maintaining student-teacher ratios and investing in educational infrastructure.

The government will also setup a new common assessment for all Grade 12 students and will adopt more than 30 recommendations from the new Education Governance Commission.

Minimum wage increases on P.E.I.

Minimum wage workers are struggling to make ends meet even after the third minimum wage increase in the past year.

Island workers making minimum wage will now make $10 an hour up from the previous $9.60.

Government announced in February 2011 the minimum wage would increase in stages and be complete by April 1, 2012.

Alanna Young, a first-year Arts student at UPEI, works as a receptionist at the Spa Total Fitness Centre in Charlottetown. She  said the increase is nice but it still will not make much of a difference.

“It’s nice to have an increase. It gives a brighter look for the future but at the same time the 30 cents an hour won’t make that much of a difference for me.”

Young said she would like to see the government try and do a little more for university students.

“I know they give a us scholarships, but it isn’t enough. If they could do a little more for us it would be great.”

Matt MacEachern of Stratford said with the recent increase in minimum wage and the cost of everything going up he doesn’t know if his company M&M Lawn Care will be able to keep the same number of staff on.

“The price of everything is going up, and now the increase in pay for my workers, I just don’t know if I’ll be able to keep everyone around.”

An increase in gas prices also means MacEachern will have to increase his prices for the grass-cutting aspect of his business.

“I’ll have to up my prices a little bit and just hope I can keep my customers from last year, and maybe add a few new contracts.”