The Orleans Star March 14, 2024

VanLife couple make mid-winter Prairie crossing

(Tori Dark and Kevin Nault have embarked on a trip across Canada aboard their converted camper van. In doing so, they are joining hundreds of other people who have taken up what is referred to in the culture as “VanLife”. During their trip, the Orléans Star will publish a series of diary pieces from Tori allowing readers to follow their journey. This is the 10th installment in that series.)

Driving across the Canadian Prairies I felt equal amounts of Canadian pride and…well… boredom. I hate to say it, but it’s true! The landscape is vast and everrolling, but at the same time, there isn’t much to stop and experience in early February.

Despite it being deep winter, the hills were a glowing gold from the leftover canola crop in the fields. Although we were expecting blankets of beautiful snow, we were pleasantly surprised by a full sky of sun and warm 15°C weather.

Making the most worrisome part of the drive breeze!

My partner Kevin and I had decided to pass by Winnipeg as we were just there last summer for my cousin’s wedding. We were lucky enough to stay in The Forks, a wellestablished neighbourhood for tourists with restaurants, shops and home to the Canadian Museum for Human Rights along the beautiful Red River (which is red!).

With such great memories, we decided to take the bypass around the city to keep moving towards Regina. We continued across Manitoba and arrived in Saskatchewan in no time!

I swear the drive to Toronto is longer than driving across all of Manitoba and half of Saskatchewan. We spent the night at a trailhead parking lot overlooking White Butte Park. The golden sunset met the horizon for as far as the eye could see – something neither of us has experienced before.

Luckily for us, my Uncle John lives in Regina and was more than happy to supply us with water for our water tank, laundry and hot meals.

It was nice to take a bit of time away from driving and relax. I had never been to Regina before, so we decided to accompany my Aunt Cathy and her two dogs Anika and Remy, to a barn-hunt agility class. Something I can almost guarantee does not occur in Orléans.

This unique form of agility challenges small breed dogs, such as miniature schnauzers like Anika, to find caged rats amongst a sea of hay bales. Yup, you heard me right. They are pet rats placed into camouflage tubes with breathing holes, hidden in the cracks of stacked hay bales. The event is timed and the contestants have to find all 4 rats as fast as they can. Did I feel bad for the rats? Absolutely! Did Anika and Remy find the rats? Technically yes, but at

a leisurely pace. I had a great time spending time with my Aunt Cathy while experiencing an authentic Saskatchewan experience.

As much as this was something I was looking forward to, we are so close to our destination of Canmore, Alberta, I can almost taste it. Eight more hours until we

reach the mountains and we can begin the vanlife dream for real. Stay tuned for scenes from our next adventure!

(You can follow Tori and Kevin at instagram.com/vanxiety_life/. Tori and Kevin are both former students at Cairine Wilson Secondary School, Class of 2012.)

Bradley Estate residents have been waiting 10 long years to end the steady flow of traffic along Renaud Road which has created noise, pollution and safety problems.

Thankfully, their wait will soon be over following an agreement between the City and the NCC to realign Renaud Road in such away as to create a bypass between Navan Road at Brian Coburn Boulevard and the western part of Renaud Road east of Anderson Road.

As a result, Renaud Road will be decommissioned from Percifor Way/Joshua Street to the new road, including the dangerous 90-degree turns. It also means that the PrescottRussell Trail will no longer be dissected by

Renaud Road.

NCC agrees to Renaud Road realignment

The news is a huge victory for the residents of Bradley Estates. The only issues remaining to be resolved is when construction will be begin on the realignment and how long will it take.

The debate over Renaud Road dates back 10 years and more to the earliest days of the Bradley Estates sub-division. It came to a head during the 2014 municipal election and remained a major issue through the 2018 election. During that time, the City and the NCC were at an impasse with each blaming the other for a lack of movement.

It has only been since 2022 with the election of Mayor Mark Sutcliffe and the ward boundary

COMMUNITY BRIEFS

LRT East Extension train testing begins

ORLÉANS – The LRT east extension from Blair Road to Trim Road has entered an important new phase with the start of testing both the trains and track. Testing began on Feb. 26 with the train traveling at walking speed between the Blair Road station and Montreal Road escorted by staff on foot to verify the interface between the train and the overhead power lines while the train was in motion. Additional testing between Blair Station and Montréal Station is anticipated later this month as crews continue to test and validate the system. Testing of the signal and train control system is expected to start this spring, after which residents will see regular, slow-speed testing of trains on the line all the way to Trim Road. At the same time, work will continue on the stations at Montreal Road, Jeanne d’Arc Blvd., Orléans Blvd., Place d’Orléans and Trim Road. The East Extension is expected tp be operational this fall. To stay informed of the LRT Extension progress, follow OC Transpo on Instagram, or visit the project website at www.octranspo.com/en/o-train-extension.

Arteast Awards Exhibition unveiled at St-Laurent Complex

ORLÉANS – The public is invited to view the annual Arteast Awards Exhibition from March 12 to May 31. The awards ceremony of the show will take place on Sunday, March 19 from 2 to 4 p.m. at the St. Laurent Complex, 525 Coté St in Ottawa. Admission is free. Arteast members were encouraged to submit their best two- and three-dimensional work to this annual awards exhibition. The works on display are representative of the insightful, imaginative, and original visual art that Arteast members create. Awards will be presented for the highest-scoring works of art in various categories in addition to Juror’s Choice Awards and the Arteast Award of Excellence. Arteast is a highly active, not-for-profit visual arts organization serving Eastern Ontario. Membership in Arteast is open to artists, both amateur and professional, and all who enjoy and want to participate in the visual arts.

NCC agrees to Renaud Road realignment

Continued from page 1

adjustments that put the Bradley Estates in Orléans South-Navan Ward represented by Catherine Kitts, that movement on Renaud Road was finally made, culminating in the recent announcement.

“This project has been a personal mission of mine,” says Kitts. “This agreement will allow us to remove the two 90-degree bends on Renaud Road, where it crosses the Prescott-Russell Trail in two places, promoting greater safety for drivers and cyclists. It will also remove relentless traffic out of Bradley Estates and away from the Mer Bleue bog.

“This agreement is an important step forward on addressing our transportation challenges, but I continue to remain laserfocused and committed to leveraging this momentum to propel further advancements in Orléans South-Navan’s infrastructure. It’s only the beginning, but it’s a good start.”

Prior to the ward boundary adjustments, Orléans West-Innes councillor Laura Dudas also pushed to have Renaud Road realigned. Orléans South-Navan Ward city councillor Catherine Kitts made the Renaud Road realignment one of the central issues of her 2018 election campaign. FILE PHOTO

Orléans MP recognizes Leading Women, Leading Girls

The

Star

Orléans is blessed with a large number of women and girls who each and every day strive to make a difference in their community. On March 1, Orléans MP MarieFrance Lalonde held a breakfast and award ceremony to honour 38 of those women as part of this year’s Leading Women, Leading Girls Awards in recognition of International Women’s Day.

Among this year’s recipients were AKA Beauty Concepts owner Andrea Baird, Garneau volleyball coach Gabrielle Boeck, youth and women’s advocate Isobel Boyd, Béatrice-Desloges librarian Suzanne Lalonde, members of the French Catholic women’s organization des Filles d’Isabelle, uOGlobal ambassador Irene Xia Zhou, president of the Association canadienne des marocains d’Ottawa-Gatineau Najat Ghannou, educator and community leader Patrice Hall-Johnson, long-time Scout and Girl Guide leader Susan Diotte with over 25 years of service, philanthropist Tanvira Sultana, and Collège La Cité director Majda Taourou Talbi.

The common theme or thread that connected this year’s leading girls recipients

was volunteerism and selflessness. Many girls have volunteered hundreds of hours, both inside and outside their schools, to help make their community a better place to live.

Among the leading girls who received an award were Christina Nyentap and Madeline Matte from St. Matthew High School, Hibo Mohamed Omar, Maïssa Zemni and Ziham Abukar from École secondaire publique Gisèle-Lalonde, Suriya Lachance from École secondaire catholique BéatriceDesloges, and recent Orléans Outstanding Youth Award recipient Raina Smith from St. Peter School High School.

Other recipients include Roxanne CôtéCarrière, Abigaëlle Pinsonneault, Maunerica Milfort, Bridget Dandenault, Elizabeth Bengle, Diyyinah Jamora, Barbara Daniela Gandolfo, Faduma Wais, Mehjabin Salim Sohani, Michèle Holub, Sandra Baker Gregory, Sharifa Mohammadi and Natalie Beeston,

Lalonde used the award ceremony to talk about the importance of gender equality in Canada and around the world and to applaud the achievements of women and girls in Orléans.

“On International Women’s Day, let’s take a moment to reflect on the remarkable

Some of this year’s recipients of the Leading Women, Leading Girls awards gather for a group photo with Orléans MP Marie-France Lalonde (middle back row). PHOTO SUPPLIED

contributions of women, not just globally but right here in Orléans.

“Today is your day,” Lalonde told the recipients. “A day to recognize women’s outstanding achievements and contributions

– both big and small – that have helped shape

our community. Because of women like us, our country is changing for the better.”

The Orléans Leading Women, Leading Girls Awards take place every year with nominations accepted in December and January.

Andrea Baird

Abigaëlle Pinsonneault

Barbara Daniela Gandolfo

Bridget Dandenault

Christina Nyentap

Claire Borris

Claudette Burelle

Diyyinah Jamora

Dorothée Carisse

Elizabeth Bengle

Faduma Wais

Gabrielle Boeck

Hibo Mohamed Omar

Irene Xia Zhou

Isobel Boyd

Lise Labelle

Madeline Matte

Maïssa Zemni

Majda Taourou Talbi

Maunerica Milfort

Mehjabin Salim Sohani

Michèle Holub

Monique Marier

Najat Gnannou

Natalie Beeston

Nicole Laferrière

Patrice Hall-Johnson

Raina Smith

Reine Belleau

Roxanne Côté- Carrière

Sandra Baker Gregory

Sharifa Mohammadi

Suriya Lachance

Susan Diotte

Suzanne Lalonde

Tanvira Sultana

Yvette Pellerin

Ziham Abukar

Half a victory

Word that the City of Ottawa has reached an agreement with the NCC to realign Renaud Road between Navan Road and Anderson Road should come as great news to the residents of Bradley Estates, who have been asking for a bypass for more than 10 years. However, it does little to improve the capacity of the transportation situation between Orléans and the rest of Ottawa.

The City had been hoping that the NCC would also allow them to expand Renaud Road to four lanes to take some of the pressure off of Innes Road and the Blackburn Bypass, but that’s not going to happen, at least under the existing agreement, and likely will never happen. The NCC has been steadfast in its position to not allow any changes that would increase the level of traffic going through that portion of the Greenbelt.

The mere fact that it has agreed to realign Renaud Road to both eliminate the two 90-degree turns on the road and take the traffic away from Bradley Estates is a huge victory just in itself. Renaud Road West will now run from Innes Road at Brian Coburn Boulevard to its current location just beyond the second 90-degree turn.

The main reason the NCC agreed to the new alignment is the fact that it will take the existing road and traffic away from the Prescott-Russell Trail which currently crosses Renaud Road near the first 90-degree turn, which is closest to Bradley Estates.

This compromise will promote greater safety and the quality of life for both area residents and pathway users.

As for the rest of the residents in Orléans South and commuters using the Innes Road corridor, the NCC and the City will continue to explore ways to widen the Blackburn Bypass and/or create a bus-only lane or a dedicated Rapid Bus Transitway.

Along with the announcement to realign Renaud Road, the two sides have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to advance “transit priority measures” along the Blackburn Hamlet Bypass and Innes Road. The best way to do that is two add an extra two lanes – one in each direction – to the Bypass.

The extra lanes could either be used for cars or buses, depending on what your goal is. Using the extra lanes for cars would increase the likelihood of commuters taking their cars to points further west rather than opting for public transit. If you turn them into bus-only lanes, it would have the opposite effect, but it wouldn’t improve the congestion on Innes Road especially during the rush hour.

One thing is certain, something needs to be done and needs to be done soon and now that the issue of realigning Renaud Road is out of the way, perhaps the City and NCC can do just that.

Premier’s cynical appointment an assault on Ontario’s judiciary

The mask of Premier Ford’s hidden agenda continues to come off with his latest blunder of replacing our independent judicial system with a politicized one, much like the system used and abused south of the border.

In staying true to form of appointing friends, supporters and cronies, he recently appointed an unqualified, biased insider in Mathew Bondy, who was his former deputy chief of staff, to lead the panel that makes judicial recommendations.

To be clear: this has nothing to do with gun control, despite the government’s many attempts to muddy the opposition’s stance to messing with our legal system by resuscitating old arguments to distract Ontarians in the theatre of political debate.

As an Ontarian, the premier should be well aware of the similarity of this to a snowball rolling downhill into an avalanche – it’s a problem that only worsens. To this point, it also just so happens that this same former deputy chief of staff is also a gun lobbyist for Colt Canada, a subsidiary of the U.S. arms manufacturer Colt. How can we expect judges and JPs who will be tough on gun crime at bail hearings when the person recommending them for the job helps to sell guns?

Lest we forget that the public has already reprimanded this government for its series of cronyism attempts since first being elected that have

backfired: Greenbelt scandal, cushy created jobs like the $270k/year salary offered to Ford friend Ron Taverner to run the Ontario Cannabis Store, selling stag and doe tickets to companies doing business with the province, attempting to ac-credit an unqualified and racist person to open a university, etc.

As I said in the Legislature this week, this is like the government appointing a tobacco lobbyist to run Smoke-Free Ontario.

Police in Ontario reported 4,791 firearm violent crimes in 2022, more than 1,000 more than the previous year. Homicides by gun crime are at an alltime high. With a violent gun crime occurring every two hours in our province, why would Ontarians believe the Premier’s tough-on-crime message?

A trusted and bias-free judicial system is a fundamental cornerstone in any democratic society. Our legal system must ensure a fair application of the law and fair prosecution of persons charged with offences. Failing to do so, will breed powerful hidden agendas to serve their interests at the cost to you and me.

The Premier says he wants judges who will be tougher during bail hearings. On this, we can agree, which is why I worked with the government on bail reform last year. But once again, his penchant for rewarding friends at the cost of Ontarians makes it harder to trust him moving forward.

A Las Vegas primer for the uninitiated

In the last edition of the Orléans Star, I wrote about my recent trip to Las Vegas with Mike Pilon from Romantic Fireplaces and BBQs. Since then, I’ve received several e-mails from readers asking me for tips about the adult version of Disney World, so I thought I’d right a this primer.

My four-day trip to Vegas was the first time I had ever visited the city and my first impression was that it was a lot bigger than I had imagined.

For some reason, my idea of Vegas was limited to what is referred to as “Old Vegas” which is limited to five or six blocks along Freemont Street and includes casinos like the Golden Nugget, and the Four Queens. In reality, “Old Vegas” is just a small section on the north end of what is referred to as “The Strip”. “New Vegas” runs from the Mandalay Resort and Casino on the south end of Las Vegas Blvd. to the Sahara about 5.5 kms away as the crow flies. That’s a 90-minute walk if you’re feeling up to it and stick to the sidewalk along the strip.

You can also take the Las Vegas Monorail, which runs along east side of the Strip, but it has a limited number of stops.You would

Up Front

have to do a lot of walking through casinos to get to and from the monorail stations, which is by design. In fact, everything in Las Vegas is by design.

Walking is perhaps the best way to see Vegas and visit all the casinos, but it takes a while because of both the distance and the fact that you have to navigate through all the casinos, which is no easy task.

Most of the casinos on the strip are connected by elevated walkways with the need to occasionally go outside. For instance you can walk from the Mandalay Bay to the far end of New York, New York using two small bridges between the Luxor and Excalibur and Excalibur and New York, New York. Fortunately, there are a number of moving walkways along the way. Still,

you need to bring a decent pair of walking shoes with you.

First-timers will need a lot of extra time to get around, owing to the fact that you will become lost and confused when navigating through any of the casinos. Luckily, I had Mike as my guide which made things a heck of a lot easier.

The other advantage of walking through the casinos is that they are air conditioned, which becomes a necessity when visiting Vegas anytime between May and October when the outside temperature often rises above 35 degrees and sometimes tops 45 degrees in the summer.

Which brings me to another point: while Las Vegas is hot during most of the year, it’s downright chilly in the winter. We were there during the second week of February and it only got up to 12°C during the day and it went down to 3°C in the evening. Put any thoughts of sitting outside by the pool and enjoying a margarita between Dec. 1 and Feb. 28 completely out of your mind.

The other Las Vegas reality, is that it can be very, very expensive. Hotel rates along the Strip range from $200 a night to more

than $500 depending on the season, the room and the resort. The good restaurants are also extremely expensive as are most of the popular shows.

There are cheaper options, however. For instance the hotels around Freemont Street or off the Strip are often less expensive, especially if you book them through lasvegas.com which has all kinds of lastminute deals with discounts up to 50 per cent.

You can save a lot of money on meals too, if you stick to the food courts, or go to the restaurants in Old Vegas.

There are a number of cheaper options when it comes to the shows as well.

Which brings me to the gambling. The cheapest way to visit Vegas is to avoid any kind of gambling at all, especially the slot machines. If you do feel the need to gamble, establish a predetermined budget and stick to it. Otherwise, you could end up draining your bank account.

All in all, Las Vegas is a once-in-a-lifetime experience. I’m not sure if I’ll ever go back, but if I do, I will be armed with the type of knowledge that will make it easier on the wallet and just as enjoyable.

Transportation planning needs to focus on lived experience

I often talk about the challenges we are facing as a community when it comes to the rapid pace of development and slow progress of infrastructure improvements.

Recently, I was able to share a positive update about finding a path forward with the NCC on extending Brian Coburn Blvd. after a decades-long stalemate, but I feel we are only scratching the surface of untangling flawed transportation planning in Orléans South-Navan.

Far too often plans are put down on paper and then set on the shelf, failing to adapt to the realities in our communities and the experience of the residents who live in them. Post-pandemic shifts in work, life and travel patterns, especially in the suburbs, do not seem to be accounted for appropriately, with no plan to increase modal share in areas like Ward 19 beyond wishful thinking.

While the City likes to boast that we have a vision of 15-minute communities and walkable neighbourhoods, by and large it’s not what we’re seeing built in Orléans South.

One battle I have been waging lately is over the City’s approach to planning new schools in our communities. While I whole-heartedly welcome these additions, my office is constantly flooded by complaints about chaotic parking and unsafe traffic at pick up and drop off times.

I have proactively brought together stake-

holders, including the school board, city planners, and engineers, to address these issues head-on, but a disconnect between transportation planning standards and the lived experience in our communities persists.

It’s not just about inconveniences; it’s about planning complete and safe communities.

It’s time for a fundamental reassessment of our approach to transportation planning. We need creative, out-of-the-box solutions that are not just theoretically sound but practical and sustainable in real-life scenarios.

The status quo is no longer acceptable for planning transportation in our communities, and I will continue to champion change as we tackle this important issue.

Renaud realignment the first step to fixing the bigger picture

The recent announcement of the realignment of Renaud Road and the short extension of Brian Coburn Boulevard is a welcome, if not overdue one.

Some have noticed that I was not in attendance at the event, and I wouldn’t read too much into it, as I was dropping my daughters off at school and meeting with the Paramedic Chief to discuss, among other things, the excellent work they are doing working with hospitals, the support they need to help better address the ongoing opioid and mental health crisis and the ways they are working to fill the gaps in homecare left by our healthcare system and lack of primary care physicians.

medical crisis on to Innes Road, or worse, the 174 and Montréal Road.

This step in the right direction, while supported by all local representatives, is largely due to the tireless advocacy of my east end colleague Catherine Kitts, who certainly deserves the accolades for pushing this over the finish line.

We did discuss how we really do need to see this extension through to the end, however. Creating a second way to get to Hwy 417 via the Walkley or Hunt Club interchanges through a fully-extended Brian Coburn Boulevard would open up faster routes to the Ottawa Hospital, the Montfort, and CHEO, rather than forcing those in

We must now focus our efforts on convincing the incredibly slow and stubborn NCC to continue swapping land with the City so that we can animate the moribund Chapel Hill park-and-ride, create a Bus Rapid Transit corridor along Innes Road, and make further development in Orléans South viable so that more housing supply can be built to address current and ongoing pressures.

We must continue to ensure we have the infrastructure and services to meet the demand of new development. Failure to do so will leave us perpetually catching up while announcing projects that should have been completed more than a decade ago.

Fallingbrook woman completes 40,320

The Orléans Star

Orléans resident and Disney fan Janet Hart has completed one of the largest commercial puzzles in the world.

The Ravensburger Disney Moments Puzzle has 40,320 pieces and is ranked as the third largest puzzle in the world. The next two largest puzzles are 42,000 and 60,000 pieces respectively.

The puzzle, which depicts hand-drawn scenes from 10 different Disney movies, measures 22 feet by six feet when completed.

According to Ravensburger, it should take the average person about 600 hours to complete the puzzle. The record is held by a Belleville woman who managed to put it together in 150 hours during the pandemic.

Hart never kept track of how many hours it took her to accomplish the task, but she started more than 14 months ago working on the puzzle in her spare time after she received it as a Christmas gift from her children.

She did most of the work on her dining room table one section at a time. She then brought each section down to her basement where she assembled the puzzle sections on the floor.

puzzle

While assembling the section of the puzzle depicting a scene from Snow White and the Seven Dwarves, Hart noticed that a piece was missing. She sent a picture showing where the piece was missing to Ravensburger and they sent her the missing piece from Germany. She also found two extra pieces which were duplicates of an existing piece.

Hart has been building puzzles since she was a little girl. Prior to starting on the Ravensburger puzzle, she did a 1,000-piece puzzle once a month.

“It’s very calming,” says Hart in explaining the attraction of puzzle building. As for taking on the task of the world’s third biggest puzzle, Hart refers to her favourite

Walt Disney quote, “It’s kind of fun to do the impossible”.

Hart belongs to a group of puzzle builders in Orléans who often swap puzzles. She plans to mount the 40,320 piece 22x5 foot Disney puzzle on an upstairs wall which could prove even more difficult than building the puzzle in the first place.

Day: March 19th 2024 / 4:00 pm

Place: Forest Valley Terrace

1510 St Joseph Blvd, Orleans On (613)830-4000

Tickets at: https://dementiatalksfvt.eventbrite.ca

A series of educational events for sons, daughters, wives, husbands, friends, professionals, or anyone interested in learning more about dementia.

Session 1. An introductory conversation about the world of dementia, its risk factors and early warning signs.

in colaboration with:

New CEO takes over at Forest Valley Terrace

The Orléans Star

Forest Valley Terrace has a new CEO and his name is Eduardo Martinez.

Originally from Cancun Mexico, Martinez is the former executive director of the Teleton Foundation, which assists in rehabilitating children with physical disabilities in Cancun and the surrounding area.

As the man in charge, Martinez oversaw a staff of 90 employees and over 200 volunteers. In his final year with the foundation, they managed to rehabilitate more than 1,000 children.

Last summer, Martinez and his wife made the decision to move to Ottawa with their three children. His wife completed her Masters degree at the University of Laval in Québec City and his a sister lives in Toronto. He also has two brothers living in Canada, one in Montréal and one in Saskatchewan.

The couple chose Ottawa to live because of its central location and the quality of life it has to offer.

Shortly after arriving in Canada, Martinez

saw a job posting for the CEO position at Forest Valley Terrace, a Symphony Senior Living facility that specializes in taking care of residents with Alzheimer’s and other forms of dementia.

Although he had never worked in the retirement or senior care industry before, Martinez thought his experience in running a large social service foundation would be a good fit when it came to taking on the challenge of running Forest Valley.

He was also extremely impressed with the company and its owner and founder Lisa Brush, who he has met with several times.

“The company is run like a family. I was impressed with how everyone is very involved from the CEO to everyone on the staff. They’re very inclusive,” says Martinez.

In assuming the responsibilities of CEO, Martinez is taking over the reins from the outgoing CEO Glenese Francis Wright, who is now in charge of admissions for all the Symphony Senior Living communities in Ottawa.

Martinez has been focused on two key areas in his first few weeks at Forest Valley

Terrace. The first is to get to know his staff and look for areas where they can improve the service to their clients. And the second is to increase the number of clients who are living there.

Martinez plans to improve their marketing efforts over the coming weeks and months starting with a series of educational events called Dementia Talks. The first session is being held on March 19 at 4 p.m. The

event is free and includes a complimentary cocktail reception. Tickets are available at https://dementiatalksfvt.eventbrite.ca.

Of course, you can also book a one-onone session at Forrest Valley Terrace to learn more about the facility and how they can best care for your loved one living with dementia.

You can visit their website at www.forestvalleyterrace.com.

prominent parts in the band’s songs. School of Rock instructors are the best in the city and they follow a tested School of Rock method that incorporates the instruction and the students’ music book, along with an online app that will challenge and assist the student. With two rehearsal studios, six individual lesson rooms and all the gear, for those who may have never picked up an instrument

Rock is the right fit for your child is to enroll them in one of their Summer Camp programs.

This year the School of Rock is offering seven different one-week camps with themes like School’s Out – Songs of Summer, The Beatles!, and 80s Rock. For more info about the camps or to register, visit orleans.schoolofrock.com or call us at 613-841-8118.

Campers can expect an exciting and educational week of learning music taught by our talented camp instructors. Each day will consist of rehearsals, practice time & fun music-based games & activities. On Friday, campers will play and perform the songs they’ve been working on throughout the week! Our local music camps are perfect for musicians of any skill level who want to play guitar, bass, drums, keyboard and vocals.

The musical alter ego of local city councillor Matt Luloff

When Matt Luloff isn’t fulfilling his duties as a city councillor for Orléans EastCumberland Ward or as father of two young children, he’s pursuing his passion for music.

Before he got elected to city council and before he served in the Canadian military, the Afghan War veteran was the lead singer in a number of different bands based in Orléans.

As a young boy, Luloff sang in the choir at Good Shepherd Parish. When he was 15, a cousin asked him to sing lead vocals in a pop punk band called Federal Blue.

Around the same time, he decided to enter a music competition put on by the Algonquin College student radio station CKDJ. The group taped a song on a storebought tape recorder in the basement of Luloff’s parents’ home and sent it into the station. Much to their surprise, they made it to the finals at Barrymore’s playing in front of a packed house.

“I was 15 years old in Grade 8 and playing at Barrymore’s. They wrote big Xs on our hands because we were underage,” recalls Luloff. “It was insane – we thought we had made the big time.”

The band ended up placing second and won a day-long recording session in a local studio. Luloff, who wrote poetry throughout his teens, went to work writing 12 songs which ended up on the band’s first CD called “A Day in San Diego”.

“We printed 300 copies. It was pretty rough,” says Luloff.

Luloff sang with the band while he was a student at St. Matthew High School. During that time he learned how to play guitar by watching the band’s lead guitarist and learning the chord changes by sight.

His father bought him a second-hand guitar one Christmas and Luloff began a writing a bunch of new songs.

After high school, Luloff joined the Governor-General’s Footguards and eventually enlisted in the army. Throughout his basic training and his tour of duty in Afghanistan, his guitar was his constant companion, as was his notebook in which he jotted down ideas for new songs.

After he received a medical discharge in 2009, he kept writing as an outlet for his post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) which lead to the formation of Hearts&Mines, a play on the policy of meeting with village elders to win the hearts and minds of the

East

locals in Afghanistan.

The band played dozens of gigs in Ottawa and even toured along the 401 corridor. They also recorded four albums before breaking up in 2016 when Luloff was elected to city council.

Luloff played a solo acoustic set last May at the Stray Dog Brewing Company.

He has recorded three EPs since then in his basement studio and is putting the finishing touches on a fourth one which he expects to release in April. He sings, plays guitar and bass, and adds his own percussion beats on every track.

You can find a number of Luloff’s songs and Hearts&Mines tracks on Spotify.

Navan Grads in search of first CCHL championship

The Navan Grads are having the type of season most teams can only dream about. They are at the top of Central Canada Hockey League standings and are poised to make a deep run in the playoffs which they hope will end with their first ever CCHL championship.

During their 32 years at the Junior A level, the Grads have never made it to the finals, let alone win a title.

The closest they came was in 2002-2003 when they lost in the semi-finals. It’s also the only other time they finished the regular season in first place.

They finished in second place last year, but were upset in the quarter-finals by the Brockville Braves in a hotly contested seven game series.

If the want to go deep in the playoffs this year, they need their top offensive players to continue to produce at the same rate they’ve been scoring goals during the regular season.

As of last Saturday, team captain Gabriel Crête and Devon Savignac were second and fourth among the league’s leading pointgetters.

Créte had 24 goals and 48 assists in 50 games with five games left to play in the regular season and Savignac, who has committed to play at Concordia University Wisconson next year, had 33 goals and 31 assists in 49 games.

As a team, the Grads lead the league in goals for with no fewer than seven players having scored at least 15 times.

Defensively, the team has the secondbest goals against average in the league,

thanks mainly to the play of rookie goaltender Jaedan Nelson,who was leading the league in wins as of last Saturday and had the second best save percentage. He is also coming off a month in which he was named both rookie and player of the month.

Besides Savignac, two other players have also committed to play south of the border next year. Forward Cristobal Tola has committed top play Amherst College in

Amherst, Massachusetts, and Mathew Roy has committed to play at Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine.

The Grads will enter the playoffs next week as the number one seed and will likely play the Carleton Place Canadians in the first round.

To find out when the team’s first home playoff game is visit their website at www.navangrads.com, or follow them on Facebook at facebook.com/navangrads.

New

COMMUNITY BILLBOARD

FRIDAY, MARCH 15

ST. PRACTICE DAY PARTY

featuring the Fake McCoys

starting at 8 p.m. at the Royal Oak Orléans, 1981 St. Joseph Blvd. corner of Jeanne d’Arc Blvd. For more information, visit www.facebook.com/ RoyalOakPubsOrleans.

ORLEANS TENNIS CLUB

Spring Registration opens. Learn to play tennis in your neighbourhood with qualified instructors from the Orléans Tennis Club. A range of clinics available for kids and adults will be offered at municipal courts in Orléans and Cumberland. For info visit Orleanstennisclub.ca.

SATURDAY, MARCH 16

COMMUNITY KARAOKE

WITH CHINA DOLL at the Shenkman Arts Centre, This event will bring families together,

including the 2SLGBTQ community to embrace diversity, play and culture in a safe familyfriendly, community environment. For more information and tickets, go to shenkmanarts.com.

SUNDAY, MARCH 17

ST. PATRICK’S DAY PARTY

with Connor Fair and Derek Wilson at the Stray Dog Brewing Company, 501 Lacolle Way in the Taylor Creek Business Park. For more info, visit facebook.com/ StrayDogBrewing Company.

ST. PATRICK’S DAY PARTY

starting at 9 a.m. at the Royal Oak Orléans, 1981 St. Joseph Blvd. corner of Jeanne d’Arc Blvd.

LIVE music by Kinnexa Cross from 11am-3pm, The Shabraque Celtic Band from 4pm-7pm and Mason’s Apron from 8pm-12am. For more info, visit facebook. com/RoyalOakPubsOrleans.

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 20

THE ORLÉANS BREWING CO. presents Oyster Wednesdays every Wednesday from 6-9 pm. The Orléans Brewing Co. is located at 4380 Innes Rd. near the Innes Road McDonalds.

SATURDAY, MARCH 23

THE STRAY DOG BREWING

COMPANY presents Dylan Watts live from 7 p.m. at 501 Lacolle Way in the Taylor Creek Business Park. For more information visit facebook.com/ StrayDogBrewing Company.

SATURDAY, MARCH 23

THE STRAY DOG BREWING COMPANY presents Rory Taillon live from 7 p.m. at 501 Lacolle Way in the Taylor Creek Business Park. For more information, visit facebook.com/ StrayDogBrewing Company.

Emmet Carr, 93

Passed away on March 2, 2024

Evelyne Ramkishun, 93

Passed away on March 1, 2024

Pierre Benson, 78

Passed away on February 28, 2024