The Perth and District Community Foundation was proud to announce that the Perth and Smiths Falls District Hospital was the recent recipient of a $20,000 grant, made possible thanks in part to a donation received by the PDCF in 2008, which helped the foundation in putting up the town’s physician recruitment initiative.

The funds will be used in compensating for the money used in renovating the Medical Centre, a 6,000 square foot facility situated near the Great War Memorial site. The extensive construction project will result in a complex that’s designed for family physicians to work in. Once finished, the complex will also serve as a key bargaining chip in hiring new doctors and other medical personnel.

Todd Stepanuik, Perth and Smiths Falls District Hospital CEO, comments that the project is part of their commitment to serve the community. The renovation can also be considered as a major incentive for doctors who might want to consider working for the hospital. The recruitment of more doctors means that the community can benefit from the increased quality in healthcare.

The PDCF on the other hand, couldn’t be more excited with the grant and the initiative. Getting new doctors and getting them to practice here is essential to giving the community access to high-quality health services, this according to PDCF President Bob Leitch.

If you’re looking to switch gears and jumpstart your path to a new career, you just might be interested in a college program here in the Town of Perth that lets you do just that. The Perth Campus Algonquin College is offering spaces for its different programs which are now available to interested parties.

As of the moment, Personal Support Workers have plenty of great employment opportunities waiting for them. The one-year program usually ends with workers getting an annual salary of $35,000 and up. The great news about this field is that its expanding faster than it can get employees, which means that you’re more or less assured of a job right after graduating. The fact that Lanark County’s population is wintering also increases your chances of landing a job.

Graduates can expect to find employment opportunities at hospitals, care facilities, and different homes in the community where some are looking for in-home support.

In addition, Algonquin also boasts of an Ontario College Certificate, meaning that graduates who want to extend their career in health care get special recognition if they choose to join the Registered Practical Nurse program.

If you think health care is where your calling lies, go on right ahead and pay the Perth Campus Algonquin College a visit.

It used to be that visitors to Kara Clarke’s home got to walk on an actual sidewalk before getting there. Now they have to be more careful, as a pit close to the size of Clarke’s yard now occupies the path.

But that’s not the worst of it. Clarke’s home has been changed, with the roots of her trees damaged possibly beyond repair. Her bed of perennials which took over half a decade to grow were dug up and put back in crude fashion, while a makeshift gravel sidewalk now sits 2 meters away from her home, on a yard she thought was her own property. She later learned that the land belonged to the Town of Perth.

That’s how it is on Wilson Street, which is being affected by the town’s largest construction project, aimed at improving the infrastructure of the street, both under and over the ground. The project will include an overhaul of the street’s sewage and water pipes, as well as a redesign of the road and its adjacent sidewalks.

The project was originally scheduled for completion in 3 years, but must now be finished by March 2011 to avail of government funding.

And while Clarke knows that the project will be a great help in the long run, she and her fellow residents, as well as those who own businesses along the street, are still being affected by the construction. For now, they’ll to tough it out until next year.

Come celebrate the 143rd anniversary of Confederation on Thursday, July 1st at Conlon Farm Recreation Complex in Perth! The fun begins at 4pm with registration for the Classic Kids’ Games sponsored by the Kiwanis Club of Perth, at the soccer fields. Games include kite flying (bring your own or we can supply one for you); bicycle parade (prize for best decorated bike for youth); foot races; egg toss; shoe toss and ribbons for the winners. Council will host their annual BBQ Special from 5-8pm outside the Chalet. You can purchase a hotdog and drink for only $2, or a hamburger and a drink for only $4.

Music starts at the mainstage at 6:30 with our special guest MC, Brian Perkin of LAKE 88.1 FM. The evening musical line-up includes: Christine Graves (contemporary/roots); Along the Lines (road music); Beautiful Inferno (alternative rock) and Tell Mama (jazz/blues/folk & funk). Serving of Free Canada Day Cake will be announced from the stage at approximately 8:15pm. At 9:40pm the Town Crier will make his annual Canada Day Proclamation, following by remarks on behalf of Council by Deputy Mayor John Gemmill. Joel LeBlanc will then lead the crowd in singing the National Anthem, and fireworks will follow at 10pm sharp.

Come early and get your spot on the hill for great viewing of the fireworks! Thanks to all our sponsors and volunteers who work so hard to make this a great fun-filled, family event each year, including: the Kiwanis Club of Perth, Joel LeBlanc, Barnabe’s Your Independent Grocer, Jade Transportation, the Department of Canadian Heritage and the Perth Volunteer Fire Fighters’ Association.

Conlon Farm Recreation Complex is located  at the junction of Conlon and Smith Drive in the Town of Perth.

The mix of an elf packing a magic sword, a wicked sorcerer, and a bunch of magical creatures may be a played out version of Lord of the Rings, but Spellfury stands out not just for its popularity, but because the internet live action series is created right here in the Town of Perth.

Coming from the wild imagination of Perth resident Travis Gordon, who directs, writes, and edits the series, Spellfury is a web-series approaching its 12^th “webisode” to complete its first season. The web show is released every 45 days on a number of platforms, with YouTube and iTunes getting the biggest audience share.

Gordon says that despite having a wide gap of 45 days between episodes, Spellfury is always in the stages of pre-production, production, and post-production, sometimes even at the same time. The Perth native is so busy that his apartment has now been overrun by props, lights, costumes, and other equipment.

Gordon and his fellow Perth resident Jason Devlin, who produces the show, both drew inspiration from the action flicks they saw when they were young students. From there, they had the idea of putting up their own production company to make their own films. The two then went to college and learned how to do just that.

Everyone in Perth Ontario was sure to feel the shaking from the earthquake that hit regions from Ottawa all the way to New Hampshire. The magnitude-5.0 earthquake struck at the Ontario-Quebec border region of Canada on Wednesday (June 23) at around 1:41pm.

The midday quake was felt in Canada and in a number of U.S. states, including Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Vermont, New Hampshire, New Jersey and New York.

The USGS said the quake occurred at a depth of about 12 miles (19.2 kilometers). The agency initially said the quake had a 5.5 magnitude, but later reduced it to a magnitude-5.0.

We hope everyone is not too shook up! Here are two videos we came across showing some of the quake.

Click on the link below to view a reporter in her studio feel the shake
Ontario Earthquake Video

Three Ottawa public schools sustained minor damage according to the Ottawa-Carleton District School Board.

At W.E. Gowling Public School, some exterior brick work has come off the building, while at Hilson Avenue Public School there has been some internal ceiling damage, said Lyall Thomson, the board’s director of education. He confirmed there has also been damage at Bell High School, but couldn’t say exactly what it is yet.

Read more: www.ottawacitizen.com/news/school+damaged+quake/3192302/story.html#ixzz0ri7ff3UD

Buddhist monk Ajahn Sumedho was recently in town to speak about his religion, Buddhism. He was a guest speaker at a talk held in Perth & District Collegiate Institute’s Auditorium on June 6, and from the number of occupied seats, it’s apparent that the people from the Town of Perth were quite interested in what he had to share.

Sumedho has been a Buddhist for over 4 decades, serving today as Abbot to the Amaravati Buddhist Monastery, which is based in England. He’s currently a special guest of the Tisarana Monastery, located a few miles away from Perth.

Buddhism traces its origins in India, where the religion was born more than two and a half millennia ago. The religion has undoubtedly grown by leaps and bounds, and is practiced by more than 300 million people from all over the world. Unlike other monotheist religions however, Buddha is not viewed as a god. Buddha himself never claimed to be a deity, though he is revered by Buddhists nonetheless.

Although Buddhism is one of the world’s big religions, its rise in the West only began recently.

Sumedho shares that Buddhism, translated to English, literally means “awakened consciousness,” a state of being that transcends the realities of this world.

Last Friday, Foodsmiths was proud to present the proceeds gathered from its 9^th Empty Bowls fundraiser to Empty Bowls and the other partner charity groups. The annual campaign was started last month on the 17^th.

In spite of the disagreeable weather, approximately 250 bowls and 14 large containers of stew were served, effectively raising over $5,000 in the process. Empty Bowls also had the pleasure of being the recipient of  the  Foodsmiths BYOB – Charity Bag Donation program in April. The program was aimed at encouraging the community to recycle grocery bags  and to secure a source of funds which would go to Perth’s different charitable programs. Every bag a customer would re-use saved the cost of using a new bag. Foodsmiths also donated 10 cents to a chosen charity for every bag brought in by customers.

And it seems like the community really came together on this one. Foodsmiths’ customers used a total of 6,056 “old” bags – an equivalent of $605.60. That brings the total amount of money raised to $5,685.60.

The proceeds raised from this effort will be donated to food programs under the oversight of Perth and District Food Bank, as well as other food programs in the region.

A group of retired women from Perth are giving back to the community, and they’re pulling it off by turning their hobby into something productive.

The Community Caring Quilters, an organization composed of women from all over Perth, first got involved in charity roughly 3 years ago when one of their members put together a campaign dubbed “Quilts for Katrina,” a local drive aimed at helping the victims of the hurricane that devastated communities living along the gulf coast.

Ruth Oblinski, the woman behind the endeavour, would forever remember the warm feelings she and her friends had by helping those in the south. From then on, they’ve tried to help any charity they’d come across.

In one of their more recent drives, the group of quilters partnered with “Connections,” a program that helps families in need in Lanark County. Connections provides support to numerous families all over the county, giving them food, clothes, and other basic necessities.

The quilters donated hand-made quilts to these families, which were custom-made and had names of the children they were given to.

The Community Caring Quilters is made up of 20 members, and they hope that other women, and men for that matter, follow their example and help the community in any way they can.