While the Winter Olympics in Vancouver showcase the very best winter athletes in the world today, the event is also giving the Ontario House pavilion an opportunity to draw in crowds.

With the Olympics in full gear, Bright Ideas provides visitors and tourists the “power” to actually control light displays scattered across the country. But they’re not using switches or whatnot to control the lights – instead, they’re using their thoughts.

Equipped with a state-of-the art headset that analyzes brain waves and signals, visitors have the ability to control light displays in three different landmarks in Ontario, namely the CN Tower, Parliament Hill, and Niagara Falls. In addition, users get to turn the lights on and off in real time.

According to Jackie Simkin, an Oshawa native and Bright Ideas’ project manager, everybody who has paid them a visit to try the headsets out have loved the experience. The lineups have been amazing she said.

Indeed, Ontario House has been this jam packed only a handful of times.

Simkin is currently at the Games, and she’s been working on the project since September of 2009. With her experience in advanced technology—she spent 25 years with Nortel and presently works a teacher to gaming students at UOIT—she was more than a good candidate for the position.

If you’re from the Oshawa area and have an eye and gift for drawing and arts, then here’s a contest that might pique your interest.

The City of Oshawa Public Libraries is encouraging teens in the community to let their creativity be known to others and share their talent. Officials from the OPL are looking for young visual artists, inviting them to pass any work of art—as long as it is original of course—as an entry to the 2010 Express Yourself Teen Art Contest, which is held yearly in Oshawa.

The Oshawa Public Libraries is calling out to teenagers from the 7^th to 12^th Grade to join the contest. The only requirement is to be from Oshawa, and to have an original work of art.

The entries will be separated into 2 categories, one from Grades 7 to 9, and the other from 10 to 12. Professionals and experts will be judging the contest, with the winners getting the opportunity to be recognized at this year’s Literary and Art Festival, which is taking place in May.

Interested teens can drop their entries off at any OPL branch until the 1^st of May.

Spread the word and join in on this fun event!

If you love music, and are in the Oshawa area a few weeks from now, then you might be interested in a concert taking place in the City of Oshawa later this month that will have a slight French flavor to it.

A Musical Winterlude, a winter concert by the Durham Philharmonic Choir, will be featuring music arranged and created by French composers. But the biggest moment of the night will be a rendition of Charles Gounod’s Mass of St. Cecilia for soloists, choir, and orchestra.

The evening’s soloists will be Giles Tomkins and Mary-Ruth Roadhouse, both natives from the Durham Region, and Martin Hautman from Toronto.

Meanwhile, Joanne Averill-Rocha on flute, and Kristen Theriault on harp, will be doing French secular instrumental music during the event.

And finally, renowned conductor Robert Phillips will be at the helm during this grand performance.

A Musical Winterlude, will be held this coming 21^st of February, 3 in the afternoon, at the St. George’s Anglican Church in Oshawa. You can score your tickets in advance for only $20, while tickets sold at the venue itself will be priced at $25. Tickets are sold at the

For more details and information on A Musical Winterlude, you can log on to www.durhamphilharmonic.ca.

Intermediate students from Pierre Elliott Trudeau Public School in Oshawa put their pencils and notebooks to rest and ditched class for an important cause on the 29^th of January.

Over 150 students from the 6^th to the 8^th grade each shelled out $3 to leave class and head to the school’s gymnasium to dance for Haiti. The fundraising event was organized to collect funds as well as donations for the Caribbean nation that was struck by a 7.0 magnitude earthquake on January 12.

Officials estimate the damages to be worth billions, and over 150,000 lives have been lost to the cataclysmic tragedy.

8^th Grade student Jeremy Mathews commented that it’s heartbreaking to see the effects of the earthquake. With Haiti’s motto “Union Makes Strength”, he and his friends thought it would only be right to bring everyone in the school together to raise money for those left with virtually nothing.

While the school in Oshawa has hosted dances numerous times in the past, this by far is the first time they’ve organized one for a cause.

The Oshawa elementary school has hosted dances in the past but this is the first to raise money.

A separated event dubbed “Hugs for Haiti” involved students who are too young to join the dance.