Pet owners worried about losing their furry friends were presented with an effective solution last weekend. The Thunder Bay and District Humane Society held its yearly Chip-a-thon on Saturday, drawing in over 30 pet owners from all across the city who had their pets implanted with a very small microchip.

The dot-sized chip carries personal information about the pet’s owner, helping them locate the animal easier in the occasion that they get lost. The only way the data on the chip can be read is through a special scanner used to pass over the cat or dog’s back, where the chip is injected.
The humane society normally offers the chip for $50 to $60, but for the annual event, sold it for only $35, with a percentage of the proceeds going to the humane society’s funds.

Thunder Bay and District Humane Society volunteer Sue Saretsky comments that the chip is much more convenient than regular pet licenses because the society can easily scan the dog or cat to know their name and who they belong to. She observed that more and more people are having their animals implanted with chips as the years go by.

The process of implanting the microchip is very safe and well tested, she said. The animals just yelp a bit, but after a scratch and a treat, they’ll forget it ever happened.

It’s that time of the year once again for high school prom season, and with the number of female students expected to buy dresses next month, one charity here in Thunder Bay is moving to help these young ladies get an opportunity to buy dresses for cheap.

The 2nd annual ‘Gowns with a Cause’ is a dress sale aimed at encouraging residents to donate their gently-used dresses of any color, style, and size. Those interested in helping out the cause can drop their donations at the Canada Games Complex, which serves as one of the many drop-off points scattered across the area.

The idea of hosting such an event was hatched by two women who realized that they had too many dresses that have only been worn once, stored in the closet permanently as the years passed by.

The charity’s goal is to collect gowns such as these, and sell them to teens so that they have something to wear to prom night, without having to pay that much money on something that’s going to be used only once anyway.

According to Kayla Kannegiesser, one of the charity’s organizers, the dresses will be sold at only $20 each. Aside from dresses, other items such as shoes and accessories will be up for sale, she said.

The past week was a busy one for the City of Thunder Bay’s Rotary Clubs, who spent hours packing boxes with books on Wednesday. The books will be sent to the Caribbean nations of Haiti and Jamaica in an effort to boost literacy in the two countries.

The Rotary Race to Literacy Book Drive Project is both a national and global campaign created to help promote literacy by collecting pre-used books and donating them to countries in need. The project is well on its way to breaking the existing world record for the most books donated to charity in 1 week.

The current record was established in California 2 years ago, with organizers donating a whopping total of 243,000 books collected in just 7 days. But according to Maria Hudolin, former Port Arthur Rotary president, breaking the current Guinness record is just an extra-goal. Helping those in Haiti and Jamaica learn to read is the focus of the project, she said.

In both countries, the lack of books and other reading materials for early education is a problem that’s often overlooked. The only way kids in these countries can learn how to read is if they receive help from the outside. This is especially a problem for Haiti, whose citizens are still trying to get back on their feet after a destructive earthquake devastated the country’s capital city of Port Au Prince in January.

Although the ash from last week’s volcanic eruption in Iceland is now making its way into Newfoundland’s airspace, the Thunder Bay Airport Authority isn’t worried about meeting the same problems that crippled incoming flights into Northwestern Ontario from Europe.

Ed Schmidtke, the airport’s manager of business development, predicts the ash clouds to dissipate before making it to the city. He’s confident that the airport’s departing and arriving flights will continue as scheduled, despite the number of affected airports in North America.

According to Katie Zuber, general manager for Mytravel Thunder Bay Travel, they’ve only received a few calls from stranded passengers in Europe. It’s a good thing that not many people are traveling overseas right now, she said.

Zuber added that it’s tough not being able to help stranded passengers because when it comes right down to it, there’s not much they can do when planes don’t leave the tarmac.

It’s worth noting that there aren’t that many people from Thunder Bay who leave the city during this time of the year. Those who do travel to Europe mainly do it to visit family and relatives. Zuber pointed out that flights usually peak around May and June.

Canadian officials are closely monitoring Iceland’s seismic activity for another possible eruption, one that could be more disastrous to air travel.

Due to the economic crisis that swept through North America and the rest of the globe, it comes as no surprise that the number of residents here in the City of Thunder Bay found to have been using food banks has risen noticeably over the past few years. In an effort to accommodate this increasing demand, students from Lakehead University are working on a project to do what they can and help.

Members of the university’s Students In Free Enterprise Team have sought the help of Quality Market and Saint John’s Ambulance in organizing their “Let’s Can Hunger Challenge”. The project, which is being sponsored by Campbell’s Soup, is aimed at filling at least one Saint John’s Ambulance full of canned goods and other non-perishable food items, which will then be donated to the Regional Food Distribution Association. According to the project’s team leader, Allison O’Shea, the support from shoppers at Quality Market has been nothing short of amazing.

All the collected food items will be distributed to the food banks in the region under the RFDA umbrella. You too can help out by collecting your own donations and dropping them at your nearest food bank.

Thousands of miles away from the grieving nation of Poland, hundreds of residents from the City of Thunder Bay came together on Thursday to pay their respects and mourn the country’s devastating loss of its most prominent leaders.

Over 300 residents and local government officials were present at an evening mass held at St. Casmir’s Church in Thunder Bay to pay respects to the 96 passengers and crew aboard Poland’s presidential plane that crashed near Smolensk, Russia, last weekend. All passengers were killed in the disaster.

On board were close to 50 percent of the nation’s top government officials, including Poland’s president, Lech Kaczyński, his wife, the Polish General Staff’s chief, and other high ranking military officials. Poland’s deputy foreign minister, 12 parliament officials, and other prominent figures in Poland’s government also perished during the crash.

It’s worth noting that the City of Thunder Bay has over 5,000 people who trace their ancestry to Poland.

The memorial service was organized by members of the Canadian Polish Congress, with the goal of helping locals cope with the tragedy. Attending the service were Mayor Lynn Peterson, councilor Joe Virderamo, and MPP Bill Mauro.

Thunder Bay is just one of the many cities across the globe who have come together to lend their support to the stunned country. The Polish President’s funeral will be held on Saturday.

As part of a project to spread some care and love in the city, students from a local university recently gave away free hot chocolate at the Water Street bus terminal, here in the City of Thunder Bay.

Lakehead University students whipped up some warm beverages for passengers boarding and coming from the city buses plying Thunder Bay on Tuesday. According to the students, it was their way of paying things forward and showing random acts of kindness to the community.

Student Erin Carter, one of those who worked on the project, said the goal was to give back as much as they could to the community. In the end, they came up with a project where each of their individual talents could be utilized and brought together for a good cause.

Throughout February, around 20 students from the Environmental Education program organized events ranging from free hugs, free postcards, and senior home activities, said Carter. Her class wanted to make Thunder Bay known as great community to live in, she added.

At first, the class had trouble giving away the hot chocolate, since people were a bit skeptical of being offered something for free. But they eventually warmed up to the idea and were amazed by the students’ hard work.

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Good news for those who’ve had it with the bitter cold here in the City of Thunder Bay. The first day of March, Monday, was an unusually warm one, and it looks like it’s going to last until the end of week, possibly even until the end of the month.

Environment Canada announced that residents in Thunder Bay are going to experience temperatures reaching a high of 8 Celsius on Friday this week. The cause behind this, you might ask? Well according to Environment Canada meteorologist Geoff Coulson, this wave of warmth is caused by masses of warmer air coming from the Southern United States, which recently moved into the region.

March, he added, is usually a transition period. Depending on a combination of several factors, temperatures could rise to a warm autumn-like feel, or plunge into even bitter and colder conditions.

The warm air from the southern US will be winning the temperature battle most likely until next week, Coulson said. But you never know how things will turn out, especially with the unpredictable weather these days, he added. It’s worth noting that the normal high during this time of the year is -2 C. This week’s highs are going to range from between 2 C to 8 C.

Aspiring dog owners in the Thunder Bay area looking to bring home a puppy or dog will have to put their desire to have a new buddy on hold as a wave of kennel cough has recently struck the city on a surprisingly high level. And while kennel cough isn’t as deadly as other canine illnesses such as Parvo or canine distemper, the outbreak has forced the Thunder Bay District Humane Society to place restrictions on most—if not all—of their services.

According to Deb Cooper, executive director of the Humane Society, the dogs inside the shelter are on lockdown – meaning that they’re not taking in and letting any dogs out.

Unless it’s a serious emergency, he said, dog owners will have to wait until the kennel cough outbreak is over if they want to bring their dogs to the humane society. As of today, 10 dogs inside the shelter are being treated for kennel cough, a canine disease that’s very contagious, with symptoms very similar to those of the common cold in humans.

Cooper advises owners with dogs that exhibit symptoms like dry cough and lethargy to take their pets to the veterinarian immediately to be treated. Until the outbreak is over, he said, it would be wise to stay away from public areas like parks.