Cynthia King

PEI has a decent start to a Province-wide lawn pesticide ban. There is more work to do with the regulations, but for now let’s start learning about the safe ways to take care of our lawns.

Safe Lawns dot org is a great resource, and in fact, Paul Tukey, founder of Safe Lawns dot org, is traveling across PEI to help Islanders learn about organic lawn care. He is also giving a very comprehensive back story about the history of lawn pesticides and the public’s reaction to their use. He also provides some real practical solutions for those concerned about the look of their lawn. There was a great turnout at the Charlottetown session. The evening viewing of the film “Chemical Reaction” was a smaller crowd, but the film was available for sale, and I bought one, so let me know if you want to check it out. Fascinating piece of work and worth watching.

One of the ideas for applying organic fertilizer to your lawn is Compost Tea! Which includes steeping some compost for a certain amount of time and applying the liquid to your lawn. Luck for us here on PEI there is a new business starting up in Oyster Bed called “Oyster Bed Compost”. Owner, Sid Annema, is producing a high value compost tea available to the public very soon.

His contact info is:

Sid Annema
902-628-5845
sidney_annema@hotmailcom

Here is the contact info for the Department of Environment Energy and Forestry:

Next weekend (February 27th – March 2nd) is the Town of Stratford’s Winter Carnival celebrations featuring a multitude of events for all ages. Here are some highlights:

Snow sculptures, sports, pancake breakfast, trivia, family skate, games.

Presentations and displays on ‘Celebrating Island Life’ and ‘Creating Stratford’s Future’.

There will be lots of fun for kids and youth with a Hawaiian Party, a Youth Dance and sporting events.

There will be no imported ice for ice castles and no man-made snow for mountain building, no Toopy and Binoo, no Spider-Man, Storm, Incredible Hulk or Green Goblin. No CIBC Playland, Hasbro® Playzone or LEGO®Town. Nope, none of that.

Just plain old innocent fun, featuring plain old innocent events like playing games with your neighbours, skating with your family, enjoying food together, building snow sculptures out of real snow, spending time with young people… basically just celebrating our great community of Stratford by doing fun things together.

And guess what?….
it’s

FREE!!!

Except for the following events:
Card Play with lots of prizes – $1.00
Crokinole tournament, lunch provided – $3.00
Hawiian Party with DJ Matthew – $5.00
Chem-free Youth Dance – $5.00

I had the privilege to attend part of a Town Youth Particiation Strategies conference this weekend in Charlottetown. The invite came from the Stratford Youth Can Do Facebook site.

Let me tell you about Stratford YCD.

On their website YCD is described as “a not-for-profit youth group open to Stratford youth between the grades of 5 and 12. YCD’s focus is to provide a safe drop-in centre for youth with plenty of volunteer activities in and around their town.

We are involved in dozens of volunteer projects including Canada Day, food drives, youth recreation programs, Stratford Days, and the Red Cross Red Shield Appeal. YCD also runs the canteen at the Stratford Business Park soccer fields.”

And all of this is true, but it is only a very small part of the bigger picture.

What the website does not say is how dedicated and enthusiastic their members are. Or how much fun they have and how YCD has helped the youth of Stratford grow into healthy, secure and contributing members of their community. What the website does not mention is that their incredible coordinator, Tanya Craig, has helped to create an organization that does so much good for our community of Stratford. That her insights and instincts have made a difference in the lives of young people.

YCD is engaged in helping to keep our community strong. They take part in everything that happens in Stratford. They have found a way to become sustainable by reaching out and developing relationships and partnerships that will last.

So what does this mean to the youth in Stratford?

It means that young people have a place to go and feel welcome no matter who they are. It means that young people will learn from each other and from leaders in their community. That they will have positive role models. It means being in a play or helping to organize a youth dance. Working alongside one another toward a goal and experiencing success and failure. It means having fun and making friends. It means healthier youth and healthier adults. It means that our young people will feel like they belong somewhere and will want to continue to contribute in the growth of their community.

Youth can do all that and more.