The August long weekend is behind us, and if you're anything like me you did the math on the drive home. Four weekends left in the summer. 😎 Five if you count Labour Day, and I'm counting Labour Day. 📆
So let's not waste them.
Two things in this issue are built for exactly that. First: the Durham Beach Guide is live. Actually live, this time. I told you last week it was dropping and then it didn't, which is what happens when the guy writing the newsletter is also the guy building the website. It's up now, all fifteen monitored beaches in the region, 🏖️ water quality, parking, the works.
The second one is stranger. Stranger is good.
Durham Tourism has put a free augmented-reality heritage trail across the north end of the region. You download an app, drive to seven stops between Beaverton and Uxbridge, point your phone at a sign, and a conductor named Bradley tells you how the railway built these towns. Somewhere in there is a story about an Uxbridge factory that made musical instruments and coffins. The same factory.
More on that below.
Also in here: 30 food trucks 😋 landing in Pickering tonight, a police boat 🚨 named by the Mississaugas of Scugog Island First Nation, and a very small bird 🐧 at Darlington with a whole provincial park keeping an eye on it.
Windows down. Let's go.
🚂 Railway Roots — Durham's free AR heritage trail
Launched Wednesday July 30 by Durham Tourism and Central Counties Tourism. Download the free AVTR1 app, drive to any of the seven stops, and scan the QR code. Conductor Bradley takes it from there.
The stops span north Durham: Beaverton and Cannington (Brock) · Port Perry / Ocala Winery, Scugog Shores Museum Village and Sunderland (Scugog) · Uxbridge Historical Centre. The archival material came from the historical societies of Brock, Scugog and Uxbridge.
Details that will make the drive worth it: a conductor who cooked meals for passengers stranded in a snowstorm. Kids who hopped trains to get to school. And an Uxbridge factory that made both musical instruments and coffins.
→ All 7 stops with addresses: durham.ca/tourism/explore-engage/durham-region-railway-roots/
→ Launch story: Durham Region news release
One good thing from each of Durham Region's eight municipalities.
Photo courtesy Lakeridge Health
🤖 Ajax — Canada's first robot of its kind is now working at Ajax Pickering Hospital
The hospital started using a Stryker 4.0 orthopedic surgical robot on Thursday July 30. It's the first one in the country. It's there because the Jeremiah F. Coughlan Foundation put $2 million behind it, which is a remarkable thing for a family foundation to do for its local hospital.
→ Lakeridge Health • Read more about it
Photo courtesy Town of Whitby
🚒 Whitby — the town is building a fake neighbourhood for firefighters to set on fire
Whitby Fire is putting up a training tower at headquarters on McKinney Drive, and each side of it pretends to be something different. One face is a two-storey house. The others are a downtown streetscape, a high-rise, and an industrial building. There are burn rooms inside. Crews will train for high-rise fires, technical rescues and live-fire work without leaving the property. Due later this year, in the service's 175th.
→ whitby.ca/Fire • More Info
🏥 Oshawa — they threw a going-away party for the first person to move out
The HART Hub on Richmond Street West has been open since late March, run by CMHA Durham, offering treatment, mental health care and a furnished room to people who need one. Forty-four people have come through so far. Recently the team sent their first client off into a permanent home of their own, after years without one, and they did it with a party. A bigger 45-bed building with a full kitchen and a gym is expected in the next three or four months.
→ CMHA Durham • More Info
Photo courtesy Clarington.net
🏘️ Clarington — 1,495 homes proposed for Bowmanville, and the town wants to hear from you first
Three sites in total. The big one is roughly 1,290 units on 100 acres at 2273 Lambs Road, with a natural heritage block, two stormwater ponds and a new public park folded in. Then 182 townhouses at 1700 Lambs Road, and 23 more on Concession Road 3. The public meeting is Wednesday August 19 at 6pm in council chambers, and that's a genuine invitation rather than a formality.
→ Meeting notice: clarington.net • More Info
Photo courtesy Township of Brock
🏒 Brock — Sunderland's arena is getting more than it was promised
The $10.2 million rebuild of Sunderland Memorial Arena should be substantially finished by the end of October. Because the building was already open and torn up anyway, the township pulled a pile of extra work forward: a new roof over the ice surface, rooftop HVAC, a steel extension, upgraded sewage and watermain, and a furnace that wasn't due in the budget until 2028. Local user groups get ice time starting December 7. The Sunderland Lions and the township are planning a proper opening.
→ brock.ca • More Info
Photo courtesy Durham Region
🚌 Pickering — the billion-dollar bus line finally reaches Pickering soil
The next stretch of the Durham-Scarborough Bus Rapid Transit line is an $11 million segment of Kingston Road, running from just west of Steeple Hill over to Merritton Road. Work starts later this summer and finishes in summer 2028. It's the first BRT construction inside Pickering. When the full 36 kilometres is done, buses run every five minutes in their own lanes and the trip gets about twenty minutes shorter. Cycle tracks and accessible sidewalks come with it.
→ Project page: durham.ca • More Info
Photo courtesy North Durham Pride
🏳️🌈 Uxbridge — downtown shuts the street for its first Pride after dark
North Durham Pride runs its first evening event on Saturday August 15, 5pm to 11:30pm, on Brock Street West. The road closes to traffic. Live entertainment, art installations you can walk into, local vendors. The theme is "Cultivating Community," and everyone is welcome, which is rather the point.
→ northdurhampride.ca
Photo courtesy DRPS
🚤 Scugog — Lake Scugog has a police boat again, and the Mississaugas of Scugog Island named her
Durham police launched the Genawaabi at Port Perry Marina on Tuesday August 4, the first vessel dedicated to Lake Scugog in more than twenty years. The name is Anishinaabemowin. It means "they watch." Chief Kelly LaRocca of the Mississaugas of Scugog Island First Nation blessed the boat at the launch: "Nibi (water) is life. May they travel our lake and waterways gently and respectfully." The boat is a Canadian-made KingFisher, 300 horsepower, chosen because it can work in water that shallow.
→ DRPS Marine Unit • More Info
⛺ Two hours of bingo sends a girl to camp
Girls Inc. of Durham runs camps, programs and mentorship for girls aged 6 to 18 across Pickering, Oshawa, Brooklin and Whitby. A good chunk of the money behind that comes from their bingo nights at Delta Bingo and Gaming in Pickering, and right now they're short on hands. You need to be 19 or over. Shifts are two hours and the schedule is flexible. One shift covers a girl's spot at camp.
→ Volunteer: girlsinc-durham.org
🤝 A new Ajax nonprofit is building its first two committees
Progressive Life Centre supports people with autism and developmental disabilities in Ajax, and they've built the kind of place you'd want for someone you love. There's a teaching kitchen with real cooking stations. A fully stocked practice grocery store, so people can rehearse a shop before doing it for real. A hall they call the Pavilion. Now they're standing up two committees and looking for members: one for Programs, Quality and Family Engagement, one for Fundraising and Partnerships. No committee experience required. They want professionals, parents, caregivers, and frankly anyone willing to be useful.
→ progressivelifecentre.ca
Know a Durham group that needs hands? Hit reply and we'll put the word out.
🍔 Thirty food trucks land in Pickering tonight
The Pickering Food Truck Festival is back at Esplanade Park for its eleventh year, and it runs all weekend. Free to get in, free to park, with a donation box at the gate if you feel like it. Thirty trucks, a beer garden, free games for the kids, eating contests, artisan vendors and great music!
Friday 5 to 9pm. Saturday noon to 9pm. Sunday noon to 8pm.
The music is almost entirely tribute acts, which is either your idea of a good time or it isn't, and I'll admit it's very much mine. Across the weekend you get the Tragically Hip, AC/DC, KISS, Pink Floyd, Tom Petty and Journey. Tonight it's Sugar at 5 and Pearl Jamming at 7:15.
→ canadianfoodtruckfestivals.com/pickering
Also on:
Tonight, Friday August 7
🤠 The Jackson Fox Band, country, Rick Johnson Memorial Park, Pickering. 5:30 to 7:30pm, free. Yes, the same night as the food trucks. Pickering is having a moment. → pickering.ca
💃 Zumba in the Square, Pat Bayly Square, Ajax. 7 to 8pm, free, registration required. → ajax.ca
Tuesday August 11
🎭 Oshawa Little Theatre at Ed Broadbent Waterfront Park, 169 Harbour Rd. 7 to 8:30pm, free. Songs from Little Shop of Horrors and Frozen, plus the OLT Youth Group.
🎶 Acoustic Blvd at Celebration Square, 405 Dundas St W, Whitby. 7 to 8pm, free. America, CSN&Y, Eagles, that whole lane. → whitby.ca
🎤 Shooter at Newcastle Community Hall Parkette, 20 King Ave W. 6:30 to 8pm, free.
Wednesday August 12 and Thursday August 13
🎺 Concerts in the Park at the Palmer Park gazebo, 175 Water St, Port Perry. 6:30 to 7:30pm, free, both nights. Rain sends it indoors to Latcham Hall on Queen Street. →
Thursday August 13
🥁 The Reasons at Rotary Park, Bowmanville. 7pm, free.
🎸 Zac Honey at Grass Park, 41 Baldwin St, Brooklin. 7 to 8pm, free. Blues-rock and country.
Next Saturday, August 15
🏳️🌈 Pride After Dark closes Brock Street West in Uxbridge, 5pm to 11:30pm. More on that up in the Eight.
🧘 CINCH Studios, Pickering
A 3,000 square foot reformer Pilates studio opened on Altona Road on Saturday, and the pitch behind it is one every Durham person understands: you shouldn't have to drive into Toronto for this. The founders grew up here. Classes run the range of reformer, mat, barre, yoga, tower and chair, plus one they've named the Cinchformer, which is the HIIT version. There's a matcha café inside the studio.
Units D & E, 1870 Altona Rd, Pickering
→ cinchstudios.ca
🍛 Silver Spoon, Oshawa
Halal Pakistani takeout opened on Taunton Road West on Friday. Biryani, curries, tandoori, seekh kababs, fresh naan, a Hakka Chinese menu, all-day breakfast, vegetarian options and a dessert counter. The family has been running these since 2000 and this is their ninth around the GTA, which is a long way from where they started. Open daily, 11am to 10pm.
452 Taunton Rd W, Unit 9, Oshawa
→ silverspoonrestaurant.ca
🛍️ Whitby's food bank wants the reusable bags you keep forgetting
You have them. Hall closet, car trunk, under the sink. A small nation of reusable grocery bags, acquired one panic-purchase at a time. St. Andrew's Community Food Bank on Cochrane Street will take them off your hands, clean and gently used. It gives their clients a sturdy way to carry a week of groceries home and cuts down the food bank's waste at the same time. Drop them inside the back entrance, Wednesday through Friday, 10am to 2pm.
209 Cochrane St, Whitby
→ standrewscommunityfoodbank.ca
🐦 There's a pair of piping plovers nesting at Darlington
You've probably walked right past one. Piping plovers are small, sand-coloured, and built to disappear against exactly the kind of beach we spend all summer standing on. There's a pair nesting at Darlington Provincial Park right now. I phoned the park to be sure.
Piping plovers were gone from Ontario for decades. They only came back in 2007, which makes this their twentieth season home. Thirty of them were counted in the entire province this year. Thirty, in all of Ontario. And one of the few beaches they reliably choose is ours, alongside Sauble and Wasaga.
Across the Great Lakes it's been a record year. Ninety breeding pairs, the fourth year running that the number has climbed.
So if you're heading down to Darlington, and the beach guide is going to send a few of you there: stay in the marked areas, respect the fencing and the signs, keep the dog on a leash. That's the whole ask. They'll handle the rest themselves.
→ Ontario Piping Plover Conservation Program: birdscanada.org
→ Darlington Provincial Park: ontarioparks.ca
Something kept turning up while I was putting this week together.
A furnished room in Oshawa, and a going-away party when the person living in it finally got a place of their own. A practice grocery store in Ajax, real shelves and all, so someone can rehearse the shop before doing it for real. A stack of your forgotten tote bags in Whitby, so a family carries dinner home in something that won't split on the walk.
None of that is dramatic. Nobody cuts a ribbon over a tote bag.
But it's the same move, over and over. Somebody noticed a person who needed a little more room, and went and made some.
Even the plovers are getting it this week. One pair, a stretch of sand at Darlington, and a fence the rest of us have agreed to stay behind.
That's a good week.
Until next week.
This is Durham Life.
Be good. Do Good. ❤️
MiKe Dee
Publisher
Durham Life - Local Media that Inspires
Share Durham Life Durham Life covers Durham Region's 8 municipalities: Ajax, Brock, Clarington, Oshawa, Pickering, Scugog, Uxbridge, and Whitby.