I remember those first days of school. The backpack 🎒 still stiff from the store. New shoes 👞 that felt too clean to actually walk in. You’d stand at the door a beat too long before someone told you to just go in already.
Tuesday, four schools in Durham get that exact morning for the very first time.
That’s the shape of the week. Long weekend, then everybody goes back.
Also in here: a guy from Pickering 🎣 just broke a record that had stood since 2023. A hospital fundraiser 💵 in Clarington is having every dollar matched until the 12th. And fair 🎡 season starts, which around here runs most of the month.
Pour the coffee. Let’s go.
🎓 FOUR NEW DOORS, ONE MORNING
All four open Tuesday:
Whitby Meadows, in Whitby
Northglen Orchard, in Bowmanville
Waaban, in Oshawa
Cedar Valley, also in Oshawa
Room for more than 3,400 students between them. None of it worn in yet. By Wednesday it’ll already feel like home.
AJAX — ⚡ The library, the fire hall, and town hall are all trying to beat each other this fall.
Watch the video for more info ⬇️
Ajax just kicked off round two of Battle of the Buildings, a friendly energy ⚡ competition between seven town buildings, from the fire hall to the main library. Each one’s trying to cut its energy use by at least 10% between now and the end of the year. Small stuff adds up: turning the community pool down two degrees alone saves the town more than $20,000 a year.
Source: Town of Ajax
Beaverton Fall Fair
BROCK — 🎡 Durham’s two oldest fairs are both coming up, and one of them started sixteen years before Canada did.
The 173rd Sunderland Fair runs September 15 and 16, which makes it the oldest fair in Durham Region. It started in 1851. A few days later, Beaverton’s turns 171, running September 18 and 19. Between them: 4-H shows, a horse pull, a demolition derby, and two small towns that have been doing this for longer than anyone can personally remember.
Source: Sunderland Fall Fair · Beaverton Fall Fair
CLARINGTON — 🏥 Every dollar you give to the Bowmanville Hospital walk is about to become two.
From now through September 12, TD is matching every donation to Steps for Care dollar for dollar, up to $12,500. The walk itself is September 27, and it’s already raised more than $20,000 toward redeveloping Bowmanville Hospital. It’s also the Bowmanville Hospital Foundation’s 50th year of doing this. “As we celebrate 50 years of community giving, I’m incredibly proud to see our community come together once again,” says Foundation CEO Maria Petri.
Watch the video for more info ⬇️
OSHAWA — 🚗 4,600 auto workers just voted, and Oshawa Assembly is getting its next truck.
Unifor members across GM’s Ontario plants voted overwhelmingly this weekend to ratify a new three-year contract, 80.5% in favour at the GM Canada operations. Wages are rising to $50.20 an hour on the line and $62.71 for skilled trades. The part that matters most here: $144 million of that deal is earmarked to bring the next-generation Heavy-Duty Sierra to Oshawa Assembly. That’s not just a raise, that’s work staying here.
PICKERING — 🎣 He went in ranked 72nd out of 75. He came out having broken a record that stood since 2023.
Watch the video for more info ⬇️
Evan Kung, 27, grew up fishing with his grandfather and dad, and this past Sunday he won the Bassmaster Elite Series at the St. Lawrence River with the heaviest all-smallmouth bag in the tournament’s history. He went in barely hanging onto his tour card. He’s coming out with a spot in next March’s Classic. “It was a tough year for me, so it was great to end it like this,” he said.
Source: Bassmaster · INsauga
SCUGOG — 🎪 There’s a new contest at the fair this year, named for the woman whose cake everybody remembers.
The Port Perry Fair runs Saturday through Monday, and there’s a new award in the homecraft schedule: the Anne Marie Taillon Award, for a banana, sour cream and chocolate chip cake. The entry has to have the word “Lumberjack” in its name. Judging is Saturday at noon. If you want to play for bigger money, the Men’s Baking Contest on Sunday wants a maple syrup pie and pays $1,000 to the winner, and the Women’s Contest does the same on Monday for enriched and flavoured bread. Also on over the three days: an extreme rodeo, a fiddle contest, and a horse pull.
Source: Port Perry Fair schedule · portperryfair.com
UXBRIDGE — 🧒 Eleven non-profits just split half a million dollars, and the youth centre got a piece of it.
Durham Region approved close to $500,000 through its Thriving Communities Fund this summer, and the Uxbridge Youth Centre on Marietta Street is one of eleven organizations sharing it. “The non-profit sector supports residents of all ages and stages of life, and are key to growing strong, resilient communities,” said Commissioner Stella Danos-Papaconstantinou.
Source: Uxbridge Youth Centre · Durham Post
Photo: Arsenal.com
WHITBY — ⚽ She came up through soccer in Oshawa and Ajax. Now she’s the best young player in English football, two years running.
Olivia Smith grew up in Whitby and played in Oshawa, Ajax, Markham and North Toronto before Arsenal signed her from Liverpool in the first million-euro transfer in women’s football. Last week her fellow professionals voted her the PFA’s Young Player of the Year for the second season in a row. Before her, no player from outside England had won it even once.
Source: Arsenal WFC · INsauga
🐾 A national kids’ mentoring charity needs someone from Durham on its board.
ProAction Cops & Kids has run police-led youth mentoring here since 2007, and its Durham chapter is looking for a volunteer council member to help steer what the chapter does next. It’s a governance role, some in-person, some remote, and it plugs you into a group that’s put $10.7 million toward youth programs nationally over 35 years.
Source: ProAction Cops & Kids · CharityVillage listing
🥫 Ajax needs your pantry’s spare cans, starting next Wednesday.
From September 9 through October 5, Ajax and all of Durham is running its annual food drive for National Hunger Action Month. Drop off at Town Hall any weekday, or at four other town facilities on weekends.
Source: Town of Ajax
Run a Durham group that needs hands? Hit reply and we’ll put the word out.
🎪 Saturday Sept 5 – Monday Sept 7 — Port Perry Fair, Port Perry Fairgrounds. Midway, livestock shows, demolition derby, from $15/day.
Source: Port Perry Fair
🎵 Monday Sept 7, 11am–2pm — Labour of Love, Memorial Park, Oshawa. Free family celebration: live music, face painting, food, and the Canadian Automotive Museum opening its doors free for the day.
🌻 Thursday Sept 3 & 10, noon–4pm — Barrett Centre Ajax Urban Farm Market Days, 1355 Harwood Ave N, Ajax. Durham College’s working farm sells its own produce, free to visit.
Source: Durham College • Barrett Centre
🚜 Thursday Sept 10 — Uxbridge Fair kicks off its 50th anniversary tractor pull the night before the fair proper opens, Elgin Park.
Source: Uxbridge Fair
New in the neighbourhood.
🥟 The MOMO Station, 114 Brock St S, Whitby. Third location of a family-run Nepalese dumpling spot, known for a dozen styles of momo plus halal chicken options.
Source: The MOMO Station · INsauga
The week in good news.
🚗 Speed limit on the 401 through Clarington goes up to 110 km/h starting Monday.
🧠 Three Trent University researchers are sharing $643,477 in new federal funding. The one at the Oshawa campus is studying how aging changes the way we talk to each other, using eye-tracking and a social robot.
🚜 Harvest season means slow-moving farm equipment on rural roads through the fall. Give it room, especially on turns.
🌍 Durham Region’s holding its first-ever Newcomer Day September 26 in Whitby, free and open to everyone.
Source: Region of Durham
🚶 $3.3 million just landed to make Durham easier to walk and bike across.
A federal trail investment is putting a new path along Townline Road in Oshawa, just under a kilometre of it, and pushing forward design work on the Durham Meadoway, a planned 30km walking and cycling route that would eventually link Pickering all the way to Oshawa. It ties into the Trans Canada Trail, the longest multi-use trail network on the planet at 33,000km, pulling in roughly 200 million visits a year across the country. Durham Region, Pickering, Ajax, Whitby, and Oshawa are all chipping in beyond the federal money too, more than a million dollars combined, to keep the Meadoway stage moving.
Doors: Region of Durham · INsauga
Age doesn’t tell you much about who’s going to show up.
The Sunderland Fair has been doing this since 1851. It doesn’t need to prove anything to anybody anymore, and it still shows up every September the same as its first year. Four schools in Durham open their doors Tuesday having never done it once. Evan Kung went into his tournament ranked 72nd out of 75, one bad week from losing his card altogether, and came out with a record. None of that has much to do with how long you’ve been at it. It’s about whether you show up when it’s your turn.
Until next week.
This is Durham Life.
Be good. Do Good. ❤️
MiKe Dee
Publisher
Durham Life - Local Media that Inspires
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Durham Life covers Durham Region's 8 municipalities:
Ajax, Brock, Clarington, Oshawa, Pickering, Scugog, Uxbridge, and Whitby.
Covering Durham Region’s 8 municipalities: Ajax · Brock · Clarington · Oshawa · Pickering · Scugog · Uxbridge · Whitby