Some weekends you go looking for something to do. This one comes looking for you.
Between Friday and Sunday, Durham throws the doors wide open. A brand-new rock festival 🎸 lands in Orono. Ribs 🍖 and The Trews take over Whitby. Kids get to climb 40 trucks 🚚 in Port Perry. And a musical 🎶 of a Lucy Maud Montgomery novel opens in Leaskdale, the village she called home for 15 years.
Add a new boardwalk built for frog-watching 🐸, a tiny shed 🏚️ that turns out to be the birthplace of GM Canada, and a hometown crew who fought summer hunger by toppling 12,892 boxes of mac and cheese into a world record 🏆. That is a lot of good in one week.
Clear your weekend. Here's why.
Eight municipalities, one good week.
Here is what is going right around the region.
Photo: Clarington
🚗 A tiny shed, a giant legacy (Clarington). In 1867, Robert McLaughlin 👨🏻🔧 built his first carriage in a small shed in Enniskillen. That workshop grew into the McLaughlin Motor Car Company, and then into General Motors of Canada. Council just gave the original shed a heritage designation, so the birthplace of an automotive giant is protected for good. durhamregion.com
♿ A grant that opens doors (Whitby). Sunrise Support Services, which runs day programs for adults with developmental disabilities, won a $51,300 💰 Ontario Trillium grant. It is paying for two washroom upgrades and a brand-new universal accessible washroom, so more people can take part in comfort. durhamregion.com
Photo: City of Oshawa
🏊 A free summer, on the house (Oshawa). Oshawa's free Playground Program at 16 parks just locked in three years of funding thanks to the Oshawa Community Credit Union , and the pool at the Delpark Homes Centre reopened with a free community swim. Bring the kids; it will not cost a thing. Get out there and make a splash! City of Oshawa
🎾 Room to play in Beaverton (Brock). The Township is moving ahead with upgraded pickleball courts 🏓 and a new soccer pitch at Lodwick Park, more space to get outside in one of our smaller communities. Pickleheads are gonna love this!
📺 Mr. Dressup comes home (Pickering). A new exhibit, "Ernie Coombs is Mr. Dressup," celebrates Pickering's own beloved children's host with never-before-seen footage, interviews with his family, and real props from the show. It opens Saturday, July 11 and runs to September 25 at the Pickering Dorsay Centre's John E. Anderson Gallery.
Photo: City of Ajax
🎶 Summer in the Square is back (Ajax). Ajax's free downtown series returns at Pat Bayly Square: live Music in the Square on Tuesdays right through September 1, next up a Metallica tribute on July 21. No tickets, no fuss, bring a lawn chair. Summer in the Square
🌇 Officially age-friendly (Uxbridge). The province named Uxbridge an Age-Friendly Community, a designation only about 15% of Ontario municipalities hold. It grew out of a resident survey and a council-backed plan to help people age well right where they live. Age-Friendly Uxbridge
Every week we shine a light on someone quietly making Durham better. This week, it's a whole crew.
The Seeds of Hope Project started small and green: 1,800 square feet of soil across three Clarington community gardens, planted by Nancy LeBlanc to grow fresh vegetables for food banks in Newcastle and Bowmanville. The idea was simple. People who need food deserve good food, the kind that grows in a neighbour's garden.
On Canada Day, that quiet mission threw a very loud party. At the Garnet B. Rickard complex in Bowmanville, Seeds of Hope volunteers lined up 12,892 boxes of donated macaroni and cheese and, with Batman tipping the first one, toppled them in a giant domino run that beat a Guinness World Record (the official word is still pending). Every box was donated by the community. Every box is now on its way to Feed the Need in Durham, which will pass them along through roughly 70 food banks and hunger-relief agencies across the region.
Here is the part that matters most. When school lets out, a lot of Durham kids lose their lunch program with it. Seeds of Hope built the whole record attempt around one goal: no child goes hungry over the summer. The world record makes a great headline. Feeding kids through July and August is the actual point.
We are keeping this one short on purpose. Nancy and her volunteers deserve a proper sit-down, and we will bring you the fuller story soon. For today: if you donated a box, rallied your street, or set up dominoes in the heat, that was you. Nicely done.
Know a Durham Region Changemaker, or want to lend the next one a hand? Hit reply. The best ones never nominate themselves.
Good people wanted. Every one of these is a real Durham group that could use a hand.
Run a Durham group that needs hands?
Hit reply and we'll put the word out.
🎸 Rockstalgia — Sat & Sun, July 11–12, Orono Fairgrounds (Clarington). A brand-new two-day classic-rock festival: 24 bands on two stages, a classic car show, a kids zone, headlined by Wide Mouth Mason. Let’s Paaaartttyyy! Tickets
🍖 Whitby Ribfest, ft. The Trews — Fri to Sun, July 10–12, Victoria Fields (Whitby). Ribs, live music, and a Trews concert with proceeds to Rotary. Leave your diet behind for this one. Details
📖 The Blue Castle: A Musical — July 9–12, Historic Leaskdale Church (Uxbridge). A new musical of Lucy Maud Montgomery's 1926 novel, staged in the village she called home. Heard great reviews about this one. The Leaskdale site
🚒 Port Perry Touch-a-Truck — Fri, July 10, 4 to 8pm, Port Perry Fairgrounds (Scugog). More than 40 trucks to climb, free admission, proceeds to Big Brothers Big Sisters of North Durham. Kids love this! BBBS North Durham
🌳 Little Forests Durham wants hands to help plant tiny, dense Miyawaki forests in Clarington. Starts @ 9 am. Gets your hands dirty and Pitch in
🎒 Stuff the truck (Oshawa). Oshawa firefighters run Operation Backpack on Saturday, July 11, 10am to 1pm at the North Oshawa Walmart, filling a fire truck with school supplies for local kids. Donate
🔬 Tuesdays on the Trail (Clarington & Pickering). OPG's free kids' science-and-art mornings are back; July 14 brings a magic show tied to the summer reading kickoff. Schedule
We all know a walk in the woods does us good. Turns out being near the water pulls its own weight. There's a name for it now, "blue space," the quiet lift you get from being close to, on, or in the water. And Lynde Shores in Whitby is about to hand out a fresh dose.
The Central Lake Ontario Conservation Authority is building a new 30-metre boardwalk there, less than 200 metres from the main parking lot, so the payoff is an easy walk from the car. It reaches right out over the water with a view on both sides, and the shoreline is being graded and planted to make ideal frog habitat, which means front-row seats for amphibian season. The pilings are already in, and the whole thing should be finished within a few months. Bring the kids and a good pair of eyes.
The best part of a week like this is not any single event. It is how many people did the work so the rest of us only have to show up. Someone spent months booking 24 bands for a field in Orono. Someone else is building a boardwalk so a kid can meet a frog. Go enjoy what they made.
Until next week.
This is Durham Life.
Be good. Do Good. ❤️
MiKe Dee
Publisher
Durham Life - Local Media that Inspires
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