She filled bomb shells in Ajax. At 105, her story is a book 📖

Louise Johnson was a young woman in Saskatoon when the call for war workers went out in the early 1940s. She took the train to what is now Ajax and became a "bomb girl" at the DIL munitions plant, filling shell casings with cordite bound for overseas. On Remembrance Day itself, at 1:30pm in the Rotary Room of the Ajax library's main branch, she launched "A Life Legacy," the book she put together with author C.L. Golding, and signed copies herself. The first 100 copies sold are giving their proceeds to the Ajax Pickering Hospital Foundation.

If you missed the launch, the book is the point: a 105-year-old neighbour who was there for the wartime work this town was built on, telling it herself. Keep an eye out for it.

Source: Ajax Pickering Hospital Foundation • DurhamRegion.com

The Grade 5 Action Pass covers all three of Brock's arenas: the Foster Hewitt in Beaverton, the Rick MacLeish in Cannington and the Sunderland Memorial. Free public swims, free public skates and select drop-in programs, for every Grade 5 in the township. To get a pass, a parent or guardian emails [email protected], and kids bring proof of address and birth date to their first visit, with an adult along.

The people who run the program point out that only about 39% of Canadian kids get the recommended 60 minutes of activity a day. A free pass to three arenas is a pretty good answer to that.

Source: The Standard

Clarington is building a 10-year special events strategy, and it starts with a survey: what matters to you, from fall fairs to live music. The same survey shapes the plan for the new Clarington Sports and Event Grounds at 801 Maple Grove Road in Bowmanville, including early concepts for a gathering space with a covered stage for concerts.

It's the rare civic ask that lands before the decisions are made instead of after. The survey's on the Clarington Connected page; it takes a few minutes, and it's your say in what the next decade of town events looks like.

Source: Daily Durham · Clarington Connected survey

The City of Oshawa bought the old Oshawa Clinic property at 111-117 King St. E., once one of Canada's largest medical clinics, and donated it to Queen's University for a permanent medical school campus downtown. Total investment: about $20 million. The Queen's-Lakeridge Health family medicine program launched in 2023; it's up to 80 students as of this fall, and this gives it a permanent home.

Why it matters: roughly 17,000 Oshawa residents don't have a family doctor, and more than 1,500 Durham babies go home from hospital each year without one. Training doctors where the patients are is about as good news as civic news gets. Construction and planning run over the next few years, but the site is secured and the program is growing now.

Source: Daily Durham · City of Oshawa

D&R Custom Steel, based in Pickering, is matching every donation to Feed the Need in Durham dollar for dollar, up to $100,000, through December 31. It's the company's fourth straight year as the charity's holiday matching partner, which means every dollar you give this season does double duty, with a Pickering neighbour putting up the second one.

Feed the Need in Durham is the Region's food distribution hub, getting food to food banks and meal programs across Durham. If the season has you thinking about giving anyway, this is the multiplier.

Source: Feed The Need in Durham · Durham Radio News

This June, Vets Around the Corner in Port Perry launched Turtle Patrol: 25 volunteers, trained and out on the roads through nesting season, when mother turtles leave the wetlands and cross busy pavement to lay their eggs. The first season's numbers are in: 30 turtle sightings logged, 53 turtles cared for at the clinic, and $49,927.83 in veterinary care donated by the clinic, at no cost to the Ontario Turtle Conservation Centre.

All eight of Ontario's native turtle species are at risk, and a turtle can take up to 25 years to reach adulthood, so every mother safely across the road matters. The volunteers' records also showed exactly where the danger is: 12 of the 15 turtles found dead were on just two stretches of road, Highway 7A east of Port Perry and Simcoe Street North. That's where patrol concentrates next June.

Want in for 2027? Email [email protected].

Source: Daily Durham · Vets Around the Corner (season report)

The Whitby Specialty Food Bank is not an ordinary food bank. It stocks lactose-free, gluten-free, halal, vegan and vegetarian food, plus specific items for diabetic, hypertensive and celiac clients, because coordinator Marcia White is a nurse and knows that "just eat what's on the shelf" doesn't work for everybody. She believes it's the only specialty food bank of its kind in Ontario.

The problem is where it lives. It started in 2016 in the basement of Kendalwood Adventist Church, grew from about 30 families to as many as 250 during the pandemic, and has been without its own home since 2023, when the church needed its basement back. A church in Pickering took it in next, until the bank outgrew that early this year. Now it works outdoors in Scarborough, from two trailers and a refrigerator truck, serving about 80 families a week, with volunteers, many of them retired, commuting from Whitby to make it happen. So it's looking for an "angel donor" to provide about 10,000 square feet of warehouse space in Whitby, along with money, donations and sponsors (tax receipts available).

If you know a warehouse owner with a good heart, the email is [email protected]. Winter is not waiting.

Source: Daily Durham · DurhamRegion.com · Whitby Specialty Food Bank

You might remember Kyler Lauder from last week, playing for Canada Red at the World Under-17 Hockey Challenge in Oakville. He's coming home with bronze: Canada Red beat Canada White 8-4 in Saturday's bronze medal game, with two assists from Lauder, the Saginaw Spirit prospect.

The library clock tower, the one lightning set on fire back in July, is fully repaired, with a new lightning rod properly grounded this time. Next time you're on Toronto Street South, look up. It's telling the right time again.

And the Uxbridge Toy Drive, running since 1998, is gearing up after giving out 2,381 toys last year. Williamson's is sponsoring a Bruins game on December 11 in support: bring a new, unwrapped toy. Their website has gift ideas by age if you're stuck.

Source: Ontario Hockey League · Uxbridge Public Library · Uxbridge Toy Drive

🎭 Thursday, Nov 12, 7:30pm: Irving Berlin's White Christmas opens at the Uxbridge Music Hall (16 Main St. S.), running through Nov 15.

Source: Star Ticketing

🇨🇦 Students from Monsignor Paul Dwyer in Oshawa and Father Leo J. Austin in Whitby are heading to the First World War battlefields of Belgium and France, a trip timed with the 110th anniversary of Vimy Ridge, and they're taking a Canadian flag that flew atop Parliament Hill's Peace Tower. Oshawa MP Rhonda Kirkland and York-Durham MP Jacob Mantle presented it to the students at Dwyer on November 9. When those kids stand at the memorial, a piece of Parliament Hill stands with them.

Source: Durham Radio News

🚒 If you drive with Waze or Apple Maps in Pickering, you'll soon know a fire truck is coming before you hear the siren: twelve Pickering fire trucks are being equipped with a digital alerting system that broadcasts truck locations to navigation apps, so drivers can pull over in time.

Source: Durham Post · Durham Radio News • HAAS Alert System

The Ganaraska Forest just got more protected. New Environmentally Significant Areas in both the West and East forests are now off-limits to visitors, and trails around them are being improved with Greenbelt Foundation funding so the connections stay open. New boundaries go up on the Ganaraska Forest Trails Map and on signage once the work is done: check the map before your next ride or hike.

This short video will give you a taste of it! ⬇️

Source: Daily Durham · Ganaraska Region Conservation Authority