The fireworks 🎆 are packed away but the flags are still flying. 🇨🇦 Love Canada Day! Hope yours was fun. Because around here, July is when the good season really hits its stride, and this week makes the case all on its own.
Two of our neighbours just landed one of Ontario's top honours. A Claremont kid spent ten years saving pop tabs to help build a wheelchair. There's free live music in a park almost every night, a whole month of shoreline cleanups you can jump into, and an Uxbridge turtle rescue run by a former zoo alligator trainer. (Yes, really.)
Pour the coffee. Let's go.
Good news from around the region. Here's what's worth knowing this week.
🎖️ Oshawa: a new downtown square honours those who served.
Veterans Square is officially open at Bond and Simcoe, a $2.5-million public space with ceremonial gardens honouring the Navy, Army, Air Force and the Ontario Regiment. It's built to host concerts and community events year-round, so downtown just gained a proper gathering place with a lot of heart.
City: oshawa.ca
🏊 Whitby: Durham's biggest rec complex sets its opening date.
Mark September 12. That's the free community grand opening for Brooklin's $155-million Fieldgate Sports Complex, home to Durham's largest pool, a twin-pad arena, a double gym, a skatepark and a pump track. Two local families were honoured with naming rights for their contributions.
Town: whitby.ca
🏛️ Port Perry: an 1884 landmark gets a second century.
Scugog council approved a $30,000 heritage grant to restore the masonry and façade of a 140-year-old building at 179 to 191 Queen St, keeping the historic main street intact for peak season. Meta4 Gallery and Port Perry United Church earned heritage grants too.
Read: durhampost.ca · Program: scugog.ca
🐾 Beaverton: the dog park is happening now, not later.
Brock council had a recommendation to push its new Beaverton off-leash dog park to 2027. Instead, they found the shortfall in the reserves and voted to build it this year. A small, satisfying win for a township that doesn't always get the spotlight.
Photo: Advanced Animal Care
More: brock.ca
♻️ Claremont: ten years of pop tabs, one wheelchair.
When he was 10, Maximus Drew started saving aluminum pop tabs. Ten years later, the Pickering man delivered a truckload to Durham Medical, enough to help fund a wheelchair. Proof that small, steady effort adds up to something big.
More: allboutdurham.com
Every week we spotlight someone quietly making Durham better. This week, we couldn't pick just one.
Two of Ontario's finest, and they're both ours.
Every year the province hands out its Senior Achievement Award. This year, just 18 people in all of Ontario earned one. Two of them are ours.
Kathy Clulow of Uxbridge is a big reason the township's senior community came roaring back after the pandemic. She rebuilt the Age Friendly Advisory Committee, the Seniors Clubs and the Probus Club, and helped drive Uxbridge's 100 Women Who Care past $100,000 raised for local causes. When she spots a gap, she fills it.
Dennis Bayley of Port Perry has been giving so long it's basically his hobby. He helped tackle the local doctor shortage, built up the Port Perry Lawn Bowling Club, and earned three Paul Harris Fellowships for his work as a Rotarian. He's 90, and he's not done: for the past decade he's organized yearly gifts of hand-knitted clothing for kids at a remote Indigenous fly-in school.
Two neighbours, decades of quiet service between them, one very lucky region. Congratulations to you both, and thank you.
Read: durhamradionews.com · All 18 recipients: news.ontario.ca
Know a Durham Region Changemaker? Hit reply and tell us who.
Good people, needed. Here's where Durham could use a hand this week.
🌊 Lend an hour to the lakeshore. A Greener Future runs free, family-friendly "Love Your Lakes" shoreline cleanups almost every day in July, right across our waterfront in Whitby, Ajax, Oshawa and Pickering. No experience needed, all supplies provided, about two hours. Last year, 478 Durham volunteers cleared 345,000 pieces of litter from local shores across 126 cleanups. Pick a beach and a date (Heydenshore, Paradise Beach, Lakeview Park, Frenchman's Bay and more) and just show up.
Register: agreenerfuture.ca/durham-events
⛵ PARA Marine Search & Rescue (Pickering) needs volunteer boat crew and shore-side helpers as it nears its 60th year and fundraises for a new rescue boat. Full training provided.
Volunteer: paramarinesar.ca · Read: Ontario Chronicle
🥫 Feed the Need in Durham wants hands and donations for its Hunger-Free Summer push, keeping shelves full while school meal programs are out.
Help: feedtheneedindurham.ca
Run a Durham group that needs hands? Hit reply and we'll put the word out.
Reading this Thursday morning? You've got free music in a park near you tonight. Free outdoor concerts are the theme this week.
🎶 Pickering summer concerts. The Canadiana Band (Thu Jul 2, Millennium Square), the Brian Wride Trio (Fri Jul 3, Rick Johnson Memorial Park), and the Community Concert Band (Sun Jul 5, Esplanade Park). pickering.ca
🎵 Concerts in the Park, Port Perry. Palmer Park, Thursday Jul 2 and Wednesday Jul 8, 6:30pm. Lakeside, bring a chair. scugog.ca
🎤 Sounds of Summer, Whitby. Celebration Square on Tuesday Jul 7, plus Thursday nights at Grass Park in Brooklin. whitby.ca
🎸 Community Music in the Square, Ajax. Pat Bayly Square, Tuesday Jul 7 at 7pm, family-friendly. ajax.ca
🎻 Concerts in the park, Clarington. Two free series, rain or shine.
Bowmanville's Rotary Park on Thursdays at 7pm (Swing Shift Party Band kicks it off Jul 2), and Newcastle's Community Hall Parkette (20 King Ave W) on Tuesdays, 6:30 to 8pm (Two for the Show on Jul 7).
Quick hits worth knowing.
💦 Courtice splash pad reopens. Avondale Park's splash pad is back mid-July with new equipment and a fresh surface. clarington.net
🍓 Strawberry season is on. Forsythe Family Farms in Uxbridge has opened for U-pick, the classic early-July family outing.
📚 Summer reading, grown-up edition. Oshawa Public Library's Adult Summer Reading Challenge is underway, complete with bookish craft nights. oshawalibrary.on.ca
Photo: Canadian Wildlife Federation
A couple of Saturdays ago, a crew of Uxbridge families, Scouts and a couple of local councillors gathered at the Second Wedge Brewing Co. to do something quietly wonderful: build tiny wire cages to protect turtle nests.
It's peak nesting season in Ontario, and turtle eggs are a favourite snack for raccoons and skunks. The little nest protectors give the eggs a real fighting chance. The build was organized by Christine and Chris McKenzie with North Durham Nature, and Christine knows her reptiles. She's a former Toronto Zoo alligator trainer.
Ontario's turtles are having a tough go, with most species now considered at risk, so every protected nest counts. It's a lovely picture of a small town looking out for its smallest neighbours, one wire cage at a time.
Want to build a turtle nest protector?
The Canadian Wildlife Federation has got great info and a download on how to build them. Check it out.
Read: The Uxbridge Cosmos
If there's a thread running through this week, it's that the good in Durham rarely announces itself. It just shows up.
It shows up as a 90-year-old in Port Perry running knitting drives for kids he'll never meet. It shows up as families spending a Saturday building cages for turtle eggs. It shows up as strangers with garbage bags, clearing a beach two hours at a time.
None of them waited to be asked. They just started. That's the good season, and that's this place.
Until next week. This is Durham Life.
Local Media that Inspires
Ajax · Brock · Clarington · Oshawa · Pickering · Scugog · Uxbridge · Whitby