Wednesday is the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation. It's a day about kids too. At least 150,000 of them, Indigenous children taken from their families and forced through the residential school system. The ones who came home. The ones who didn't. Every town in the Eight is marking it this week, and there's a full guide below to where you can show up. Wear orange.
You probably also saw the other story this week. Three teenage girls, a GO train home from Toronto, an older couple harassed. Charges laid. It made every paper in the region.
That's not most kids.
Two students from Oshawa just picked up a Lincoln M. Alexander Award at the AGO. A six-year-old from Whitby made Team Canada in chess and is heading to Spain. A grade-5er in Oshawa gets sworn in next month as police chief for a day. Sunday morning at Heydenshore, a hundred kids will lace up for the Kidney Walk beside their families.
That's most kids.
Also in here. A food bank opened in Uxbridge this week where you shop the shelves yourself. And a small community outside Port Perry won Kraft Hockeyville, and ten thousand pounds of food showed up on a Friday because of it.
Pour the coffee. This is Durham Life.
Wednesday, September 30 is the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation. It honours the at least 150,000 Indigenous children forced through the residential school system, the ones who came home and the ones who didn't. Wear orange if you can. Here's what every town in the Eight is doing.
🌉 Ajax
Wednesday, September 30, 6 to 8pm at Rotary Park (177 Lake Driveway West). The Town unveils the new Zhaagawaamikong Aazhokigan sign on the bridge you've probably walked across a hundred times, with original artwork by Anishinaabe artist Sharifah Marsden. Elder storytelling, cultural programming, candlelight vigil. (This is also our Ajax story in the Durham Eight.)
Source: Town of Ajax — event page
📍 Brock
Monday, September 29 at 11:30am, Flag Raising Ceremony at the Brock Municipal Building in Cannington. Wear orange.
🎗️ Clarington
Orange Ribbon Reflection Space at the Courtice Community Complex, ribbons available now through October 10. Tie one to the temporary orange fence to honour Survivors and the children who never came home.
Source: Municipality of Clarington
🏙️ Oshawa
Flag flying at City Hall from September 10 through October 10. Orange-ribbon locations across the city. The City has posted a full guide to purchasing shirts from Indigenous creators like Nishtees.
Source: City of Oshawa
🚩 Pickering
Flag raising planned. Details still to come from the City.
🎨 Scugog
A Friday, September 27 community event at Palmer Park (north of the boat launch, 1pm; rain location Scugog Community Recreation Centre): student artwork on "What the MSIFN means to me," a land acknowledgment plaque unveiling at the Pollinator Garden, an Indigenous artifacts exhibit, and greetings from Mayor Wilma Wotten and Mississaugas of Scugog Island First Nation Councillor Jeff Forbes. The Palmer Park gazebo lit orange.
Source: Township of Scugog
🏳️ Uxbridge
Truth and Reconciliation Flag Raising Ceremony at the Township offices. Time and location on the Township's dates-of-significance page.
🧡 Whitby
A full slate this year.
Walking Together: A Journey Through Truth, Reconciliation, and Indigenous Experience — Friday, September 25, 2 to 4pm, 55+ Recreation Centre (801 Brock St S). Free two-hour workshop with Dr. Peter Menzies of Sagamok Anishnawbek First Nation. Register with code #68200.
Tie an orange ribbon at the Whitby Public Library Central branch (405 Dundas St), now through October 6. Ribbons go on the fence outside Presse Café.
Walk the orange crosswalk at King & Dundas.
Source: Town of Whitby
🌆 Regional
Region of Durham HQ programming and service-closure information on durham.ca.
Source: Region of Durham
Wear orange. Show up if you can. Read something you haven't read.
Each week, the most important civic and community news from across Durham Region’s eight municipalities, curated in one place.
This week across the region.
For more info watch the video ⬇️
🌉 AJAX — The bridge at Rotary Park is getting its real name back.
You've probably walked across it and called it the Rotary Park bridge. Its name is Zhaagawaamikong Aazhokigan. On Wednesday, September 30, the Town of Ajax unveils a new sign that says so, with original artwork by Anishinaabe artist Sharifah Marsden. It's the town's gathering for the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, 6 to 8pm at Rotary Park, 177 Lake Driveway West. Elder storytelling, cultural programming, and a candlelight vigil for survivors and their families. Wear orange.
Source: Town of Ajax — event page · durhamregion.com
☕ BROCK — A cop, a coffee, and no agenda.
North Division officers are working their way through Brock's small coffee shops this fall. No speeches. No slideshow. You grab a coffee and you talk. Sunderland had its turn at The Sweet Spot last week. Beaverton is next, Thursday October 1 at Underground Bakeshop on Mara Road. Then Canter Coffee in Cannington, Thursday October 8.
Source: DRPS North Division · The Standard
🏡 CLARINGTON — Orono is getting a little help telling its own story.
Orono has always called itself the village with a difference. The province just handed it $13,974 to make the case properly. The Orono BIA landed a Rural Ontario Development grant to refresh its economic plan and build a real marketing push for the village. BIA co-chair Chad Harmer and Mayor Adrian Foster both cheered the news.
Source: Visit Orono (Orono BIA) · Durham Radio News
🏆 OSHAWA — There's a new police chief in town.
Anayta Sehrawat is a grade-5 student at Bobby Orr Public School. She's this year's winner of the DRPS Chief for a Day essay contest, out of more than 100 grade-5 entries region-wide. Twelve finalists presented their essays to a community panel that included Chief Peter Moreira, and the chief and his colleagues showed up at her school to surprise her in front of her classmates. She's sworn in as Chief for a Day on October 20.
Source: DRPS · Durham Radio News
🎨 PICKERING — Wanted: one artist, for Dave Ryan's park.
Back in June we told you the new park being named for longtime mayor Dave Ryan. Now Pickering wants permanent public art for it, with a $60,000 budget. Three finalists each get $1,500 to develop their pitch for a jury next March. The winning piece goes in by August 2027. Know an artist who's been waiting for the right spot? Send them this.
Source: City of Pickering — Call to Artists · Akimbo
🏒 SCUGOG — Blackstock won Hockeyville. The food banks won too.
Blackstock's provincial Kraft Hockeyville win paid off in a way you can actually eat. On Friday, September 11, a truck pulled in with 10,000 pounds of food, and Mayor Wilma Wotten and Councillors Harold Wright and Terry Coyne helped unload it themselves. It went to Operation Scugog Foodbank, the Janetville Food Bank and Kawartha Lakes Food Source. "It really showed the incredible power of our community coming together," says Mike Blakey of the Blackstock Minor Hockey League.
Source: Blackstock Minor Hockey League · The Standard
🛒 UXBRIDGE — A food bank where you get to choose your own groceries.
North House opened its new Market Pantry on Tuesday, September 22, at 2 Elgin Park Drive in the Rexall plaza. It's laid out like a small grocery store. You walk the shelves and pick your own food, instead of being handed a box. An Elexicon Energy grant helped build it. The North Durham Chamber of Commerce hosted the opening.
Source: North House · The Uxbridge Cosmos
♟️ WHITBY — He's six, and he's playing chess for Canada.
Sirhan is six years old, lives in Whitby, and just made Team Canada for the World Youth Chess Championship. He plays the under-7 division, in Spain. His registration and room are covered. Flights, a parent to travel with him, and coaching aren't, so the family is raising $2,600 on GoFundMe. Six years old. Spain. Team Canada. This is a fun one to chip in on.
Source: Sirhan's GoFundMe · Durham Radio News
Photo: Paul Calandra, Ont Minister of Education
The kids are alright.
You probably saw the story. Three teenage girls, GO train home from Toronto last week, drinking and harassing an older couple. Charges laid. It made every paper in the region.
That's not most kids. Most kids in Durham this month look a lot more like Jahvaun Green-Chapman and Ebiehiremen Rejoice Okonowele.
On Monday, September 14, both of them stood at the Art Gallery of Ontario, in front of Lieutenant Governor Edith Dumont and a room of provincial ministers, and were named 2026 recipients of the Lincoln M. Alexander Award. It's Ontario's honour, named for the country's first Black Member of Parliament and Ontario's first Black Lieutenant Governor, for young people fighting racial discrimination. Fourteen young Ontarians received Legacy Awards this year across five programs. Two were from Oshawa.
Jahvaun is a scholar, an athlete, and a volunteer. The province says he "transformed personal adversity into positive action," which is a diplomatic way of saying life dealt him some hard hands and he chose to use them for other people. His work is mentorship, community service, standing up for kids who don't have somebody standing up for them. He's also a 2026 ONE City Scholar, a separate national recognition for young Black leaders headed to post-secondary. Two awards in one year.
Rejoice is president of her school's Black Student Association and a Student Senator on her board. Her leadership shows up in the concrete: initiatives that celebrate diversity, amplify student voices, and build a sense of belonging that wasn't there before. Every student at her board is going to have an easier time this year because of what she's already built.
She's a student. He's a student. Each of them was handed a certificate, $5,000 and a handshake from the Lieutenant Governor of Ontario.
Elsewhere in this issue: a six-year-old from Whitby heading to Spain to play chess for Canada. A grade-5er in Oshawa about to be police chief for a day. A hundred kids at the Kidney Walk on Sunday. Three teenagers on a train do not get to be the story about Durham's kids this month.
That's what these two are for.
Source: Ontario Newsroom · Durham Post
Know a Durham Region Changemaker? Hit reply.
Want to be the change? Durham needs you.
🥫 Every town in Durham is running its food drive right now, and it's got two weeks left.
National Hunger Action Month wraps up October 5. Every one of the eight towns has drop-off bins for Feed the Need in Durham, which considers one in four households here food-insecure. Fastest way to find your closest bin is on your own town's page:
ajax.ca/FoodDrive ·
clarington.net/FeedTheNeed ·
durham.ca/HungerAction ·
oshawa.ca/FeedTheNeed ·
pickering.ca/HungerAction ·
scugog.ca/HungerAction ·
townshipofbrock.ca/BrockBeatsHunger ·
whitby.ca/FeedTheNeed.
Can't get to a bin? Give online or ask about volunteering.
🎒 The kids in Simcoe Hall's after-school program need a hand.
Simcoe Hall Settlement House at 387 Simcoe St S in Oshawa is building a proper kitchen to feed 35 kids in their after-school program. They need appliances, materials, and anyone who swings a hammer for a living. If that's not you, there's an online registry for supplies.
Source: Simcoe Hall Settlement House
Run a Durham group that needs hands? Hit reply and we'll put the word out.
🌍 Sat Sept 26, 10am–2pm — Durham Newcomer Day
Region of Durham HQ, 605 Rossland Rd E, Whitby. The first one ever. Cultural performances, community exhibits, a vendor marketplace, kids' activities. Free.
Source: Region of Durham · Durham Immigration
🎨 Sat Sept 26, 1–4pm — RMG Fall Exhibits Launch
Robert McLaughlin Gallery, Oshawa. Three new exhibits opening at once, including "In Plains Air" by Zoe Ann Cardinal Cire (Beaver Lake Cree and Métis). Free.
Source: Robert McLaughlin Gallery · Durham Radio News
👟 Sun Sept 27 — The 2026 Durham Region Kidney Walk
Heydenshore Pavilion, 589 Water St, Whitby. Registration 9am. Last week we told you about Shannon Ottonen giving her stepdad Shawn one of her kidneys back in May. This is their walk. Go cheer them on, or lace up and walk it yourself.
🏥 Sun Sept 27, 9am–1pm — Steps for Care
Darlington Waterfront Trail, Bowmanville. The Bowmanville Hospital Foundation's inaugural 5K walk for its 50th year. Already over $20,000 raised. Free BBQ and ice cream at the finish.
Source: Bowmanville Hospital Foundation · Durham Post
🚬 Sun–Tue, Sept 28–30 — The Butt Blitz comes back to Oshawa.
Cigarette butts are the single most-picked-up piece of litter in Canada, and they're not really litter, they're plastic. A group called A Greener Future has hauled nearly a million of them out of Durham since 2014, more than half a million in Oshawa alone. This week they're back for three cleanups. Show up, get a bucket and a picker, spend a couple hours, help drinking water. Register free at each link. Sun Sept 28, noon — Ontario Tech. Tue Sept 30, 10am — Lakeridge Health. Tue Sept 30, 1pm — Oshawa Pier. Their top individual volunteer is an Oshawa retiree named Roger Davidson, who has picked up 22,000 butts this month walking his dog.
The week in good news.
🏛️ Nominations open in three towns this month for people who make their communities better. Ajax Community Awards closes October 2. Whitby's Celebrating Youth Awards (ages 12 to 18) closes October 23. Oshawa's 2027 Community Awards run until December 4. You know somebody who deserves one.
🪪 The Region is opening ID and Benefits Access Hubs across Durham in October — free one-on-one help with the Canada Pension Plan, the Canadian Dental Care Plan, the Canada Disability Benefit, Ontario Works, and getting or replacing a SIN, birth certificate or health card. Simple taxes too. Dates and locations here.
⚛️ The Pickering Nuclear refurbishment officially started this week, with $3 billion in contracts announced to Aecon teams alone. The program is expected to bring around $17 billion to Durham over its life and keep decades of skilled jobs here. Details.
🍎 Save the date: Applefest is Saturday, October 17, in Historic Downtown Bowmanville, the Saturday after Thanksgiving. Four blocks of apples, cider, pie, fresh hot fritters, and an artisan market. Details.
Photo: Durham College
A patch of dead grass at Durham College is becoming a forest built for people who forget.
There's a berm at Durham College's Whitby campus that nobody's really used for anything. Turf grass. Just sits there. Next year it becomes a Memory Forest, planted specifically for people living with dementia and the people who care for them.
The ceremonial first tree went in the ground on Wednesday, September 16. Durham College is leading the project with Trees for Life and the Alzheimer Society of Ontario, with the Barrett Family Foundation on the funding side.
What goes in isn't a park. It's a native-tree reforestation designed with accessible pathways, high-contrast wayfinding for people whose vision is changing, tactile features, sensory plantings, and gathering spots for caregivers to sit for a minute. Durham College students will help build and maintain it as part of their coursework, which means the same forest that helps someone's grandmother remember what a walk in the woods smells like is also teaching a nineteen-year-old how to steward a landscape.
Development continues through 2027. But the first tree is already in.
Source: Durham College · Durham Radio News
Three teenagers on a train.
They'll make the front page again. There'll be a follow-up, a think-piece, a comment section, another story just like it a week later. These ones always make the headlines.
The other kids don't. But they should.
Jahvaun and Rejoice earned a Lincoln Alexander Award. Sirhan is heading to Spain to play chess for his country at six. Anayta wrote an essay good enough to win her a police badge for a day. A kid at Simcoe Hall is going to eat a hot meal this fall because someone volunteered to build a kitchen. Students at Durham College are about to spend the next year planting a forest for people whose grandparents can't remember their names anymore.
You already know this. You just have to remember it on the days the headlines make you forget.
Wear orange on Wednesday. And keep an eye out for the good ones. There are more than you think.
Until next week...
Be Good. Do Good.
This is Durham Life.
MiKe Dee
Publisher
Durham Life — Local Media that Inspires
Covering Durham Region's 8 municipalities:
Ajax · Brock · Clarington · Oshawa · Pickering · Scugog · Uxbridge · Whitby
Covering Durham Region’s 8 municipalities: Ajax · Brock · Clarington · Oshawa · Pickering · Scugog · Uxbridge · Whitby