Wakefield
Community Events
On June 5 Wakefield Ensemble hosted a meeting of forty local
residents to hear the presentation of the Community Vitality
Initiative Assessment
prepared by Mike Stolte of the Centre for Innovative and
Entrepreneurial Leadership (CIEL). After reviewing this
report the participants voted on the areas of focus and
actions it recommended. Four priorities were identified:
(1) enhancing the "Wakefield Brand" as a destination, (2)
cooperative marketing using artisans as a focal point, (3)
initiatives to link the English and French communities, and
(4) creating an annual festival of arts and culture.
The project is part of the Canadian pilot project in the
Community Vitality Initiative (CVI), a process designed to
boost economic and social development opportunities in
communities.
For more information visit the website at www.theCIEL.com,
or call David Nobbs at (819) 459-1600
Robert
and Brenda Rooney have just returned from a visit to
Alexandra Township in South Africa, where they have been
shooting their documentary The Great Grannie Revolution,
dealing with the relationship between the Wakefield Grannies
(of which Brenda is a founding member) and the Alexandra Go-Gos,
a group of South African grandmothers. The focus of the
film is Petronella Makharya, a grandmother raising her two
grandchildren and two adopted children. The project has
received $6000 from the Stephen Lewis Foundation, which
funds grassroots projects intended to further the struggle
against AIDS in Africa. Rooney Productions is still looking
for funding to ensure that the documentary is ready to be
shown at the Foundation's conference in Toronto in the days
leading up to the World AIDS Conference in August.
For more information visit the website at
www.rooneyproductions.com
June 11. Wakefield in Concert will be presenting some of the
best young musicians in the district at St. Andrew's United
Church at 2.00 pm.The
program includes a harp trio (Sarah Adcock from Chelsea,
Marie-Eve Lafontaine from Chelsea and Sophie Rusnock from
Ottawa) from the Ottawa Youth Orchestra Academy; Julian
Geistefer from Chelsea, classical and jazz guitar; Amy and
Alex Cook from Chelsea, piano; Kyla Brooks from Wakefield,
soprano; and a group of Trish Barclay's violin students.
Admission by donation.
On
May 19 the Minor Niners, a group of four students from
Philemon Wright High School, performed before for the first
time outside the school, before an audience at the Black
Sheep Inn
which demanded, and got, an encore.
The group consists of David Taggart (bass), Jesse Polowin
(lead guitar), Jake Watson (drums) and Emmett Pavey (rhythm
guitar).
Anyone interested in the group can communicate with them by
e-mail at
edjjmusic@hotmail.com
Recent events at the Wakefield Library (on May 27) have
included
a Storytelling session on Pets and a reading by
Wakefield writer Hope Maclean from her book Yarn
Paintings of the Huichol.
Radio
Wakefield
Radio Wakefield offers a medium of communication and
artistic expression to the community.
Established in November 2005 with web space funded by Rotary
International as part of the Radio Free Network Radio
Wakefield has been operating as a shell streaming 35 tunes
picked by Paul Symmes of the Black Sheep Inn. Founder Brian
Sanderson, of Rupert, says the station is now ready to
received blogs, music, works in progress, critiques and
agricultural news. It can be a portal to the World Wide Web
and a marketing tool for local business people. Sanderson
says: "The components are there -- the web, the hosting, the
server -- it's up to the community to grow it."
Visit
http://radiowakefield.ca to register, or contact
brian@radiofreenetwork.ca
Listen now
Wakefield Public Library
Contest.
Biblio Wakefield Library has a new Young Adults/ADO section,
including A DOOR THAT NEEDS ART. The winner of the contest
gets $100 cash and a bag of book booty. Each entry gets a
free Sandy's pizza and baseball cap. Deadline for entries:
April 14. Get forms at the Library or call Glennis at (819)
459-2747.
The Fairbairn House, a 19th century heritage
building, has been moved to its new foundation in Hendricks
Park in Wakefield.
Built in the 1860s for William Fairbairn and his wife Jean
Wanless, the house is thought to be the oldest building in
Wakefield built with sawn lumber. William Fairbairn built
the first grist mill in Wakefield, in 1838. The house is to
become a local and regional museum, sponsored by the
Gatineau Valley Historical Society, the MRC Des Collines and
the Municipality of
La Peche.
A website has been opened at
www.fairbairn.ca
