4 - Friday, March 6, 2009
THE STRATFORD CITIZEN
Letters & Opinions
Local people making a difference in El Salvador
housing or education and live in undesirable areas as It is a small country nestled squatters. on the west cost of Central Schools in these areas are America, struggling with not very well-equipped and poverty and an antiquated are mostly dilapidated. i n f r a s t r u c t u r e . T h e Children are required to a g r i c u l t u r a l - b a s e d have school uniforms and economy, largely centred supplies to attend class, on the production of which is too much of a coffee, provides a meager burden for many families existence for the people of who rely on low-paying El Salvador. Being a former part-time work. Less than Spanish colony that was h a l f o f t h e c h i l d r e n o n c e d i v i d e d i n t o graduate from Grade 6 and plantations has left the only one in five complete majority of El Salvador's h i g h s c h o o l . L y n n e people impoverished. Most Ternosky of Stratford lived of the power and wealth in El Salvador from 1991 are held by a small portion to 2001. She returned to El of the population, mainly Salvador last year with the original families who Carol Rock as members of owned the plantations and the Rotary Club of Festival the facilities to process C i t y t o c o n d u c t a coffee. Despite the C o m m u n i t y N e e d s expropriation of old A s s e s s m e n t w i t h t h e p l a n t a t i o n s b y t h e Rotary Club of Ciudad government to redistribute Merliot-Santa Tecla. This the land to farmers for co- endeavor has led to a major operatives, the best land, Rotary project to sponsor assets, and wealth remain children in the Chalchuapa with the elite. There is a region so they can attend growing middle class, but a school. The Rotary clubs of group of people have been Stratford, Goderich, St. left out. They cannot afford Marys, Mitchell, and By Duke Dunlop London-Hyde Park along with District and Rotary Foundation grants have raised US$42,750 so far for this educational project. Many individuals have also sponsored children through the Festival City Rotary Club. Mark Moore was deeply moved to help after witnessing the poverty on a trip to El Salvador to build houses. He and his wife Cheryl have sponsored four children and their staff at three Tim Horton Restaurants have also sponsored four children. Children in Grades 2 and 3 at Downie Central Public School have exchanged art with the children of La Laguna Seca school. People in the St. Marys area through the Rotary Club of St. Marys Charitable Trust have been building homes in the El Salvadoran Village of Las Lajas. And the work is not over yet. Lynne Ternosky, who is fluent in Spanish, wants to expand the program with more sponsored students and the construction of a school. She is taking high school students to El Salvador this summer where they will learn about the country and participate in some of the ongoing projects. The students are members of the Avon and Zurich Mennonite churches. Please call Lynne at 272-9861 if you would like to learn more about this Rotary project and how you can help. Also, in an ongoing drive to build a school and to supply children with books and mandatory school uniforms, the Rotary Club of Festival City Stratford and the Black Angus Restaurant presents the All-You-Can-Eat Spaghetti Dinner at The Black Angus Restaurant at 805 Downie Street on Monday, April 6. Tickets are available for $15 per person at the Black Angus, Home Hardware, Goco Gas Bars in Stratford and Mitchell and at the Queen's Inn. Please call 272-1666 to reserve your seating time.
Costa Rican dinner garnered “outstanding support”
Despite the frigid weather of Monday night, the Stratford Optimist Hall was full of warm food and generosity as the Global Studies Club of Stratford Central Secondary School hosted a fundraising dinner for students travelling to Costa Rica in May. Organized entirely by student Chris Viani of Central, with the guidance of Scott Wilby, chef of the Annex Room Café, an authentic-style Costa Rican meal was served which included tilapia, pork stew, beans and rice, nachos and salsa, and a mango trifle. While the crowd of 100 guests was being fed, an audio-video presentation explained how the funds raised would be invested in Puerto Viejo School, in an economically-depressed part of the country. Close to $2,000 was realized by the end of the night through dinner profits and outright cash donations. The organizers thank everyone for the outstanding support for this project and look forward to another dinner in the future to report on the success of this year's excursion. Dale Bast, Stratford
Questioning paid waste, lack of citywide composting program
and, in addition, we must pay for garbage disposal. Why is it that tax dollars do not seem to cover this e x p e n d i t u r e ? We , o f course, realize that there must be some limitation and control over the number of bags collected but for normal disposal? Another question arises: what about composting? There does not seem to be any program such as the "green can" to go with the blue box. Finally, a comment about the Cooper site. While I normally have no use for the OMB (it is an uncontrollable tool of unscrupulous developers), it would seem that in this c a s e , M r. R y a n h a s presented the best solution for the city to obtain this property at reasonable cost without undertaking the tedious and expensive p r o c e d u r e o f expropriation. Obviously this is the best solution for establishing a logical location for the new university site. Paul Hughson, Stratford
To the editor, Please let me preface my remarks by saying that we have recently moved to Stratford from Oakville and are quite happy to be here, finding Stratford to be a great place to live. This includes the General Hospital where, unfortunately, I found it By Michele Hurd cereal is 35 cents (30 grams generally indicates the labels, the picture on the necessary to spend some of cereal in a serving). product is less processed. box or the name of the time for an operation, If you're like many families That's 13 cents more per As well, they are low in cereal often gives you an however am thankful for with young children, bowl than some cereals saturated and trans fats idea of how wholesome the the excellent care I received there's a good chance geared to adults. In and sodium. product is. For example, if there. I get a laugh from you've taken your children addition to their higher In times when every penny t h e p i c t u r e f e a t u r e s living in the "city" of grocery shopping. No cost, these cereals offer counts, why pay more for b r i g h t l y - c o l o u r e d o r Stratford (population doubt you've rolled the very little in terms of less nutrition? To choose a chocolate-coloured flakes, 32,000) as opposed to grocery cart down the nutrition. Many have 3 cereal that's worth every circles or balls, there's a what is still called the cereal aisle and had your teaspoons of sugar in a cent, look on the Nutrition good chance it's a costly " t o w n " o f O a k v i l l e kids beg you to buy some bowl, zero or very little Facts panel and choose cereal with little nutrition. (population 170,000). It is kind of highly-advertised fibre and a long ingredient cereals with: The same is true if the name nice to get away from the cereal that is more like a list that includes artificial • 2 grams or less of total of the cereal is similar to "GTA"! A new highway candy than a nutritious flavours and colour. This is fat, the name of a popular here gobbling up valuable f a r m l a n d i s way to start your day. Your similar to a 1/2 cup of cola. • 0 grams of trans fat, candy or chocolate bar. children assure you that T h e s e c e r e a l s h a v e • at least 2 grams of fibre, If you can't resist your counterproductive and they know it's 'part of a vitamins and minerals but • 8 grams or less of sugar, children's pleas to buy more expensive than good breakfast' and that it generally in very small • less than 240 mg sodium. these cereals, consider rebuilding and upgrading ' t a s t e s g r e a t ! ' I s n ' t amounts. To their credit, Keep in mind that these are buying the cereal when it's the existing roadway. advertising wonderful? most of these cereals are guidelines for a 30-gram on sale, serving it as a Our "beef" concerns The high cost of these low in saturated and trans serving size of cereal. If the dessert, mixing it with a taxation. We find that on a cereals is one reason to fats as well as sodium. serving size on the package more nutritious cereal or p r o r a t e d b a s i s f o r comparable properties, keep rolling the grocery 'Adult' cereals, on the other of cereal is more or less serving it with fruit. cart past them. hand, have less sugar, more t h a n 3 0 g r a m s , t h e Michele Hurd is a public taxes are significantly The average cost for a bowl f i b r e , a n d a s h o r t numbers may vary. If you health dietitian with the higher here than formerly experienced in Oakville, of some popular children's ingredient list, which don't like reading food Perth District Health Unit.
Cereals advertised to kids are high in sugar and low on nutrition
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