Mobile Cheerleaders tops in Canada again

An unexpected chance to compete at the World School Cheerleading Competition in Florida last month saw a team of students from Mobile Central High turn the heads of judges with performances that earned them a placement of fourth overall in the non-tumbling division and an additional prize as best entry from Canada.

"We weren’t planning to travel this year at all," said coach Aprille Whelan, who started out on the team as a student cheerleader eight years ago when it was introduced to Mobile by her cousin Amanda Hewitt and has continued on as coach even now that she is a teacher herself at Roncalli in Avondale.

The invitation to Florida, which included all expenses being paid aside from air travel, came from the International Cheerleading Union and stemmed from Mobile’s capture of the Canadian national championship held in Niagara Falls last year. The union invited select teams from other provinces as well.

Some 21 cheerleaders along with coaches made the trip to Orlando, Florida, where they were housed at the Disney Resort with some 1,000 other teams. "It was crazy, there were cheerleaders everywhere," said Whelan, explaining the United States High School championships were being held the same time as the world event. Teams came from Jamaica, Mexico, Ecuador and other countries.

Why is Mobile so good at cheerleading?

"I don’t know," said Whelan, laughing. "I guess it’s where we started from the bottom and over time worked our way up."

The program has benefited, she allowed, from the fact the school runs from Grades 7 to 12, meaning students who are interested in cheerleading get seven years to participate on the team. That means the team’s composition doesn’t change much from year to year. "We lose three or four kids a year but we never have a year where we have to completely start over," Whelan said.

Though the team practices only twice a week, the sessions are crucial and members seldom miss one. The Mobile squad is undefeated in provincial cheerleading competitions.

"They just seem to be getting better and better," said Whelan.

The friendships formed by such a dedicated group of athletes are special, she added. It’s not uncommon to see Grade 12 members spending time with Grade 7 teammates outside of the gym.

The Florida trip was a nice surprise. Along with competing, the Mobile students were given four day park passes at the Magic Kingdom and other Disney venues. "It was an amazing trip overall," said Whelan, who said the team members didn’t have any trouble focusing on the competition, despite the attractions of the setting.

Not long after the team returned from Florida, Whelan noted, one of the students approached her, because she was having trouble filling out a scholarship application that included space for 50 words to describe her biggest accomplishment. "She said, ‘Of course I chose cheerleading,’" Whelan said. "’But here I am 850 words later and I can’t find a way of wrapping it up about how much cheerleading has changed my life.’ That’s the type of thing it is. They truly are die hard about it and there’s nowhere else they’d rather be than in the gym practicing. I could tell them we’re going to practice five days in a row and they’d be there, it wouldn’t matter."

Goulds powerlifter is world class

She has represented her province at national competitions in Toronto, St. John’s and Regina and won medals for Canada at world events in South Africa and Finland. In June, Janessa Ward, 19, of the Goulds, will don Canada’s colours again, this time at the World Powerlifting Championships in Texas.

Ward qualified for that tournament by winning a gold medal in the Junior women’s category at the Canadian national powerlifting championships in Regina, Saskatchewan last month.

She manages to schedule four training sessions a week around her second year studies at Memorial University and a job at the Shea Heights Community Centre where she has worked the past two years. Ward trains with the NL Kettlebells at Heavyweights Training Centre in Mount Pearl with coach Kevin Farrell.

Ward says she wouldn’t be where she is in the sport without Farrell’s coaching and the support of her family and friends. Her friendly and outgoing personality belies the determination it takes to succeed in what is an intensively physical sport.

The difference between weightlifting and power lifting is basically in the moves, Ward explains. In weightlifting, competitors perform what are called the clean and press and snatch positions where you take the weight off the ground and flip it high over your head. Powerlifting has three lifts, the squat, bench press and dead lift.

Ward got into weightlifting almost three years ago when she joined Heavyweights gym. At first it was just for fun. After she graduated high school, she got more serious about it. Before that, Ward says, she played pretty much all the sports available to her in the Goulds, including basketball, soccer, softball and ice hockey. She is also a cheerleader with Memorial University’s cheerleading team.

Ward says she has a lot of fun training. "And it makes things in everyday life a lot easier," she adds, even shopping when you happen to come across a heavy item. "And it’s also very technical. People think you just pick it up and put it down, but you actually have to think about the motions, which is kind of cool, and to see how much you can actually lift amazes people. It’s hard work, but it’s fun."

During training, lifters work out using anywhere from 70 to 90 per cent of the maximum weight they can manage, "which could be anywhere from 200 to almost 400 pounds," says Ward, who can deadlift 380 pounds and one time managed to squat 390 pounds.

"So I’m working towards 400," she says.

That’s a long way from where she started. "I could squat 150 pounds and it was really difficult and really ugly to look at," Ward says of her first efforts. "People thought I was going to get hurt because it was so non-technical."

The travel that comes with elite competition is right up Ward’s alley. She likes to travel and says the weightlifting tournaments give her a good excuse to do it. Her first world championship event was in South Africa, the second in Finland. She has won two silver and now a gold medal at national events and at her first world competition she won four gold medals. "I was in a younger age category, so it was a little bit easier then," she says. "Now I’ve moved up to the junior age category, which is 19 to 23."

But she is still winning medals. At the world’s last year, Ward captured a bronze medal in deadlifting.

Ward has never injured herself at the weights, but she does have a couple of old injuries that makes lifting a bit complicated, at least for the judges watching her. "I broke my elbow when I was eight and it is still bent," she says, explaining she has only 17 per cent of the regular movement available in that part of her arm. "So when I bench press, it causes a lot of problems, because people say the elbow is not locked," she says. "In competitions I’ve almost been disqualified for it."

Ward brings a doctor’s letter with her to events, in case she has to appear before a jury to explain her restricted elbow movement.

Ward admits to being surprised by the lack of attention paid to her sport. She points out that her fellow Goulds power lifter Gail Johnson owns a couple of national records and many powerlifters in Newfoundland have not been recognized in the media.

But she likes the sense of fraternity that the powerlifting community shares. Ward and some of the lifters she has met at competitions stay in touch throughout the year and even share training videos.

Ward is looking forward to her next big tournament, the world competition in Texas this summer.

Performance, she allows, can depend as much on an athlete’s mental and emotional state as her physical one.

"It is definitely nerve wracking," she says. "I find that if I have a good day in the warm-ups, I don’t get as nervous. But if the warm-ups are moving slow or I feel a little bit stiff, say because your hips can get a little bit tight because of flying, I tend to focus on the people watching then because I’m not as focused overall. It’s a mental game for sure."

Ward figures the combination of travel and competition will keep her in the sport for a while yet. She is thinking about possibly attending world competitions slated for Belarus in two years’ time and another one in Australia.

"I kind of put a star next to the ones I want to go to, because of the places, and let it go from there," she says.

Special group of players win Confederation Cup

Thanks to the moral support of one of the team’s biggest boosters and a growing sense of confidence in themselves, the St. Kevin’s Mavericks senior boys hockey team exceeded expectations last week at the Confederation Cup, winning the Tier Two championship and racking up a steady streak of wins in games leading up to the final contest.

The final itself was a smoker with the Mavericks and a team from Marystown ending up tied by the end of the third period, forcing a five minute overtime period and then a shootout, which St. Kevin’s won.

"I’m glad the boys pulled it out, it was a real intense game there in the end," said coach Jason Snelgrove. "It was a fun week, I must say. The boys battled hard and they had a lot of hockey... It was really a total team effort."

The Confederation Cup is the largest high school hockey tournament in Atlantic Canada, drawing teams from across this province and even the Maritimes. St. Kevin’s played two games on the opening night of the tournament, followed by three games the following day and two games on the playoff day.

The tournament is so big, games are held at rinks throughout the Northeast Avalon. St. Kevin’s was fortunate, however, to play most of its games on home ice at the Goulds Arena, though the semi-final was played at the Glacier and the championship game at the new double arena in Paradise.

The Mavericks gored Laval 7-1 in the opening game, edged Holy Trinity 3-0 then dropped a game to a team from Inverness, Nova Scotia, 8-3, but rallied in the first elimination game to beat a high school from Stephenville 4-1, then Prince of Wales Collegiate 5-2 in the crossovers and Gonzaga 3-1 in the semi-finals, which included an empty netter.

As with the teams the Mavericks face in the High School Metro league, most of the squads it grappled with in the tournament were drawn from schools with much larger student populations than that of St. Kevin’s.

But with many of the games in the Goulds, the Mavericks were able to draw a large fan base for each of the contests. Snelgrove said that support definitely helped. Large numbers of students, as well as parents and relatives and even some teachers, turned up for the games. "It was nice," Snelgrove said.

The players also benefited from having student Colin Ward as a member of the team staff in the role of motivator. Ward has been a big supporter of the team all season and was made an honourary member of the squad just before Christmas.

Snelgrove said the spirit of the team is raised by Ward’s enthusiasm and his own example of battling some health issues without ever getting down. Ward, who is set to receive a kidney transplant later this spring, attended all the games of the tournament and encouraged the players with pep talks. When the championship trophy was presented, the players included Ward in the festivities on the ice and gave him a turn hoisting the cup to the cheers of fans and other supporters. "That was a special moment for everybody at the rink," Snelgrove said. "He was a big part of motivating the players every game... He adds a tonne to the group."

The coach is hoping the Confederation Cup victory will boost the team’s confidence in the Metro League, where it is sitting in fourth place out of five teams.

"We played the last couple of months short a good number of bodies," Snelgrove noted. "Not to give an excuse. But we’ve got a pretty solid team. I’m pretty pleased with the team we’ve got this year, but they went the last number of games without a win."

For some reason, the team and a large part of the student population seemed to rally for this tournament, Snelgrove said. St. Kevin’s has a good record at the Confederation Cup: last year it made it to the final, but lost against Mount Pearl Senior High. "So I guess this year was a bit of a redemption year for the team," he added.

Some of the players even wondered why their team was placed in the Tier Two division of the tournament, instead of Tier One, since St. Kevin’s has played and beaten some of the top division squads this season. Snelgrove said he told his players the Confederation Cup was a good chance for them to start proving they have a Tier One team and then take that momentum into the remaining games of the Metro League season.

"That’s what I’m hoping, Snelgrove said, "that they can use this one as a builder and make a good run for the league championship."

Snelgrove said the team is comprised of a hard working group of players. "And that’s what the tournament was like - we had to use every single person we had," he added. "Our alternates played games all weekend long, we’ve got a team that in order to be successful everybody has to play their game. I wouldn’t say we were an offensive team or a defensive team, but when we’ve got the group going, we’re pretty solid... I don’t think there’s been a game all year where we haven’t dressed a couple of alternates."

The team is carrying 20 skaters, including four alternates, and a goalie. "This is the first year that I’ve been coaching, and I’ve been coaching the team four years, that we’ve actually had to cut people," Snelgrove said, "because usually every year you get (just) 17 or 18 people coming down to try out and basically you take everyone and name a couple of alternates. But this year we had 26 or 27 people try out."

Snelgrove said he has enjoyed many special moments with the team since he’s been coaching. "But this (Confederation Cup win) tops it as of right now," he said. "It’s a really good group of boys and they deserve it."

Goulds students pound the pavement in name of science and prizes

   A bid to develop a better kind of pavement that will prevent potholes has launched students in two Grade 9 classes at St. Kevin's High School into the late rounds of the Samsung Solve For Tomorrow Challenge.
   The students have already won $1,500 worth of Samsung technology for their school and are in the running to win further prizes of $20,000 and $50,000 worth of Samsung tablets, computers, cameras and other electronics.
   The project started when teachers Mike Schulz and Caitlin O'Brien saw the contest announced by Samsung and decided their students could give it a shot.
   "What Samsung wanted to do was encourage schools to find a problem in the community and find a way to use STEM - science, technology, engineering and mathematics - to solve it," Shulz said.
   "Prior to submitting our application we met with and brainstormed with some grade 9 classes over what they thought were issues facing our community," said O'Brien. "They came up with a lot of great ideas. We then asked them how STEM could be applied to solve the problem. This narrowed down our 'problems,' and at the end of several sessions we took a vote in the class to decide which problem would be the basis of our application."
   The students' idea impressed the judges enough to make the first cut into a list of 55 semi-finalists across Canada, including four other schools in this province. The successful application earned the Goulds school a Samsung camera and tablet.
   "Basically we wanted to look at how pavement deteriorates, is it our climate that's the factor, is it the type of vehicles on the road - studded tires, that kind of thing," said Schulz.
   The students have been studying the composition of pavement and the conditions that cause deterioration and potholes to see if they can find a better way to make asphalt. Local contractor Leon Howse visited the school and gave a presentation on how pavement is made. He brought along a core sample of pavement that the students have been studying in the lab where they are learning how the freezing and melting of water inside the cracks of pavement affect its integrity. The theory is that the repeated freezing and thawing cycles in this province during winter leads to the creation of potholes.
   "Now we have to make a video demonstrating how we're going to solve our problem," Shulz said.
   "This video will then be used to determine the winners of $20,0000 in Samsung technology and a chance to win $50,000 in Samsung technology," said O'Brien. "Eleven of the 55 Semi-finalists will win $20,000 and two of these 11 will win $50,000. Our school and the grade 9 classes are really excited to have been chosen as one of the five semi-finalists in this province and are working hard towards completing our video with hopes to move on to the next round."

Scientist gauging wear and tear on Mistaken Point fossils

   Experiments slated to be carried out over the next two years at the Mistaken Point Ecological Reserve by a researcher from Oxford University may give the province and local custodians of the ancient fossils a better idea of how to protect them from weathering and foot traffic.
   The research is being led by Jack Matthews, very soon to be a newly minted doctor of paleontology, who has been coming over from England for years to study the fossils at Mistaken Point as well as similar fossil beds near Port Union on the Bonavista Peninsula.
Matthews, who will be working with researchers at Memorial University and several other institutions, is planning to make at least two trips to Mistaken Point this summer.
   Though he’s only 27, Matthews has been studying the fossils here since his undergraduate days at Oxford. He recently spent weeks hiking through the barrens and brush from Mistaken Point to Cape Race and also the Port Union area to develop detailed new geological maps, including the ages of the rocks, which will soon be published in a scientific journal for peer review. The last geological mapping of the Mistaken Point area was done in the 1970s and '80s and from a boat navigating the coastline. Matthews took time to serve as guest speaker at the annual general meeting of Mistaken Point Ambassadors Inc., last month in Portugal Cove South. About 25 people attended the session.
   While people in the Port Union area are also working to promote their fossil beds and obtain "geo park status," Matthews said he doesn't see the two areas as being in a conflict or a competition from a tourism or scientific research perspective. "They've got some really interesting fossil finds over there," Matthews allowed. "I think you both support each other and the better that one does, the better the other one does (too) and everyone helps each other out."
   Matthews is planning some unique experiments, including with a foot ware manufacture in Great Britain that will involve the use of robotic equipment to assess the effect that walking has on rocks collected at Mistaken Point. But he will also closely examine the effects that weather and climate may be having on the fossil beds at Mistaken Point and surrounding area.
   "We're here because you have such superb fossils," Matthews said. "So what's the problem? Well, there's damage happening to the fossils and that is just a fact."
   To give a sense of the damage, Matthews displayed two sets of photographs on a large screen. The pictures depicted the exact same fossils and surrounding rock, but separated by a timespan of some 20 years with the first photographs taken in the 1990s by a prominent geologist and the second set by Matthews in 2008. It's clear from the images that the quality of the fossils on the rock surface is degrading. In a couple of cases, "hold fasts," or the material that anchor a fossil to the rock bed, have been "bashed out." The thin layer of ash that surrounds, and protects the rocks on surface, is also receding. 
   "We don't know why," said Matthews. "I am not at the moment talking about whether it's a natural process or a human process. We don't know... but damage has happened, that is beyond doubt… We need to figure this out so that we've got a management plan to ensure that this has some long term sustainability.".
   Matthews has also developed a diagram that succinctly summarizes the various government agencies and laws that exist to protect the fossils. The work will help compare the laws and governance regimes here with those in other jurisdictions to see if improvements can be made.
But Newfoundland already seems to have a better system than exists in his native United Kingdom, Matthews admitted. Mistaken Point also has the benefit of interested local residents.
   "There is a passion here and a sense of ownership and that's so important in making sure that these vital resources are preserved," Matthews said. "You've got community engagement here."
   Matthews said Mistaken Point is a globally significant scientific locality. “People want to come here from all around the world, from universities to study your rocks," he said. "But even more than that, people, whoever they may be, want to come here and see these rocks where you are seeing the origin of animal life and they want to pay a few dollars on the way and they want to stay somewhere and they want to buy some food and that's all good for the local economy. And the simplest way to put what my project is for the next two years is to ensure both as scientists and as a community that we work together to make sure that we use this resource sustainably."
   Without a plan to ensure that sustainability, Matthews argued, the fossils could erode to the point where they lose much of their value and UNESCO, which is weighing whether to accord the site World Heritage Status, could decide to take the status away down the road.
   "What I want is that you can have a Mistaken Point that you can hand on to your children and I have a Mistaken Point that I can hand on to the people who take over the research from me whenever I move on to whatever I do next," Matthews said. "That's my passion and what I want to see happen and I want to work with you to get that. So it's all about developing a sustainable resource. I'm going to be looking at these rates of erosion, looking at the weathering patterns on the different rocks... And I'm going to be gathering scientific evidence on what is controlling the erosion - is it natural, is it human? And from there we will work together to build recommendations so that we've got a management plan… There is so much (tourism) potential here it's unbelievable - but we've just got to make sure there's something there to hand over to the next generation."
   After his presentation, Matthews spent some 45 minutes inviting and fielding questions about himself and his work.
   “Community engagement is a really important factor for me," Matthews said. "I want you to feel that you can say your views to me and your opinions, and I have known from the support in this community and Trepassey and up around Port Union that having community support makes a lot of difference and makes my life a lot easier and it makes this so much more enjoyable. I want you to know that if you have questions, you can ask them.”

Council dismisses conflict charges in Bay Bulls

   Bay Bulls Mayor Patrick O'Driscoll had the RCMP evict a woman from the Town Hall this month after she tried to address council about her application for Crown Land during a public council meeting.
   Linda Furlong-Coles had contacted council before the meeting requesting permission to speak under council's delegation policy, but was turned down. After several warnings, and a demand that she apologize to council, O'Driscoll adjourned the meeting and asked the RCMP officer who was stationed near the door, to remove her from the chamber. The officer, along with two other Mounties who were called in, escorted Furlong-Coles from the building. Afterwards, the mayor returned to the chamber with an RCMP escort and called the session back to order.
   Furlong-Coles has been trying for months to get council to decide one way or the other on her application. Previous councils approved it twice before but she could not proceed because the area wasn't zoned for houses. After the new Town Plan came into effect last year, which changed the zoning, Furlong-Coles applied again. However, this time she found herself competing for the land with councillor Jason Sullivan who has applied for 34 hectares of Crown Land to build a 50 lot subdivision. Sullivan's swatch encompasses the acre that Furlong-Coles is seeking.
   After Furlong-Coles was evicted from the meeting, council voted on Sullivan's application to further rezone the area to allow half acre lots instead of the larger sizes required under the current zoning. But Mayor O'Driscoll wouldn't say whether the vote was an approval or not. The motion, which O'Driscoll made himself, was cryptically worded.
   Councillor Gerard Mulcahy suggested council defer a decision Furlong-Coles' application pending a legal opinion. It was seconded by Deputy Mayor Harold Mullowney, but couldn't get enough support to pass.
   "I'm not sure we should be spending taxpayers' money on an opinion," said councillor Rick Oxford.
   Mayor O'Driscoll observed that while a Crown Land applicant can reapply every year to keep an application current, "that wasn't the case (here)."
   Oxford, who is a real estate agent, argued against Furlong-Coles' bid.
"I'm just trying to get my head around as to why we need to go get a legal opinion when we've already approved action (for Sullivan) on the same parcel of land... Does anybody want to discuss that, or add to that?" Oxford asked. "Which is the most beneficial to the town? Council has a responsibility for positive, responsible growth to the Town of Bay Bulls and I'm not convinced that approving a one acre lot and gaining a tax base of a single family residence is to the town's benefit over a multiple family subdivision. That's just common sense reasoning when you look at the tax base."
   Oxford then moved to reject Furlong-Coles' application. After three calls from the chair, nobody would second it meaning her application was neither formally approved, nor rejected, but as good as rejected.
   Council then turned to Sullivan's application to rezone the land, with Sullivan, Oxford and councillor Joan Luby leaving the chamber citing conflict of interest.
   "I make a motion to follow the legal advice outlined by our legal and send a letter to the applicant," said Mayor O'Driscoll.
   "I'll second it," said councillor Mulcahy.
   The motion passed unanimously. Asked to clarify whether council had just approved the application or not, the mayor was unclear. "Council is not making a decision on whether to approve it or not, it's sending a letter with its opinions. That's the decision council is making on the request."
   Earlier in the meeting, meanwhile, council finally moved to address longstanding conflict of interest allegations against Sullivan, councillor Joan Luby, Deputy Mayor Mullowney and Oxford, voting to dismiss all the claims.
   Luby had been accused of being in a conflict of interest by Oxford's brother-in-law, developer Fraser Paul, who had complained that she voted on his application last spring which involved land adjacent to one of her family members. Sullivan had accused Mullowney of being in a conflict of interest after the Deputy Mayor had argued council should stand by its minimum lot sizes because of the boggy ground in the area that Sullivan wants to develop. The charge against Oxford was a new one that had not been disclosed prior to the meeting.

Minister promises to move Witless Bay Town Plan forward

   Municipal Affairs Minister Eddie Joyce will meet with the seven members of Witless Bay council this week to discuss implementing the long delayed Town Plan.
   The move follows the completion of a Commissioner's report that was ordered by the previous Municipal Affairs Minister following a plebiscite last fall that heavily favoured an earlier incarnation of the Town Plan over one that was altered by the current council. The earlier version, call Plan A on the plebiscite ballot, protects the traditional development rights of property owners near Mullowney’s Lane and several other parts of town. Plan B would see those areas zoned as Conservation. It also calls for larger lot sizes in several places in the community.
   For now Joyce is not tipping his hand as to which way he will move on the report. However Mayor Sébastien Després served notice last week that he will challenge the decision if the minister endorses the will of the voters and moves to register Plan A. Després maintains the plebiscite was illegal.
   "The plan is to meet with the Town and give them a copy of the Commissioner's report and then release the report to the public," Joyce said. "And once we release the report to the public and give the Town a chance to mull it over... government then is going to make a decision with whatever feedback we get and however it goes."
   Asked whether the results of the plebiscite will carry a lot of weight since as many people voted in it as did in the last council election, Joyce said, "Everything is going to be looked at, absolutely everything... We're going to take everything into consideration when we make a decision."
   Joyce is aware that council is deeply divided over the issue. "I think the whole issue is complicated," he said. "That's where towns have to come together and try to compromise. I did get a briefing and I did go through the whole scenario and the whole sequence of events, dates and times and most of the things that happened with it, so I'm well aware of the whole scenario with it. And so what I'll do is wait until I meet with the town and release the copy of the Commissioner's report and we'll take it from there as to what we're going to do. But definitely it makes a difference and I know that there's been a lot of things said to each other and a lot of things happened."
   Joyce is anticipating the matter will be decided "in the very near future. I don't mean in the next two or three days, but this will not be dragging on for the next year or so or the next six months,” he said. “There will be a decision made and then we can take it from there. I understand what the people went through - I understand all that - but there will be a decision made on it in the next little while."
   As for complaints by both sides that the Department of Municipal Affairs has been unclear and wishy washy in it's handling of the dispute, which is dragging into its fourth year, Joyce suggested there is an onus on members of municipal councils to try to come together and he if can help that process, he is willing to do it.
   "I won't shy away from decisions that have to be made and the department won't shy away from trying to help municipalities," Joyce added. "This is a prime example this Witless Bay one. This has been going on (for a while) and it's causing a lot of tensions in families and a lot of households. I'm inheriting this (issue) in Witless Bay and no matter where you go, there are certain people who are going to be upset with the decision. But there has to be a decision made and I hope there is some compromise, but if not, a decision has to be made. There is an active council there now with seven members and I hope all of the issues are resolved with conflict of interest and the other things, and I hope they will make a decision. But if they don't, there has to be closure to it somehow so the town can move on."

Father Christmas of St. Mary's Bay reluctantly retires his suit

     When the St. Mary’s recreation committee held its annual Christmas parade earlier this month, a familiar character was missing. For only the second time in something over 30 years, Kevin Christopher wasn’t available to represent the man from the North Pole with his presence at the parade. The only other time Christopher missed the show was one year when a storm stranded him in St. John’s and he couldn’t make it back to St. Mary’s in time to don the red suit and beard which marked him as Santa’s understudy.
     This year, however, Christopher reluctantly had to retire from the role for good due to a worsening lung problem that is affecting his health.
     “I was at it for a long time and it was something that I truly enjoyed,” says Christopher, 64. “It was with mixed emotions that I had to retire from the Santa Claus parade this year.”
     But Christopher did more than represent the jolly old elf in the parade every December. He also donned the suit to make the rounds at personal care homes in the area to bring cheer to seniors and made countless visits to family homes to make sure the children were preparing to tuck in early for the visit of the real Santa Claus later that night.
     “I would go to as many houses I could get to,” says Christopher. “Some mornings it would be half past 2 before I would get home.”
     Many a time Christopher would do some rounds, come home and change out of the suit for Mass, and then afterwards don the gear to head out again.
     “It was something I truly enjoyed, from the time I first went at it,” says Christopher. “I went everywhere.”
     Christopher’s route took him as far south as Peter’s River and as far north as Riverhead, though St. Mary’s and the Gaskiers were his main stomping grounds. As the population of young people dwindled in the region through the ‘90s and early 2000s, due to people having smaller families and many families moving away to look for work, Christopher found himself venturing further afield to spread his Christmas joy.
     “I have some fine memories,” he says. “And I also ran into a few snarls.”
     The worst “snarl” Christopher got in happened in Peter’s River one night, when a dog took after the man in the red suit and in his hurry to escape, Christopher banged the truck door shut on his thumb. It was Santa’s first call of the evening. Five band aids later, Christopher resumed his rounds, putting the pain out of his mind and enjoying the warm welcomes he found in people’s homes.
     “When I went to Church that evening I had a thumb like Elmer Fudd,” says Christopher, laughing. “A lot of queer old things used to happen over the years.”
Kevin and his wife Cecilia never had children themselves.  “Those were my children,” he says of the many youngsters from infants to those on still hovering on the edge of belief who he visited.
     “They’d tell me all kinds of stuff,” he says. “They would ask about the reindeer and things like that. I’d tell them to go to bed early. Afterwards some parents told me that I wouldn’t be gone through the door and they’d be after taking off to bed.”
     Christopher found himself the recipient of a lot of milk and many cookies over the years. One time, turning away so nobody could see him lift his beard while he ate, a child who was listening to the gulping and crunching coming from the back of the man in the red suit said, “Mommy, Santa is some hungry this year,” Christopher recalls.
     Another time, Christopher managed to restore a child’s faith in Santa Claus. The child was pretty certain that Christopher was posing as Father Christmas and stayed up one evening to try catching him out. Christopher had a friend don the special suit and walk around outside the house as he knocked on the door and paid a call on the family, taking care to ensure the child saw the visitor outside.
     Several years ago, Christopher was approached by a young fellow who seemed pretty worried. “He said, ‘Santa, you’re not going to fine my house this year,’” Christopher remembers. “His family’s home had burned down. “I said, ‘Don’t you worry, Santa knows where you are staying.’”
     It’s memories like that that mean the most, Christopher says.
     Early during his career, Christopher almost managed to almost fool his own mother. Mary Francis Christopher, or Francey, was after moving into a local personal care home. She was the kind of woman who always loved a good laugh, and that’s how Christopher found her one night, at the home, holding court.
     “I told the staff not to let on that it was me,” says Christopher. He went into her room and sat in a chair, being careful not to speak in case she would recognize him. But it was no good. After a little while she addressed him directly by name.
     Some Christmases later, when Francey was stricken with a severe flu, Christopher told her he would stay with her for the night. “She looked at me and said right quick, ‘Kevin, don’t you disappoint those little children.’”
     One Christmas, Christopher was worried all night about a particular visit he had on his list. “It was a young girl who had cancer in her legs,” he says, reckoning the child was about nine years old at the time. “I knew that was going to be the hardest one I would go to that night and I was a bit late getting to her house. I had a lump in my throat as big as an apple.”
     The little girl had fallen asleep on the couch waiting for Santa. Her father woke her when Christopher came in. “She had no hair,” says Christopher. “I spoke to her and gave her a doll.”
     Today that little girl is grown up, Christopher notes happily, and has children of her own.
     Often times, parents would arrange to leave a little gift outside the home for Santa to slip into his bag and present to the child, Christopher says. Many a time too, someone would offer Santa a glass of cheer for his labours. “I never touched a drink or a beer anytime I was out,” Christopher says, “because it was youngsters’ night.”
     Christopher says he is grateful for all the help from his wife Cecila, fondly recalling how chided him for being so particular about his costume and even the food he ate before venturing out each Christmas. Others too are high on Christopher’s “nice” list for helping Santa, including his brothers-in-law Ronnie and Cyril Molloy, and also Todd White, who each sometimes helped out by providing a vehicle on those occasions when Christopher didn’t happen to have one of his own. Shauna Molloy of the recreation committee often helped Santa too as Mrs. Claus.
     “I will miss it,” Christopher admits. “I enjoyed it all and I’d still be at it only for that (lung problem). It’s only because of the health condition that I’m giving it up. There are so many little stories and great memories.”

Mystery of the LaManche Cross

     Jean Kennedy of Mobile is hoping that someone who reads this story can help her solve a mystery that is going on 83 years. She is trying to find the identity of the person or family who has been maintaining a small, homemade wooden cross on the road leading to the old village of LaManche. The cross bears the name of her aunt and two women from Witless Bay who drowned together at Hell Hill Pond during a summer outing on August 7, 1932.
     Like her late aunt, Veronica Daley, Kennedy hails from St. Joseph’s off the Salmonier Line. Kennedy moved to the Southern Shore 45 years ago and in all that time, someone has been maintaining the cross and even making sure it regularly gets fresh flowers.
     Kennedy has called relatives of the other women who drowned with her aunt, but is stymied.
     The aunt, known to her friends as Monica, was just 24 years old when the tragedy occurred. She had finished classes at a training school for teachers in St. John’s the day before and had accompanied a fellow student to Witless Bay for the weekend.
     Ironically, in an address to the teachers that graduation day, Saturday, August 6, the president of the school had encouraged the young men and women to explore nature. According to an account of the graduation ceremony that was carried in the following edition of The Evening Telegram, the president counselled the teachers not to be bookish. “Bookish teachers make bookish schools,” he said. “Bookish schools repel and do not attract. There is in man a play instinct. Many of the best qualities of manhood and womanhood are developed through play.”
     Whether those remarks had encouraged Daley and the group of five or six other young women and a couple of young men from Witless Bay to take the bathing expedition to Hell Hill Pond is unknown. One of group was Florrie O’Neill, later to be known as Dr. Florence O’Neill, the first person from Newfoundland to obtain a doctorate in adult education from Columbia University in New York. She went on to become a pioneer and high ranking official in the adult education division of the provincial government. O’Neill had just spent two years teaching at Mount Carmel, St. Mary’s Bay prior to that summer and may have gotten to know Daley there, since she was also teaching in the area.
     The other members of the party included Esther Mullowney, 25, of Witless Bay, Mary Norris, 33, of Witless Bay, and according to an Evening Telegram account of the tragedy carried the following day, Ella Dinn, Clara Kent, and “Mr. D. J. Mullowney and Mr. William Kent.”
According to Kennedy, another Witless Bay woman, Anna Dinn, who went on to teach at Holy Heart of Mary School in St. John’s for many years, was also part of the group.
     "There were six girls, they were in summer school. My aunt came up the shore with one of the girls who was in Summer School with her. There were six of them at the site,” said Kennedy. “They joined hands and ran into Hell Hill Pond. It was to their ankles one minute and the next minute they were over their heads, and they grabbed onto one another and three of them drowned."
     That version squares closely with the newspaper report, which said the six women entered the water together, four of them – Norris, Mullowney, Daley and O’Neill - in the lead holding hands. Some 25 to 35 feet from shore they passed an “overfall” and plunged, screaming, into much deeper water.
     O’Neill, who could swim, managed to thrash around until she could find some footing. The rest of the party on shore and in the water behind them started screaming for help. A group of trouters, who were about 200 yards away, heard the commotion and came running. One of them, Mike Manning from St. John’s, “lost no time in attempting the rescue of the young women,” according to the paper. “Being a strong swimmer, he succeeded in bringing Miss Norris to the surface and to the shore.”
     The group on shore and the other trouters, Ray Manning, T. O’Mara and Charlie Gamberg, noticed Norris still had a faint pulse.
     “He (Mike Manning) again dived over the fall and located Miss. Daley,” wrote the reporter. “Placing her in the arms of her companions, he again went in to secure Miss Mullowney, but his efforts were fruitless and it was not until he had divested himself of his heavy clothing that he picked up the body lying in about 12 feet of water and brought it to the shore. Artificial respiration proved in vain.”
     Others tried to revive the girls too, including two Nuns visiting from the United States who happened by while on a motor trip along the Southern Shore with Lady Gertrude Cashin, and two police officers who answered the call for help and spent two hours trying to revive the victims. But it was all too late: Daley, Mullowney and Norris, an only child who had grown up to become a nurse and who had returned to Newfoundland only several months earlier from New York, were all dead.
     A doctor took charge of Norris’ body for transport to Witless Bay. Mullowney’s body was taken back to her parent’s house by her brother in his car.
     “My aunt was laid out in the back of Witless Bay Church,” said Kennedy.” I've been told that by someone whose mother told her. And that's where my grandfather came to retrieve the body."
     Kennedy’s aunt came from a big family of brothers and sisters, all of whom have since passed away. Her aunt wasn’t married, but did have a boyfriend. “He never did marry ever after,” Kennedy said, noting that man has since passed on.
Kennedy figures relatives of one of the other victims must be maintaining the cross, but she can’t find out who it is.
     "I've been living on the Shore now for 45 years… I've made contact with some of their relatives, but they haven't got a clue who's taking care of the site," Kennedy said.
Kennedy’s husband managed to talk with a nephew of Norris. “But he hasn't got a clue who is doing up the site,” she noted. “The other girl was a Mullowney and I'm after calling two or three different Mullowney families and I can't get any (information). Obviously it must be a second generation who's taking care of it, because that's 82 years ago. But it's a real mystery because every year it's freshly painted. Their names are carved in the cross and done with black paint, their names and their ages, and there is always flowers there. And this year, I noticed when I stopped by, that there was crushed stone added, like the Department of Highways would use."
     Kennedy called a contact she knows who worked with the Department of Transportation on the Southern Shore, but again had no luck. "So we can't find out who is doing all this," she said.
     Over the years, Kennedy tried to find out more about what happened that day from two of the women who were there. "But they clammed up when you mentioned it," said Kennedy. "I guess it was post-traumatic stress or something. They didn't want to remember it."
Kennedy attended Church for years with one of the women, Anna Dinn . "I tried to discuss it with her… and she just turned completely off when I mentioned it."
Dinn, and all the other people who were part of the group that day in 1932, have since passed on.
     The cross is located just off the main road on the lane that turns off to LaManche, near Hell Hill Pond. Kennedy can't remember the cross ever being replaced, but figures it must have been at some point because it's in good shape. "The names are engraved, cut into the wood,” she said. “It's not a professional job or anything like that, you'd know it was amateur. But the three names are there."
     Despite its name, Hell Hill Pond is a pretty body of water, one of the larger ponds in the area and surrounded with trees. Some people have cabins there. Local legend has it that Hell Hill got its name from the conductors with the old Newfoundland Railway who found the hill was a struggle for the train that used to run from St. John’s to Trepassey.
     "In the meantime, there are all kinds of ghost stories too," Kennedy said. "On CBC Radio last year, when one of the shows was doing something on ghost stories, people called in and said they were driving up the Shore and these women were out in the middle of the road, but when they stopped there was nobody there. And when I started coming up the Southern Shore first, when I was in university, whenever I mentioned that it was my aunt, there was always a ghost story about three girls."
     Kennedy would welcome a call from anyone who knows the identity of the person maintaining the cross all these years. "We'd like to know who's doing it and the connection and we'd like to be able to thank them for doing this all these years," she said. "I was making calls and trying to find out over the years, and one night I was looking at the Post and I said, 'Maybe they would run something?' It's a human interest story."
     Anyone with information about the cross and who is maintaining it can reach Kennedy at 334-3282.
 

Chamber of Commerce honours Ferryland's 'Man of Business'

     A man whose name has become an institution when it comes to doing business on the Southern Shore received an award for Outstanding Lifetime Achievement from the Irish Loop Chamber of Commerce when it handed outs its annual Seagull Awards for Business Excellence last week.
     Bernard Kavanagh, 79, showed he was still capable of cracking up a room with his wit, as he accepted the award. Other winners included the Southern Avalon Development Association, which took the prize for Most Outstanding Non-Governmental Organization, Still Waters Massage in Trepassey for Most Promising New Business, and the Community Credit Union Witless Bay for Outstanding Community Service.
     "The seagull is one of the most enterprising creatures on earth," said Chamber president Derrick Thompson, explaining why the Business Excellence Awards are named for the animal. "When their environment changes, they don't give up, they find another way. If nobody is fishing, they'll go to the garbage dump, they'll find somewhere to eke out their existence. Being enterprising and creative is one of the things entrepreneurs need to be thinking about, and in order to be successful, of course, you have to be forward thinking."
     The owner of Stillwaters Massage & Spa wasn’t able to attend the awards breakfast meeting. But sent an e-mail to her friend Sharon Topping, who accepted the award on her behalf. "Genevieve would dearly love to be here this morning, but her husband is an ambulance driver and she has a little girl, and she couldn't get a sitter," Topping explained. "She writes, 'I am so touched and I am going to keep doing my best to grow my business and encourage more development of small business in our area - whoopee!'"
     To be eligible as a nominee for the Most Promising New Business award, the enterprise has to be less than three years old and demonstrate consistent growth and promise for long term sustainability, explained chamber director Mike Rose. The award is sponsored by the Celtic CBDC. The other nominees included Trepassey Motel & Restaurant, which is under new management, F&M Convenience of Trepassey, Celtic Knot Pub & Restaurant in St. Mary’s, and Torque Construction of Mobile.
     Rose noted McCorquodale started the company after moving to Trepassey from British Columbia. "In the year she's been here she's provided a healthy and affordable and much-needed service to the area," said Rose. "She jumped in with both feet and has applied her knowledge and skills, and compassion, to provide an array of needed community services. I don't know Genevieve, but apparently her enthusiasm is contagious."
     Loretta Ryan, the executive director of the Celtic CBDC, was asked to introduce the Award for Most Effective NGO, which goes to a non-profit group that has made a significant and lasting impact on the people in the area it serves. 
     "This is an award that is very close to my heart," said Ryan, introducing the Southern Avalon Development Association, which serves the communities from Portugal Cove South to St. Vincent’s. "I've always admired them because they have been so tenacious."
     Ryan pointed out SADA is one of the few economic development groups to have survived in the province and is still doing great work. "They have their fingers in a lot of pies and they really support and encourage community economic development," she said. The award was accepted by the chairperson of SADA's board of directors Charlene Power and its executive director Yvonne Fontaine.
     The Colony of Avalon Foundation was the other nominee in the category.
Outstanding Community Service Award goes to a company that contributes to growth and prosperity in the region through social and community-based programs. It was presented by chamber director Carol Ann Devereaux, who also manages the Trepassy Motel & Restaurant.
Devereaux said the winner, Community Credit Union Witless Bay, is a big supporter of community causes in the region it serves. 
     “They involve themselves in the community wherever they can," said Devereaux. "They help the schools, the fire department, the foodbank, Kinsmen Club, sports. And this year they fundraised $2,000 for the local fire department and also fundraised to help two local families for Christmas... Their motto is 'People helping people,' and they stand by this."
     Branch Manager Rosalind Piercey accepted the award on behalf of the Credit Union’s staff. "I grew up in a small town," said Piercey. "We realize the importance of being involved. People need us. People need education about the financial industry, they need assistance, they need social things, they need to know things. We educate from the little to the elderly and we give them all the information we possibly can."
     Piercey said the staff members at the Credit Union are often involved in fundraising activities. "We even went to jail for a couple of days," she added, referring to a Jail & Bail event held earlier this past fall to raise money to help two local families with Christmas. Patrons of the Credit Union donated money to have an RCMP officer arrest a staff member of the bank and place them in a jail set up outside the building. "We had members stopping by to pay as much as $100 for a hot dog,” said Piercey. “I nearly fell to my knees, because I couldn't believe the support."
     Piercey said her heart swells with the thought that staff will be able to go shopping this week to buy things for the two families. "Every one of us are so excited," she said.
The other nominees for the Outstanding Community Service Award included SADA, singer and community volunteer Judy Brazil of Trepassey, Stillwaters Massage, and Bidgood's Supermarket in the Goulds.
     The chamber capped its awards ceremony with the presentation to Kavanagh. To qualify for the Distinguished Lifetime Achievement Award, a nominee has to have been active in the local economy for more than 20 years and consistently exemplified good corporate citizenship. The nominees this year included Pat's Plants & Gardens in Bay Bulls, Southern Construction of Trepassey, and Home Hardware Witless Bay and Trepassey.
     In 'Da Loop co-owner and chamber director Linda Cook introduced Kavanagh, who grew up in a section of Ferryland called The Quarry with his parents Alphonus and Elizabeth Kavanagh.
"When Bernard was 17, he went as a crewmember aboard a ship sailing to Holland where he almost lost his life, because that was the year of the Great Flood," said Cook.
     The flood occurred at the end of January and into February 1, 1953. Caused by a severe storm that started on a Saturday night with most people within its range unaware that it was coming, the storm caused massive waves that rolled over the coastlines of a number of countries on the North Sea. It did the most damage in Holland, where about 20 per cent of the country is located below sea level. Some 1,836 people died in the Netherlands as a result of the flood. Several hundred more were killed in Great Britain and in boats along the coast of Northern Europe and in the North Sea.
     When Kavanagh returned to Newfoundland after that trip he set off for the ice floes of the North Atlantic as part of the annual seal hunt. "He did one bout of seal hunting and from there he went to Greenland," Cook said.
Kavanagh had a job washing dishes and peeling potatoes on a military base. "That's where he got the love for potatoes," Cook joked.
     In Greenland, Kavanagh sent all the money he was making back to his father in Ferryland. When he returned home in 1958, his father handed the $5,000 over to him. "That's when he bought his first general delivery truck," Cook said. "That same year he married Clara Hanlon. They started a business selling potatoes out of the basement of their home. Clara did all of the book work, Bernard did all of the talking."
     Ten years and the births of seven daughters later, Cook said, the couple opened a wholesale business next door to their home. "By this time he had seven trucks delivering products between Trepassey and St. John’s. They were delivering vegetables, Vachon products, propane, Coke, beer, anything he could get in that truck, he put in it," Cook said.
In 1969,Kavanagh bought the Southern Shore Trading Company and started operating a general store as well as the wholesale distribution network out of a large two storey premises.      A year later he bought the building that still houses the Irish Loop Drive Restaurant and take-out.
     "At that time he was employing about 200 people," said Cook.
     Kavanagh sold the huge warehouse and general store premises, located across the street from what is now the Colony of Avalon centre, in 2007. It's now owned and operated by the Southern Shore Folk Arts Council as a theatre, cafe, and office.
The Irish Loop Drive restaurant still operates, during tourist season. "We're proud to have them as competition," said Cook, "because it makes us have to work harder."
     Now 79, Kavanagh is still active in his business, said Cook, and can be found preparing orders and even helping out on the truck with deliveries and pick-ups. “Who better to receive this Lifetime Achievement Award than Bernard Kavanagh?" said Cook.
After accepting the award, and a standing ovation from everyone in the room, Kavanagh declined the opportunity to make a speech, displaying his trademark wit by joking he was too full to speak because of the big breakfast he had just eaten. 
     "You didn't know I knew so much about you, did you?" said Cook.
     "You did pretty good," Kavanagh replied. "But you didn't know it all, thank God."
     Thompson wrapped up the morning's festivities by noting the chamber hopes to keep the Seagull Awards going on an annual basis. "Hopefully, it will gain momentum," he said. "And when you see someone like Bernard getting recognition and some of the new businesses that we talked about, and the NGOs that have been working hard year after year after year, and sometimes without any sort of acknowledgement, it's a great thing for us just to be able to present these awards and let people know that we are watching and people do care."