Midland Welcomes ``We are the Villagers`` and Mollie Doodle

By Sharon Weatherall and Julianna Matyas

Saturday November 15th from 10 am – 2 pm at the Midland Library 230 King Street Midland is going to be a big day in town for children`s charity `We are the Villagers` (WATV)  - a growing movement in Simcoe County.

Kids can join the Adventure Quest at the Midland Library and meet the Villagers to learn what they do and while there meet Mollie Doodle the star doggie in the Villagers very first book written in the Adventures of Mollie Doodle.

There will be Clowns, face painting, self-portraits, refreshments and a book signing and reading of the new book by author darci-que at 11:30 am. The event is free admission for all.

We are the Villagers have 358 kids and counting in recreational programs throughout the area extending well past Midland where it was based; it became a registered charity in summer of 2012. WATV has a mission to help families and their children participate in extracurricular activities of interest to them. Whether sports, music, art or other interests, WATV sponsor children in need so that they may take part in these activities without being restricted by registrational fees and equipment costs. WATV hosts community supported fundraising events on a year round basis to raise the money and cover the costs to help reach goals.

``I think `A WELCOMING OF WE ARE THE VILLAGERS to the Town of Midland` is unprecedented. To welcome a Charity to Town is a significant accomplishment,`` said Julianna Matyas cofounder of the organization.

``This is not just a book launch this is the Town, authorized by its Mayor, Gord McKay - A WELCOMING OF WE ARE THE VILLAGERS to Midland and thanking us for all we do here.``

A book launch has been placed inside the Welcome to Midland event as a time to thank all the villagers to date for their part in making it such a success. Especially those who commit time and time again to contribute to silent auctions and all the patrons of the events and those such as Driven Athletics, Tiny Lions Club, Tiny Hunters and Anglers, Mayor Gerry Marshall, Cedar Ridge Pops, Yoga House in Penetanguishene, The Midland Mirror that sponsored all of the event posters and so many others that raise money to keep the kids dreams alive.

``At the Welcome we are going to have 20 people representing a cross section of the community as villagers and have created an Adventure Quest at the Midland Public Library whereby the kids will come and obtain a passport, and meet the various villagers, collecting stamps along the way and it will all lead to them meeting Mollie Doodle the loveable dog and Emily from the book. They will be hearing the story read by its author, illustrator, the amazing, darci-que and of course, the book will be on sale and is set in Midland, the Town that we started the villagers movement in,`` said Matyas

``These are my favourite events when the kids get to come out and be part of the village and understand how many wonderful people it takes to make their dreams come true,`` said Matyas who works alongside local business man Geoff Crompton in this endeavor.

Of course, people can also come and donate and contribute by purchasing books to be given to WATV to put under the Christmas Tree at our Christmas Event so that each child in the village will have their story book complete with a colouring page and a dream page.

darci-que  - author and illustrator of the Adventures of Mollie Doodle series about her Golden Doodle and several other children`s books, is thrilled to be working with WATV and was excited to do the book. She is looking forward to the launch on November 15<sup>th</sup> and to be taking Mollie to the Midland Library to meet the kids. darci – que`s daughter Emily is thrilled to be part of the book too.

``The kids will go through stations where the big reveal is to get to Mollie. Mollie will be so excited`` said the Creemore author.

``The book involves a story where Mollie and Emily get notice about a new children`s charity and go to Midland to see what it`s all about. The book is actually a rundown of what WATV is all about and what they do for the kids. Molly and Emily act as the hosts of the book. There are plans for more books in the future where Emily and Mollie will go back to Midland and attend other WATV events. It`s a great concept and one that will help people know just what the charity is all about.``

And in the meantime WATV continues to grow.

``Geoff and I recently added 18 young boys and girls into the village program. He has set up guitar lessons for them as a group and to see the joy on their faces was heartwarming. There is never a dull moment here in the village and the work has just begun,`` said Matyas

Recently Matyas and Crompton have been nominated for the Peace Medallion  -  part of YMCA Canada's efforts to promote Peace in communities, which takes place between Nov 15 and 30. The cofounders are thrilled and say it is an honour just to be nominated.

Matyas says WATV has become a symbol of Peace as it goes about its work doing what it is meant to do and is bringing JOY every step of the way.

``Geoff and I had a dream. To remind society that we are indeed a village and how much each and every one of us has to offer. In so doing our part, we bring joy to the kids’ lives, a bit more happiness within the family structure and stimulate everything in between,`` said Matyas.

``We have kids in programs from Violin lessons to bowlers and everything in between. What a journey Geoff and I have started and it is wonderful yet humbling at least for me, when people rally to do whatever they can to help us, build our dream. I say over and over again. We had the vision. We created it but without the parent and guardians coming forward to have their children part of something so positive and worthwhile, we wouldn't exist.``

For more information visit the web site: www.wearethevillagers.com  or call toll free to 1-855-528-5252.

Jake missing 16 years

By Sharon Weatherall 

Jake Just’s mom says her boy has now been missing nearly as many years as she had him. Her son was 18 when he disappeared and was not heard from again. That’s a life time for a mom who has never given up hope of finding out what happened.

The Midland teen disappeared on October 30, 1998 - Halloween Eve, without a trace. He’d been at a party and was gone exactly 24 hours when his mother Debbie Just called the police. Not a day gone has gone by since that she doesn’t wish she’d called sooner. Would it have made any difference? No one knows, least of all the police.

“It was 8 p.m. and I had just finished handing out tricker-treats to the kids when I decided something was not right and I was calling the police,” said Just.

“He never came home and that was not like Jake but I wasn’t sure what to do. I had called all of his friends but thought I had to wait a certain amount of time before calling the police. They told me later you can call anytime if it is unusual behaviour.”

In the early years after Jake went missing Police issued a press release around the anniversary date asking for tips and information leading to the disappearance of the teen, giving details about him and what he was wearing. Each year tips came in and police followed up to no avail. Midland Staff Sargent Jim Rettinger has been involved in the case since the beginning and continues to the hold the Jake Just missing person case as a priority on his desk. He understands how difficult it is for Debbie Just as each year passes with no leads or information come forward. Rettinger works together with an OPP case manager in dealing with the file and Jake Just is listed on the OPP Missing Person web site: http://www.opp.ca/ecms/index.php?id=188.

“We speak to Debbie when we have something to report. We respect that it is very hard on her to hear ‘nothing new’, or contact her just for the sake of doing so….she wants us to get hold of her if something comes up,” said Rettinger.

That doesn’t mean Police aren’t actively pursuing tips, they are says Rettinger.

“That’s what we’ve been doing since day one. The anniversary time and media coverage always precipitates tips,” he said.

“It’s out there and it’s live, it’s not like people don’t know about it. It’s a prominent case.”

In the years that Jake Just has been missing many programs had been set in place to create interesting new ways of bringing attention back to this story. Jake Just is not just another missing kid – he’s one of hundreds that go missing across the continent each year. Programs like pictures on milk cartons, a $50,000 OPP reward posting and age enhanced photos, extended media coverage and assistance from psychics are among the many methods being used to try and find out what happened to Jake Just – a 6’2”, 170 pound, blonde haired, green eyed Caucasian boy.

Jake was last seen separating from a friend to take a short cut home through the woods. Extensive searches involving police and community, as well as interviews with almost 200 people turned up nothing. Since he went missing, OPP have continued to carry out grid searches of the Midland Sunnyside wooded area he entered trying to locate even a sole from his running shoes or a scrap from the Jaguar knapsack he was carrying – the only things that might remain after so many years.  There has even been a television show on the case.

On the morning of October 31, 2007 at 7 a.m. hundreds of thousands of people across the country saw Jake Just on TV and heard his story in hopes that maybe just one of them would remember something, even the smallest detail of information that could lead to finding Jake who would have turned 27 that year. He was featured on the national digital channel Court TV Canada a show produced and hosted by Sue Sgambati - former crime reporter for the Toronto Star.  In fact the Crime Files Cold Case Edition program on the ‘Disappearance of Jake Just’ was broadcast six times in less than one week.

In recent years Debbie Just has gained some comfort through turning to psychics and trying to reach her son through communicating with them. Jackie Dennison from Rescue Mediums and her associate Steve Furlong at Feathers Academy in England have come to know Debbie over the past three years and have provided her with details of what they ‘feel’ happened to her son. In this sense she has come to believe that Jake is no longer alive.

The two gifted mediums have become committed using maps, dowsing with pendulums and other forms of techniques. They, along with an assistant - Edna Dargie, have even gone to the Sunnyside woods with me to retrace the steps Jake took on the night he went missing. That experience was not only exhilarating but informative. It was as if Jake were there speaking to them and guiding them along the path he took then eventually exited from. Both Jackie and Steve felt that Jake left the woods before he went missing and made it on foot to a nearby road where he was possibly struck by a vehicle – then taken from the area. This would make sense since his body could not be found and several police searches of the wooded area have turned up no clues. 

It is common knowledge Jake Just received a head injury at the party when kids were playing a game that involved hitting themselves with beer bottles. Bleeding, Jake had asked for a ride and been turned down because the car had “no room”. Witnesses later said they did not think the injury was severe. Jake had also been drinking alcohol. Jackie Dennison and Steve Furlong both felt Jake was drunk and nauseated. When he was walking along the wood path – which was steep and rocky, they believe Jake may have fallen and injured his head a second time making him disoriented and unbalanced. Both mediums experienced a choking sensation as if Jake may have been drowning on his own vomit, blood or water. While in the woods Jackie and Steve felt strongly that Jake had definitely been there, and then left. There were premonitions of a low back truck (possibly red). Jackie felt a red truck may have had some significance in what happened.

Debbie Just has said while the experience was difficult, this information has given her a small feeling of closure to think that Jake was gone but still near her. She says the details that came forth through psychic meditations of Dennison and Furlong has stimulated “raw emotion” taking her back “physically and mentally” to the day Jake went missing and the feeling she had that someone knew where her son was.

“I have always felt that someone knows. When people do wrong they are always worried about the punishment – I have felt that punishment for 16 years and believe it is time to balance to books,” said Debbie.

“I just want someone to let me know - even anonymously, where my son is and let our family move on. I am not taking it lightly when I say it doesn’t matter to me if they are punished because they have lived with this for 16 years too – that’s got to be hard. We just need closure.”

Debbie says it’s hard for her family to go to the cemetery to see a tree and a plaque while knowing Jake is not there. 

“I don’t know where Jake is and my main concern is to find out where my son is! Whether what happened to him was intentional or not or if it was an accident, doesn’t matter now – I just want to know,” said Debbie.

“It has to come out sometime, somehow. It has been quite a few years since there has been a wakeup call like reading this blog brought to light. People need to be taken back like I was when I read this and maybe someone will come forward. People need to know that Jake has not gone away - we are still actively working on his case – they need a wakeup call to take them back to that day and then maybe we will find Jake.”

Jackie Dennison and Steve Furlong are committed to working on the case and meeting with Debbie to continue creating communication. They met with her in spring 2014 and made further contact with Jake but no new information resulted as to where he is. Now that contact has been made, everyone wants to move forward and find out exactly what happened to him. I hope to be a part of that discovery and that hopefully the knowledge will help Debbie Just and her family find peace.

What Sharon Sees: Kudos to the cancer care providers and volunteer d...

What Sharon Sees: Kudos to the cancer care providers and volunteer d...: By Sharon Weatherall   It’s time I acknowledged and said thanks to those services and people who have been helping me for the pas...

Kudos to the cancer care providers and volunteer drivers

By Sharon Weatherall

 

It’s time I acknowledged and said thanks to those services and people who have been helping me for the past couple of years.

  

Since I was diagnosed with cancer in 2010 and became very ill in 2012, I have had my eyes opened to a whole new world that includes the work of the Canadian Cancer Society (CCS) and Saint Elizabeth. These are two of several important organizations out there to assist people like me but the two I have come to know first-hand. 

 

The word ‘society’ now has a different meaning to me. It represents help to those who are sick and their families.

When I lay sick and weak in my bed and needed assistance just to walk across the room, Personal Support Workers (PSW’s) and Registered Nurses (RN’s) from Saint Elizabeth visited my house on a regular basis to deliver services that I could not do without. While the nurses cleaned my pick line and administered hydration after chemotherapy, checking my vitals and making sure I was ok, the PSW workers visited on a regular basis to help me shower, tidy my house, make lunches, vacuum and provide watchful company when my husband had to run out to do errands.

These services were much appreciated by both of us and carried on for months while I was sick. Eventually I became stronger and no longer needed them, but was assured further assistance was just a phone call away should I need it again. During my critical illness I was also provided at no cost with cancer care items like a hospital bed, bath aides and at one point oxygen so I could remain at home comfortably.

Since becoming sick I have been on chemotherapy treatments which have helped me gain my strength back and feel more like myself. I am now taking my third series of treatments, which are sustaining me and so far, helping to maintain my unpredictable disease. This recent series is taking place in Toronto and began in June following a two week round of radiation.

Because of the travel I have come to know a generous and compassionate group of people who are crucial to the cancer care system. Volunteer drivers donate their time and energy to get patients back and forth to treatments and appointments whether they are in Toronto at one of several cancer care hospitals or at a local facility like Royal Victoria Hospital’s (RVH) cancer care centre in Barrie.

Volunteer drivers are not paid and reimbursed only for their gas mileage – they are not allowed to take monetary gifts from patients. They provide this service out of the goodness of their hearts. Most drivers say they drive for the CCS Wheels of Hope Transportation Program to “give back” or because in many cases, they have lost a loved one or friend to cancer. They are fearless veterans of the roads often driving through hectic and dangerous traffic conditions to get their patent to an appointment on time.

Volunteer drivers gladly answer calls through the CCS, when people need rides. They will get up at 4:30 in the morning to pick up patients at 6 a.m. who need to be in Toronto for a 9 a.m. appointment. Often times when someone has more than one appointment in a day these patient souls sit and wait for hours until they receive the word their passenger is ready to be picked up. Patients can try to give an estimated time as to when they will be done but at a huge cancer care facility dealing with hundreds of people per day, schedules can often fall by the wayside or complications with a treatment can cause lengthy delays. The people who do the scheduling for CCS transportation are a special breed too, going that 'extra mile' to ensure that cancer patients who call needing a ride get one. Rarely due to circumstances beyond their control a ride may not be arranged, but since I started using the service, I have never been let down.   

Most CCS drivers will go to the Princess Margaret Lodge on Jarvis Street in Toronto to wait for their call that a patient is ready to go home.  There they are provided with an area where they can read, rest, or socialize with other drivers. The CCS will call them when their passenger is ready and the pick-up takes place within 15 minutes of the call. It’s what drivers do – they dedicate the day they drive to the cause and deal with every situation smiling.

The PM Lodge is a wonderful place for cancer patients to stay while they are receiving treatment at one of the cancer treatment centres in Toronto in the United Hospitals Network (UHN) - including Toronto General, Toronto Western, Princess Margaret and Toronto Rehab. Patients can stay at the lodge for just $20 per night which includes three healthy meals a day and hourly shuttle service to the hospital where they are taking treatments.  The lodge is centrally located so people staying there can walk to stores, restaurants and other destinations nearby. It is located about a 25 minute walk from Princess Margaret and Toronto General for those patients who choose not to take the shuttle.  At the lodge there are two patients booked into each room so people fast become friends with their roommates.

  

Since becoming a cancer patient I have learned a lot about the services provided to help you through trying times. I can’t say enough about the staff at cancer centres being professional and compassionate to your needs.  You are always in the best hands possible.  These people are trained in their individual fields to help in whatever you need along the way.

Fighting cancer is an ongoing battle and one that can change at the flip of a switch. It’s a battle for which a person needs endless help and support to survive.  I am so thankful to be living in Ontario, Canada where fighting my battle has been made so much easier thanks to a system set in place for those unfortunate enough to have cancer. Sadly these numbers grow daily as more and more people are diagnosed.

I am sure there are many more services and volunteer organizations out there I have not had access to yet but which also need recognition. Speaking for myself and all others with cancer I would like to say thank you from the bottom of my heart. And special thanks to the millions of people who financially support these crucial services to help make them possible in the first place.

I cannot complete this article without thanking my husband, family and friends for their ongoing help and support during my illness. You are my light at the end of the tunnel and my strength to face each precious new day.