2013 Events being planned

We are currently in the midst of planning our 2013 schedule and we would appreciate your thought, comments, photographs...

2013 Canada Day BBQ
Heritage Display theme:  Sturgeon Point Streets - 1st Street and Sandy Point Road
I have contact information for most of the 1st Street residents and hope to speak with them through the winter so that we can pull this together.

Sandy Point Road is a tricky one.  At some point the cottages are no longer in Sturgeon Point and become part of Hickory Beach.  But I think that I will leave this to the individual cottagers who live on that road to decide where that line is.  Historically, Hickory Beach was a marshy area were the guests from the Sturgeon Point Hotel went to hunt ducks and the like.  I don't know very much about the history of our neighbouring community (available guest blog topic for any interested writers) and so am not able to judge where they see their boundaries. Again I will be in touch with the families along the road to learn about their road's history.

2013 Civic Holiday Regatta
Heritage Display theme:  175th Anniversary of the 1st Sturgeon Point Regatta
This is a great one for participation - with all the cameras that are at all of this event, we should be able to get some great images. I will be looking for images of races, prizes, flyers, stories...

Civic Holiday Regatta - Running Races, 1960
courtesy of the Agnew family

2013 Speakers Series
We have already booked two speakers for next summer - and yes, John Summers, GM at the Canadian Canoe Museum will be returning!  We still have a third speaker to book. If there is a topic that is of particular interest to you, then drop me a line.

Bugle Call: Justin Wallis 1983-2012

It is with great sadness that we advise our fellow Sturgeon Pointers of the far to early passing of Justin Wallis.  A former year round resident, a cottager and an SLSC alum, Justin will be deeply missed by his family and friends.  Our condolences to Liz, Richard, Ryan & Krista and Ella, and Dani.

Justin Wallis

His obituary appears below:
 
WALLIS, Justin Michael -
November 13^th, 1983 - October 14^th, 2012
It is with profound sadness that Justin's family announce his sudden passing on Sunday October 14^th, 2012.
Justin, loving son of Richard and Elizabeth Wallis, beloved brother to Ryan, his wife Krista, daughter Ella and sister Danielle. Grandson of Leon and Aneila Wallis (deceased) and Ron and Rita (Mickey) Belton. Beloved nephew of Edward Wallis, Lynn and Marc Adams, Chris Belton, Colleen and Kevin Clynch, Susan Belton, John and Penny Belton and their families as well as fourteen loving cousins and friends too numerous to mention.
Justin came into this world with a great deal of difficulty and left nearly 29 years later in much the same way.
However, while here and despite having to weather more than his fair share of adversity, Justin brought joy, wonder, laughter and love into the lives of everyone who knew him.
Justin lived with enormous spirit that could never last, though while it did, it was truly a sight to behold.
He will forever be sadly missed.
Without the help and support of Sick Kids Hospital, Justin would never have enjoyed the life he had.
Visitation will be held at the Oshawa Funeral Home, 847 King Street West (905 721-1234) on Thursday October 18^th from 2 - 4 and 7 – 9 p.m.
Memorial Mass will be held on Friday October 19^th at 10 a.m. from St. Gertrude’s Catholic Church (690 King St. E.).
Donations to the Sick Kids Foundation would be appreciated.
Online condolences may be made at www.oshawafuneralhome.com.

Happy 1st Anniversary

The Tuesday after the 2011 Thanksgiving was our first posting for the Sturgeon Point History Project Blog.  Its been a pretty impressive first year with 105 postings and 8,764 views.  We have learned some amazing things about the history of our community and collected some amazing images.

Our thanks to everyone who contributed.  We look forward to a terrific second year.

The Cottage of Elizabeth Homes Hopkins (1816-1917)
built for her in 1886 by her son Judge Hopkins next door to the main cottage
courtesy of the Hopkins-Roberts family

Thanksgiving at the Point - Season's End

Thanksgiving is upon us...  The traditional end of season for the community... a time of rolled up rugs, mothballs and closed up cottages... of football games and big turkey dinners. 

 

The Thanksgiving Football Game has a long history at the Point.  Through the 1950s and 1960s many of the young bucks had played football on their high school teams. They played a friendly and spirited game against each other around the Point. By the early 1970s, Chip Barrett had gone pro, playing for the Toronto Argonauts.  Aided and abetted by a group of Aussies who had played rugger back home, and who had made Ian Kennedy's cottage their Canadian hangout, and a whole lot of beer, the impromptu games became an annual event.

Courtesy of Annie Gray

Ian Kennedy said: "it was at Culzean for several years until there was one to many take-outs by trees and Chows. Then moved to the lower field (Robertsons). One classic game was the teens against the twenty plus... They said tackle so Dennis, Angus, several rugger playing Aussies and self said sure... With the oldies dominating, the Teens asked the second half be touch. Lost track for the next few years and by then it had become more civilized with girls now part of the scrums..."

 

The game moved from the Kennedys, to the Robertsons, to the Driving Range to the Barretts and a few spots in between.  For much of the past decade it has been played at the Wiseners.

 



Football melee at the Wiseners, 2011

However you spend the weekend, we hope that you have a great one and we'll see you at Sunday's game.