Victoria’s Read

Canadian Women’s Press Club was founded in 1904, the year that the Louisiana Purchase Exposition was held in St. Louis, Missouri. In June of that year, journalist and feminist Margaret Graham of Ottawa went to see Col. George Ham, the publicity agent for Canadian Pacific Railways. Graham went straight to the point. It is reported that she said “Can you tell my why your road has taken men to all the excursions and Fairs and other things and has ignobly ignored us, the weaker sex?” Apparently, Col. Ham was a little amused by her outburst. He promised that if she could find twelve professional women journalists, he would send them to St. Louis.

Margaret Graham found sixteen qualified women. They traveled to St. Louis in style by private railway car with fresh flowers every day and afternoon tea at five o’clock. After ten days, the group returned to Toronto. Col. Ham traveled with them. As the train neared their destination, the women discussed the solitude of their professional lives, excluded from male journalists’ gatherings and press clubs. Col. Ham, smoking his pipe nearby, quietly said “Why don’t you form your own press club?”.

This was done immediately. Kit Coleman, a popular columnist and foreign correspondent was chosen as the first president. Col. Ham was made an honorary member. Until 1971, he was the only male member of CWPC.

CWPC grew rapidly. Among the famous Canadian women who were members were Nellie McClung, Cora Hind, Lucy Maud Montgomery, Emmeline Pankhurst, Emily Murphy, Byrne Hope Sanders, Marshall Saunders, Doris Anderson, and Charlotte Whitton. By its Golden Jubilee in 1954, it had over 500 members with branches from Victoria to Halifax. In 1971, at a general meeting in Toronto, it was decided to change the name of the Club to Media Club of Canada. This would make the name translatable into French and would open the doors to male members. The Club celebrated its 90th birthday in Halifax in 1994. However, the need for networking for young women journalists was no longer so great. The club declined until it was finally un-incorporated in the early 2000s.

en.wikipedia.org

By: Victoria Evangeline Reed

My Dad. What a fellow he is. He sure could drive me bonkers. With his “It’s only because I love you.” and “I’ve been around a bit longer.” And “You really should save that money instead of spending it.” If he wasn’t telling me what to do, he was asking questions like “Who’s that boy?” and “Where are you going?”

Needless to say, I pretty much resented my father in the early years. Because of him, I never got to get into financial trouble or marry a loser. My younger years were pretty much spent learning dreary things like appreciating the value of a dollar and respecting myself.

He never let me have any fun with my friends. Every time he caught me skipping school, he would ground me for the weekend. The weekend! Why then? That’s when all the cool kids had their parties. You know the kind, lots of booze and no parents. It didn’t really matter anyway since he had a gift (He called it.) of foreseeing the future. “I know what happens at those parties and no daughter of mine is going to get involved in that!”

Of all the guys I dated, there was only one boy my dad liked. The rest were never good enough. Who cares if he hasn’t bathed in a few days? Who cares if he doesn’t have a job? Who cares if he doesn’t speak English? I’ll tell you who cares, my father, that’s who. He’d flick on that porch light so fast; you’d think you were on a Broadway stage getting ready to do your best impression of sweet little Elizabeth Walton and I was pretty good at it. That is until mom came out. She always knew what I was up to. Most times dad wouldn’t listen to her though because after all, I was daddy’s little girl.

Just when I thought I would spend the rest of my mundane life under my dad’s watchful eye, a boy came along who met my dad’s strict requirements. He was a nice looking, clean cut boy who worked and treated his little angel as such.

It was then, the porch light shone inside my head. I understood my father. I got just what he was trying to tell me all these years and when he walked me down the isle to give me away, we both knew that his job was a job well done.

Because of my father, I am a good wife and mother………. and always a good daughter. Right Dad!

MOM CAKE

INGREDIENTS:
-1 pound cake
-1 box of instant pudding
-1 cup whipped topping
-Fruit
-Mint sprigs (optional)
-Chilled chocolate syrup

DIRECTIONS:
1.Slice the pound cake into several horizontal slices about an inch thick.
2.Prepare the pudding according to package directions. Mix the pudding with the whipped topping.
3.Chop up the fresh fruit you’ve chosen.
4.Layer the cake, fruit and a little less than half of the pudding mixture in a loaf pan. Top the cake with the remaining pudding.
5.Put the cake in the fridge for a couple of hours. When it’s chilled, decorate it..
6. Squeeze on a greeting with chilled chocolate syrup. Serve Mom a sweet treat on her special day.

SLIPPER COOKIES

INGREDIENTS:
-2 halves of an oval sandwich cookie
-1 doughnut hole
-Frosting
-Shredded coconut tinted with red food coloring
-pink decorators’ gel

DIRECTIONS:
1.To make a pair, first separate the 2 halves of an oval sandwich cookie and remove the filling with a butter knife.
2.Slice a doughnut hole into thirds. Coat the rounded sides of the two end pieces with frosting, then roll them in shredded coconut tinted with red food coloring to create a pair of fuzzy slipper tops.
3. Use a dab of frosting to stick each slipper top to a cookie sole, then adorn the edges of the cookies with pink decorators’ gel stitching.

ROSE BASKET CUPCAKE

INGREDIENTS:
-1 cupcake
-Chocolate frosting
-Green-tinted coconut
-5 candy or frosting roses
-3 strands red whip licorice

DIRECTIONS:
1. Unwrap the cupcake and frost in a basket-weave pattern using a basket-weave tip.
2. Add the coconut grass and the candy roses. Braid the licorice for a decorative handle.
3. You can also make your own roses with a rose tip and pink frosting.

familyfun.go.com

Princess Victoria of Saxe-Coburg, was born in Kensington Palace in London on May 24th, 1819, the daughter of Prince Edward, Duke of Kent, a son of King George III.

Due to the fact that the King was insane, George, the older brother of Edward served as the country’s regent. The Prince Regent and his estranged wife had just one child, Princess Charlotte of Wales. After Charlotte’s death in 1817, the people began to worry about the royal succession. Although the king had twelve living children, none of them had offspring who were eligible to inherit the throne.
After pressure from the Parliament and the public, Edward married the German princess, Victoire of Saxe-Coburg, age 31. On May 24, 1819 the Duchess of Kent gave birth to a daughter. She was christened Alexandrina Victoria.

She ascended the throne upon the death of William IV. Barely eighteen, she refused any further influence from her domineering mother and ruled in her own stead. Popular respect for the Crown was at low point at her coronation, but the modest and straightforward young Queen won the hearts of her subjects.

Victoria’s long reign witnessed an evolution in English politics and the expansion of the British Empire, which included Canada, Australia, India, New Zealand, and large parts of Africa, as well as political and social reforms on the continent. France had known two dynasties and embraced Republicanism, Spain had seen three monarchs and both Italy and Germany had united their separate principalities into national coalitions. Even in her dotage, she maintained a youthful energy and optimism that infected the English population as a whole.

Despite her advanced age, Victoria continued her duties to the end - including an official visit to Dublin in 1900. The Boer War in South Africa overshadowed the end of her reign. As in the Crimean War nearly half a century earlier, Victoria reviewed her troops and visited hospitals; she remained undaunted by British reverses during the campaign.

Victoria died at Osborne House on the Isle of Wight, on 22 January 1901 after a reign which lasted almost 64 years, the longest in British history. She was buried at Windsor beside Prince Albert, in the Frogmore Royal Mausoleum, which she had built for their final resting place. Above the Mausoleum door are inscribed Victoria’s words: ‘farewell best beloved, here at last I shall rest with thee, with thee in Christ I shall rise again’.

www.inglewoodcarecentre.com

The first North American Mother’s Day was conceptualized with Julia Ward Howe’s Mother’s Day Proclamation in 1870. Despite having penned The Battle Hymn of the Republic 12 years earlier, Howe had become so distraught by the death and carnage of the Civil War that she called on Mother’s to come together and protest what she saw as the futility of their Sons killing the Sons of other Mothers. With the following, she called for an international Mother’s Day celebrating peace and motherhood:

Arise, then, women of this day!
Arise all women who have hearts,
Whether your baptism be that of water or of tears
Say firmly:

“We will not have great questions decided by irrelevant agencies,
Our husbands shall not come to us reeking of carnage,
For caresses and applause.
Our sons shall not be taken from us to unlearn
All that we have been able to teach them of
charity, mercy and patience.

“We women of one country
Will be too tender of those of another country
To allow our sons to be trained to injure theirs.”
From the bosom of the devastated earth a voice goes up with our own.

It says, “Disarm, Disarm!”
The sword of murder is not the balance of justice!
Blood does not wipe out dishonor
Nor violence indicate possession.
As men have of ten forsaken the plow and the anvil at the summons of war.

Let women now leave all that may be left of home
For a great and earnest day of counsel.

Let them meet first, as women, to bewail and commemorate the dead.

Let them then solemnly take counsel with each other as to the means
Whereby the great human family can live in peace,
Each bearing after his own time the sacred impress, not of Caesar,
But of God.

In the name of womanhood and humanity, I earnestly ask
That a general congress of women without limit of nationality
May be appointed and held at some place deemed most convenient
And at the earliest period consistent with its objects
To promote the alliance of the different nationalities,
The amicable settlement of international questions.
The great and general interests of peace.

Julia Ward Howe: www.mothersdaycentral.com

The Blue Sky Sailing Club was incorporated on May 1st, 2007 as non profit corporation, to supply boats and sailing instruction to its members at cost.

The Plan was to buy 2 boats, we ended our first Season with 4 boats, two 16′ Wayfarers, one 18′ Catamaran and one Rubber Dinghy with outboard motor for patrolling during instruction on the water. Our boats are moored at the North Bay Marina.

The Club has 3 CYA approved instructors, with assistants, to teach sailing either in the Dinghy or the Keel Boat. This year, we will continue with the junior sailing program. A program that runs all summer and will focus on the training of sailors, as well as featuring some racing at the local, regional or provincial level. The club is looking forward to offering the following activities this year:
“Wind, the free and clean fuel for your boat” We offer excellent value in boat rental and sailing instruction We offer the following courses

“Basic Cruising”, sailing boats with fixed keel and auxiliary motor, usually 23 feet and up.

“Dinghy Sailing”, powerless sailboats with swing keels and usually under 20 feet in length.

“Junior Course”, same as Dinghy but for Juniors aged 9-15.

We aim to build a fleet of fast and exciting sailboats to get the attention of the junior people growing up, hopefully some in the sport of competitive racing. We have a 13′ Laser available to start with. “Catamaran course”, for graduates of the above courses, an adaptation to sailing sailboats with two hulls. This is for the sailing enthusiast that wants to go fast. 45 minutes to go from the North Bay Marina to Tillicum Bay. We use CYA approved instructors. (Can Yachting Assoc.)

We are also looking into the possibility to start a Senior sailing program, just for an afternoon sail or to provide a short course in sailing, a “pinch hitter” course. Learn the basics of sailing and know how to help as crew on a cruising sailboat. Informal and unscheduled opportunities will exist this summer, if we get the approval on our application for the “Summer Experience Program of the Ontario Government.

We belong to the Ontario Sailing Association. We operate from a boathouse in the Marina, close to the Chief Commanda II.
www.blueskysailingclub.com
Henry Van Brussel
705-476-0557

April is Cancer Awareness Month. For me, cancer awareness is every day.
The reason is simple: it robbed me of my mother three years ago. My mom was first diagnosed with breast cancer when she was 42. After a mastectomy and removal of some lymph nodes under her arm, chemotherapy and radiation, she was declared a survivor.
Twelve years later, the cancer reared its ugly head again with a vengeance: again, radiation, surgery and chemotherapy with nasty rare side effects. This time though, after a little more than a year of fighting, cancer was declared the winner. As more and more tumors manifested throughout her body, the pain intensified. Morphine in increasing quantities was needed to control the pain.
I would not wish upon anyone the experience of helplessly watching a loved one die: it’s horrible. Fortunately for us, my mom was able to be at home in the weeks before she passed away.
And when she did finally go, she was surrounded by family. I am one of the lucky ones: I was able to spend time with my mom before she died and talk to her about many things. We were able to overcome some usual mother/daughter difficulties, and we were granted the opportunity to get to know each other as women – not just as a mother or as a daughter. One of the regrets I have is that I had scheduled a family photo to be taken before my mom started her treatments and her hair fell out: the photo never happened because my mom wasn’t feeling well that day.
She told me we would have one done “after”. Sometimes “after” never comes. I encourage everyone to become aware; become aware of all the minute amounts of carcinogens that are in just about everything we eat or clean with. My mom didn’t smoke, rarely drank alcohol, and she ate fairly healthy. Why then did it happen to her? Why does it happen to any of us?
In memory of Norma Lashbrook. Miss you, love you, and wish you were here. Let’s make cancer history.
Written by Michelle Lashbrook

Sammy’s owner’s decided to take Sammy along with them on vacation since it would save them the aggravation of traveling three hours in the opposite direction to their daughters to have him baby-sat.
Sammy was a creature of habit so arrangements were made to insure a comfortable and relaxing trip for Sensitive Sammy.
Sammy likes plenty of fresh air to breath. As well, he is very picky about the temperature of his surroundings.
The big day came and Sammy’s owners thought he would enjoy sitting on the dash of the van so he could experience some new views but Sammy soon showed signs of discomfort. He seemed frightened by everything rushing by him so fast. 
Sammy’s owners decided to move him down onto the floor. Sammy soon began fussing about and his owners realized that he has overheated from having the van heater blowing on him.
To cool Sammy down, his owners put him on the back seat. A little time later when Sammy’s owners looked back to check on him, they realized that Sammy was shivering. 
Poor Sammy was freezing! He was soon warmed up sitting at his owner’s feet under the heater, once again.
But, he wasn’t happy at all! Only when they stopped at a hotel for the night did Sammy settle down. His owners prepared a quiet stop for him beside the television where he bunked down  and slept.
In the morning, Sammy woke rejuvenated. His owners had warmed up the van for him in the hopes of Sammy being more accustomed to traveling but he wasn’t.
Sammy’s owners stopped at a welcome center where they saw other pets just like their Precious Sammy. Sammy’s owners, knowing that Sammy was extremely unhappy with the whole ordeal, contemplated leaving him there but his owners hearts ached at the thought of not ever seeing Sammy again. After all, he had made it this far and they loved him so much!
So, once again after doing their best to make Sammy as comfortable as possible, the little family hit the road only to have misfortune strike. The van broke down and Sammy’s owners called for a tow truck.
Sammy’s owners put him in his traveling case and carefully placed it in a safe place at the back of the van, sure that he’d be fine there during the lift and transportation of the their broken down vehicle.
John, the tow truck driver was a very nice young man. He was a 6′8” tall good-looking firefighter who drove tow truck during his off time. As John loaded the van onto his truck. Sammy’s owners climbed into the cab of the tow truck and made the one hour drive to the nearest dealership.
Once the tow truck arrived, Sammy’s owners rushed to the van to check on their pet. What they saw was devastating! Sammy’s body was smashed up onto the side of his case and he looked as though he was dead. Sammy’s owners picked up the carrying case but Sammy didn’t make a single move. They yelled out “You killed our fish!!” John, the tow truck driver was horrified. At some time Sammy’s case had fell over, leaving him with only enough water to barely immerse his snout in!
John didn’t know what to say as Sammy’s owners ran around frantically looking for water. It was just a Betta fish, wasn’t it? NO…Sammy wasn’t just a fish. He was the cutest and smartest fish you could ever know, as told by his devoted owners.
Sammy’s owners filled his case with bottled water (Sammy’s favorite) and watched anxiously for any sign of movement. What felt like an eternity to Sammy’s owners, he finely moved. Sammy was alive!!
Needless to say, the rest of Sammy’s journey was pampered and once they arrived at their vacation destination, Sammy enjoyed himself completely.
As their vacation time grew to a close, Sammy’s owners prepared themselves for the drive home. They made a car seat out of a cardboard box for Sammy and his ride back home was much more subdued but it took Sammy a good month to get over his motion sickness. Morale of the story: Fish get car sick!     

Written by Victoria Evangeline Reed 

Dear Victoria’s Read Readers:

Heart & Stroke Big Bike is a unique opportunity for your colleagues to work together and have FUN while raising funds for a great cause; heart and stroke research and education.

What is Heart & Stroke Big Bike?
This bicycle built for 30 is more than just a bike and it’s more than just a ride because when the Heart & Stroke Big Bike rolls through your community, it brings with it the support and hope of thousands through across the country.  On event day you will ride for 15-20 minutes, so people of all fitness levels can participate! Riders are asked to raise a minimum of $50 dollars each in pledges to participate. Fabulous prizes will be awarded to individuals and teams.
As an added bonus, your company/team name will be proudly displayed on the Big Bike as it rides through your community - and the public will be compelled to watch and cheer you on. Plus, if your team raises more than 3,000 dollars, your team will be entered in a draw to win a team dinner!
The North Bay Chapter of the Heart and Stroke Foundation is holding its  annual Heart & Stroke Big Bike event on the 23rd and 24th of June 2008.
After the ride, participants are invited back to Cecil’s Eatery for post-ride festivities. Be part of the 50,000 riders who are passionate about helping the Heart and Stroke Foundation raise funds for critical research. We look forward to seeing you then.

Fully Supplied and Ready to Ride!
We will help you make this event a success by providing you with all the tools needed to get your colleagues involved. As Team Captain, you will receive a kit containing step-by-step guidelines, motivating posters and special flashing team captain sunglasses.
I will be calling you within the next two weeks to arrange a time for us to meet to discuss your potential involvement in Heart & Stroke Big Bike. In the meantime, if you have any questions, please feel free to contact me at 705-476-6196.
Sincerely yours, Marjorie Kelly                                          

International Women’s Day (IWD) originated as part of a protest against the abysmal wages and working conditions which women faced in textile factories.

On March 8, 1857 women workers in the garment industry in New York City stopped working to draw attention to their conditions; 12-hour days, lack of benefits, sexual harassment, sexual assault on the job and unfair wages. Three years later, women garment and textile workers formed their first union but conditions did not improve significantly. Fifty years later on March 8, 1908, women once again mobilized to ask for change. This time they were also demanding an end to child labor and lobbying for votes for women.

Protests about working conditions did not move the government to change the labor laws until a fire on March 25, 1911 at the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory killed 145 women in New York City. They were locked in the building to ensure that they would not take breaks away from their stations even to use the one washroom, which did not work adequately.

The factory conditions which led to the deaths of these women were common in the 1,463 sweatshops existing in the garment industry of the time. The women worked in a sea of flammable materials with no sprinkler systems. The fire escapes, which did exist, were accessed by inward opening doors, many of which were locked. Eighty thousand workers marched through a pouring rain to the funeral held for the women who perished.

The Government was Silent. No laws were immediately changed. The following January 11, 1912, fifteen thousand women garment workers went on strike, demanding shorter working hours, an end to child labor, safe working conditions and equal pay. Their claim was, “Better to starve fighting than starve working.” The women stayed out on strike for nearly three months.

Each year on March 8, women around the world take time to reflect on the current status of women and demand equity under the law, safe and equitable working conditions and freedom from violence in society at large. International Women’s Day commemorates the achievements and accomplishments of women, especially in the workplace. It is a time to feel pride in being a woman and to support other women in their endeavors.

www.etfo.ca/AdvocacyandAction/WomensIssues/InternationalWomensDay