Local student wins scholarship to preserve Windsor's Mackenzie Hall
Windsor is coming together to preserve Mackenzie Hall in Sandwich Town.
David Piper-Clark, a St. Clair College horticultural student, has been named the landscape steward for the building, which was built in 1855 by Alexander Mackenzie.
Piper-Clark was given a $5,000 scholarship by the Windsor Port Authority and The Friends of the Court for Mackenzie Hall. In his role, he will work with city staff to take care of the landscaping.
'Our storied Mackenzie Hall in historic Sandwich Town is one of our community's true gems,' said Mayor Drew Dilkens.
'It has been wonderful to see this initiative build on solid partnerships between the city and various community partners; and to watch the spin-off impacts of this work in the neighbourhood.'
Dilkens continued, adding the landscaping will help improve the space, which is key in Windsor's history.
The horticulture scholarship started in 2016 as a need for more attention to the property was needed.
'Mackenzie Hall's unique historical and locational positioning makes for a great opportunity for a student to practice and hone their landscape maintenance skills,' said Sandy MacDonald, professor of horticulture at St. Clair College.
'We always seek a student who is diligent and keen, with a great work ethic. Our consideration is also toward someone who can work independently and troubleshoot small issues as they occur; someone whose friendly personality means that he can communicate well with the public and individuals involved with this project.'
MacDonald said Piper-Clark exhibits all these characteristics and is positively considered within the department.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
CBC
43 minutes ago
- CBC
As temperatures spike, West End Resource Centre may cut hours if it can't fix AC
A non-profit in Winnipeg's West End said it could be forced to reduce service hours if it doesn't raise enough money to fix its air conditioning system heading into the dog days of summer. Staff at the West End Resource Centre — which provides a range of services in the Daniel McIntyre and St. Matthews neighbourhoods, from drop-ins to employment help — found out the air conditioning at its 823 Ellice Ave. building didn't work in May, when staff tried to turn it on. They discovered the AC had been vandalized, and the outdoor copper pipes connected to the system were missing. The centre said in a news release that temperatures inside the facility now reach nearly 30 C, making it unsafe for staff, volunteers, and community members. Chris Ash, the centre's community partnerships supervisor, said Thursday it may be forced to shift service hours earlier "for the next little while." "As a resource centre, we're a place that people come to cool off, get what they need, and we couldn't provide a safe space," Ash said. "So it was really kind of disappointing that that wasn't something that we could offer." Ash said since the AC's been out, the number of seniors attending the centre's regular events has dropped by half. About 50 clients use the centre's services every day, he said. "Whenever we have our food giveaways … we have maybe 35 people in the centre. So it gets warm really quickly," Ash said. "You can see people sweating, people struggling, people even giving up and leaving." The centre has been raising money to get the system working again since it discovered the pipes were missing in May, but Ash said staff shifted focus early on to helping some of the thousands of evacuees fleeing the wildfires in northern Manitoba. About $1,200 had been raised through GoFundMe as of Thursday evening to fix the AC and make it harder for people to vandalize it in future. Ash said he hopes to get the system fixed as quickly and with as little disruption to services as possible. Meanwhile, with heat warnings currently in effect for Winnipeg, the centre's staff is doing what they can to survive the sweltering heat. "Day to day, it's a lot of drinking water.… We've been having a lot of freezies," Ash said. "We just got fans everywhere and we just take turns in front of the fans, really."
CBC
2 hours ago
- CBC
'They're like my kids': Mi'kmaw elder stitching together high school memories
Mi'kmaw Elder Nancy (Nano) Bernard has stitched her way into the fabric of Wagmatcook First Nation's history. Every year, a half-dozen of Bernard's quilts are taken out of storage and hung up at Wagmatcookewey School's graduation ceremony as part of a tradition in the Cape Breton community that's now lasted more than 30 years. The quilts are made up of large squares featuring the community's high school graduates that have been sewn onto eight-pointed stars. Since she started making the quilts, Bernard has created more than 200 squares, representing the number of high school graduates in the community over that period. "[It's] just something for them to see year after year," she said. "Some of these graduates have their own families now. It's a good feeling." Bernard, now 82, began the project in 1992. Back then, she only had one graduate's picture to transfer onto fabric. She sews the patches by hand and has designed the quilts using the traditional medicine wheel colours of black, white, red and yellow. Each square takes an hour to finish. Kelly Marshall, a 1996 graduate who is featured on one of the quilts, is now a career navigator at Wagmatcookewey School. "We still snap a picture every year," she said at a recent graduation ceremony. "[You] just don't realize how time went by so fast since we all graduated, and the kids love it. Like next year's grads will be looking forward to seeing all this." Brittany Fitzgerald, a literacy teacher at the school, can also be found on one of Bernard's quilts. She expects to soon see her children's pictures among the graduates. She said the number of patches added each year depends on the number of graduates in the community. "The quilts aren't necessarily one quilt per year, they're just a continuous addition and then when she runs out of space, a new quilt is started again. It's something that's become like a cultural part of our community. It's sort of a symbol of all the hard work of graduates and of our elder as well." Tracy MacNeil, an English teacher at Wagmatcookewey, said Bernard not only creates quilts and dreamcatchers for the community's graduates, she also serves as the school's elder and guidance counsellor. "She's very humble, so she brings humility to our school and there's a calmness about her, a peacefulness about her for sure. I've heard many stories over the years of her working late into the night, trying to complete [her quilts] and get it done on time." Bernard now enjoys watching generations of graduates come out to see her quilts. "Yeah, some of these graduates are moms and dads and grandmas and granddads, some of them are fishermen," she said. "They're all working. I'm proud of them all. They're like my kids."
CBC
2 hours ago
- CBC
Wabana water upgrades a 'dream come true' after a decades-long boil order
An unhealthy municipal water system in the Bell Island community of Wabana is slowly being rid of contaminants like arsenic, manganese and iron, with 150 households being removed this week from a quarter-century-old boil order. Town leaders surprised more than 160 residents with the news during a volunteer appreciation dinner on Wednesday night. "The room went up," said Linda Spencer, a widow who has lived on Valley Hill Road since the early 1970s, and has struggled to keep potable drinking water in her home. Phase 3 of an expensive water system upgrade is complete, with new wells, pumps, filters and pipes, and testing shows the water meets Canadian drinking water guidelines. That means about 250 residents — many of whom are elderly — who live in 150 homes in an area of town known as The Green and The Valley can now turn on their taps and pour up a glass of clear, safe water. "It's a dream come true," said Spencer, who described the water pouring from her tap on Thursday as "amazing, wonderful." WATCH | The water used to look like motor oil. Not anymore: Cheers! After 25 years, hundreds of Wabana residents are drinking water — right out of the tap 12 hours ago Duration 2:22 They join about 200 other households who were connected to a new water supply in earlier phases of the upgrade. Phase 4 is also underway, with dozens more homes in an area known as The Front expected to receive a fresh supply of water later this year. So far, nearly $7 million has been spent on upgrades, said Mayor Philip Tobin, with the town paying a 10 per cent share. The provincial and federal governments covered most of the cost. "To finally get here now to this day and say we can lift this order is amazing to be a part of," Tobin told CBC News on Thursday. A stain on the town's reputation The drinking water problem has been a stain on Wabana's reputation for an entire generation. Residents were tired of turning on their taps and seeing a liquid that resembled cola or motor oil splattering into their sinks, and clothes sometimes looking dirtier when it emerged from the washer. For years, residents like Spencer have been forced to trek — with empty water jugs and buckets in hand — to a dispensing station in the centre of town for clean water. And that poses a big problem if you're elderly and you don't have a vehicle, and you have to depend on others, said Spencer. "It was not easy to get water," she on Thursday morning, Spencer went to her kitchen and felt great relief at being able to turn on her tap, and know the water was safe to drink, and that she no longer has to worry about fetching water. "I'm really, really happy," she said. A succession of municipal leaders have lobbied for financial assistance from the federal and provincial governments, and money finally started to flow in recent years. Tobin gave credit to previous leaders, especially the late Gary Gosine, who passed away in June and served for 30 years as mayor. "He played a big role in getting this accomplished," Tobin said of Gosine. Tobin estimates that nearly $7 million has so far been invested in the water system, but the job is not done. He expects it will be another three or four years before every household in the town of roughly 1,800 residents is connected, and one of the longest running boil water orders in the country is fully lifted.
