This green oasis in the middle of Toronto draws muskrats, minks and more. But it didn't just happen naturally. Here's how volunteers made it happen
They're native vegetation, but they owe their presence here to Davies and her crew, who have been planting them for years. Davies' encyclopedic knowledge of the flora here comes from long-standing familiarity. In 1991, she — along with local naturalists Charles Sauriol and Dave Money — founded the preserve with the goal of rehabilitating the land and restoring some of its original plant communities.
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CBC
18-07-2025
- CBC
Preliminary approval granted for new $10M search and rescue base in Kamloops, B.C.
Plans for a new Kamloops Search and Rescue base in Rayleigh are moving ahead. Directors with the Thompson-Nicola Regional District board unanimously approved covering almost 60 per cent of the nearly $10-million cost. The new facility will also be home to a fire hall, replacing the existing one in Rayleigh. The project, first proposed in November 2023, is needed because volunteers said they have outgrown their current space and were called out a record 75 times in 2024. KSAR President Paula Davies said they normally attend fewer than 50 calls per year and often search forests, trails, rivers and lakes beyond city limits. Their Swiftwater Rescue team recently searched the Thompson River for a university student from India who drowned July 6. His body was found July 15 by a KSAR volunteer kayaking near McArthur Island Park. KSAR's Frank Pryce said the complex will include a training centre for volunteers from smaller outlying communities. "We've had conversations with them and they're all keen to be able to come here, so we're doing training that is going to help all the teams because they're all in very small buildings that don't have the ability to do all that stuff," said Pryce. The City of Kamloops is expected to commit $2.4 million at an upcoming council meeting. The rest of the money, $1.4-million, will come from Kamloops Search and Rescue through a fundraising campaign. KSAR President Paula Davies hopes people they've helped rescue in the past will make donations. "If they see the benefit of SAR teams and they have the means of making a donation, then that's great. Everything helps," said Davies. Ashcroft Mayor Barbara Roden chairs the Thompson-Nicola Regional District board. She said it makes sense for the TNRD to jointly fund this facility with the City of Kamloops, but she also wants support from other levels of government. "They are there in every corner of the Thompson-Nicola Regional District, and it is going to benefit so many people over so many years," said Roden. "Why the province cannot fund something like search and rescue is absolutely beyond me. This is a case where the province needs to step up to the plate and start contributing." It's not clear how soon construction could start because Kamloops city council has yet to approve its share of funding. The lease for the existing base in Mission Flats expired at the end of January 2025. The new site is on city-owned land at 4420 Devick Road. Davies said there's no rush to start construction because the city has given them permission to stay in Mission Flats until the new facility is ready. "The city has graciously said that as long as you are working towards a home and basically will be gone as soon as we can move into our new home, they will let us stay there for the time being, so we won't be kicked out onto the street."
Winnipeg Free Press
03-07-2025
- Winnipeg Free Press
Pope speaks about childhood and early mornings as an altar boy in unscripted visit with campers
ROME (AP) — Pope Leo XIV spoke publicly about his childhood in Chicago for the first time as pontiff Thursday, recalling that from the age of six he used to get up early to serve as an altar boy at the 6:30 a.m. Mass before going to school. Leo shared the memories during an unscripted visit with the children of Vatican employees who are attending the Holy See's summer camp. They were joined by other children, including Ukrainian young people, who are attending summer programs run by Italy's Caritas charity. The visit, which was not announced in advance, took place in the Vatican's main audience hall, which was decked out with huge inflatable bouncy castles for the estimated 600 kids. One of the young campers, Giulia, asked Leo if he used to go to Mass as a child. The former Robert Prevost, who grew up the youngest of three brothers in the south Chicago suburb of Dolton, said the family always went to Mass on Sundays. 'But starting from when I was around 6 years old, I was also an altar boy in the parish. And so before going to school — it was a parochial school — there was Mass at 6:30 a.m.,' he said, emphasizing how early it was. 'And Mom would wake us up and say 'We're going to Mass!' Because serving Mass was something we liked because starting from when I was young, they taught us that Jesus was always close to us.' Leo, who was born in 1955, recalled that at the time, Mass was celebrated in Latin. He said he had to learn it to serve Mass even before he made his First Communion, one of the key sacraments in the church. 'It wasn't so much the language that it was celebrated in but the experience of getting to know other kids who served the Mass together, the friendship, and this closeness with Jesus in the church,' he said. Sundays Kevin Rollason's Sunday newsletter honouring and remembering lives well-lived in Manitoba. Leo's brother, John Prevost, has said his little brother knew from a very young age that he wanted to be a priest. Young Robert used to pretend to celebrate Mass using their mother's ironing board as an altar and Necco candies — a once-popular sweet — as Communion wafers. History's first American pope spoke in Italian, but he switched to English to address a group of Ukrainian children, some of whom held up Ukrainian flags and snagged Leo autographs. He spoke about the benefits of meeting people from different backgrounds, languages and lands. It was one of the first times Leo has spoken unscripted at length in public, responding to questions posed to him by the children. He has tended to stick to his prepared texts for his audiences so far in his young pontificate. ___ Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP's collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.
Toronto Star
29-06-2025
- Toronto Star
This green oasis in the middle of Toronto draws muskrats, minks and more. But it didn't just happen naturally. Here's how volunteers made it happen
On a walk through the Todmorden Wildflower Preserve on a hot day in mid-June, chief steward Paula Davies points out a fern here, a flower there, and a variety of sedges by the pond, all with their common and Latin names. They're native vegetation, but they owe their presence here to Davies and her crew, who have been planting them for years. Davies' encyclopedic knowledge of the flora here comes from long-standing familiarity. In 1991, she — along with local naturalists Charles Sauriol and Dave Money — founded the preserve with the goal of rehabilitating the land and restoring some of its original plant communities.
