Shirley Plestid is an avid gardener with some global plans for garden here at home. “I am going to Holland in May and I love their tulips,” she said. But bringing flowers into Canada isn’t as simple as packing some in checked luggage.
The spotlights are shining bright. Wooden structures are waiting to be transformed into a hotel room stage set. A crew shows up after work to put in another long night’s effort into the rehearsal. Welcome to community theatre.
Grade 12 students Matthew Ho and Asad Muhammad recently made headlines for sending a helium-filled balloon into the upper atmosphere. Attached to the balloon was a Lego-man holding a Canadian flag. On the information board outside their school, the sign still reads, “Congrats to Matthew and Asad.”
The gym at Eastview Junior Public School is full of proud parents and family. They wait anxiously for the start of the school’s second annual musical. The lights dim, the curtains part and 12-year-old Jayden Funnel, dressed as Willy Wonka, sings, “Come with me and you’ll be in a world of pure imagination.”
Mighty Scarborough is home to many areas of Mother Nature’s beauty. For animal lovers, there is the Toronto Zoo, but for those who appreciate landscapes and greenery, the Bluffs are Scarborough’s crown jewel.
Forty years ago, Robert Service Senior Public School opened its doors to Scarborough students. Jack Rilley, dedicating his job to his students, has been there since day one. Rilley, who is in his 45th teaching year, arrives at school at 6:30 every morning. He then prepares his classroom for his students and the upcoming day. However, none of this preparation is for his own personal satisfaction.
It began with a simple offering of a few homemade quilts and before she knew it, Jane Barbeau was a board member, selling gift baskets, helping with the Share Christmas program and leading the Fundraising Committee at the Birchmount Bluffs Neighbourhood Centre. That was only a year and half ago.
In a hidden, sequestered patch of land tucked away in the vast neighbourhoods of suburban Scarborough, lives what the owner likes to call his “best kept secrets.” Its surrounding environment helps conceal one of John Hardy’s homes. Towering oak trees and a steep, grass rampart shroud what lies beyond one side of the wooden gate, while a wired fence on the other side and a seven-foot, wooden palisade he recently built encloses the rest of his property — just low enough for his neighbours at the back to peek in from time to time.
The set of hit television show, Holmes Inspection, gets pretty chaotic sometimes. The home is full of drilling, hammering and discussions of building plans. But amid the construction, a father watches his children grow as his family and as his employees. “I believe in having a business that the whole business is our family…that everyone gets treated like we’re related,” Mike Holmes said. “Having my kids here is just an extra added bonus.”
Scarborough has welcomed a wave of new immigrants for the past 25 years. But what factors attract them to the area?