TALENTED LEASIDERS!
Congratulations to Robin Pond, long-time North Leaside resident from Divadale Dr. Pond may be an investment consultant by day, but in his spare time he write plays. His second full-length one, The Retirement Plan, is being performed at this year’s Toronto Fringe Festival, which turns 25 this year and features 148 shows in 35 venues. Pond’s play is described as a comedic cautionary tale examining one family’s priorities and the trade-offs they make trying to control their future. It runs July 3 through July 14.
Another North Leaside author, Nathaniel G. Moore, is being published this fall by Anvil Press. His book, Savage 1986-2011, is a “dark comedy” based on Moore’s years growing up here. Described as a ‘fictional memoire” it contains both factual and fictional elements, including a sister that neighbours will recognize as “added”. Moore grew up on Glenvale and attended Leaside High. His former English teacher, Janis Fertuck, remembers him as a quiet boy. “He’s come back to my writer’s craft class to talk about his writing, and was very entertaining,” she tells us.
Plantings are now complete at the gardens at the Toronto Rehab-Lyndhurst Centre, (top end of Rumsey Rd.). Refurbishing the gardens is one of a few Leaside 100 projects sponsored by the Leaside Garden Society. All the work was done under the careful eye of Barry Schneider and his dedicated volunteers. The Ontario Horticultural Association helped with a grant.
Big shout out to Leaside Rotary for its first Bits & Bites event on Bayview held this June. Launched as a fundraiser to support the new Rotary-Leaside Community Caring Fund, Bits and Bites gave neighbours and visitors to Leaside an additional incentive to stroll the south Bayview stretch and indulge in the area’s wide variety of food items from the many fine restaurants and food purveyors.
This June, Northlea Public School started its Kidzpak school supplies fundraiser to benefit Grenoble Public School. Kidspaks can be ordered online and delivered directly to a child in time for the first day of school.
Hero Burgers, an all-Canadian franchise specializing in 100 percent Angus beef from Alberta, opens on Bayview this summer. It’s part of an overall expansion in Toronto for the hamburger chain that sells hormone-free and antibiotic-free burgers.
During a recent Toronto charity run, Leasiders wondered why the parking lot above the TD bank at Millwood and Bayview overflowed with Cars2Go. Turns out the drivers were all participants in the May Half Marathon and, coincidentally, all rented a car to get to the marathon (but not to drive home).
Residents may have noticed in June (kind of hard not to miss), a steady stream of male and female runners wearing pink dresses and various outfits including lingerie, making their way through the neighbourhood starting at Sunnybrook Park. The June 8 event was as a fundraiser for breast cancer, organized by the Toronto Buccaneers Rugby Club and the Yeomen Lions RFC. The run was followed by three rugby games, then festivities at the Fox & Fiddle at Laird and McRae (a sponsor for the club.)