The little things

December. Yup. It’s the little things that are making this December memorable for me. For instance, little did I know we had an extraordinarily talented young lady living right next door. Indeed, our neighbour, along with dozens of her new stage friends (perhaps a neighbour of yours among them), made this past Sunday afternoon very special for LOML and me. She just happened to be one of the very best fairies ever. Just the right amount of fairy wing sparkle. Just the right number of twinkly-Tinkerbell-like lights. You could see it in her eyes that she was, most definitely, as real a fairy as ever there was one. All of the children on stage had the same face. Real fairies. Real mermaids. Real lost boys. Real “Indians”. Along with a real Darling family, a real Nana and a real band of baddies. If you didn’t have a chance to see Peter Pan at the Mount Tabor Playhouse, you missed one of the special little County things that make December a magical time. It was hard to do anything but smile while watching the show. The Marysburgh Mummers Community Theatre Group is a creative creche for County kids. Thank you Mummers, you made my December day.

And, it wouldn’t be December if we didn’t dine with a group of fine students from Prince Edward Collegiate Institute (PECI) at the annual Make Poverty History dinner and silent auction. Make Poverty History (MPH) is part of the Global Call to Action Against Poverty which was launched in 2005. MPH has over a quarter of a million individual supporters and numerous groups of activists across Canada that organize events to raise money to assist, educate and bring about changes to make poverty history. We are most fortunate to have a group of young people, right here in the County, guided by PECI teacher Marion Moon that wants to make a difference in the world . In past years the group assisted the people in the community of Enelerai. Today, that community is self-sufficient and no longer needs assistance. The PECI MPH students are now focusing their attention and fundraising efforts on a Maasai community, Oloirien. It wasn’t an expensive meal. We sat with folks we hadn’t seen in a long time. We heard some great music, and I didn’t have to cook dinner. It wasn’t a big deal outing. Thank you MPH PECI, you made my December Sunday a little more special.

Speaking of December, I’ll just bet many of you are spending your other spare moments cleaning out your closets, cupboards and attics to make room from your anticipated Christmas haul. If you’re thinking of a drive-by drop-off of your stuff at any of our local thrift shops, make sure your donation is clean, in working order, has all of its parts and is going to be useful to someone else. Our local thrift shops donate all of their sales proceeds to local charities. If you’re using those shops as a garbage dumping ground because you’re too Scroogey to take your junk to the dump, what you’re really doing is passing the cost of garbage disposal along to the thrift shop. Don’t get me wrong. Your donations are important. You know they are. Just think before you donate. Make sure you’re donating with a good conscience. And, what the heck, have a look around while you’re there. Who knows, you may see some little thing that falls into the recycled/repurposed Christmas category. Lower costs with less waste and, sometimes, a retro gift. You never know.

And, finally, while enjoying the PECI MPH evening, we had the great pleasure of sitting with a couple of local volunteer firefighters. They talked enthusiastically about their take on the issue of firehalls in Prince Edward County. Their take on the current and proposed situation regarding the disposition of older firehalls and the construction of a “super firehall” made sense to me. If you know me, and many of you think you do, you know a situation has to be perfectly clear for me to “get it”. And, thanks to those two guys, I got their drift. So, municipal powers that be, let the folks who respond to the fire calls have a great big say in what works for a community like Prince Edward County. Like holiday meals, bigger isn’t always better.

theresa@wellingtontimes.ca