It has been a banner year for Sarnia authors, from sports to history, and children’s books to poetry, To help match local readers with local writers The Journal has prepared a compendium of 2014 titles. Here, in no particular order, is Part Two: The First Canadian Allen Wells The First Canadian is an approving… Read more »
John Rochon Most Sarnians are familiar with the Lochiel Kiwanis Centre located at the end of Lochiel Street between College Avenue and Forsyth Street, and many will remember it as the Lochiel Street School, but few will remember when, from 1916 – 1924, three schools occupied the site. In 1872 the four-room Lochiel School was… Read more »
Cathy Dobson Five-year-old Landon Espinola is the life of the party. He fills his parent’s living room with giggles and jokes and positive energy. And that great attitude may help explain why the little redheaded boy beat a rare and very aggressive form of cancer. “They said we’d be in the hospital with him for… Read more »
Barry Wright Next month Sarnia’s Selina Mirjavadi (nee Nickason) will take her place in the Central Michigan University Athletics Hall of Fame. The former Bluewater Gymnastics star will be inducted at a ceremony at the Mount Pleasant, Michigan campus on Oct. 17, and then introduced at halftime of CMU’s college football game the next afternoon. “It is quite an… Read more »
Journal Staff Students at King George VI showed their appreciation when cancer survivor Faith Abbey, 10, completed a two-day walk from London to their Sarnia school on Sept. 11. “Faith’s Footsteps” raised more than $15,000 for Childcan, an organization that helps families cope with childhood cancer. Faith, who was diagnosed with liver cancer before turning… Read more »
THEN … Hundreds of milling residents can be seen surveying the wreckage in this aerial photo, taken May 21, 1953, just hours after a powerful tornado ripped through Sarnia’s downtown. The twister damaged 250 buildings, left dozen of families homeless and caused $5-million damage to the city. Note the roof of the former Taylor’s Furniture building,… Read more »
John Rochon Most Sarnians know of the devastating tornado that struck on May 21, 1953, causing extensive damage throughout the city. But few people know of a tornado that struck Sarnia and the surrounding area on Friday, July 11, 1879. Around 10 a.m. a terrible storm of wind and rain hit the town and lasted… Read more »
George Mathewson News that a Quebec man has been charged with falsely practicing witchcraft is a reminder that sorcery and black magic didn’t start and end in colonial Salem, Massachusetts. In fact, one of the most spectacular cases of witchcraft in Canadian history involved a teacher from Lambton County, who was charged following a series of… Read more »
Journal Staff The H. G. MacLean Centre in Centennial Park has a date with the wrecking ball. The former restaurant and meeting hall will be razed down to its concrete support pad on Oct. 18. The concrete floor itself will be removed when remediation work begins later this fall on the park’s contaminated soil. Murray… Read more »
George Mathewson Jen Levasseur is proof that miracles of medicine do happen. The Sarnia woman was a graduate of Lambton College and had snagged a dream job in I.T. at Ford of Canada in Oakville when death knocked on her door. Levasseur was diagnosed with Stage 4 breast cancer, meaning it had spread to other… Read more »
