Now’s the time to order your butterflies! Place your order before May 15 and be entered into the early bird draw for three great prizes. And then join us for SIRCH’s Release of the Butterflies, and watch as the site transforms with beautiful butterflies. To make a donation, and secure your butterfly (or butterflies) for release June 12, 2016, download an order form by clicking the link below.
Years ago Bancroft Window and Door Factory, owned by Matt Ireland, was a thriving enterprise employing over 20 people. Different varieties of wood were kiln-dried, made into beautiful windows and doors, and finished on the site of the current Thrift Warehouse in Bancroft. Fast forward to today. SIRCH Community Services, a charity committed to creating social programs and employment, put together a training program and potential business in Bancroft, called “Works of Wood.” Works of Wood is located at Thrift Warehouse (beside Kawartha Dairy) which is a social enterprise run by SIRCH.
In addition to producing beautiful, high quality products out of reclaimed wood, Works of Wood trains unemployed youth and adults in basic carpentry skills. Don Zilstra, a former instructor at Durham College, leads our carpenters in the art and excellence of these handmade wood products. Most are made from pine from the old Bancroft Window and Door Factory. Some, like the pine used for the harvest tables, is beautifully weathered and the finish brings out amazing striations of colour. Or you can choose to have the pine dyed with analine dyes which produce rich, bold colours which are less likely to fade than stains.
Picture this obelisk in your garden, festooned with morning glories or climbing scarlet runner beans! Or use it as a beacon on your dock. It stands 6’ 5” tall, with a post cap solar light on top (that has an 8 hour running time).
The 1.5” thick tongue and groove pine “critter-proof box”* is nearly indestructible. It is 47” wide x 23” deep x 36” high. It can also be custom made to any size you need. With a friction lid and latch, it keeps its contents safe and dry. It will hold 2 large garbage cans or works well for recycling, a deck box, a storage box and many other uses. (*Now we don’t make any guarantees that an upset bear wouldn’t get in this box, but certainly squirrels, dogs, cats, raccoons and other smaller critters won’t be able to lift the lid and it’s solidly made so if something rips it apart, we’d be thinking ‘Sasquatch’!)
The Works of Wood rain barrel is not only functional, it’s a gorgeous showpiece. Made of 1.5” thick tongue & groove pine it stands 37” high x 30” round. A plastic drum holds 45 gallons of water. A screen and removable lid keeps out debris, critters and insects. A brass spigot is high enough for a watering can to fit under, and an overflow pipe can easily attach to a run-off hose.
Have you always wanted a Harvest Table? Well, Works of Wood made this one from live-edge reclaimed pine (7’ x 36” x 1.25”). You can order this standard size, or your own custom size.
These and other Works of Wood products can be viewed in our catalogue at this link: WoW catalogue. You can also contact us at 705-457-1742 or by email to info@sirch.on.ca to place your order. Or drop into Thrift Warehouse Bancroft at 29556 Hwy 28 and watch the production in action!
Doing Good Never Tasted So Good!
This week, we’ve added Oriental Fajita Penne! We also have a variety of soups for $2.50 and other main dishes for $5 from weeks past that you are welcome to purchase.
When you purchase a Simply Homemade meal, you’ll be helping to provide a meal for someone in need.
Simply Homemade meals are available for you to buy every Tuesday from 10:00am – 2:00pm pick up at SIRCH Central, 2 Victoria St, Haliburton.
There is a growing need for bereavement supports for residents of our county. Grief touches us all, whether it’s the death of a parent, friend, child, pet or whether it’s a different loss. Over a year ago, SIRCH started a bereavement program to help residents grieving the loss of a loved one. The program included 2 levels of grief groups, running every spring and fall, and a third level which runs monthly. These have been enormously impactful to the participants, helping them make sense of a world without their loved ones in it.
SIRCH receives no government funding for its bereavement program. To ensure that the Journey Through Grief groups can continue, SIRCH started a fundraising event last year, called “Release of the Butterflies”. Hundreds of beautiful Painted Lady butterflies were released at once into the air at the wetlands behind the Minden Cultural Centre. What a beautiful and meaningful occasion that was!
This year we will once again have the “Release of the Butterflies” in Minden on June 12th. Overwhelmingly, people are excited and supportive about this event, which includes entertainment, children’s activities, food, and (of course) the release of hundreds of butterflies. SIRCH did a great deal of research last year before introducing this fundraiser, to ensure that releasing this many butterflies would not interfere with our local ecosystem or the butterflies we currently have.
We chose Painted Lady butterflies, rather than Monarchs, because the Painted Lady is the most prolific butterfly in the world, covering North and South America, Europe, Asia and Africa. The main reason for this is the large number of host plants they will use. The butterflies lay eggs on a number of natural and garden plants including hollyhock, thistle, sunflowers, clover, lambsquarter, yarrow, mallow and others. Painted Ladies are found all across North America, and the Painted Lady’s gene pool is spread over much of the hemisphere. Even though the butterflies have been raised in protected conditions, they are not domesticated. They are as wild as their counterparts that exist in this area. We also chose a local butterfly farm in Lakefield that is family owned and we visited the farm to see their operation prior to committing to the event.
The healthy butterflies that are released will be both male and female. They will enter the natural environment in our area and reproduce, increasing the numbers of the butterflies locally. I don’t know about you, but I have certainly noticed a decline in butterfly populations over the past decade (bees too). Butterflies are important pollinators. And unlike bees which are generally restricted to a local area, many butterflies are always on the move and can cross pollinate over a large area, improving the genetic mix of genes of the plant community. Ceremonial releases have become an important proactive ecological program for maintaining wild populations of these amazing insects and also the native plants that depend on them. We chose the Minden Cultural Centre because of the beautiful wetlands that the boardwalk meanders through.
Other benefits of our butterfly release:
Please join us on June 12th for our Release of the Butterflies event. If you’d like to help with the event or make a donation, or purchase butterflies to release please contact Marilyn Rydberg, RotB Fundraising Chair at mak.rydberg@gmail.com.
For further information about the bereavement program or the Journey Through Grief groups, contact Shelley Richardson, Journey Through Grief Coordinator, at shelley_richardson@sirch.on.ca.
Doing Good Never Tasted So Good!
This week’s Simply Homemade meals were created by SIRCH Community Kitchen volunteers and the SIRCH Cook It Up training team. It was a great day for these two groups of SIRCH foodies to get to know each other, share skills, tell stories and give to our community.
We now have low sodium Shepherd’s Pie available! We also have a variety of soups for $2.50 and main dishes for $5 from weeks past that you are welcome to purchase.
When you purchase a Simply Homemade meal, you’ll be helping to provide a meal for someone in need.
Simply Homemade meals are available for you to buy every Tuesday from 10:00am – 4:00pm pick up at SIRCH Central, 2 Victoria St, Haliburton.
Doing Good Never Tasted So Good!
Simply Homemade meals, created by SIRCH Community Kitchen, are available for you to buy every Tuesday from 10:00am – 4:00pm. Pick up at SIRCH Central, 2 Victoria St, Haliburton.
New meals available this week are:
Souvlaki OR Spicy Thai Chicken Skewers with Whole Grain Rice Pilaf & Mixed Veggies $5
We also still have lots of Turkey Vegetable OR Cheesy Broccoli & Cauliflower Soup Cup $2.50
When you purchase a Simply Homemade meal, you’ll be helping to provide a meal for someone in need. Pop In and give our meals a try! “Doing Good Never Tasted So Good!”
