Phin Park fun

Collage

Phin Avenue Parkette at 115 Condor Ave

Residents of the Pocket neighbourhood (south of the Danforth between Jones and Greenwood Aves.) have raised $2,000 in a crowd funding campaign to save a popular free community art program called Art in Phin Park. In so doing, they ensured the fourth annual edition of the community event. As reported by Joanna Lavoie of the Beach Mirror the Pocket Community Association (PCA) was told this Spring that it would not be receiving the much-valued grant from the Toronto Arts Council. The community group needed the funding to purchase art supplies as well as hire artist-in-residence Jerry Silverberg and other special guest artists. You have to admire the proud people of the Pocket.

Sahar Abdalla

Yiqiao (Cindy) Chen

William Chinnery

Three Leaside High School graduates have won scholarship awards sponsored by the TD Bank for their selfless leadership in helping others. The TD Scholarships for Community Leadership are valued at up to $70,000 and are awarded to young grads who make a difference. This year’s winners are from all across the country but, remarkably, LHS grads won three awards from among 20 shining faces named by TD Bank on its scholarship website.

SAHAR ABDALLA

Sahar Abdalla became a Youth Director on the Flemingdon Park Parent Association. She started a drop-in homework centre for students from grades 4 to 6 and applied her French skills as one of the volunteer tutors. She organized leadership workshops and a soccer house league, in which she managed coaches and planned schedules. She also edited her student newspaper and was active on the school robotics team. Sahar plans to study software engineering at the University of Toronto.

CINDY CHEN

Yiqiao (Cindy) Chen tutored a blind teenager in Beijing and founded Vision Exchange, a non-profit program matching sighted English-speaking mentors with blind Chinese buddies for online classes and conferences. The program grew to 120 participants in three countries, helping Chinese blind people overcome their limited education options and fulfill dreams. Cindy also ran music theory and science youth camps at the Victoria Park Hub community centre and founded her school’s first business club. She will pursue Engineering Science at the University of Toronto and seek a career in education or economics.

WILLIAM CHINNERY

Leaside winner William Chinnery was inspired by volunteers as he himself faced cancer. William designed an online test registration process to help Special Education students register for support during tests which has been adopted by other schools. He helped organize events in aid of mental illness and help students cope with stress. He also introduces children with disabilities to technology and robotics at a children’s rehabilitation hospital. He will attend Ryerson University in Business Technology Management. With TD Bank website

Four young men have vanished in a wealthy section of Pennsylvania over the weekend. Now authorities are conducting a massive search of a large farm in Bucks County about 40 miles north of Philadelphia. They are holding a fifth young man in custody on an unrelated charge but say he is a person of interest. Then, Israel is proposing an artificial island off the shore of Gaza which would be full of shipping facilities and even an airport designed, says the Jerusalem government, to try to improve the lives of Palestinians. Below that, counting people and projecting the world population. Quite a lot of food for thought there. And finally, the European Court of Human Rights has upheld the Belgian ban on the full-face veil. Food for thought there too.

Stuck

NewsTalk Radio 1010/Twitter

A man has been freed from between two walls barely eight inches apart on Sherbourne St. near Queen St. E. Tuesday night. Firefighters used pneumatic drills to go through a wall from the inside of one of the buildings after getting permission from the landlord. They created a hole large enough to permit the man to get out of his narrow predicament. The man claims he fell about nine metres from the roof of 123 Sherbourne St. around 3:15 p.m., a story which stretches belief. At its narrowest, the space is 20 centimetres wide or less than eight inches. “How the man went down there, nobody knows,” says building owner Donald Lee. Authorities suggested the man was trying to retrieve something from between the walls and was then unable to get out. He complained of a lack of circulation in his arms and legs and was further constrained by a steel reinforcing bar which somehow became wrapped around his legs. The ordeal lasted five hours with the fire service spending nearly three hours on the scene. Mr.Lee is asking who will pay to repair the damage done to get the man out. He may already know.

Eglinton and Warden

Motorino Restaurant in Woodbridge

Victoria Park and Finch

Intrepid Tony Smyth @LateNightCam had a busy few hours as revealed on his Twitter account. A man was shot outside the Tim Hortons at Eglinton and Warden Aves. about 2 a.m. and is now in Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre. The man, 26, is said to be gravely hurt. Upper right, a detective takes a look at the shattered window of the Motorino Restaurant on Rutherford Rd. in Woodbridge. There were several slugs launched at the restaurant but no one was hit. Below that, a pretty good crunching of a car and a van at Victoria Park and Finch Aves. Few details. There was also a volley of shots fired at a townhouse on Cataraqui Cres. at Warden and St. Clair Aves.

An Air Canada captain misjudged his location while landing at San Francisco International Airport last Friday and was heading for touch down on a crowded taxiway instead of the runway. It is a mistake that is not unknown in commercial aviation. In this case, a controller saw what was happening and waved off the Airbus 330. It went around and then landed safely on the correct runway.

DOG ESCAPES AT AIRPORT

A dog brought to Canada from Greece by the rescue organization Stray Paws Rescue was allowed by custom officials to roam on an unfenced patch of grass at Toronto Airport Monday and quickly escaped. It was one of a  number of rescue dogs which are routinely brought into the country. The stories about this incident are sketchy about the requirements although it is said the customs officials did it to let the dogs relieve themselves. The family which had adopted the animal is quite upset. It is described as a 15-pound Pomeranian/Papillon mix named Emily. The airport says staff are looking for the dog.

Emily

More than two-thirds of Canadians feel Prime Minister Justin Trudeau made the wrong choice in awarding a $10.5 million settlement to Omar Khadr, according to a new poll by the Angus Reid Institute. And while the survey shows that a majority of Liberals and New Democrats are opposed to the government’s decision, how the numbers compare to previous polling suggests that views on Khadr have hardened over the last decade — and that he remains a divisive figure. CBC

The new sensation in Washington is the revelation that Donald Trump Jr. had a meeting before the election with a Kremlin-linked lawyer named Natalia Veselnitskaya. Check it out. Next, it’s Prime Day. This is an Amazon promotion that started at six Monday night and runs until midnight Wednesday. You pay them $100 and they’ll let you buy stuff. Heck of a deal. And then, a new twist on escaping jail. A drone brings you wire-cutters and other stuff you need to bust out. Like Amazon, it lands right in your very own jail yard. Finally, a couple of “twenty somethings” are ticketed for climbing out onto Scarborough Bluffs to take a selfie. They didn’t know how to get down so they called mom who knew it was a job for the fire service.

R.J. Barrett of Mississauga

Remember the name. He’s R. J. Barrett, a 17 year-old kid from Mississauga playing two years above his level with the Team Canada U19 basketball squad as they first knock off the US, then Italy to win the FIBA World Cup in Egypt. FIBA is a French acronym meaning international basketball association. A day after he poured in 38 points against the Americans, Barrett, earned tournament MVP honours. He went 3-for-13 from the field, and 12-of-14 from the free throw line against Italy. The CBC reports that Barrett is considered the world’s best player for his age. He scored 18 points and grabbed 12 rebounds as Canada roared past Italy 79-60 on Sunday to win the Cup, the first time Canadians of any gender or age group have brought home an official basketball world title. The team arrives home Monday night.

Police want help to find these three men who sneaked into the driveway of a home in southeast Forest Hill near St. Clair Avenue West and Avenue Road to set fire to an SUV. It happened Wednesday, June 21 at 1.06 a.m. as the men douse a Land Rover with gasoline. They fled in a light-colored flatbed-style work truck  Security camera videos have been released to identify the three unknown men and the vehicle they used. See security videos are on the TPS site here.