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a4 tribune november 7 s- editors mail thank you dear editor through the tribune i wish to express my personal appreciation to those responsible for bringing the blind students choir to stouffville from west africa in the years ive attended various services and concerts ive never enjoyed a program so much the event certainly warranted the full house at the missionary church to christian blind mission inter national ged stonehouse and the host boys and girls my thanks it was an evening ill never forget leona davison albert street stouffville a waste dear editor the proposed revitilization plan for stouffvilles downtown core is interesting and badly needed i question one aspect of the prog ram however the cleaning up of commercial street at the rear of the north business block spending 4000 plus dollars in this area is a waste wholl use it the present tenants may find it more convenient but the buying public will never park there better i say to spend the 4000 on something visible something out front where improvements can be readily appreciated commercial street in my opin ion is a back alley it may be a quiet place in which to live but its benefits as part of the downtown business section are minimal sincerely blanche erwin albert street stouffville the tribune established 1888 james thomas bruce annan pat pappas jenni hutt editor publisher advertising manager distribution manager comtiurvry nowspauet assoc at i on editorial dept jim holt chris shanahan display advertising dept terri bemhadt real estate classified advertising joan marshman distribution doreen deacon national sales representative metroland corporate sales 4931300 published every wednesday by melrorand printing publishing distributing at 54 main st stouffville ont tel 6402100 single copies 40 subscriptions s1650 per year in canada 4500 elsewhere member of canadian community newspapers association ontario weekly newspaper association ontario press coun- i crt and suburban newspaper of america second class mail registration number 0896 the stouffvillo tribune is ono of the metroland group of suburban newspapers which includes the acton free press ajaxpickering news advertiser the aurora banner brampton guardian the burlington post the burlington weekend post the etobicoke advertiserguardian the georgetown independent the milton if champion the mississauga news the newmarket era the willowdale mirror oakville beaver oakville r friday beaver oshawaarvhitby this week oshawawhitby this weekend the richmond hill liberal thor- nhill liberal the scarborough mirror the markham economist and sun and woodbridge liberal metroland printing publishing and distributing is a division of harlequin enterprises ltd 6402100 6492292 roaming around emergency eyesight by jim thomas i editorials should lease arena is the stouffville arena for sale if so we understand theres a potential buyer waiting in the wings if the price is right rumor yes however reports making the rounds would indicate theres some thing in the wind the exact same in formation was told to us on three sepa rate occasions saturday while the town isnt likely to make a move in this or any direction until the new arena opens we hope the municipal ity wont balk at competition we never favored the towns purch ase of the present facility in the first place we said and still say private en terprise is a better business custodian than government waste and misman agement at provincial and federal levels is proof of this we contend whitchurchstouf fville re quires two ice pads we feel and have always felt better use can be made of the present building during the off season we question however the feasi bility oftwo townoperated arenas the cost we suggest would be prohibitive but one public and one private thats a different story the town may argue that it would be cutting its own throat we doubt this for most teams will want to play in the new facility regardless of a difference in rates at least until the novelty wears off some may want to use both as proof of good faith the recreation department and council should go one better than approving the arenas sale they should agree to a tenyear lease with the tenant to bear the cost of all repairs in this way everyone would come out a winner something to think about a week ago tuesday night i lost my eyes my artificial eyes yes i dropped my glasses andbroke the frames yi biuuyis lojsilw while this may seem relatively unim portant to those with 2020 visionto me it was an incidentof calamitous consequ ences in the past five years ive become totally dependent on glasses so depen dent that without them im lost i cant read the telephone book or the dictionary i cant even read our own newspaper and the words on my video display terminal are just a blur what made this latest incident so dis turbing was the fact it never should have happened i was gesticulating with my hands as editors sometimes do and zonk off they went onto the floor while i was able to salvage enough of the pieces to glue the frames together i was aware the patchup job was only temporary they might last a couple of hours a couple of days maybe a couple of weeks i didnt know nor could i afford to take the chance besides the scotch tape so obscurred the lens i couldnt see much of anything anyway thats when i put in an sos to dr martin mcdowell town optometrist at 244 main street west i explained my predicament something to the effect thered be no tribune next week without replacements while the office receptionist was sym patheticshe tried to explain how her employer was booked up until the 14th of november unless theres a cancella tion theres no way we can work you in she said please i pleaded there was a pause and then she replied come in tomorrow afternoon thursday at 430 dr mcdowell will see you then what relief to be able to read the tele phone directory and the dictionary again ive only been to an optometrist three times in my life the first two offered no solutions the third worked wonders im extremely grateful while i dont dread eyedoctors to the same extent i dislike physicians and de ntists theyre not exactly my favorite type of people even the last time my head went woozy i had to ask for a glass of water or flake out on the floor i didnt want a repeat of the same squeamish performance while first impressions are sometimes deceiving i liked what i saw the minute i stepped inside the door yes the recep- tonist was pretty i could see that much but the interior was immaculate not a thing out of place the only matter that presented any problem was finding my ohip card be- cause i havent had to use italhthatp much it was buried under evenything else in my wallet kids pictures my drivers licence group insurancecerttfit cate numerous press passes you name it much worse than my wifes purse while admittedly impressed with the doctors office i was equally impressed with the doctor himself he checked me out boy did he check me out he had me read the chart on the wall so many times i almost had it memorized by heart and he put my peepers through so many tests i felt and probably looked like a barn owl at high noon however what impressed me most was his honesty a less scrupulous eye specialist could in deed have taken me to the cleaners by advocating new frames new lens the works but not dr mcdowell he recom mended new frames only the lens he said while slightly scratched and chip ped would be good for at least another year maybe longer forty minutes and thirtyeight dollars later i was on my way what relief for my mind my eyes and my pocketbook dr martin mcdowell 244 main street west stouff ville i recommend him highly just tell him jim sent you praise behavior policy john nikifork principal of stouffville dist secondary school has claimed dis cipline in the broad sense is not a prob lem hes repeatedly said that sdss is one of the best if not the best schools in the region of york as far as student con duct is concerned and he should know hes closest to the scene regardless we see the province- endorsed code of behavior as a step in the right direction further we compli ment the committee of teachers parents and students for the work involved in putting the sdss behavior code together in particular we commend viceprincipal bob krol for his lead ership role in heading up this committee and collating the information derived from it although not final we appreciate the breakdown of rights and responsibili ties that forms the basis for the conduct code these follow the rights and re sponsibilities of the student the rights and responsibilities of the teachers the rights and responsibilities of the parents and the rights and responsibilities of the community since we all relate to the latter we wish to outline each of these as follows the community has a right to 1 expect academic standards from the school which serves it 2 expect the students to be good citizens of the community as well as the school 3 expect teachers to identify with the community and serve as role models for the students 4 expect close cooperation in com munity events and charity drives 5 expect ongoing communication regarding the schools philosphy curri culum goals and special events 6 have input on matters that involve both the school and the community at large the community has a responsibility to 1 support various school functions 2 cooperate with the school in such matters as sharing facilities 3 support the schools cooperative education programs 4 support fundraising activities staged on behalf of the student body 5 ensure strong representation on the school board we offer no argument remember sunday is a day to remember a time to honor those who gave their lives in two world wars that we might be free de spite the fact most here can recall neith er conflict peace was declared 66 and 39 years ago the loss of life that directly affected so many families remains very real further through remembrance assemblies held in each of our schools the horrors of war arc impressed on the minds of the young nov 11 is remembrance day let us not forget junior oratorical champion topic on girls a winner for ballantrae student chris bellerby a grade 5 student at ballantrae public school deli vered the prizewinning speech in the junior oratorical competition oct 24 sponsored by the elementary teachers association the title of his address was girls the tribune is pleased to publish it here it reads as follows did you know the first thing i noticed when i came to school this year it was the girls they were everywhere you might say girls are becoming my new hobby ive been verycu- rious about them like a lot of boys are though they pretend not to be interested but girls dont you be lieve it when a few boys get together what do you think they talk about is it school work sports or what they had for breakfast maybe so but many talk mainly ab out girls since they seem to be so impor tant i thought id like to learn all about them and become some sort of expert so i started girl study ing and here are some of the things i noticed they arc all different shapes and sizes generally a little smaller and not quite as strong as boys but much more enjoyable to look at they usually wear their hair lon ger which they are constantly com bing and in our class some wear earrings nail polish perfume and fancy pants have you ever noticed that they have higher voices and seem to talk a lot they giggle whisper and seem to have a hard time keeping secrets i sometimes wonder what their secrets are all about i sure wish theyd let me know im still trying to figure out just why they stay together in groups they even have to bunch up to go to the washroom i was actually quite serious about this girl project so i went to the whitchurchstouffville library to do some research some boys may think theres nev er been a girl of much importance but thats not true did you know that over 2000 years ago cleopatra was a very famous queen of egypt and a girl named golda mcir be came premier of israel of course canada recently had a visit from another important girl who grew up to become queen elizabeth the second i also learned that girls have been pretty great in sports tracey au stin and billic jean king arc two of the worlds finest tennis players barbaraann scott was a world chalnpion figure skater marilyn bell was the first person to swim across lake ontario and only a few years ago a girl called barbara williams was hired to coach the new york islanders girls have been famous for all sorts of things thereve been movie stars like loni anderson and carole burnett scientists such as marie curie who discovered radioactivity and did you know it was a girl who invented the ice cream cone i suppose you might like to know there have been some pretty impor tant girls in my life like my mom my grannie and my teacher miss wideman they are all nice girls there are also a few others whose names id rather not mention you can never learn all there is to know about girls but if you want my real thoughts about them id have to say pretty girls are nice and all girls are pretty however the most important thing is their perso nality are they fun to be with are they interesting are they nice to me and my friends so girls you must be alright because ive never met a girl i didnt like