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www.insideHALTON.com | OAKVILLE BEAVER | Friday, September 26, 2014 | 20 Scott MacIntyre creates awareness for organ donation with new album After the release of his new album earlier this week, former Oakville resident and American Idol finalist Scott MacIntyre announced he is facing end-stage kidney failure for the second time in his life. The singer-songwriter and seven-year kidney transplant recipient was recently accepted into the Vanderbilt Hospital transplant program and placed on the national waiting list. "I'm so grateful to my first kidney donor for these past seven years of my life," MacIntyre said in a press release. "Without that life-saving gift, I would have never been on American Idol, married my wife, or been able to share my story with so many people around the world. Unfortunately, transplanted kidneys can't last forever, and now I'm facing the same life-threatening illness once again." The average wait time for a deceased donor kidney is three-five years, and MacIntyre's doctors say they estimate he will need the transplant within the next six months, which means he'd need a living donor, stated the release. MacIntyre says he has made his health situation public to create more awareness of the importance of organ donation and to bring hope to those facing organ failure and future transplants. "My wife and I are facing the same unknowns right now that tens of thousands of others and their families face every day," he noted. "I hope that by being open and vulnerable about what I'm going through, I can draw attention to the overwhelming need for donated organs and encourage more people to become organ donors." In the meantime, MacIntyre is promoting his new album, Lighthouse, which was released on Sept. 23 and he will be performing a free live concert in Toronto Tuesday (Sept. 30) at 7:30 p.m. at Global Kingdom Ministries, 1250 Markham Rd. Free will offerings will be accepted, as will non-perish- Artscene "Connected to your Community" Scott MacIntyre is hoping sharing his story amidst the release of his new album will help spread awareness for the need of organ donation. | submitted photo able items to be donated to a local food bank. The album features 11 new songs that showcase the faith, hope and grace MacIntyre has found in his health battles, and it includes guest vocal performances by fellow Idol alumni Danny Gokey and Skylar Laine. The album closes with I Am Hope, which has become an anthem for organ donation and will be featured at upcoming National Kidney Foundation Walks in New York City, Los Angeles, Boston and Miami. MacIntyre will also continue with his touring schedule in the U.S. and Canada for as long as his minimal kidney function allows. For more information, visit www.scottmacintyre.com. Rachel's Hope completes author Shelly Sanders' The Rachel Trilogy. | submitted art Sanders concludes Rachel Trilogy Every story must come to an end and for Oakville author Shelly Sanders, it comes in the form of Rachel's Hope. The last instalment of Sanders' The Rachel Trilogy launches Sunday, Sept. 28 at A Different Drummer Books, 513 Locust St., in Burlington, from 2-4 p.m. Rachel's Hope continues the story told in Rachel's Promise and Rachel's Secret -- the trilogy is loosely based on Sanders' grandmother and great aunt whose names and traits she borrowed and lived a life parallel to the characters in the Rachel trilogy. The story is of a 14-year-old girl, Rachel, living in Kishinev, Russia. When a young Christian man is murdered, Rachel is forced to keep the murderer's identity a secret. Tensions mount as Christian distrust of Jews is fueled by prejudice and rumour. Rachel watches as lies and antiJewish propaganda leap off the pages of the local newspaper, inciting riots, called pogroms. Violence breaks out on Easter Sunday, 1903, and when it ends, the person Rachel loves most is dead and her home has been destroyed. As she struggles to survive, she receives assistance from a young Christian named Sergei, who turns on his father, a police officer complicit in the riots. In Rachel's Hope, the protagonist has finally made it to North America after fleeing Russia and finding refuge in Shanghai. Separated by thousands of miles, Rachel has kept in touch with Sergei through letters. She tries to forge a life for herself in San Francisco, while Sergei, still in Russia and joins workers rebelling against inhumane factory conditions, faces the consequences of the revolution. Sanders, who was a freelance journalist for many years for major publications, researched the first book for a year. She also read Russian novels to get a sense of pace and how people spoke. She was elated when the first novel was picked up by Second Story Press. A married mother of three children, Sanders received a grant from the Canada Council for the Arts for her third book, which she used to travel to San Francisco for a week in November 2013 to research where Rachel (the fictional and real) studied after coming from Shanghai. The Rachel Trilogy will be available in its entirety after Sept. 28 wherever books are sold, including iTunes -- Rachel's Secret and Rachel's Promise are already available. For more information, visit www. shellysanders.com. Oakville artist's exhibit at CJ's Café until Oct. 6 Oakville artist Kate Nickerson is hav30s, I took a couple of nude drawing ing an exhibit shown at CJ's Café in classes at the Ontario College of Arts Bronte. and I also took a water-color class "I've always done `art' off and on with a friend a few years later and over the years, but I just started taking that got me started again." it seriously the past few years," said Nickerson admits she wasn't too 63-year-old local resident who grew comfortable with working with waup in Montreal and moved to Oakville tercolours, but dreamed of doing when she was 19. large canvasses full of colour and so "I just like painting (in general), she began experimenting with acrylshells, flowers -- I've done a grape ics. study... Things pop into my head, or Approximately eight years ago, she something catches my eye and I try became a member of the Oakville Art Kate Nickerson to paint it. I'd like to get into larger Society and took acrylic classes to paintings and ones with lots of color." keep her skills sharp. With no formal art education, Nickerson took class"Since then I've just been doing my own stuff at es when she was younger at the Montreal Museum Sat- home," Nickerson said. "Canvasses started piling up urday mornings. and my friends and family encouraged me to get some She would continue to take art classes in high school exposure. So, I finally took their advice and asked CJ, and outside of school. if I could display at her café." "But I just stopped with art when I was about 16-17 Nickerson's show will be on display at the 2416 (years old)," Nickerson said. "In Toronto, in my early Lakeshore Rd. W. café until Oct. 6.