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local artist and soap firm help new guides campaign kate gilderdale correspondent when 1990 was designated as the year of the environment the girl guides of canada decided they should come up with a special product which would strongly endorse an antipollution prorecycling philosophy the end result was an environmental ly friendly soap made by taylor soaps- perfumes lim ited featuring a specially commissioned painting by gormleys pie menger on the box truly a local success story for both pie herself and the soap company owners presi dent jim taylor of gormley and jims son vice president john taylor of stouffville it all started with the advertis ing agency which handles the taylor soaps account explains jim taylor they had been working with the guides and came up with the concept of soap they came to us and said that the guides were trying to promote the theme of the envi ronment and they thought soap would be an ideal product to use to fit the theme taylor soaps created a vegetable oilbased soap which contained no animal products the soap is complete ly biodegradable and will not cause any harm or pollution to the environment unlike some detergents which will never break down and will always cause a certain amount of pollu tion and foaming of water notes mr taylor the packaging is all made from recyclable material which gets away from our problem of disposing of a lot of packaging as a result it doesnt have to be destroyed it just gets recirculat ed all the time the idea of making pollutionfree products is not new to the company he stresses we were pioneers in the anti pollution area we tried to mar ket a phosphatefree detergent about 18 years ago for clothes they chose the first one i did which took me a weefcjhey loved it and dish washing but we couldnt get to first base with the stores our timing was just too advanced when the girl guides said they wanted an attractive box for the soap it was agreed that a cana dian artist should be approached to create an appropriate painting since the taylors passed the menger gallery every day knew ms menger and were familiar with her work they suggested approaching her john stopped in here one day last fall she recalls he asked if id ever hone any land scapes with a bubbling brook butt didnt have anything that specifically fea tured a brook although id done things like lakes creeks and streams john taylor asked if she would give him some pho tographs of her work so that he could show them to the girl guide commissioners he brought them back and i didnt hear another thing until january notes ms menger i figured it was either a dead issue or theyd found someone else by then the next time he came in however he asked if she would come down and meet with girl guide representatives in toronto tcok three paintings with me and they liked my work we hit it off at once and they said they would like me to paint something for them she agreed to submit three paintings for them to choose from and told them they would be ready in a month they chose the one i did first which took me a week i called john and asked him to stop in and see if he thought i was on the right track with it he showed it to them and they loved it says ms menger the painting entitled water photoannette buchkowski gormley artist pie menger right was honored by the girl guides recently when they chose one of her paintings to adorn boxes of soap the organization plans to sell in addition to its annual cookie campaign a local family manufactures the soap for tomorrow was from a pho tograph she took in minden in the summer of 1989 what gave her special pleasure was the fact that it wasnt until after they had commissioned her to do the work that the guides discovered she was one of v the keirstead family the taylors didnt tell them and at the end of the interview after they had asked me to do it and i was leaving i gave them one of my brochures and the guides came to us and said they were trying to promote the environment invited them to come and visit the gallery knowing that she had won the commission oh the strength of her work alone was exciting for her she acknowledges pie was delighted because she put everything she had into it observes jim taylor its a really beautiful picture the original painting of water for tomorrow will hang in the menger gallery until midapril when it will be shipped to its per manent home at the girl guides merton street headquarters the soap itself will go on sale at girl guides stores in toronto and newmarket sometime in may advises chief commission er joan howell then in the fall we will have more boxes available and we will be asking girls to sell them in certain loca tions we plan to build sales up gradually says ms howell adding the soap and- packaging tie ip beautifully with the theme were working on the soap will not usurp the annual girl guide cookie fundraiser she stresses it doesnt replace the cookies we wouldnt dare do that says jim taylor i think itll be quite a successful program soap is a product almost every body uses he believes its fitting for the company that it is involved in such a worthwhile project in the year it celebrates its 125th anniversary my grandfather started the business in 1865 and im the third generation with my son now in the business as well he concludes stouffville senior always lends a helping hand bruce stapley correspondent mahlon shantz is a man with a mission the 76yearold baker hill resi dent has dedicated his retirement to visiting and comforting the elderly in their residences and at three stouffville area nursing homes at the request of either parkview home green gables manor or bestview health care centre the former refrigeration service mar will make oneonone visits to seniors cheering them up and helping them talk about any prob lems they may have mr shantz a mennonite lay preacher all his adult life who studied palliative care at durham college several years ago started taking an interest in seniors when he and his seven children would visit the homes of elderly members of their church in kitchener back in the 1950s and 60s ah amateur photographer in those days mr shantz would pre pare an audiovisual presentation for seniors in nursing homes his material would include nature pho tos and shots of such events as christmas parties but in recent years nursing home qiheiofi tfiesepeopfe have mr shantz says he has been com ing around to see some of the same people for three years he says many elderly people have just been allowed to dry up inside and often respond well to his attempts to awaken their inter est in living officials short on staff members able to find time for effective one- onone counselling have called upon mr shantz to fill the void and he treats it as very serious business its what i feel i must do says mr shantz who sat on the board of directors of markham stouf fville hospice in 1989 j have committed myself to this type of thing its my retirement project some of these people have some thing remain ing under the surface but no one has stirred it up he says there was one fellow who had dried up at the age of 96 1 would jusfsay a few words into his ear and he would slowly digest it and gradually come to follow what i was saying and interpret it faster and faster eventually he would start to talking about lay preaching he used to do yeajs ago he would only be able to go on for about five min utes at a time but thats the way it is so often there are small victo ries another man in his 90s who was upset because he had been moved to a new room with unfamiliar sur- roundings ended up accepting the switch after mr shantz convinced him that he could easily come to see the new setting as home i told him nothing had really changed that was important he ended up so happy that he went and embarrassed me by telling the man ager all these flowery things about me i had simply given him a sense of home of comfort that things were okay says mr shantz and he often finds it a rewarding experience listening to the respons es of the seniors you present them with an idea sometimes its just bonetingling what they can come up with it makes you feel good he con cludes fk mahlon shantz man with a mission