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Get ready to put best foot forward TRAIN NOW FOR CHARITY WALKS THE ERA INCLUDING GST PAGES Thursday Feb 25 NEWMARKET LIBRARY PARK AVE NIWMARKET ONTARIO STUDENTS SINGTHROUGH SINKING Songs thoughts of home help stranded sailors though ordeal BY TERESA LATCH FORD As Alison Grant sat shivering in a leaky life raft her family was left to worry It was a mothers worst night mare Debbie Grant said after she and her husband Greg received a phone call at their Newmarket home informing them the ship Alison was on sent out a distress signal They were told a search plane had gone out and the ship wasnt found but there were rafts sported in the water We paced 1 willed the phone to ring listened for an email bing and flipped through television channels hoping to hear word I felt so help less She didnt know if her daughter was on one of those rafts or if she was even still ative was scared I started to bawl I was shaking and couldnt stop It would be a long wait before she heard her daughters voice In the middle of the Newmarket High School students sixth month aboard the tall ship that acted as a floating classroom and dormitory for students accompanied by crew members rough waters left everyone onboard dinging to life an rafts for almost two days after watch ing the 168foot ship sink We were having squalls every day and this storm didnt seem any worse than the others Alison said noting the ship was designed to rip up to 90 degrees and right itself That day she was manning sails on deck as part of the Class Afloat program She and her classmates had just finished dousing and adjust ing the direction of the sails when the ship listed twice in two gusts of wind Both times the ship returned to normal position but a third gust caused the ship to tip and left Alison hanging above the cold water in her safety harness attached to the deck She was stuck and knew some thing was wrong when the ship failed to immediately return to its upright position as it had done just seconds before I was scared I started to bawl 1 was shaking and couldnt stop she said noting someone had to climb down to get her free One of her closest friends fell into the water and she began to shout man overboard but her screams were drowned out by the abandon Pennie Schade has a collection of friends following her as she strolls about the Aurora Canine Commons on Industrial Parkway North Towns lapping up dog parks A pocket full of treats and a tennis ball will make you the pack leader of any dog park While dogs relish being free of their tethers their owners always have one eye on their dogs and the other on the lookout for people who arent amused by 90- pound animals jumping all over them in jubilation But now dogs across York Region have places to can call their own Leashfree dog parks have sprung up in Rich mond Hill Markham Vaughan and Aurora while another in Georgina is in the planning stages Dogs are considered family members and off- leash parks are becoming rapidly an expectation of residents said Beverly owner of Keswicks Global Pet Foods and a member of off- leash dog park volunteer planning committee Residents expect it now the way parents expect parks for children Markham was the first municipality in York to build an offleash dog park In it created a dog park by the Mime Dam Conservation Area It was popular among people who owned dogs but not residents said Alan Glushko chairperson of LeashFree Markham and the Miller Avenue Dog Group Set VOLUNTEERS Taiwanese investors eye region Mission to Newmarket Aurora planned BY AMANDA com A trade mission to Taiwan has prompted a return visit Newmarket Aurora MP Lois Brown joined other federal politi cians and business leaders on a visit sponsored by theTaiwanese Business Association last month in an effort to encourage Taiwanese investment There is already a connection in Markham and Richmond Hill so its about building out new horizons Ms Brown said noting some busi nesses there are seeking to expand into this area While there Ms Brown and other members of Canadas foreign affairs and international development committee also met with the nations president and foreign minister Our government wants to help young entrepreneurs see their ideas become jobs in the community I went there to show Newmarket and Aurora has the facilities skill set and infrastructure to get their investments and help build their businesses here the local MP The Taiwanese appear to haw taken notice Within the next few weeks rep resentatives of the Taiwanese busi ness community Newmar ket and Aurora tp see just what the comm unities have One thing that has caught the eye of investors is Newmarkets growing health sector Ms Brown said Also appealing are our low utility costs such as hydro as businesses in Taiwan can pay up to six times as much in energy costs as those here in Newmarket and Aurora Taiwan businesses are leaders in nanotechnologies solar power and renewable or alternative forms of energy she said adding there is also cooperative attitude between busi ness and government with both sectors working to bring an idea to market Our government wants to help young entrepreneurs see their ideas become jobs in the community For the local MP the visit was all about building bridges already have very vibrant ties in York Region This is a natural extension These Olympics are special lefs hope our athletes are too How can you not feel a tug on the heartstrings for many of our athletes Expectations raised so high impossibly so in some cases even months prior to the VaricouverWhistler Games that the crash landing to reality is some times so dramatic Then again there is no benefit in shooting for lowlevel perfor mance Did you get a feel for the disap pointment of moguls silver medal winner a favourite for gold coming in Or speedskater Denny Morrison after he fizzled in the metres the other night These athletes are aiming high in their own minds big on the risk- reward concept Given a choice wouldnt we prefer our athletes to aim higher even if it means the occasional splat landing There is disappointment among the masses for the athletes on whose shoulders a vast majority of Canadians ride for a couple of weeks every four years All the talk of dominating these games through Own The Podium not to mention the hills tracks arenas dressing areas and John Cudmore Cuddy Shark concession stands merely served as a rallying cry While enthusiastic and commendable and revenue- generating some chestbeaters at OTP and Canadians in general may have miscalculated that the rest of the participating countries might have some say in the matter Hey all those foreign athletes didnt travel here simply for the scenery One thing OTP with its bold pre- Games enthusiasm cannot predict is actual gameday intan gibles It cant foresee the athlete stricken with a cold or flu It can not predict a skier travelling at breakneck speed down the side of a mountain locating a rut left by anothers ski A technical glitch Or the death of an athlete Georgian luger Kumaritahsvili RIP altering mindsets courage and even track layouts And also forgotten it seems is any number of athletes on any given day are quite capable and certainly bidding for the same prize Only one winner is allowed per event Its not always a Cana dian Or an American Or Swiss Or Austrian And so on is inevitably the individual for whom everything breaks perfectly on the day of com petition Set FUTURE pap