Establish Media Blog

HEAT ALERT, PLEASE SHARE: The St. Thomas Cooling Centre, where you can shelter from the heat, is at 423 Talbot Street. Hours are 8am-8pm. There is also free transit in the city for anyone that needs to get there. *Want to donate something? Bottles of water would be appreciated.* The normal city locations our vulnerable could shelter in to get a break from the heat are currently closed to the public, such as the St. Thomas Public Library and the Joe Thornton Community Centre. In additional to that, the various restaurants and coffee shops, including the The Grace Cafe, are not allowed to have guests take a break inside during the current emergency measures. The location at 423 Talbot Street has capacity for 30 occupants at a time right now, but they have the ability to expand if needed. If they receive more people that need shelter from the heat at the moment they can rotate people through at 20 min intervals. I (Grayden) chatted this afternoon with Lori Fitzgerald, who adm

Mayor Joe Preston, Councillor's Joan Rymal, Mark Tinlin, Gary Clarke, Jeff Kohler, Lori Baldwin-Sands, and 2019 Market Manager Vicki Asher at the 2019 Horton Farmers' Market Canada Day Celebrations. Monday evening, St. Thomas City Councillors voted unanimously to accept the new proposal from the board of the Horton Street Farmers' Market. Unfortunately, due to audio issues we were unable to hear the debate or hear all the details on how the new plan differs from the previous one. It's great to hear that the new plan was approved however, and kudos go out to the Horton Street Farmers' Market Board for getting it done. The revised plan was not included in City Council's minutes, so on Sunday (June 7th) we reached out to City Councillor Lori Baldwin-Sands as she is also the Chair of the Horton Street Farmers' Market Board to find out all the details on what was changed so we can share that and are waiting to hear back from her. -----------------------

Alexandra Kane, Media Spokesperson for Black Lives Matter - London, Ontario If you weren't at the #blacklivesmatter protest in London, Ontario this weekend. You missed something special and important - hopefully historic, but that is up to us. Members of our community need the help of everyone to fix the systemic racism in our society. If you're not aware of what has been going on, or how our systems and institutions run, then it's time you educate yourself. Right now, it's our minority groups that are doing all the heavy lifting - but it's time for that to change - because things can't continue as they are. It has been ignored for too long. One of the organizers simple requests was to defund the police that are in the London school systems (SROs) and use that funding for things that will be more beneficial for members of their communities. “We are seeing a spike in police officers responding to mental health crises and they aren’t qualified to provide

Unique initiative provides much needed funds to businesses while also providing local products to residents. From "Quarantine & Chill" to "Pack the Pantry" these bundles of joy from local producers will help you and your loved ones weather the pandemic. Plus, you get a sweet one of a kind  # stthomasproud  backpack or dufflebag! This initiative was put together by Sean Dyck (CEO, St. Thomas Economic Development Corporation) and his teams at the  Small Business Enterprise Centre  and  Railway City Tourism  in partnership with the  St. Thomas Downtown Development Board  and  Elgin County Economic Development & Tourism . Everyone pooled their resources and raised upwards of $20,000 to purchase items from local producers during the pandemic in an effort to provide economic help during this time. Folks can buy one of these packages at  www.stthomasproud.com  and have Canada Post deliver it right to their house - contact free! Mustang Products ( https://

This afternoon Grayden had a chat with  Jane Magri  from  Wildflowers Farm  to talk about how she and her partner Chuck put together a farm market plan in 48hrs. They did this after hearing on Wednesday that The Horton Farmers' Market would not open for the 2020 market season after St. Thomas City Council voted against the market board's proposed plan and budget on Tuesday night. The plan Jane and Chuck put together has approval from  Southwestern Public Health  and the market's opening day is June 5th from 4pm-8pm and will continue on Fridays until Thanksgiving. Social distancing measures will be in place as well as sanitization processes following the recommended guidelines. The market will also include food vendors and trucks such as pizza from  Elgin Harvest , so visitors can pickup their local produce as well as grab dinner. Visitors will be encouraged to put their orders in ahead of time with the food vendors and that way there will be not wait time when they pic

Media Release May 20, 2020 Emergency Child Care is Coming to Elgin County ST. THOMAS, ON — The City of St. Thomas-Elgin (the System Service Manager of Child Care and Early Years for the City of St. Thomas and Elgin County) has partnered with Licensed Child Care Providers to support essential service workers with free emergency child care during the pandemic as outlined in the directive from the Government of Ontario. In consultation with the Southwestern Public Health Unit Medical Officer of Health, the YWCA has been selected to offer care for school age children, and The Early Learning Center Dalewood has been selected to offer care for toddler, preschool and school age care. Parents/guardians who are eligible for care based on the Province of Ontario List of Eligible for Emergency Child Care can submit an application for a child care space by: Downloading the application found on the City of St. Thomas Website and then emailing it to childrens.services@stthomas.c