By John Chenier
What do men do when they need a rest from shoveling snow off a skating rink? Usually, they just stand around, leaning on their shovels and sharing stories. If you happen to be shoveling with folks who grew up in Lowertown — someone like 82-year old Bob Lafontaine — you will get glimpses of what the neighbourhood parks were like 50 or 60 years ago — before the big Lowertown derangement.
Back then, Lowertown was about parks and kids and community. You see snippets of those times in the articles appearing in the heritage section of this issue.
Bob tells stories of the sports leagues that thrived at Bingham rink when he was a child and later when he was an adult. There were four men’s and four women’s broomball teams that competed regularly. And when they weren’t competing, they were often skating to music on the oval that surrounded the hockey rink. What made all this possible was the link between the residents and the businesses of Lowertown who provided money to sponsor the teams — supplied the jerseys and provided for the banquets that came at the end of the season.
It was Bob’s musings that led to the main themes of this issue – the parks of Lowertown, then and now — and this article, an exploration of the current links between the residents of Lowertown and the business community
There no longer are lacrosse, hockey, softball or broomball teams sporting the logo of a local business, and many of our sports facilities languish because of it. Where there used to be four ball diamonds in Lowertown, now there is only one. The combination of bad weather and fewer volunteers poses a threat to the continuance of the remaining outdoor rinks.
Community links
The good news is that many Lowertown businesses remain active in the community. The better news is that there appear to be more ready to respond should the right request come their way.
Many merchants have favourite charities that they support for various personal reasons – the Heart Institute or causes researching and combating common and rare diseases that may have stricken a family member — and there is nothing wrong with that. But there are also some that focus their giving specifically on Lowertown organization or to causes that provide benefits to many Lowertown residents.
Lowertown was about parks and
kids and community
Here is an incomplete list of Lowertown businesses that are known to have provided time, money, services, or products in support of Lowertown causes. There are certainly more, and the Echo invites them to share their stories.
- 3 Brothers Shawarma
- All Dolled Up
- Bridgehead
- ByWard BIA
- C’est Bon Cooking
- Cornerstones
- Cumberland Pizza
- Cylie Artisans Chocolatiers
- Das Lokal
- Daya Organic Spa
- Fugals Resto-Pub
- Heart & Crown
- L’Hexagon
- Loblaws
- Lococina
- Lowertown Brewery
- Lowertown Canning Company
- Lynn’s Tailoring
- Metro
- Ottawa Public Library, Rideau Branch
- Pete`s Gluten Free
- Pharmacie Brisson
- Portuguese Bakery
- Pub 101
- Rideau Bakery
- Schad Fashion Boutique
- Sen’s Place
- The Clocktower
- The Laff
- The Syrian Kitchen
- Wunderkammer
Many of the groups and agencies that belong to Lowertown Our Home say they receive donations of food and supplies for their monthly and annual events. The also receive coupons or vouchers to be distributed to agency clientele or to reward volunteers.
The Lowertown Community Association (LCA) receives donations from many businesses for its silent auction or to give out as door prizes at its annual general meeting. Two years ago, the silent auction raised over a thousand dollars. The LCA, in turn, uses the money to support community events like Winterfest and the Bingham Cup.
There are formal events to raise money as well. The ByWard BIA works with participating restaurants in the annual stew cook-off with the proceeds going to the Lowertown Community Resource Centre. The event raises close to $5,000 every year.
Other events raise modest amounts for local organizations. The annual Servers Games at Winterfest raises several hundred dollars which it donates to the Bruyére Hospital in memory of Julie Donnelly, a long-time employee of the Heart & Crown.
Another event, Barket, which takes place this year on May 29th this year, will be donating the money it raises to Bruyére Hospital in support of its pet therapy program. The driving force behind Barket. France Lavigne of Pub 101, has managed to get Tito’s Vodka to agree to match the money raised at the event.
The Heart & Crown solicits donations to fund its annual Christmas Dinner which provides a gift and free dinner to all who walk in the door. Given that it considers itself to be an Irish pub, it is not surprising that it is deeply involved with the Irish community. The H&C hosts the Irish-Canadian luncheon which usually raises over $10,000. One of the owners of the H&C, Pat Kelly helped purchase St Brigid’s Church, saving it from an uncertain fate. The church is now the National Irish-Canadian Cultural Centre — a valuable community resource.
Schad, the Fashion Boutique on Sussex Drive used to run the “Warm and Fuzzy” drive: a program that would collect gently-used winter coats to be distributed among the various shelters. Three years ago, Schad brought the Shoebox Project to Ottawa. Shoebox, which began in Montreal and spread to Toronto, encourages people to fill a shoebox with about $50 worth of “nice things” for women living in shelters and drop these at a collection point for distribution. When Schad acted as the only collection point in Ottawa, they collected around 300 boxes during the campaign. Now that more firms in Ottawa are involved, the number of boxes it collects has fallen to around 50.
Another part of the Schad empire, Tavern-on-the-Hill, raises funds to support of research into dementia at University of Ottawa and the Bruyére Hospital. The newest business, Tavern-on-the-Falls located where the Rideau River cascades into the Ottawa, will also be participating.
Another Lowertown business involved in working with women’s shelters, mainly through Centre Espoir Sophie, is Pharmacie Brisson. The pharmacy also puts its multilingual capabilities to good use working with new immigrants at the Catholic Centre for Immigrants on Boteler Street.
Several agencies contacted for this article mentioned the work of Steve Monuk on behalf of the children of Lowertown. Steve’s biggest charity is the Christie Lake Kids which “serves economically disadvantaged children and youth by providing recreation and skill-building programs at no cost and with all barriers to participation removed.”
While we may not think of chain stores as local merchants, many of these sponsor national events to raise money for various causes. One which is happening soon is the SHOPPERS (Drug Mart) LOVE YOU Run for Women. Most of the chains such as Loblaws, Sobey’s, Shoppers and so on have processes for local groups to apply for project funding or event sponsoring. However, many agencies that could use the money find the the application process arduous and lead time is often very long.
Finally, there is The Echo. Many of the merchants who advertise in our paper do not depend on Lowertown residents for their businesses. A few even have more work and clients than they can handle at present and take out advertisements as their way to support the community.
So, while the face of community involvement may have changed since the ‘50s, many Lowertown businesses continue to offer support to the community. Some could and would do more if the right opportunity came along, but they don’t have the time to go in search of worthy causes. The causes must come to them. Those working to make Lowertown a great place to live must show them how and where they could help.