The 12th Annual London Clean & Green in Old East Village was a tremendous success. This was the fifth year that the BIA hosted and coordinated an Old East Village site. The event took place on April 21st and saw volunteers picking up garbage and tidying along the storefronts and in and around the parking lots on the corridor’s perimeter. The success of the event can be attributed to the participation of the community.

A diverse cross-section from local businesses, public and social services, area residents and church groups enjoyed coffee and muffins while they registered at Flavours Diner before heading down to Longo Food Service Equipment to equip themselves for the day ahead. Over fifty volunteers scoured the streets and collected dozens of garbage bags worth of trash and debris. These coordinated efforts resulted in an invigorated look along the corridor and an outstanding tidiness in the back lots.

The BIA would like to sincerely thank all those who attended and supported the event. Special thanks must be given to Longo Food Service Equipment for providing an assembly location; Flavours Diner for their superb morning breakfast; C&C variety for refreshments; the Western Fair for providing an event pavilion; The Aeolian Performing Arts Centre for lending tools and tables to the effort; London Police Service Foot Patrol and COR Unit Officers for coordination of the operations site; and finally, the City of London for resource support. Thanks also to the store owners who swept in front of their stores and adjacent lots. It is through events like this that the unifying spirit of the village can be seen. We look forward to the continued support from the community in future Clean & Green and other clean up events.

Clean & Green Photo Gallery

London Community Players at the Palace Theatre were extremely successful at the 2007 Western Ontario Drama League Festival in Sarnia last week: four major awards and nine category nominations for an outstanding presentation of Norm Foster’s “Ethan Claymore”.

LCP’s major award was “BEST PRODUCTION IN FESTIVAL”. This recognition takes the London theatre group to the Theatre Ontario Festival 2007 to be held in Newmarket May 16th – 20th. LCP’s “Ethan Claymore” was also nominated in the categories of Outstanding Ensemble Work and Best Visual Production.

Other major LCP winners were:

• Mark Mooney for Outstanding Direction
• Misty Graham for Outstanding Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role
• David Long for Evocative Set Dressing

The following cast members were nominated for their performances:

• Philip Johnson for Outstanding Performance by a Juvenile
• David Bogaert for Outstanding Performance by an Actor in a Major Role
• Phil Kirchgessner for Outstanding Performance by an Actor in a Major Role

The 2007 WODL Festival was the 75th Anniversary presentation and participating community theatre groups represented Sarnia, Guelph, Kincardine and Theatre Kent.

Old East Village Foot Patrol Officers Shawn and Scott will be at the Melody Restaurant (646 Dundas Street) on Tuesday, March 27th from 8:15-9:30 am.

If your schedule permits, please stop by meet with us and network with your community neighbours.

B.Y.O.C. (Buy your own Coffee)

After more than a year without nearby retail postal service, a full service outlet will open Monday, March 19 at Old East Village Hardware, 753 Dundas Street East.

The new dealership which will operate under the standard contractual arrangement Canada Post has with private sector partners, replaces the outlet previously located in the now demolished 7-Eleven store at Dundas and Quebec Streets.

Store owner Chris Reid expressed pleasure at adding a new line of business and traffic generator to his hardware operation. “We’re very pleased to be working with Canada Post to fill a gap in their service to old east London and we look forward to serving postal customers as well as the opportunity to have them join our regular hardware customers,” he said.

“We’ve been on the lookout for a viable operator since the 7-Eleven store went down,” said Jeff McCabe, Canada Post’s retail business manager in London. “Getting an experienced retailer like Chris (Reid) is a real bonus, both to Canada Post and our customers in the area.”

Retail postal service will be available seven days a week -- 7:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. Monday to Saturday and 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. on Sundays

For additional information:

Chris Reid
Old East Village Hardware
519-951-9600

or

Tom Dalby
Communications
Canada Post Corporation
519-457-5208

London Community Players to Compete at WODL Festival!

London Community Players is thrilled to announce that its production of Norm Foster’s Ethan Claymore has been chosen to perform at the 2007 Western Ontario Drama League Festival in Sarnia on Thursday, March 15th at 7:30 pm.

Ethan Claymore ran at the Palace Theatre in November 2006 and will be one of five productions at the Festival. WODL’s Festival is celebrating its 75th anniversary and the winner will move on to the Theatre Ontario Festival later in the year.

We hope to repeat our past successes at the Festival where we won the Festival in 1997 with our entry A Trip to Bountiful and went on to the Ontario event in Cornwall. We also presented Thirteen Hands at WODL in Woodstock in 1999 and were rewarded with four individual awards and a total of seven nominations.

The Sarnia Festival will be held at the Imperial Theatre from March 12th to 17th. Come out and support the cast and crew of Ethan Claymore!