If you're looking for some fun things to do with your friends and family this summer, why not check out two of Mississauga's premier summer celebrations right here in Streetsville? The 2010 Bread & Honey Festival and the 2010 Streetsville Canada Day Celebrations promise to be the biggest and best yet, with a wide variety of fun activities and great live entertainment for everyone to enjoy.

2010 Bread & Honey Festival

The very first Bread & Honey Festival, established to celebrate the founding of the Village of Streetsville, took place in 1973. The festival was such an outstanding success that it became an annual event, held during the first weekend in June. Since its inception in 1973, the festival has become an important part of Mississauga's history and has grown into one of Mississauga's premier summer events, attracting thousands of people.

The 2010 Bread & Honey Festival will feature a spectacular parade and more activities for everyone to enjoy, both in town and at the park. The Bread & Honey parade returns again this year on Saturday, June 5 from 10 a.m. – 12 p.m., going south on Queen Street from Britannia Road to Old Station Road.

For the fishing enthusiasts out there, join me on the banks of the Credit River on Sunday, June 6 (south of the Island Bridge) from 9 – 11 a.m. for the annual Fishing Derby. The derby is open to children 16 and under (please bring your own gear).

If you're craving some bread and honey, head over to Streetsville Memorial Park on Saturday and Sunday and visit the Bread & Honey Booth for free bread and honey! You can also find children's
bouncers, a petting zoo and food concessions at Memorial Park throughout the weekend. Don't forget to check out the Island events on Saturday and Sunday, including Rona Kids projects, face painting, pony rides, the Arts, Crafts & Hobbies Marketplace, and the Busy Bee Children's Island Stage.

Last but not least, be sure to stop by the main stage for some great live entertainment. On Friday, June 4 at 6 p.m., enjoy the sounds of 50's and 60's rock with Little Peter and the Elegants, followed by Celtic rock band Fiddlestix at 8 p.m. On Saturday morning, catch community choir Justus at noon, followed by The McCartney Years, a Paul McCartney Tribute show, at 2:30p.m. On Saturday evening, check out the power rock trio Ballroom Babies at 7 p.m. and alternative band The North at 8:30 p.m. On Sunday, you can catch the Mississauga Big Band at 11:45 a.m. and country quintet Switchbacks at 4 p.m. For a complete event schedule, please visit www.breadandhoney.com. See you at the 2010 Bread & Honey!

2010 Streetsville Canada Day Celebrations

Thursday, July 1st is fast approaching, and there's no better way to celebrate our Nation's birthday than to head down to our "Village in the City" and check out the spectacular Canada Day festivities! Streetsville's Canada Day Celebrations are always great fun for the whole family, starting with the celebrations on Main Street and parading down to Memorial Park for the fireworks display. Festivities begin at 6 p.m.

The 2010 event programme includes a spectacular First Nations dance performance on the main stage at 6 p.m., followed by an exciting martial arts demonstration by the Wilson Martial Arts Academy at 6:20 p.m. and a special performance by the Mississauga School of Dance at 6:40 p.m. At 7 p.m., join Mayor Hazel McCallion for the Lion's Club cake cutting. At 7:15 p.m., the main stage comes alive with an outdoor concert sponsored by the Strings Attached Music Shop, followed by Streetsville Musicorp Justus at 8:45 p.m. Join Streetsville Pipes & Drums at 9:25 p.m. for the traditional flag raising ceremony and the singing of O' Canada, followed by the parade to Memorial Park and a spectacular fireworks display at 10 p.m. Especially for the little ones, there will be children's craft tables, face painting, balloon animals, clowns, magicians and Murray the Lego Man. For more information, please visit www.villageofstreetsville.com. See you on July 1st!

As always, if you need any assistance on this or any other municipal matter, please don't hesitate to call my office at 905-896-5011, or send me an e-mail at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

Five years ago, JP phoned me out of the blue and told me I needed to join a new cycling event to raise money for palliative care in a hospital. JP was doing it for his father, who he was losing to cancer. He needed to do something – anything - to make sense of what was happening to his father and his family.

I jumped at the chance to do the ride. I had lost my mother to leukemia, and to ride in her honour meant a lot to me. She had been in remission when she died unexpectedly. I wish I could have gone through the palliative care experience with her. Not being able to take that journey and say goodbye was a difficult loss.

I didn't know much about palliative care, but I knew enough to realize that if people didn't even know what palliative care was or if they weren't willing to talk about it openly, they certainly weren't raising money for it.

This became crystal clear one day when we were taking a promotional picture of our fundraising cyclists. A passerby asked what we were doing. We explained we were trying to raise money for palliative care, and then explained that palliative care is about improving the quality of life for patients facing life-threatening illness and their families. The woman asked, "Why would you raise money for dying people?"

Ouch! It was precisely because of this attitude that we needed to raise awareness and funds. The answer to her question was simple for us. We believed the final stage of life was no less important than the beginning.

The problem, as we quickly discovered, was that our cause was not winning popularity contests when it came to raising funds. It's so much easier to raise money for a cure. The hope and optimism that accompanies curing a disease beats the reality that people die, hands down. We tried explaining to anyone who would listen that spiritual hope and healing in palliative care were equally important.

Apparently the subject wasn't popular with cyclists either. When we hadn't managed to register very many cyclists, the hospital that we were raising funds for made a business decision. Our fundraising efforts were rejected, along with our heart-felt eagerness to help people live their final days in comfort and dignity.

We were crushed, but we had to do something – we couldn't stand inaction and we didn't want to give up our dream. So we made our own business decision.

With summer approaching, JP and I created a new ride. Given that we only had three months to put an entire event together from scratch, it wasn't the smartest business decision we'd ever made. Initially we had no name for the ride and no website. There was the possibility that we wouldn't have enough time to put all the details together or be able to pay for all the expenses. We only had each other to use as a sounding board. So we brought our skills together – JP knew everything about bikes and how to sell the ride and I knew how to organize and get things done.

Our bike ride proposal sparked feedback that we didn't always like. Some individuals thought we should change the focus of the ride to cancer research. We resisted. We weren't prepared to sell our ride any other way. We figured our cause was nothing if not egalitarian, as we were pretty sure everyone dies eventually.

With some seed money from JP's bike store and our determination intact, we begged and cajoled until people were willing to either cycle or volunteer. The day of our ride came on a beautiful sunny day. We had t-shirts, balloons, hamburgers and even some draw prizes. I will never forget the sight of 27 cyclists crossing our make-shift finish line after riding for 100 kilometres, with huge ear-to-ear grins on their tired, sweaty faces. I got goose-bumps.

While the $27,000 we raised that day wasn't earth-shattering, I could see the potential that the hospital failed to recognize. I knew what we had accomplished. So what do ordinary people do when they get goose-bumps? They find their calling.

In the end, I can say, without an ounce of resentment, that having the first hospital turn down our fundraising efforts was ultimately the best thing that could have happened. I've learned so much about palliative care, met wonderful nurses and doctors who care deeply about their patients, met grateful families who were profoundly touched by their palliative experiences and I've been enriched by it all.

Today, we're still doing our annual ride. Our stubbornness has paid off, and within the next year we'll be completing a $1 million pledge to a much smaller, but much more grateful hospital – The Credit Valley Hospital. Then we're on to our next project - fundraising for hospices across Ontario.

I figure rejection isn't always a bad thing – it can lead ordinary people to accomplish extraordinary things.

For more information about The Healing Cycle ride on June 27, 2010, visit www.thehealingcycle.ca or call Heather Campbell at 905-820-6081.