Earlier this month the Frozen Forces youth, their siblings and parents joined forces with the Bancroft Ontario Provincial Police detachment for some spring cleaning.

Participants collected 24 bags of garbage from parts of Hwy 28, Canadian Tire and South Baptiste Lake Road locations.    

According to organizers, although the weather wasn’t great that day, it didn't stop the kids from sharing laughs while they lent a hand in the community.

Frozen Forces Youth Hockey development program is a not-for-profit established this year by Jason Fransky, an Ontario JR A hockey alumnus and current detective with Bancroft OPP.

Recognizing that many area families struggle to enrol their kids in sports, the program aims to provide youth with barrier-free access to hockey, while also working with local police officers to develop their hockey skills, learn valuable life lessons, and increase community engagement.

In a recent press release the Frozen Forces spoke about why their organization is needed now more than ever.

“After participating in the hockey programs, the young athletes will gain an understanding of the importance of respect, responsibility, and community involvement. They will collaborate with local police officers from the Bancroft O.P.P Detachment to complete volunteering initiatives. Our community members and businesses have always been invested in shaping our youth into future leaders. In the aftermath of the pandemic, the youth require our support and encouragement to regain their self-confidence and sense of belonging within the community. In a world that has lost its sense of touch and togetherness, we aim to reignite this relationship and foster an inclusive sense of belonging for all through the sport of hockey”

In March, The Frozen Forces provided a free three-day hockey program for 19 young participants.

The group said they are excited to plan and organize more hockey programs in the future.

Learn more about the Frozen Forces here:

The Bancroft Area Stewardship Council is hard at work sorting for their tree and shrub program today.

Volunteers, BASC members and high school students from the Northern Environmental Development Program (NERDS) are getting the bundles ready ahead of tomorrow's pick up day.

BASC chair Ian Hendry says it's a busy time right now.

“Today's the day we tag all the trees and species and assemble all the orders to be picked up tomorrow” he said, "We have roughly about 90 orders altogether to assemble, some big, some small. There's approximately 8,000 trees and shrubs altogether” he said.

We spoke to several area residents who said they were surprised to hear about the closure of the only beer store for 60 km.

While Beer store employees told My Bancroft Now that they were unable to discuss the matter, a notice from the company posted at the store addressed the closure, saying the Beer Store regretted that the store was closing so suddenly.

The notice also stated that “nearly all” impacted employees would be offered jobs at other beer stores in the area.

The next closest Beer Store to Barry’s Bay is in Eganville, and after that 85 km away in Bancroft.

One customer at the store said he had no idea it was closing,

“Well I’m not enthusiastic about it," he told My Bancroft Now. “I’m just finding out now."

He went on to say the stores closing followed a bigger trend.

“I've noticed this over the past 20 years: Shutting down small beer stores, shutting down small liquor stores and you know, turning them more into big box things like exactly what they did in Bancroft.” he said,

“And then they create these massive spaces that require a ton of investment and are expensive to heat because they're huge. I think it's better to stick with what you got.... now if they can't renew the lease there, that's a whole other issue”

According to the Valley Gazette, the company who holds the lease for the Beer Store is Olsheski Holdings Inc. OHI told the Gazette that after the Beer Store’s lease came up for renewal they proposed a small increase and no other changes to the lease agreement.

Olsheski told the Gazette they had no response from the tenant until April 9 when they received an email with an attached letter notifying them of intent to effectively end their lease agreement at the end of June.

According to the public notice, The Beer Store will close permanently on Sunday June 16.

Wild turkey hunting season began on April 25 and goes until May 31.

Ontario Fish and Wildlife is reminding everyone that hunters may only harvest bearded birds and only one per day.

The legal shooting time is a half hour before sunrise to 7 p.m.

Also, hunters may harvest two birds maximum per spring season (one per tag).

Anyone wishing to hunt wild turkeys must have an outdoors card, a small game licence, wild turkey tag and proof of firearm accreditation if hunting with a gun.

You cannot use bait to attract them.

According to Ontario Fish and Wildlife:  "It is illegal to hunt wild turkey within 400 metres of any place where bait has been deposited (unless the place has been free of bait for at least seven days). Bait means corn, wheat, oats, other grain, pulse, any other feed that may attract wild turkey or any imitation of such feed."

According to police, On April 24, between 11:30 p.m. and midnight, a man travelled to the area of McCann Road in Eldorado by taxi. The driver, a 59-year-old male, was assaulted and suffered life-threatening injuries. The victim managed to drive himself to a nearby gas station where he was then transported to a hospital in Kingston.

Two more people, a man and woman, ages 64 and 59, were also assaulted in a home. 

Their assaults resulted in life-threatening injuries, and both were transported to hospital by Hastings-Quinte Paramedics.

The man fled the scene in a stolen vehicle and was located driving on Highway-62 and arrested without incident.

A 36-year-old man from Tweed is charged with three counts of attempted murder, break and enter with the intent to commit an indictable offence, theft of a motor vehicle and mischief over $5,000.

The accused was remanded into custody, with a scheduled appearance before the Ontario Court of Justice in Belleville on May 2.

Investigators believe there was no safety risk to the public during the incident.

[caption id="attachment_60912" align="alignnone" width="300"] Customers line the street at the Tiny Tattoo Drive. Photo by Mary Milne[/caption]

It turns out tiny tattoos can raise a lot of food.  

For the past several years The Painted Lady Tattoo Parlour has been hosting regular events, where they offer at-cost (or less) small tattoos with the gift of a food bank donation.

According to Owner Joan Hachey, the event was started in 2020, after lockdown ended, to help the food bank and the many that were in need. At first, they only did the drive twice a year, but found it was hard on the artists and staff, with the popularity of the event meaning it would often last until 2 a.m.

According to Hachey in 2022 ‘The Tiny Tattoo Drive’ exploded on Tik Tok, when it got posted by a few known accounts. The Parlour started bringing in guest artists to help, having up to four or five people tattooing nonstop throughout the 14-hour day. Due to the long hours though, they soon decided to switch to more frequent events to keep everyone from burning out.

The most recent Tiny Tattoo Drive took place earlier this month.

The morning of the event we spoke with some people at the front of a line that stretched along downtown’s Bridge Street. They said it wasn’t their first time supporting the drive.

“They do this every few months. I’ve waited from beyond the pub before... you get a $30 tattoo and bring food for the food bank”

A few days later we caught up with the Joan Hachey, owner of the Painted Lady, when she was bringing in the dozens of bags of food raised during the drive. She spoke about how things have shifted since it first blew up on social media.

“I think that day we were there till 2 a.m., that's when we started cutting it back and doing it more often, so the line doesn't get as big. It's still 12 to 14 hours, but we stop at around 10 p.m. and then we end up staying there till midnight, finishing up”

We asked Joan's daughter Anika, who also happens to be the head tattoo artist, if it was a challenge to do so many tattoos in a day,

“I think probably about the 8th hour my arm was pretty sore. I had to take a break to just shake it out. I think my back gets pretty sore too, from just staying hunched over for so long” she said smiling.

Joan and Anika agreed the event is worth it to help in the community,

“We actually lose money because the set up for a tattoo usually costs between $60 and $80 dollars, depending on how many needles, but we take the loss to get the donations of food in. It's worth it. But we always do it on a Sunday so that they have the next day to recuperate”

Joe Pearson, who’s the new lead at the food bank, says the food is needed now more than ever.

“We're getting new clients all the time, a lot more families” she said, “90 per cent of people's incomes are going on rent. Now you have two parent households working, and they're still having to come to the food bank, and we're getting more of that. So donations, you know, we’ll get spurts where we have a ton, and we pass on to other food banks and then we'll get a little bit of a lull”

Pearson went on to say that the donations would be used not just in Bancroft but also to help food banks in Coe Hill and Lake St. Peter as well.

At the weigh-in we spoke with food bank volunteer Karina who said it was her first day. After learning the ropes of weighing the food, she shared with us the grand total:

“Its 365 pounds” she said cheering.    

Those from the Painted Lady Parlour involved in the Tattoo Drive day were artists Anika Hachey and Lexie Wade, as well as guest artist Adam Shortreed.

Running things and “keeping the chaos organized” were the owner Joan Hachey and manager, Mackenzie Lovell.

The artists saw approximately 285 clients throughout the 14-hour day.

The Painted Lady Parlour hosts food drives several times a year, you can check out their social media for more details.

Donations of food and hygiene products can also be dropped off at the North Hastings Community Cupboard. You can find more details on their website or facebook page.