The Observer (Sarnia)
OPEN HOUSE
Toni Powless, with Ontario Aboriginal Housing Services, shows off the kitchen of an apartment in the agency's new affordable housing building in Sarnia during an open house this week. The five-storey, 60-unit building, built on land donated by Lambton...
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PIECE MAKER
Ron Schiestel works on a wooden puzzle for his granddaughter in the hobby shop at the Strangeway Community Centre on East Street North in Sarnia. The city-run centre offers programs for adults age 20 and older.
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Big, busy Rotary used book sale aids community causes
At one point, there were about 15,000 books on display at this year's Rotary Club of Sarnia-Bluewaterland book sale. But that, Dale Wilcox, event co-ordinator with the Sarnia service club, said Saturday, was just a snapshot. “Since 9 o'clock this...
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BLOWING SNOW
Tyler Rayner from Petrolia gets creative and uses a leaf blower to get the snow off his pickup truck Thursday afternoon after a massive snowstorm rolled through the region. More snow is expected, along with frigid temperatures, this weekend.
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STORM COMING
Visibility on Highway 402 at Forest Road was reduced early Wednesday afternoon as a winter storm started to arrive in the region. Temperatures were expected to drop later on Wednesday as snow squalls arrived and police in the area cautioned motorists...
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OUT GO THE LIGHTS
Acie Burgess from Sarnia helps take down the Celebration of Lights display in Centennial Park Saturday morning. Saturday was the community takedown day for the annual lights display, which was up from late November through to last week.
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Petrolia hospital renovation going to tender in weeks
A multimillion-dollar renovation of the emergency and X-ray departments at Petrolia's hospital is expected to go to tender in coming weeks, a decade after planning for the project began. “We're talking about an initiative that really began in 2016,”...
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SHELF IMPROVEMENT
Volunteer Stephanie Stevens sorts books Wednesday donated to the Rotary Club of Sarnia Bluewaterland for its used book sale running Jan. 16 and 17, and 30 and 31, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., at DeGroot's Nurseries in Sarnia. Book donations are being accepted by...
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`Moving meditation': Sarnia open house showcases tai chi's health recovery
About 20 people showed up at a church hall in downtown Sarnia Sunday afternoon for a open house by the Sarnia Branch of the Fung Loy Kok Institute of Taoism. The branch holds tai chi sessions several days a week in space at St. Andrew's Presbyterian...
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Polar plungers kick off 2026 at Sarnia's Canatara Beach
Walking up the beach, pieces of ice hanging from her hair and bathing suit, Triniti Boucher said she couldn't feel anything. “But it feels really nice,” the Sarnia woman said. Boucher was one of about 25 people who waded into Lake Huron at Sarnia's...
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New `catio' for Petrolia ferals opens its doors
A group working to contain the feral cat population here has a new facility some of the felines can call home. Caregivers of Petrolia Ferals, a volunteer-run organization aiming to ease the hardship of feral and vulnerable cats in Lambton County,...
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`IT'S HEARTBREAKING'
At best, they'll get a phone call this Christmas. At worst, there will be nothing but silence from their son, Chandler Gattinger, who has disappeared onto the streets of London. “I don't have a clue where he is; he is on the streets of London...
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Sarnia high schoolers head to college amid roof repairs
Alexander Mackenzie secondary school students will head to class at Lambton College from March to June during roof repairs at the Michigan Avenue high school. Lambton Kent District school board said the temporary arrangement with the Sarnia community...
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THROWING SNOW 2.0
Bright's Grove entrepreneur Robert Carriere thinks often about a piece of advice he was given years ago. “Never lose your momentum,” a successful business leader told Carriere early in his effort to develop technology behind his exoskeleton design...
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HELPING HANDS
Veronica Azichoba, left, and Atta Mujeeb, with Shell, sort donated food Tuesday at the Inn of the Good Shepherd during this year's “Inn-dustry Takeover” at the Sarnia agency.
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CHRISTMAS TOYS AND FOOD DRIVE
Lambton College fire science students Ty Livingstone, left, Noah Constancio, and Samantha Guido show off donations they accepted Saturday outside Lambton's residence and events centre in Sarnia. The fire school's inaugural Christmas inaugural toy and...
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SPREADING JOY
Deputy Chief Rick MacGregor, left, and firefighter Gavin Burgess with toys donated for this year's Santa's Responders Christmas toy drive by Point Edward Fire and Rescue. It's the sixth year for the drive providing donated toys to local agencies.
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HOLIDAY HELPERS
Lisa Regan, middle, with Lambton Elderly Outreach, with St. Anne Catholic school pupils Eli Grasso, 10, left, and Lincoln Mellor, 10, making Christmas cards with others at the Sarnia school. The cards will be delivered along with holiday gifts for some...
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Busy weekend for Santa in Sarnia area
Santa Claus had a busy Saturday in Sarnia-Lambton. The jolly old elfin the red suit appeared at several local events as the holiday season shifted gears into the first weekend of December. Included on his morning agenda was Christmas in the Vilalage...
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Man faces assault charges after Durand Street standoff: Sarnia police
A man faces assault charges after officers with a warrant forced their way into a Durand Street house Thursday after an assault complaint and three-hour standoff, Sarnia police say. A woman called police about 1 p.m. saying she'd been assaulted by a...
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INNOVATION CHALLENGE
UA Local 663 Pipefitters training director Jeremy Kuykendall demonstrates tube bending to Grade 11 and 12 high-skills major program students at Wednesday's inaugural Skill Up industry innovation challenge at Lambton College. Skill Up, from...
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Donors help Sarnia police Cram a Cruiser with toys for Christmas
A Sarnia police pickup was already loaded down an hour or two into Saturday's Day 2 of this year's Cram A Cruiser toy drive for the Inn of the Good Shepherd. Inn and police volunteers were set up in Lambton Mall, where this year's drive began...
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GET BETTER EVERY DAY
That's the philosophy of new Sarnia Sting bench boss Mathieu Turcotte, centre, who brings a `track record of excellence' in junior and international competition to the struggling OHL squad. Mark Malone reports.
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HER WAY TO HELP
Ruth Johnston sews a quilt at her home in Sarnia. She donates quilts and blankets, through the Mennonite Central Committee, to areas of the world in need.
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ON THE CHARITY BEAT
Special Const. Laine Davis, left, Const. Shasta Doise and Const. Tim VanCowenberg with Sarnia Police collect non-perishable food donations for the Inn of the Good Shepherd's food bank outside Foodland in Bright's Grove Saturday. Donations were also...
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Man charged after twohour standoff ends peacefully: Sarnia police
A man barricaded himself in a north-end home for about two hours Thursday morning before surrendering, Sarnia police say. Officers called to a disturbance a home on Lakeshore Road near Colborne Road about 8 a.m. found two people, one of them injured,...
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FOODIES' PARADISE
Joe Paquette, of Joe Paquette Catering in Sarnia, prepares a pork carnitas taco Saturday during Fusion, a local food, wine and craft beer event. The fundraiser for Lambton County Development Services was held in the greenhouse at DeGroot's Nurseries.
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REMEMBERING THE FALLEN
Lance Gray, a veteran of both the Canadian and U.S. military, reacts during the playing of the Last Post Friday during the Aamjiwnaang First Nation Remembrance Day service. The First Nation neighbouring Sarnia traditionally holds its service the Friday...
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EARLY-MORNING BLAZE
An early-morning fire Wednesday damaged a house on Brock Street in Sarnia, near the intersection with Lochiel Street. Sarnia firefighters were called to the home at about 2:30 a.m. There were no injuries and Sarnia Fire Rescue said an investigation was...
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`Hope and resilience'
Jessica Plain says she her early life was full of abuse and drugs. From the impacts of her parents' addictions, to her own drug use starting at age 13, homelessness, stints in jail, and abusive partners, the Aamjiwnaang First Nation woman said she...
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ONE HURT AS SUV HITS HOME
One person was taken to hospital with serious injuries after an SUV crashed into a house at 680 Kember Ave,. near Sarnia's High Park elementary school, about 8:30 a.m. Friday, city police say. The intersection of Kember and Maxwell Street was closed...
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`It takes a village to raise a farm'
Emma Rozeveld and her husband, Shane Rozeveld, have been organic farmers in Lambton County since 2021, but not being from the community can feel like a hurdle while spreading word about Aslan Organics, she said. It made winning the Sarnia-Lambton...
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PLAYING IT GHOUL
A ghoulish character greets people as they enter the Maze of Horrors during the CanaScare-A-Park Halloween event Saturday evening in Canatara Park. The city-run event, hosted in partnership with the Seaway Kiwanis Club, was free and featured various...
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BENCH STRENGTH
Sam Eastman, seated, and Kerry Gabriel with the NuSarnia Foundation are shown at one of 50 benches the non-profit group has placed along the Mid-town trail in Sarnia. Several have been painted and decorated by local residents and students. There are...
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RUNNING IN THE RAIN
Layla Moran, a Grade 8 pupil at Lakeroad elementary school, competes despite light rain in the Lambton Kent District school board cross- country meet at Sarnia's Canatara Park Wednesday.
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`I know I'll never be the same'
Several people wept Monday in a packed Sarnia courtroom as David Oliver's mother recalled the grief, pain and fear she's dealt with since her son was killed five years ago in Kettle and Stony Point First Nation. “I know I'll never be the same as I was...
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HARVEST TIME
A combine moves through a soybean field along LaSalle Line just west of Marthaville as the harvest continues in Lambton County. The forecast calls for a mix of rain and sun through the weekend and into next week.
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Sarnia's War Fallen: Where They Called Home project returns
Vanessa Pevec and John Allan knew each other years before learning her Mitton Street home in Sarnia, and his family had a connection. Pevec and her husband, Matt Pevec, have lived for 30 years in the house without knowing, until recently, it...
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Three things needed to save cross-border orchestra, musician says
With it's 68th season cancelled, a border-straddling, semi-professional orchestra in Sarnia and Port Huron, Michigan is going to need a better fundraising strategy to return, one of its members says. “They're going to need better leadership, they're...
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LET US SPRAY
Sarnia firefighter Kole Hunter holds down Amelia Dionne's hat as the seven-year-old tries out a fire hose at a Fire Prevention Week open house held Wednesday at Station 1 on East Street.
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MARKING A MILESTONE
Annette Verhagen holds a sign opposing the war in Gaza in Sarnia's Centennial Park Wednesday during a weekly demonstration by Sarnians4Palestine. The event marked two years of local protests against the conflict.
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Man charged after cop slashed during attempted arrest
An Anishinabek Police Service officer was slashed in the face while trying to make an arrest Saturday morning at Kettle and Stony Point First Nation, police say. “Early this morning, while attempting an arrest in Kettle Point, one of our officers was...
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SHOW OF SUPPORT
Members of the Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW) Local 598 joined picket lines Friday at Lambton College in Sarnia in a show of support for Ontario Public Service Employees Union Local 124 members who have been on strike since Sept. 11. CUPW has...
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EVERY CHILD MATTERS
Alphonse Aquash performs a smudging ceremony ahead of the Sarnia Lambton Native Friendship Centre's annual Every Child Matters March Wednesday morning in Sarnia. The group walked from the centre's Lochiel Street building to Paul Blundy Park, then had...
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DAY OF CARING
The Day of Caring, the annual kickoff of the United Way of Sarnia-Lambton campaign, turned 30 Tuesday. About 120 volunteers from 15 local industries and businesses worked at about 20 sites around the community, cleaning, painting, weeding and taking...
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ON A ROLL
Elizabeth Watson, 9, from Oil City, wearing a T-shirt that says, “Finish it,” skates toward the finish line of the Terry Fox Run in Petrolia on Sunday. The annual cancer research fundraising run, walk and roll had a strong turnout on a warm and sunny...
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WALKING THE LINE
At least one person was dancing on the picket line Friday morning at the Lambton College Wellington Street entrance. Full-time support staff with Local 124 of the Ontario Public Service Employees Union at Lambton College went on strike Thursday, along...
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New home of Sarnia's Sacred Heart school filled with light
Light was one of the goals when it came time to renovate the new home of Sacred Heart elementary school in Sarnia. The addition of more windows to allow additional light into the former Gregory A. Hogan elementary school on Hogan Drive is one of...
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FALL FAIR FUN
Oil Springs' Brianna Berdan and five-month-old Sophie Churcher won a ribbon in a parent-child look-a-like contest Saturday at the Petrolia and Enniskillen Fall Fair held at Greenwood Park in Petrolia.
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ON THE MARCH
A three-day, 100-km Kidney March in the Sarnia area began Friday morning under the Blue Water Bridge in Point Edward with the goal of raising awareness and funds for the Kidney Foundation. Team members, from left, Alaina Wright, Erick Vriesinga,...
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Hometown Hero: Famed astronaut keeps grounded where his dreams were born
Chris Hadfield has travelled farther than most but he always returns to Stag Island in the St. Clair River, just south of Sarnia. Born in Sarnia, the-then future astronaut and commander of the International Space Station moved, at age seven with his...
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Conditions were `fantastic' for Lambton Plowing Match
About three dozen competitors brought their tractors and horses to Plympton-Wyoming Saturday for the annual Lambton Plowing Match. Sunny skies and slightly chilly late August temperatures greeted the field at Keith and Alma Hart's London Line...
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No news good news for Diageo distillery project: St. Clair mayor
Plans for a $245-million Diageo whisky distillery in St. Clair Township, paused last year, appear to still be on hold after the company announced plans to close its Amherstburg bottling plant, the township's mayor says. “I feel awful for them down...
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Labour Day parade in Sarnia about workers coming together
Labour Day parade organizers in Sarnia hope to send a message with this year's theme. Elbows Up Canada is the theme for Monday's parade, an annual tradition in Sarnia dating back to 1902. About 3,000 people typically march in the parade. The theme...
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GREEN REAPER
Scott Rodger of the Green Reaper pulling team competes at the Plympton-Wyoming Truck and Tractor Pull Saturday at the Wyoming Fair Grounds.
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Proposed new national pipeline will connect to Sarnia: premier
Ontario Premier Doug Ford pledged that, if a proposed new east-west pipeline is built in Canada, it will connect with Sarnia and its petrochemical industries. Ford made the pledge Thursday while speaking in the lobby of Sarnia City Hall about $400,000...
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WINNING SPECIALTIES
Before there were hard cider makers, wineries or craft breweries in Lambton County, there was mead. The ancient alcoholic beverage made by fermenting honey has been sold since 2000 at Munro Honey and Meadery in Alvinston, a company that dates back...
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Chatham artist creates stone carving for Sarnia's Artpath
John David Hart came to Sarnia's Artpath with plans to leave something behind when the weekend event was finished. The stone carver got to work Friday, before the two-day summer event began Saturday near Sarnia Bay and downtown, carving owls from two...
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Lambtonarea food businesses team up to taste success
Is asparagus good on pizza? How about peaches? These are questions Sarnia's Mike Giresi asks himself. Giresi's Pizza Factory, and a Reece's Corners market farm that often supplies fresh in-season produce as toppings, are one of the restaurant-farm...
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`Right tools for learning'
Sarnia's Inn of the Good Shepherd is still taking donations for an annual project to ensure about 1,000 kids from struggling families return to school in September with a new backpack and school supplies. Volunteer teams are filling backpacks with...
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Korny Korners Adventure Farm reopens in Sarnia
Sarnia's Korny Korners Adventure Farm and Farm Market has reopened. The market and farm tourism site at the corner of Blackwell Sideroad and Michigan Line was created many years ago by Roger Thurston on this family farm. Thurston died in April. The...
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Eastbound Highway 402 lanes near Sarnia reopened
A stretch of Highway 402 in the Sarnia area reopened Wednesday after it was temporarily closed due to unsafe road conditions caused by extreme heat. The eastbound lanes between the Airport and Mandaumin roads exits, which were closed after reports...
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VINTAGE VILLAGE
Bob Pavey, left, and Doug Lashbrook talk next to Lashbrook's 1927 Ford Model T Friday in Point Edward's Waterfront Park during Vintage in the Village, a monthly car show held during the summer.
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How the Hockey Canada case avalanched into controversy
If there was an apt metaphor to describe the Hockey Canada sexual assault case, it might be a tiny snowball suddenly pushed down a very steep, snowy mountain. By the time it reached the bottom – culminating in Superior Court Justice Maria Carroccia's...
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Aw shucks! Sarnia's Anthony Wing returns to competitive oyster shucking
Sarnia's Anthony Wing is back in the hunt for oyster shucking glory. After mostly setting aside competitive shucking during his time running the International Symphony Orchestra (ISO) in his hometown, Wing is back in training to compete at the...
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Oil Springs celebrates local history
Decades ago it was an annual event in Oil Springs to have people parade their pets through the streets, says Darcy Mitchell. “Not my or your generation, but the one (before) us, as kids they all came out to do that,” said the captain with the Oil...
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GIFT KEEPS GIVING
Pam Chin, a Point Edward resident, wrote and recorded a song for her husband that is benefiting the Parkinson Society of Southwestern Ontario.
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WAY TO PLAY
Special Olympics Sarnia track and field team members Michael Allen, left, and Joanna Edwards stand with team head coach, Esron Mills, after returning from the Ontario Special Olympics Summer Games with several medals. Not pictured is Sarnia team member...
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Alberta firm in $5B+ deal for Plains Sarnia's propane, butane plant
A Sarnia propane and butane plant will be back in Canadian hands if a proposed sale of a U.S. company's Canadian natural gas liquids business to Alberta-based Keyera Corp., goes ahead. Keyera has a deal to buy all of Houston-based Plains Canada's...
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`The happy medium'
Helped by funding from several local sources, a new outdoor mural is welcoming visitors to Sarnia's downtown. Scaffolding came down this week at 216 Front St. N., at the mural by artists Kennady Osborne and Taryn Henry. “The artists and myself were...
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Hometown champion: Tana Manchester creates something special in Sarnia
Tana Manchester went looking eight years ago for something for her daughter, then 11, to do. What she found, and helped start, now has about 80 volunteers providing sports, fitness and social activities for 150 Sarnia-area residents with intellectual...
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VIVA VEGFEST!
Heather Littlejohn, with Ka Chi Yoga Institute in Sarnia, leads yoga on the Canatara Park beach Sunday during Sarnia Vegfest. It was the sixth year for the festival with vendors, music, workshops and activities for kids.
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Busy Sarnia high school graduate awarded $100,000 scholarship
Liam Henderson, recipient of a $100,000 Schulich leader scholarship, blew past Ontario's 40 hours of community volunteering requirement long before graduating in June from Northern Collegiate in Sarnia. Along with a 98.3 per cent grade point average,...
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CELEBRATING CANADA
Eighteen-month-old Camila Barnes and her mom Anna watch the Canada Day parade go by in Sarnia's Canatara Park July 1. Thousands turned out in the city for the annual celebration.
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THEY'RE BERRY BUSY
Keaghan Boersma picks strawberries Thursday for Zekveld's Garden Market in Reece's Corners. The Plympton-Wyoming farm also offers pick- your-own strawberries.
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