Fewer tricks for kids

In a few days Winnipeg kids will be yelling “trick or treat” at doors all across the city, but for a certain number of children, the biggest trick is getting to the front door.

That’s because there are many children who use wheelchairs, walkers, braces or crutches to get around. For them, the stairs at the front porch provide an impassible barrier to bring their candy bags to the door, let alone themselves.

Across the country there are about 400,000 Canadian children with accessibility issues.

But now, thanks to a partnership between Re/Max and Home Depot Canada, these children will find it easier to go trick or treating at certain residences.

Mike Mason, a realtor with Re/Max Executive Realty in Winnipeg, says the Accessible Trick or Treating program is aimed at helping these children.

“All the kids look forward to Halloween, but these kids feel left out. This is a way of finally making trick or treating with siblings or friends easier,” Mason said.

“We’ve committed to putting out 20,000 signs Canada-wide.”

A sign outside a house lets people know it is a house where the residents have agreed to distribute candy at the bottom of the stairs or hand out treats from a garage or driveway.

The initiative started in Toronto in 2017 when a dad saw a child in a wheelchair out trick or treating and realized he had stairs in front of his house, Mason said.

“The dad made his own sign, and in 2018 Re/Max made 2,500 signs for Toronto. From there is has grown nationally this year. We want people to see the signs, and we hope the program grows. People would store the signs until next year and we would put more signs out,” he said.

The signs are available at every Home Depot in the country.

— Kevin Rollason

Shelley Cook, Columnist

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Help for a helper

MIKE DEAL / WINNIPEG FREE PRESSBeverly Ajtay, Operations manager at Lighthouse Mission, examines the old boiler with Olaf Grundmann with G&G Heating after it was replaced with a new forced air system.

Last Wednesday, Lighthouse Mission’s old steam boiler gave up the ghost and the non-profit organization put out the call for help.

Within 24 hours, generous Manitobans responded with the $50,000 in donations the mission needed to replace it.

“We’ve had people dropping off cheques here, and donations are coming in online through e-transfers,” Lighthouse spokeswoman Beverly Ajtay said. “It’s going to take a little bit of time. We have the team that came in and gave us the bad news… they’re working to do what’s needed to restore the heat.”

On average, 250 people go to the mission daily for breakfast and lunch. READ MORE

Warm hearts and mitts

Laura Everett, one of the organizers for 1JustCity, helping out at the sewing bee event to make hats and neck warmers with other volunteers at the St Matthews Maryland Community Ministry centre on Saturday. (Ruth Bonneville / Winnipeg Free Press)

St. Matthews Maryland Community Ministry was filled with laughter — and the sounds of sewing machines and clacking scissors — as more than two dozen volunteers worked to keep people warm this winter.

It was a four-hour sewing marathon put on by Sew Much Love and part of an effort to produce almost 3,000 items of clothing, including neck warmers, tuques and mittens to ward off the cold. They’re hoping to finish all the items by Nov. 23 when 1JustCity’s Walk A Mile In My Shoes event is being held.

“I thought it would be a really cool way to get people involved in understanding a little bit about poverty and homelessness,” said Sew Much Love founder Laura Everett. READ MORE

Coin honours Louis Riel

A special edition coin featuring Louis Riel is seen in this undated handout photo. The Royal Canadian Mint has issued a new coin featuring a portrait of Louis Riel, an important Metis leader and the founder of Manitoba. The coin was launched Tuesday on the 175th anniversary of Riel's birth. THE CANADIAN PRESS/HO, Royal Canadian Mint *MANDATORY CREDIT*

A special edition coin featuring Louis Riel is seen in this undated handout photo. The Royal Canadian Mint has issued a new coin featuring a portrait of Louis Riel, an important Metis leader and the founder of Manitoba. The coin was launched Tuesday on the 175th anniversary of Riel’s birth. THE CANADIAN PRESS/HO, Royal Canadian Mint *MANDATORY CREDIT*

The Royal Canadian Mint celebrated Louis Riel’s 175th birthday by releasing a special silver dollar with his likeness.

It’s also the first Canadian coin to include Michif, the official Métis language.

“With vision and courage, Riel took the stand for the rights of his people and led the negotiations of the 1870 Manitoba Act that brought our province into existence and made the Métis people partners in the (ongoing) project that is confederation,” said Tom Roche, senior director of manufacturing at the mint in Winnipeg. READ MORE

Flame on

Underdogs head chef, Alex Wong, prepares some super spicy hot wings. (Mike Sudoma / Winnipeg Free Press files)

It’s cold out now, but here’s a way at least one part of your body can be warm or flaming hot —your mouth.

Declan Schroeder checked out some of the city’s joints where you can pump up the hot sauce before downing chicken wings. Some of the places checked out were Magic Bird, Little Bones Wings and Underdogs.

At Underdogs, one of the wings called the Last Dab reaches two million on the chili pepper Scoville scale, a scale that measures hotness and is usually much, much lower than that.

Because of the severity of the heat, only two Last Dab wings are served at a time.

“I can’t see anyone getting through a whole pound of them,” said Brad Michalenko, Underdogs general manager.

The power of a phone call

SuppliedSteve Halinda, seen here in the video editing suite at CBC Winnipeg in 1980, spent nearly two decades working in radio.

Steve Halinda was a familiar voice back in the 1960s and 1970s.

Halinda worked at both CJOB and CBC radio during those decades and was noted for a phone call he made during a record-setting blizzard on March 4, 1966.

“The road was terrible,” Halinda’s son Greg recalled. “He could barely get to work through the snow drifts. The snow was pouring down. He was shocked to not see any snowplows working. So he figured he was going to call the mayor to ask him what was up.”

It turns out, then mayor Stephen Juba didn’t even know there was a blizzard and that call from Halinda put the wheels in motion for the city to set up an emergency centre and begin an all-out effort to dig the city out. READ MORE

An eight-week-old baby panda — one of a set of twins — looks into the camera at Zoo Berlin in Germany on Oct. 24. (Zoo Berlin / The Associated Press files)