Downsview family light show raises money for Sick Kids

DA-site-IMGS-dividerBy David RosCRHISTMAS-1-DEC14 It's a holiday tradition here in Downsview.For the past 15 years, every night as soon as the sun goes down during the holiday season, 165 Benjamin Boake Trail comes to life with an amazing show of lights.Nearly every inch of the front of Amatore and Pat DeSario's property is covered with Christmas lights and decorations. There are Santas, snowmen, Christmas trees, a nativity scene and various messages of holiday cheer.Putting together this display on a yearly basis has been a labour of love for the DeSarios. Getting it ready for the holiday season takes hundreds of hours of work and requires them to begin putting it together during the last week of September.CHRISTMAS-3-DEC14“Most people think we hire somebody [to install the Christmas display], but, in fact, it's just my husband and I,” Pat said.When the DeSarios started installing their Christmas display, they noticed that people were coming from all around to admire it. With this in mind, they decided to use this as an opportunity to raise money for the Hospital for Sick Children.Their daughter had been diagnosed with type I diabetes and had been treated at Sick Kids during her youth, so Pat said that they wanted to give back to the hospital that had helped their daughter so much.“I'm blown away at how much work [the DeSarios] put into this every year and it's just such an amazing display,” said Connie Bleeker, an events associate for Sick Kids hospital. “I've seen pictures of it, but they just don't do it justice and I encourage everyone to come here in person and see it for themselves.”In front of the display, the DeSarios have a box where people can make a cash or cheque, which they will deliver to the Hospital for Sick Children in February. Over the past 15 years, they have raised more than $100,000 for the hospital.When they started, Pat said that this was something they never thought would be possible even in their wildest dreams.Mark Adler, the Conservative MP for York Centre, said that he lives in the area and that he took his own kids to see the display even before he was elected to office.CHRISTMAS-4-DEC14“This is about community coming together for a great cause to help Sick Kids Hospital,” Adler said. “People come from far and wide to see this wonderful display, and it's such an amazing community event.”Last year, while the DeSarios were on vacation, a gust of wind took down their entire display and for a brief moment, they had considered calling it quits.“When we did come back from our holiday, the whole structure came down and [Amatore] says you know, why do this and look at what's happening, let's take a rest, and just out of the blue, God tells you that you have to do this,” Pat said. “he next day, I got that letter in the mail, and when we read it it just brought tears to our eyes, and we said, ok, we have to do it.”Pat said that she and her husband have already made plans to go to the States to look at adding to their collection for next year.

My Story – Mr. Armindo Silva: Holding on for life on the high seas

 DA-site-IMGS-dividerBy Tom RakocevicMYstoty-1-ARMINDO-DEC14Your quiet unassuming neighbour may have an incredible story. Perhaps it’s a heart-warming tale or even a miracle. Maybe through fortitude or sheer luck they were able to overcome impossible odds to survive a disaster. You’d never know as they leisurely tend to their garden and give you a friendly wave.We all have our stories; the older you are, the more you have. This new column entitled, “My Story” celebrates the fascinating lives of our community members by having them share an interesting experience. If you have a unique story you wish to tell in an upcoming issue, or know somebody that does, contact the Downsview Advocate at info@downsviewadvocate.ca.MYstoty-2-MILENA-boat-DEC14“Oh salty sea, how much of your saltAre tears of Portugal!To get across you, how many mothers cried,How many sons prayed in vain.”Fernando PessoaThough Armindo Silva immigrated to Canada in 1970, it wasn’t the first time he set foot in our country. In 1947, two years before Newfoundland joined confederation, the “Milena” a 700 hundred ton fishing schooner of the Portuguese fleet docked in St. John’s during one of its typical 6-month voyages on the open seas. A young, 14 year-old messboy named Armindo jumped out to see this new land on the other side of the Atlantic from his native Portugal. Working the messroom on the Milena’s long and arduous journeys, he saw a great many things.Today, Mr. Silva recalls the work of those fishermen aboard the Milena.“After all these years, I never saw such hard labour,” he said.Out at sea for months at a time, when the fish were plenty, the men worked 18-hour days for weeks straight catching, cleaning and salting cod.His recollection of these times were published in the Portuguese historical journal “O Ilhavense” and he is the author of Milena:1948 – Memorias de uma Campanha. This fascinating book written in the Portuguese language describes 7 different ordeals the crew faced while out at sea. One such event occurred in August of 1948 when Armindo, the ship’s youngest crewman was only 15.---In August 1948, when the Milena lost its propeller in the waters off of Greenland, the captain set a course for the safer waters of the Grand Banks using only the wind to guide the large vessel. They were only a day from Newfoundland’s shore when the wind died and the crew found themselves stranded. As the ship’s messboy, Armindo spent a great deal of time in the company of the ship’s officers. To this very day, he remembers the apprehension of the captain following a sudden and tremendous drop in barometric pressure, “Boys, we are going to suffer,” the captain said.Sure enough, the breeze returned that late afternoon, but it just didn’t stop. It grew and grew until the winds threatened to tear the men from the deck and fling them out into the ocean – a cyclone had come.The storm brought terrible darkness and crushing winds. Mr. Silva still remembers the terrifying waves that reached as high as 30 metres, “It was an inferno,” he said.The next morning, with the waters and winds still raging, Armindo was attending to the captain, first mate and deck boss. The captain had the ship in a holding pattern against the ongoing storm. He turned to his chief mate, “What do we do to get out of this?”The older and very experienced first mate replied, “Captain, the Milena is a strong ship but won’t last long if we keep fighting the sea like this.”The deck boss agreed, “We are going to sink if the storm doesn’t end soon.”The captain was silent for a long time. When he spoke it was with a grim determination, “Ok then. Call the men, and ready them for the worst. We will ride the wind. We are in God’s hands now.”With the crew assembled, the captain ordered his men to raise the sails and turn the rudder on his command. The ship was fighting the waves and wind, but to ride the storm they would have to turn 180 degrees. This was a dangerous proposition as the ship’s starboard side would be exposed during the maneuver and the great schooner could flip.The captain surveyed the terrible waters for what seemed an eternity. “Now!” he yelled.BOOM! The sails simply vanished.At the mercy of the ocean, the ship rocked back and forth to the point of near capsizing. The waves crashed on the deck washing away all 58 utility boats. Five men were unable to hold on and went overboard “screaming like children,” Armindo said.Mr. Silva cannot recall how long the men fought to turn the boat in that watery Hell. “We survived because the small forward sail held on. It was a miracle; it was the hand of God,” he said.When they finally turned they were propelled at a speed of 18 knots, almost double what they could achieve with the sails up and propeller at full speed on a normal day.They were able to save four of the men, Mr. Silva remembers with tears in his eyes, but one was unaccounted for. “I heard a shout, ‘There’s a man out there on that wave!’ and we all looked. I saw him way out there. He looked so small and alone in the water. We all began yelling to the captain to save him. The captain said it was impossible, that we would all die if we tried. He gave the order to go on,” He said. “We saw him three times and then we never saw him again. He left a pregnant wife at home. He was the nicest guy on the ship, lost at sea on his first trip.”---Listening to Mr. Silva tell this frightening account, I watch my silver-haired neighbour with quiet awe. Where others boast, Mr. Silva is a gentleman of quiet humility.Mr. Silva served two years aboard the Milena and spent the next 11 as a fisherman in the Portuguese fleet. At age 27 and already a veteran of the seas, he became a sailor on a Dutch merchant ship that docked at many international ports.“Working the merchant ship was easy. I was a week at sea between ports. I could come home every month. Also, that’s when I married Maria Fernanda,” He says with a big smile.Maria Fernanda and Armindo married in 1963, and happily celebrated their golden anniversary last year. They immigrated to Canada in 1970 with their two young children aged 5 and 2.Mr. Silva left the sea behind to work on land where he could raise a family. After 27 years of hard work in construction and manufacturing he began a well-deserved retirement in 1997 and has lived in Downsview since 2004, where he keeps a beautiful property and always wears a smile for others. The next time I come home from work feeling I’d had a tough day, I will remember 15 year-old Armindo holding on for dear life in the stormy Atlantic, and I will feel a little bit embarrassed.

Pearson passengers pay the price for mismanagement

DA-site-IMGS-dividerBy Matias de DovitiisAIRPORT-1-DEC14It’s the holidays and I was trying to help a friend book a flight out of Toronto going through ticket prices when I remembered: we have one of the most expensive airports in the world.It is very expensive to fly out of Toronto’s Pearson International Airport. It is more expensive than big European cities like London or Paris. It is more expensive than New York or Beijing. It is more expensive than Dubai, which is currently building the biggest airport in the world. In fact, it is more expensive than anywhere in the world except for a few cities in Japan and it is still the most expensive airport in the Americas. This has been true ever since they built the new airport terminal at Pearson. At the time, it was a very big project, but there are much bigger and newer airports in other places, and they are not as expensive.The airport fees out of Pearson (the ones you see and the ones the airlines pass on to you as a passenger) are so steep that hundreds of thousands of people drive to Buffalo and other nearby cities to fly from there every year.Big fees might be a good thing if passengers were getting a good return on their investment. After all, the airport is publicly owned and the fees go to maintain and operate it. The problem is that the airport is operated privately through an agency called the Greater Toronto Airport Authority (GTAA) that operates like a private monopoly. While the agency does not make a profit for investors (it is not a for profit entity), it is filled with management types that make big salaries, but are doing a poor job of flying us in and out quickly.The airport famously failed last January during a cold winter spell. The airport was shut down, because the deicing operations were backed up and the computer systems failed. Hundreds of flights were delayed for days. The airport was in chaos, yet, the top management made big bucks and nobody got fired.CEO, Howard Eng was on vacation during the crisis and had to apologize publicly a number of times. According to the sunshine list, Howard Eng made $712,138 a year in 2012.CFO, Brian Gabel was responsible for the contracting out of the IT services that crashed during the January storm. He has since left the GTAA and probably received a big severance package on his way out. 2012 SALARIES OF GTAA OFFICIALS:Howard Eng, CEO$712,138*Brian Gabel, CFO$513,300Douglas Love, VP$906,240**Pamela Griffith-Jones, VP$407,950Patrick Neville, VP$392,945*Including incentives**Including a severance package of $514,000 

A modest proposal to ease traffic congestion in Downsview

DA-site-IMGS-divider by Howard MoscoeTRAFFIC-1-DEC14 How do you feel when your car is sitting in rush hour traffic on Steeles Ave., or Sheppard Ave.? Frustrated? Everyone complains about traffic congestion and all of the politicians promise to do something to ease it (at least during the election period), but nothing ever seems to get resolved. That’s because clogged roads are the product of a number of cumulative decisions that force traffic onto main Streets. It’s human nature to want to live on a quiet “car free” street. Over the years, residents have pressured their local councillors into measures that discourage local traffic. They press for stop signs that don’t make sense, speed humps and traffic mazes that push traffic off their particular street and the end result of that is traffic congestion on main roads. The road systems are designed to make traffic flow. Streets like Sentinel Rd., Grandravine Dr., and Derrydown Rd., are classified as “collector roads.” They are designed to collect traffic from local streets. That is where the cars are supposed to flow freely. Yet, as a result of pressure from residents on these streets, they have been clogged with Stop signs and speed humps. TRAFFIC-2-DEC14Case in point is Grandravine Dr. In 2001, under pressure from local residents, the city surveyed residents of Grandravine Dr., about traffic calming. Traffic calming is where you erect barriers along the street to slow traffic and discourage cars. Of the 466 survey’s sent out only 71 bothered to respond and only 38 of these supported the installation of traffic calming. The traffic calming was installed. That means that a small group, fewer than 8 per cent, was able to dictate to the 6,000 drivers that used the street daily. Is it any wonder our main streets are congested? City traffic planners have laid out a plan that would ease traffic congestion in north-west Downsview. Grandravine Dr., is the only east-west route from Keele to Jane between Finch Avenue West and Sheppard Ave. W. The plan was to extend Grandravine eastward across an empty field to connect with Sheppard Ave. W. Right now, cars going eastbound to Allen Road have to travel an extra 2.8 km (South on Keele St., left at Sheppard Ave. W, and northbound again on Sheppard.) to get around where the Downsview Airforce Base housing is located. That plan has been blocked by residents on Grandravine Dr., who do not want the extra traffic on their street. I don’t blame them, but at some point, the greater good has to come before the local interest. Grandravine Dr., should be extended east to connect with Sheppard Ave. W., but because of local pressure on our councillors, it’s not likely to happen. There are some things that can be done to ease traffic pressure in the area. Right now, cars avoid the extra 2.8 km journey by using St Regis Cres. Another option is to use Bakersfield St., and Ashwarren Rd., but it’s a one way trip westbound. You can’t do it on the return trip because the exit onto Sheppard Avenue W is blocked by a concrete barrier that prevents cars turning west from Bakersfield. The city can open this route to traffic by signalizing the intersection of Bakersfield and Sheppard. This will take a lot of traffic off the main streets. It will be needed because of all of the high rise density that comes with the subway that will be stacked on the east side of Keele Street north of Sheppard, the area that presently houses the Downsview base officers’ housing. It has to be there because the flight restrictions posed by the Downsview airport flight contours will prevent it from being located at the Chesswood subway station.Vast amounts have been spent for road diversion related to the subway construction. We have all suffered the huge increases in volumes of traffic routes off Keele St., through our neighbourhoods to accommodate subway construction. Surely they can find something in the subway road diversion budget to bring this relief now.

Pesche Con Crema (Peaches with Cream)

     DA-site-IMGS-dividerBy Vincent PolsinelliRECIPE-DEC14Pesche Con Crema (Peaches with Cream)(20-24 cookies)

DESCRIPTION

Pesche Con Crema is traditional Italian dessert that is sure to put a smile on the whole family’s face during the holidays. Not only are they delicious but look beautiful too as they resemble actual peaches. These cookies are great treats for the family to munch on and to put out for family and friends that visit during the holiday break.

INGREDIENTSDough4 eggs5 oz vegetable oil4 teaspoons baking powder7 oz of sugar27 oz of flourCream Filling2 egg yolks2 tablespoons of sugar2 tablespoons of flour12 oz of 2% milk1 vanilla beanDecoration12.5 oz of Peach Schnapps (or any alcohol of your choice)8 oz of sugar3-4 sprigs of mintsRed food coloringYellow food coloring DIRECTIONSCookies

  1. Combine flour, sugar and baking powder together in a large bowl and create a well.
  2. In a separate bowl whisk your eggs together and slowly add the vegetable oil.
  3. Add your new egg mixture into the bowl with your dry ingredients and mix well until your dough is smooth.
  4. Roughly create 40-44 small balls from the dough (1.5 inches in diameter).
  5. Place the balls on top of parchment paper on an aluminum tray and place them in the centre rack of the oven at 335 °F for approximately 25 minutes (or when slight color is achieved).***Note: When placing cookies into the oven be sure to rate pans for even baking.

Cream Filling

  1. Split one vanilla bean, scrape out the inside and dissolve it inside of the milk.
  2. Whisk together the egg yolks and add it the new milk mixture.
  3. Add the sugar and the flour to the wet ingredients and whisk until the sugar and flour dissolve.
  4. Place your final mixture into a small pot on high heat over the stove and continuously stir until cream filling thickens.
  5. When a smooth texture is achieved convert cream filling to a small bowl and refrigerate for 10-15 minutes or until it has cooled.

Decoration

  1. Take the now baked cookies and carve a small hole out of the flattened half.
  2. After all cookies have been carved, fill the gaps with the cream filling and combine the two cookies to cover the cream.
  3. Split the Peach Schnapps into two separate bowls.
  4. Add 5-8 drops of yellow food coloring in one bowl and 5-8 drops of red food coloring in the other.
  5. Dip one half of your now cream filled cookie in the yellow colored bowl of alcohol and then dip the other half the red colored bowl of alcohol (approximately 8 seconds for each side).
  6. Let the cookies dry for 20 seconds before rolling them in a small bowl of sugar.
  7. When all cookies have been rolled in sugar, garnish each cookie with a mint leaf.