Tag Archives: West Niagara

CLUBWEST, FEATURED ARTICLES (PREVIOUS EDITIONS)

Having a bird!

ClubWest(To view our March/April 2015 issue of ClubWEST online, click here.)

Grimsby’s Rick Manners never met a challenge he did not relish

By Mike Williscraft

Would the real Rick Manners please step forward?

Grizzly & TeddyThe bus driver.

The incredibly gifted artist.

The dedicated Kinsmen Club of Grimsby member.

The naturalist.

The dedicated husband of nearly 30 years.

The hard-working employee of the Grimsby Benevolent Fund.

The friend who would help at a moments notice.

The avid collector/builder of toy muscle cars.

@RT Hawk TailNo matter which hat Manners is wearing when one interacts with him, there is a common denomenator which is consistent: a big smile and a drive to get things done.

These days, most may recognize him from the GBF store or perhaps someone may have seen him in his Kin T-shirt setting up for a community event.

His passion, one of them, painting has taken a bit of a back seat at times in recent years.

Nascar GuitarWhile living in Toronto and operating studios in Thunder Bay, Brantford and Toronto simultaneously in the early 90s, Manners and his wife, Kathy, made a trip out to Grimsby to visit her parents who had just decided to retire there.

“Instead of taking the highway, we got off and took the scenic route. As we came into town on Hwy. 8, we passed the Old Stone Shop and I slammed on the brakes. As soon as I saw it, I knew it would be a great spot for me,” recalled Manners.

“ I got out of the car and saw a man raking in his yard. That turned out to be Al Jordan. I asked him if he knew who owned the shop. He said, ‘me’. It needed a lot of work, but we got it all set up, cleaned out and the rest is history.”

Actually, it is still a work in progress as fate brought Manners to town, but he is still in the process of completing the canvas which will depict his life here.

…

See the full article in our online edition.

FEATURED ARTICLES (PREVIOUS EDITIONS)

No maybe about it — Just Train Crazy

ClubWest(To view our March/April 2015 issue of ClubWEST online, click here.)

By Katherine Grant

When a little boy sees a train, it is a powerful and beautiful thing.

Peter Howey is the owner of Just Train Crazy in Beamsville
Peter Howey is the owner of Just Train Crazy in Beamsville
“And it moves but it doesn’t really come to life until you create the environment in which it moves,” says Peter Howey about the magic of trains.

Howey, owner of Just Train Crazy, had a moment like that when he was just a boy of about eight.

“My dad got a deal on a bunch of trains and proceeded to build an empire in my basement. My friends were envious.”

His Beamsville store carries all the elements needed to create a little magic in any basement – or train room.

Building model trains is the single biggest hobby in the world and its popularity is not just among little boys; men and women and little girls enjoy creating miniature worlds in which they can command the trains that roll along the tracks.

“We have some of the best, world-class modelers right here in the neighbourhood,” said Howey, adding some guys can get a bit obsessive about it, choosing a specific time period in history to recreate for example.

…

See the full article in our online edition.

FROM THE PUBLISHER (PREVIOUS EDITIONS)

From the Publisher March/April 2015

ClubWest(To view our March/April 2015 issue of ClubWEST online, click here.)

“Either write something worth reading or do something worth writing.”
– Benjamin Franklin

Front Page Mar Apr 2015

I’ve had the pleasure of knowing Rick Manners a long time. He was one of the first people I met via his work with the Kinsmen Club of Grimsby back in 1995 when I helped start the super successful Greater Grimsby Open, as it was called back in the day: the Kinsmen’s mini-putt fundraiser which sells out every year.

He was also there when the Kinsmen helped me start the Grimsby Home Show – a tireless worker, a phenomenal artist and a man blessed with a motor that just does not quit.

He has not been well for a long time. He reluctantly speaks about his affliction and one thing is for certain, he does not dwell on it. When he was speaking about how he deals with his medical visits, I could not help but think of my father. My mom used to joke that his tombstone would read, “I can’t stay here. I have too much to do”.

This, too, is Rick, but for different reasons.

I can see doing another feature on him in a year’s time because I felt so bad leaving out so much. The man is an army of one and we could use a dozen more in our community just like him. Thanks very much for the time last week, Rick. It is much appreciated, as always.

And, yes, this is the March-April edition, but it is not too early to start thinking about gardening and landscaping. I said thinking, not digging through three feet of snow to plant bulbs.

We have some extremely knowledgable and friendly greenhouse folk right here in our midst and you will find some commentary in this edition from them. They are excellent sources of information, the people at Vineland Nurseries, so stop in and fire your questions at them.

ClubWEST also welcomes chef Jan-Willem Stulp to our list of contributors. Jan has some great ideas of themes he will cover in the coming months to entertain and challenge those who are culinary inclined. He has a wealth of experience and is excited at the challenge. We’re glad to have him.

Looking ahead, May will be another first for Niagara West.

ClubWEST is the area’s first lifestyle magazine and in May, as laid out in our inaugural edition last summer, we will be publishing the area’s first “destination” publication.

Our whole theme – ClubWEST is a great place to work, live and play – will go to high-end homes around the Golden Horseshoe from Niagara-on-The-Lake to Mississauga, a total of 100,000 homes. We’re already working on our content for that edition. It will be our chance to tell everyone just how great we have it here, and that is pretty darn good! So watch for that the first week of May.

We deliver on time, every time, no month-long delays here.

Publisher, ClubWEST Magazine
Mike Williscraft