🌠 Perseids Over South Frontenac 🚗 Kingston Out-Polites Toronto ❤️ A Heart Room Like No Other 🍋 Declyn's Lemonade Stand 🗓️ Events & More 🔦 August 24, 2026

THE COVER

🌠 On the Cover: Three Meteors and One Impostor

LOCAL SPOTLIGHT

🔦 Several amazing local spotlight articles are coming up soon !

KINGSTON & AREA LOCAL NEWS

🚗 Kingston Out-Polites Toronto, and Uber Has the Receipts

❤️ A Heart Room Like No Other, and It Should Shorten the Wait

🙋 The City Wants Special Events Volunteers, and You Only Need to Be 14

COMMUNITY CHAMPIONS

🎒 More Than 1,000 Backpacks Came In, and School Is Nearly Here

🧠 Two Queen’s Professors Kept Finding Geeky Things, So They Went Looking for the Rest of Us

📻 The Only Broadcaster in the Room When CKLC Signed On

NEW EVENTS IN AND AROUND KINGSTON

👋 Seniors Active Living Expo | The Seniors Centre | August 25

🔭 Curious Minds Kingston: “See the Universe like a Scientist” | Fine Balance Brewing | August 27

🎬 “To Labour, with Love” Film Screening and Mixer | Broom Factory | August 27

💚 Kingston Canal Pursuit for Mental Health | Confederation Park | August 29

🍋 Mending Hearts with Declyn Lemonade Stand | 1018 Old Colony Road | August 29

🚲 A Ford E-Bike, a Set of Tires, and a Raffle for SFCSC | Sydenham | draw September 1

EVENTS CALENDAR

It’s gotten too long to include here in the summary! Click Events Calendar to see our list for the next few days.

PLEASE SHARE YOUR FEEDBACK

Too long? Too short? About right? Tell us what you would like to see more of, and less of.

Every issue, this spot goes to one business we think our readers would like to meet. Sometimes that's a shop, sometimes a service, sometimes someone who has been quietly doing good work for years and has never advertised anywhere.

You may have spotted that the ads here don't shout about discounts. That's on purpose. I sit down with the owner, learn how they got started and what they're actually good at, and then write about that. It reads like the rest of the newsletter because it is the rest of the newsletter.

Founding rates are open while we're getting started. If that's your kind of thing, email Les at [email protected] and he'll walk you through it.

Linda Nuttall and Mark went out several nights this month hoping to catch the Perseids over South Frontenac. On the least cloudy one she took the camera along, and this was the best of the bunch: three meteors, and one long straight streak that is an airplane or a satellite. Thirty-five minutes outside, a string of fifteen-second exposures, and the camera caught far more than either of them saw.

Uber Canada went through more than six years of rider ratings and put Kingston fifth among the country’s most polite cities, at an average of 4.94 out of 5. Sherbrooke leads at 4.96, with Windsor, St. John’s and Kelowna all at 4.95. Toronto and Montreal sit at the bottom on 4.88, and Ottawa, Vancouver and Calgary land at 4.89. The national average hit a record 4.90 last year, and just over half of regular riders hold a perfect five stars. Drivers say the quickest way to lose one is a bad attitude, then mess.

Read the full story at: Kingston Daily

Room D sits on the third floor of the Kerr wing at Kingston Health Sciences Centre, and it is believed to be the first operating room in North America built specifically for ablations done without X-ray guidance. Ablation is the treatment for arrhythmias, atrial fibrillation among them. The cardiology team had the expertise and the equipment all along. What it did not have was space, because the wait for a stent, a pacemaker or an ablation came down to how many properly fitted rooms were free. There were three. Now there is a fourth.

Read the full story at: The Kingston Whig-Standard

The City of Kingston is recruiting Special Events Volunteers for its civic ceremonies and community events, and the jobs on offer are the ones that make a day actually run: the information booth and lost and found, floating around to cover breaks, helping at the inflatables and climbing walls and games, setup and teardown, and counting people in at the gates. The minimum age is 14 and no experience is needed, though you will need a Vulnerable Sector Check. There is no deadline. Apply through the online form and you hear back in about 10 to 12 days.

Read the full story at: City of Kingston

When we ran this on August 10 the drop-off deadline was still days away, so here is how it landed. United Way KFL&A took in more than 1,000 backpacks through its annual Backpack Program, donated by neighbours, businesses and workplaces from across the region. They go to students from kindergarten through Grade 12, handed out through local schools and agencies that work with children and youth. Last year more than 1,800 kids got one. United Way puts basic school supplies at $200 to $300 a student, which is a real number in a lot of households.

Read the full story at: Kingston Daily

Karalyn McRae, who holds a PhD in anatomy and cell biology, and Meghan Norris, a psychology professor, kept meeting up and landing on something geeky and fun that was new to both of them. McRae told Kingstonist they wanted to take that same joy of learning out into the community and find “all of the other geeky, curious people that we know are within Kingston”. Curious Minds Kingston is what came of it: free, all ages, topics running from space to wildlife to teaching, and a volunteer-led community group rather than a Queen’s University programme. Fittingly, the Kingstonist story was written by Charly Crausen, a student at Bayridge Secondary School.

Read the full story at: Kingstonist

CKLC went on the air on November 23, 1953, started by Terry French and Bob Grant under St. Lawrence Broadcasting. C. John Bermingham was one of the original shareholders and the only one of them who had actually worked in radio, which is exactly why French recruited him. He ran the programming as production manager and then program director, later bought out Allan Waters’ shares, and finished as co-owner, vice-president and general manager. The KLC in the call letters stands for Kingston, Limestone City, and CKLC-FM became CFLY in 1977. Bermingham died on August 10 at 95, about two months after Nonie, his wife of 73 years.

Read the full story at: Kingston Daily

Which town are you reading from? Hit reply and tell us. One word is plenty, and we read every one. It helps us cover the places our readers actually live, and it quietly tells your email provider we are someone you know, which keeps us out of your Promotions tab.

The Seniors Association Kingston Region turns 50 this year and is marking it with a first: an Active Living Expo at The Seniors Centre, 56 Francis Street, on Tuesday, August 25. More than 50 local exhibitors, businesses and organizations both, will be there to connect older adults, families and caregivers with services, resources and support. Entry is free, the coffee is free, the first 100 people through the doors get a gift bag, and the grand prize is a Niagara Falls tour for two worth $1,998. There is a Lionhearts fresh food market and food on site. Full details from the Seniors Association.

The first Curious Minds Kingston talk goes to Dr. Rob Knobel, a Queen’s scientist who worked closely with the community around the 2024 total solar eclipse. His subject is how scientists actually approach a question and gather data, and how much of that you can do with the phone already in your pocket. It is on Thursday, August 27 at Fine Balance Brewing Company, 677 Innovation Drive, and it is free and open to all ages. Future dates go up on Curious Minds Kingston’s own Instagram.

Kingston filmmaker Kaycee Leigh screens the director’s cut of her documentary “To Labour, with Love” at the Broom Factory, 305 Rideau Street, on Thursday, August 27, followed by a Q and A with the Community Midwives of Kingston and people from the film. Then live performances from Mellow Lily and the Kingston Youth Dance Ensemble, the Kingston School of Dance’s own young company, plus refreshments, door prizes and a silent auction. The organiser notes the film explores childbirth through authentic, non-graphic depictions, with no nudity, and that all ages are welcome. Tickets are pay what you can from $20, through KLH Creative Co.

A free, non-competitive walk or run along the Kingston waterfront, 5 km or 10 km on the same route as last year, starting from Confederation Park and meeting at the historic steam train at Confederation Basin. Saturday, August 29. It supports the Mood Disorders Society of Canada and its work against the stigma around mental illness. Clay Williams started the Canal Pursuit in honour of his wife, daughter and sister, who live with mood disorders, and in memory of his two brothers, who died by suicide. Kingston is one of six locations this year, and the local team, captained by Rae McDonald, has already raised $1,953 against a $1,000 goal. Register free with the Kingston team.

Declyn Michael Carman was born with a congenital heart defect and died on January 3, 2022, at three months old. Every year since, his older siblings Ryder and Jordyn, with their best friend Grady, have run a lemonade stand in his memory. It is on Saturday, August 29 at 1018 Old Colony Road, at the corner of Bayridge Drive. Turning up costs nothing; you buy lemonade, snow cones, baked goods or fruit. Proceeds go through the University Hospitals Kingston Foundation to pediatric cardiology at Kingston Health Sciences Centre, the same hospital whose new heart room is up in Local News, so children born with heart defects can be cared for here at home. Full details from UHKF.

Southern Frontenac Community Services is running a licensed raffle, and Revell Ford in Verona has donated four prizes worth more than $12,000 to mark its 90th year in business: a Ford Bronco e-bike valued at $5,126.90, a Ford Mustang e-bike at $4,602.68, a set of four tires worth up to $1,800 and a Revell Works maintenance package worth about $500. Tickets are $10 for one, $25 for three and $75 for ten, and all net proceeds go to SFCSC programs, its food bank and its seniors services among them. Sales close at 3 p.m. on Tuesday, September 1, and the draw is the same day. Tickets at Rafflebox.

⛲ Power of Hope Golf Tournament  |  August 24

👋 Seniors Active Living Expo  |  The Seniors Centre, 56 Francis St  |  August 25

🍿 Movies in the Square, Season 19  |  Springer Market Square  |  Thursdays to August 27

💃 Free Zumba in the Park  |  Breakwater Park  |  Tuesdays and Thursdays to August 27

🎥 To Labour, with Love Film Screening and Mixer  |  Broom Factory, 305 Rideau St  |  August 27

🔭 Curious Minds Kingston: See the Universe like a Scientist  |  Fine Balance Brewing  |  August 27

🎨 Tett Centre Adult Arts Retreat  |  Tett Centre for Creativity & Learning  |  August 24 to 28

💚 Kingston Canal Pursuit for Mental Health  |  Confederation Park  |  August 29

🍋 Mending Hearts with Declyn Lemonade Stand  |  1018 Old Colony Rd  |  August 29

🔋 Second Household Hazardous Waste Drop-Off  |  Public Works Sand and Salt Dome, 1307 Innovation Dr  |  August 29

Festivals, free weekly programs, museum seasons and every farmers’ market we know about, all in one place and updated with every issue. See the full Kingston Events Calendar, and bookmark it while you are there.

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All feedback and suggestions are appreciated!

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