🍺 On the Cover: Out of a Job, Out of Sugar, and Into Your Drink
🔦 Several amazing local spotlight articles are coming up soon !
🚒 Kingston Fire & Rescue Wants Volunteer Firefighters, Rural Stations Especially
🐝 Bee Hives Buzz Onto the Cataraqui Centre Roof
📚 Vista Turns 50 as Well, and Fifty Septembers Are Free to Read Right Now
🏆 The 2026 Kingston Young Professionals 40 Under 40 Recipients Are Out
💙 Five KHSC Volunteers Took Ontario Volunteer Service Awards
🏠 A Rona Fundraiser Is Backing the Food Bank and Almost Home
⛳ FEATURED EVENT: Norm’s Annual Charity Golf Tournament | Amherstview Golf Course | September 18
🎨 Lennox and Addington Studio Tour | across Lennox and Addington | September 12 and 13
🎉 Party on the Pier | Great Lakes Museum | September 13
🎹 Canadian League of Composers 75th Anniversary Recital With John Burge | The Isabel | September 13
📖 Epic & Kimura Book Signing with Robert Cumming | Indigo Kingston | September 13
It’s gotten too long to include here in the summary! Click Events Calendar to see our list for the next few days.
Too long? Too short? About right? Tell us what you would like to see more of, and less of.
🔦 The Cover
🍺 On the Cover: Out of a Job, Out of Sugar, and Into Your Drink
Out of grubs and out of sugar, Kingston’s yellowjackets spend September working the patio tables. Swatting is the wrong move.
Those are yellowjackets, and if it feels like every patio table in Kingston has one on it right now, you are not imagining it. All summer the workers hunt insects to feed the grubs back at the nest, and the grubs pay them back in a sweet liquid they produce. Then the queen switches to raising next year’s queens, the last grubs grow up, and the payments stop. A nest full of workers is suddenly out of a job and out of sugar, which is how they end up on your glass. The hand in the background is the wrong move, by the way: swatting is what turns a nuisance into a sting. Never drink from a bottle you cannot see into, either. The first hard frost, usually sometime in October here, ends it.
🔦 Local Spotlight
🔦 Several amazing local spotlight articles are coming up soon ! We are working on Michael Judd, and on Rich and James at Norm’s Golf & Social.
🌽 Last call
Voting closes tonight at midnight. Here is where things stand.
Interim standings, updated September 9.
If your favourite is not on that list, today is the last chance to say so. One vote each, seventeen local growers, and results in Monday's issue.
📰 Kingston & Area Local News
🚒 Kingston Fire & Rescue Wants Volunteer Firefighters, Rural Stations Especially
Kingston Fire & Rescue is recruiting volunteers at several stations, with six months of training provided and the sharpest need at the rural end of the city. Photo from cityofkingston.ca.
Kingston Fire & Rescue is looking for volunteer firefighters, and the rural end of the city is where the need is sharpest. Fire protection here runs out of ten stations with career and volunteer crews working as one department, and new volunteers get six months of training before they come out certified and equipped. Chief Kevin Donaldson says they arrive from all walks of life: “business owners, retirees, young people looking to gain emergency response experience, anyone who wants to make a difference in their community.” You need to live close to a station that is recruiting, and a flexible daytime schedule counts for a lot. The City of Kingston’s recruitment page has the full eligibility list and the application.
Read the full story at: City of Kingston
🐝 Bee Hives Buzz Onto the Cataraqui Centre Roof
The Cataraqui Centre has put honey bee colonies and wild bee homes on its roof, with a food-court skylight to watch through. Graphic from cataraquicentre.ca.
Cataraqui Centre has put honey bee colonies and homes for wild bees on part of its roof, run with the urban beekeeping company Alveole. Nobody has to go up there to see them either, because there is a skylight over the food court. Marketing manager Rhonda Mosher and Alveole regional manager Madelaine Shales both walked the Whig through it. The rooftop hive program also has its own MyHive community page, so you can follow this particular colony without leaving the couch.
Read the full story at: The Whig-Standard
📚 Vista Turns 50 as Well, and Fifty Septembers Are Free to Read Right Now
Fifty Septembers of Vista, the Seniors Association’s own magazine, are now free to read online, a decade at a time. Graphic from seniorskingston.ca.
The Seniors Association Kingston Region is fifty this year, and so is Vista, the magazine it has been putting out since more or less the beginning. To mark it they have posted Vista Treasures, five free PDFs that each gather September excerpts from one decade, starting at 1977 and running through to 2025. The set rotates every month, so the September collection is up now and gone when the month is. They are also asking readers to send in their own memories and photos. The association these days runs more than 250 programs across nine locations and counts 5,700 members.
Read the full story at: Seniors Association Kingston Region
🏆 Community Champions
🏆 The 2026 Kingston Young Professionals 40 Under 40 Recipients Are Out
Forty recipients were named for the 2026 Kingston Young Professionals 40 Under 40, with the gala on September 16. Image via Kingston Economic Development.
Forty names are out for the fourth annual Kingston Young Professionals 40 Under 40, announced by Kingston Economic Development with award sponsor Rockwell Commercial. Anyone can nominate, and the choosing is done by an outside committee of past recipients drawn from different sectors. One name worth spotting: Rich Wall of Norm’s Golf & Social, whose charity tournament is the featured event further down this issue, and who is turning up again shortly in a spotlight of our own. Chief executive Donna Gillespie says the recipients are not simply building impressive careers, they are building businesses, organizations and a stronger Kingston. The gala is Wednesday, September 16 at the Frontenac Club.
Read the full story at: Kingston Economic Development
💙 Five KHSC Volunteers Took Ontario Volunteer Service Awards
Kid Tauchid has been steering people through KGH for twenty years, one of five KHSC volunteers honoured with an Ontario Volunteer Service Award. Photo from kingstonhsc.ca.
Five volunteers at Kingston Health Sciences Centre have been recognized with Ontario Volunteer Service Awards, which honour long service to a single organization. Kid Tauchid, Cheryl Turner and Brenda Bartlett were each recognized for twenty years, Judith Gould for fifteen and J.P. Morales for four. Fourteen KHSC volunteers were nominated altogether. Tauchid, who has spent two decades helping people find their way through KGH, puts his approach plainly: “I tend to say yes to just about everything. If I have time, I will do it.” Volunteer services manager Lynda Laird calls him a familiar and reassuring presence.
Read the full story at: Kingston Health Sciences Centre
🏠 A Rona Fundraiser Is Backing the Food Bank and Almost Home
Rona’s Home Sweet Home campaign runs to October 12, with Kingston donations going to Almost Home and the Partners in Mission Food Bank. Graphic from ronainc.ca.
Rona’s Home Sweet Home campaign runs until Monday, October 12, and the Kingston end of it is going to two local organizations: Almost Home and the Partners in Mission Food Bank. You add $2, $5 or $10 at the till or online, which is about as low a bar as giving gets. Almost Home puts families up while their children are treated in Kingston hospitals, and in its own words it “receives no ongoing government or agency support, so we rely on individual donors to keep our doors open.” This is the campaign’s fourth year, with close to $2 million raised nationally since 2023.
Read the full story at: The Whig-Standard
🆕 New Events In and Around Kingston
⛳ FEATURED EVENT: Norm’s Annual Charity Golf Tournament | Amherstview Golf Course | September 18
Poster supplied by Norm’s Golf & Social.
Eight days left to round up a foursome. Norm’s Golf & Social is running its first outdoor charity tournament on Friday, September 18 at Amherstview Golf Course, and calling it annual from the very first one. $150 a person covers 18 holes with a cart, a ride out from Norm’s on Gardiners Road and back again, Tony’s all-you-can-eat buffet, the SIM after-party, and a $25 contribution receipt. Registration and the full rundown are on the event page.
🎨 Lennox and Addington Studio Tour | across Lennox and Addington | September 12 and 13
Thirty-six artists open their studios across Lennox and Addington on September 12 and 13, free to visit, with printed guide maps at seven pickup points. Photo from lastudiotour.ca.
Twenty resident artists and sixteen guests open their studios across Lennox and Addington on Saturday, September 12 and Sunday, September 13, and it is free. The work runs from painting and pottery through glass, textiles, wood, gourd art and photography, with live music along the way. Printed guide maps are waiting at seven cafes and shops between Bath and Napanee, or you can plan the route ahead on the map of studios. Everything else, including where to pick up a map, is on the tour’s own site.
🎉 Party on the Pier | Great Lakes Museum | September 13
A free community celebration on the museum’s pier on September 13, with live music, a recycling regatta and birthday cake while it lasts. Poster from the Great Lakes Museum.
The Great Lakes Museum is throwing a free party out on its pier on Sunday, September 13, with birthday cake for everyone while it lasts. There is live music from Spencer Evans and Nolan Hubbard, face painting, popcorn and cotton candy courtesy of Not So Amateur Amateurs, and a Recycling Regatta where kids build a boat out of household recycling and find out how it floats. Bring a chair. Food vendors will be selling on site, and the paid Sneak Peek tours of the S.S. Keewatin run alongside it at $10 for adults, $5 for children 5 to 17 and free under 5. The full rundown is on the museum’s event page.
🎹 Canadian League of Composers 75th Anniversary Recital With John Burge | The Isabel | September 13
John Burge plays a solo program marking seventy-five years of the Canadian League of Composers at the Isabel on September 13. Photo from queensu.ca/theisabel.
Composer and pianist John Burge plays a solo program at The Isabel on Sunday, September 13, marking seventy-five years of the Canadian League of Composers. It opens with Beverley McKiver’s Trillium, works through pieces by past presidents of the league including John Weinzweig, Jean Papineau-Couture, Srul Irving Glick and Harry Freedman, and closes with O Canada. Seventy-five minutes including the intermission, $25, and it has not sold out. Tickets and the full program are on the Isabel’s event page.
📖 Epic & Kimura Book Signing with Robert Cumming | Indigo Kingston | September 13
Kingston martial arts coach Robert Cumming, right, has published Heart of Hope, the second of five books in a fantasy series built around his own children. Photo via Robert Cumming.
Kingston martial arts coach Robert Cumming will be at Indigo Kingston on Sunday, September 13, signing copies of Epic & Kimura, Heart of Hope. It is the second of a planned five books in a fantasy series he built around his own children: Caleb and Mila are handed an ancient book, and it takes them somewhere neither of them saw coming. Book three, Ulcer of the Soul, is due early in 2027. Kingstonist has the story of how the series started.
📅 Events Calendar
What's happening in and around Kingston over the next few days
⛳ FEATURED: Norm's Annual Charity Golf Tournament | Amherstview Golf Course | September 18
🥞 United Way KFL&A Campaign Kick-Off Breakfast | DoubleTree by Hilton Kingston | September 10 | 🔎 Read our story
🦋 Later Life Learning: Natural Wonders of the Region | The Seniors Centre | September 11 | 🔎 Read our story
🏌️ Restoring Mental Health, Mascon Restorations 4th Annual Charity Golf Tournament | Course not yet announced | September 11
🏠 Almost Home Annual Charity Golf Tournament | Rivendell Golf Club, Verona | September 11
🎭 Boodle Theatre Company presents Cymbeline | St. Mark's Lutheran Church | September 10 to 12 | 🔎 Read our story
🛝 Jumpstart Inclusive Playground Grand Opening Block Party | Shannon Park | September 12 | 🔎 Read our story
🎪 RoadTrip Scenic Route Free Street Festival | Downtown Kingston | September 12 | 🔎 Read our story
🎸 RoadTrip Music Festival | Springer Market Square | September 12 | 🔎 Read our story
♻️ Household Hazardous Waste Day | GFL Environmental, Napanee | September 12
🐾 Big Paws in the Basin: Pledge Walk & Vendor Market | Confederation Basin | September 12 | 🔎 Read our story
🎓 University District Safety Initiative | University District | August 28 to September 13
🎉 Party on the Pier | Great Lakes Museum | September 13
📖 Epic & Kimura Book Signing with Robert Cumming | Indigo Kingston | September 13
🎨 Lennox and Addington Studio Tour | Bath to Napanee | September 12 and 13
🎹 Canadian League of Composers 75th Anniversary Recital With John Burge | The Isabel | September 13
🗳️ Mayoral All-Candidates Meeting | The Spire | September 14 | 🔎 Read our story
🗳️ Voter Information Session | 99 Advance Avenue, Napanee | September 15
💬 The Reemergence of Lifespan Care Values: A Public Talk by Kerry Smith | Portsmouth Olympic Harbour | September 15
🏆 Kingston Young Professionals 40 Under 40 Awards Gala | Frontenac Club | September 16
🔭 The Invisible Universe: The Higgs, Dark Matter and Gravity Waves | The Isabel | September 16
🏘️ Help Shape How Kingston Engages on Housing Solutions | INVISTA Centre | September 16
🦫 KFN General Meeting: Jill Heinerth on The Science of Cave Diving | Kingston Secondary School | September 17
🎻 The Celtic Kitchen Party: Halfway to St. Patrick's Day | The Spire | September 17
💼 Celebrating Women in Business | Renaissance Event Venue | September 17
📚 Kingston Symphony Volunteers' Book Fair | Symphony Warehouse | September 10 to 20 | 🔎 Read our story
🏊 Artillery Park Aquatic Centre Closed for Annual Maintenance | Artillery Park | September 8 to 20
🎡 194th Kingston Fall Fair | Kingston Memorial Centre | September 17 to 20
💀 Domino Theatre: I Hate Hamlet | Domino Theatre, 52 Church St | September 10 to 26
🗓️ That is just the next few days. The full Kingston events calendar lives here.
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Email Les at [email protected]
📣 Your Turn: Share a Local Gem
Do you have a favourite local business, community champion or organization that deserves a moment in the spotlight? (You can nominate yourself too!)
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