🔦 October 5, 2026 🎓 Brandon Tozzo Came for School, Stayed for Kingston 📚 A $25M Gift for Queen's Students 🤿 Divers Haul 29 Tires From the Lake 🗓️ Events & More

Local Spotlight

🎓 Brandon Tozzo Came for School, Stayed for Kingston and the City Got a Councillor

Kingston & Area Local News

📚 A $25 Million Gift Creates Queen’s Ann Baker Tuition Award for Eastern Ontario Students

🩺 Rose of Hope Raised $1 Million in Three Years, and Kingston’s New Breast MRI Is Open

🍎 More Limestone Students Are Meeting the Provincial Standard on EQAO Tests

🌊 ‘Consonance’ Chosen as Kingston’s New Public Artwork Honouring Untold Stories

Community Champions

🤿 Divers Pull 1,020 Pounds and 29 Tires From the Kingston Waterfront, and the Hauls Are Shrinking

🏠 City Honours Tipi Moza (Iron Homes) for Housing More Than 300 People

🛒 The Blessings Cart Hands Out Free Groceries Every Tuesday at Kingscourt Free Methodist Church

🏡 South Frontenac Neighbours Rally for George and Peggy Whaley After Fire Destroys Their Home

New Events In and Around Kingston

🪶 The Art of Visiting: National Indigenous Presenters Gathering | Wolfe Island and Kingston | October 5 to 8

🍂 Featuring Fall Guided Walk | Little Cataraqui Creek Conservation Area | October 6

🔍 Murder at the Golden Gala | The Seniors Centre | October 7

🎃 Pumpkin Bouquet Workshops | Hopeful Harvest, Inverary | October 9 and 10

💜 Her Wealth, Her Way | ANAF Martello Unit 377 | October 14

🥕 Lionhearts Fresh Food Market | The Seniors Centre | Tuesdays and Wednesdays

📢 KFPL’s Loud for Libraries | KFPL Branches | All of October

👻 Fort Fright | Fort Henry | Select Nights in October

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.

In 2007, Brandon Tozzo watched the markets "go poof" from an investment banking desk and decided to go back to school. Queen's brought him to Kingston. Kingston kept him.

Now the Kingscourt-Rideau councillor is running for a second term, still knocking on doors almost nonstop and still getting sent home with tomatoes and other goodies.

He'll also tell you which donut shop council would fight hardest over if the district lines ever move. Read Brandon's story.

An anonymous Queen’s University graduate has given $25 million to create the Ann Baker Tuition Award, and Queen’s says it’s the largest gift to student financial aid in its history. Every year, the award will help 11 to 21 new students who need financial support, with a focus on students from Eastern Ontario. Each one gets $10,000 to $18,000 a year, renewable for up to three more years, and the first students were helped this fall. “Remarkable students want to come to Queen’s, and for some, finances can be the deciding factor in whether they’re able to say yes,” Principal Patrick Deane said in the Queen’s Gazette.

Read the full story at: Queen’s Gazette

The volunteers behind the Rose of Hope Golf Tournament set out to raise $1 million for a dedicated breast MRI in Kingston, and gave themselves five years to do it. They did it in three. On October 1, that MRI officially opened at Breast Imaging Kingston. It’s one more milestone for a tournament that has raised more than $4.3 million for breast cancer care over nearly three decades, including $390,000 this summer for other breast health work. About 2,500 breast MRI exams happen at Kingston Health Sciences Centre each year, and giving them their own machine frees up MRI time for every other patient too. Homestead Landholdings and the estate of Brit Smith also supported the $6 million project through UHKF. “The $1 million raised by Rose of Hope shows what is possible when donors, volunteers and community members come together around a shared goal,” UHKF’s Paul McIntyre Royston said in a release.

Read the full story at: UHKF

It’s report card time for the whole school board. The Limestone District School Board says more of its students are meeting the provincial standard on this year’s EQAO tests, Ontario’s yearly reading, writing and math assessments. Limestone matched or beat the provincial average in five of eight areas. Grade 3 students edged past the province in reading (77%), writing (68%) and math (66%), and Grade 6 readers and writers matched or beat it too. Math is still the tough one: Grade 6 sits at 50% and Grade 9 at 54%, both below the province, and Kingston Daily reports Director of Education Krishna Burra said math still needs work.

Read the full story at: Limestone District School Board

Kingston has picked its newest public artwork, and the public had a big say in it. After hundreds of responses, Consonance, a stainless-steel sculpture by Canadian artist Hooman Mehdizadehjafari, was chosen to honour the heritage of Indigenous Peoples and racialized communities in Kingston. Picture figures rising together and holding each other up as they climb toward one shared peak. It will stand on the waterfront near the Isabel, with installation expected in December. It grew out of Toppling Monuments, a Queen’s research project led by philosophy professor Christine Sypnowich and guided by Indigenous and racialized community leaders.

Read the full story at: Queen’s Gazette

Twelve divers went into the lake on Saturday, September 26, and came back up with 1,020 pounds of junk, including 29 tires. The Great Lakes Coastal Cleanup dive was run by Neptune & Salacia Diving, with 13 volunteers helping at the surface and a shoreline crew picking up more than 12 pounds of their own. It’s at least the shop’s third cleanup dive around here, and the hauls are getting smaller. “A lot of tires still, but the numbers are going down, which is great!” Neptune & Salacia Diving wrote in a Facebook post. They thanked Sustainable Kingston, Ahoy Rentals, First Capital Disposal and the City of Kingston.

Read the full story at: Neptune & Salacia Diving on Facebook

Tipi Moza (Iron Homes) is Kingston’s urban Indigenous housing provider, and the City of Kingston just put it in the spotlight. Tipi Moza offers transitional, supportive and affordable homes with culture built right in: traditional crafts, teaching and talking circles, smudging, drumming and ceremonies. It has helped house more than 300 individuals and families and has more than doubled the number of people it supports since 2018. That matters here: Indigenous people make up 3.4% of Kingston’s population but 31% of people experiencing homelessness, according to the City. On September 30, Tipi Moza held a ceremony honouring residential school survivors and their families. You can donate through CanadaHelps.

Read the full story at: City of Kingston

Every Tuesday morning, a cart of free groceries rolls out at Kingscourt Free Methodist Church on Kingscourt Avenue, for anyone who could use a little help. In a Facebook post, Michael Judd wrote that The Blessings Cart is organized by Bonnie Darrah and Becky McKnight with lots of volunteers, stocked with food from Lionhearts, Costco, Metro and COBS Bakery, so what’s on offer changes with each week’s deliveries. There’s a free coffee and treat station too. The cart sets up outside in spring, summer and fall and moves indoors for winter, and you don’t need to belong to the church to stop by. The cart itself was built by a neighbour, the church says.

Read the full story at: Kingscourt Free Methodist Church on Facebook and Michael Judd’s Facebook post

George and Peggy Whaley both got out safely when fire destroyed their home in the Perth Road area of South Frontenac on Friday, September 25. Their neighbours didn’t wait to be asked. A GoFundMe started by Jessie Caird, on behalf of Terri Lee Whaley, had raised $12,450 of its $14,000 goal from 80 donations as of October 2. The money covers clothing, food, temporary housing, household basics and the surprise costs that pile up after a fire. That leaves about $1,550 to go.

Read the full story at: GoFundMe

LodgePole Arts Alliance, our September 28 spotlight, brings Indigenous and Treaty-partner presenters, artists and arts leaders together on Wolfe Island and in Kingston from Monday, October 5 to Thursday, October 8 for its third Art of Visiting gathering. Some of it is open to everyone. On Monday, Jesse Wente’s Tough Lies book event with Shelagh Rogers at Hotel Wolfe Island and the Kaswentha Dinner are both ticketed. Tuesday, October 6 is all open to the public: a free Indigenous Maker’s Market on the Kingston Grand Theatre’s Whig Walkway, a conversation with Shelagh Rogers and the Johnson family in the Grand’s Davies Lounge, and an evening of cabaret at the Homestead Baby Grand. Full schedule at lodgepolearts.ca.

The leaves are turning, and Cataraqui Conservation would like to show you around. Its Featuring Fall guided walk for adults and seniors heads out on Tuesday, October 6 at Little Cataraqui Creek Conservation Area, a chance to slow down and take in the season’s colours with a guide. Spots are booked through the conservation authority’s events page, so register ahead. Details and registration at cataraquiconservation.ca.

Dust off your fancy clothes. The Golden Gala is in full swing at The Seniors Centre on Wednesday, October 7, when longtime community supporter “Patricia Pemberton” collapses, and it’s up to the room to work out whodunit. This murder mystery dinner comes with three courses: salad, stuffed chicken and chocolate dessert. It’s $45 to play a mystery role or $40 to join in as a table detective, no acting experience needed, with tables of 6 or 8. Tickets are at 56 Francis St. or by phone at 613-548-7810. Details at seniorskingston.ca.

Why put flowers in a vase when you could put them in a pumpkin? Hopeful Harvest, a family farm garden centre on Sunbury Road in Inverary, runs beginner-friendly pumpkin bouquet workshops on Friday, October 9 and Saturday, October 10, with all materials included. It’s $65 at the farm, or $80 if they bring the workshop to you. There’s also a Mommy/Daddy and Me workshop on the Saturday, and Schnitzelman is on site both days. Spots are limited, so sign up by email at [email protected] or call 613-387-3921. Details on Hopeful Harvest’s Facebook page.

Money talk, minus the awkward. Her Wealth, Her Way is a free evening of networking for women who want to take charge of their finances, on Wednesday, October 14 at ANAF Martello Unit 377 on Gore Road. Five professionals will cover estates and investments, mortgages, life insurance, real estate and family law, and there are prizes through the night. Donations go to Kingston Interval House, with tax receipts for $20 and up. It’s free, but space is limited and you need to register ahead, which gives you plenty of time to grab a friend. Register on Eventbrite.

Fresh, affordable food is closer than you think. Lionhearts brings its Fresh Food Market to The Seniors Centre every week, with fresh produce plus healthy options made by chefs, and it’s open to the public. Find it on Tuesdays at 56 Francis St. and on Wednesdays at Seniors Centre East. The market runs with support from the Ontario Trillium Foundation, and it’s the same Lionhearts that helps stock The Blessings Cart in this issue’s Community Champions. Details at seniorskingston.ca.

October is Canadian Library Month, and the Kingston Frontenac Public Library wants you to make some noise. Its Loud for Libraries campaign runs all month, with invitations to share your favourite books in branch and voter information at the library. Kids can borrow Yoto Players starting Sunday, October 18, and there’s Fire Hall Storytime on October 9 and 10, Wellness Wednesdays at the Isabel Turner Branch and a Foraging Workshop on Saturday, October 24. “As we head into municipal elections this October, I encourage everyone to think about what the library means to them, and to speak up for it,” CEO Laura Carter said in a KFPL release. More at Kingstonist.

Fort Henry gets a lot less historic and a lot more haunted after dark. Fort Fright runs on select nights for the rest of the month: October 8 to 11, 15 to 18 and 22 to 31, with Dark Night Thursdays on October 8, 15, 22 and 29. General admission is for ages 5 and up, and anyone under 13 needs a guardian along. New this year is The Following, a blindfolded maze for ages 16 and up, which we are very happy to read about from a safe distance. Tickets are $25 through October 11, then $30 from October 15, plus HST. Tickets at forthenry.com.

🗳️ All-Candidates Meeting: Kingscourt-Rideau District  |  Venue to be confirmed  |  October 5  |  🔦 Read our story

📖 The Art of Visiting: Jesse Wente, Tough Lies Book Event  |  Hotel Wolfe Island Café  |  October 5

🍽️ The Art of Visiting: Kaswentha Dinner  |  Hotel Wolfe Island  |  October 5

🎸 Bahamas: Industrial Sport and Sound Tour  |  The Spire  |  October 6

🍂 Featuring Fall Guided Walk  |  Little Cataraqui Creek Conservation Area  |  October 6

🛍️ The Art of Visiting: Indigenous Maker’s Market  |  Whig Walkway, Kingston Grand Theatre  |  October 6

💬 The Art of Visiting: Conversation With Shelagh Rogers and the Johnson Family  |  Davies Lounge, Kingston Grand Theatre  |  October 6

🎶 The Art of Visiting: An Evening of Cabaret  |  Homestead Baby Grand, Kingston Grand Theatre  |  October 6

🗳️ All-Candidates Meeting: Sydenham District  |  The Spire  |  October 7  |  🔦 Read our story

💃 Svaha!  |  Kingston Grand Theatre  |  October 7

🕵️ Murder at the Golden Gala  |  The Seniors Centre  |  October 7

🎤 We Ain’t Petty and Let’s Go  |  Kingston Grand Theatre  |  October 8

🌲 Fall Colours Forest Therapy Walk  |  Little Cataraqui Creek Conservation Area  |  October 9

👑 Queen: It’s a Kinda Magic  |  Kingston Grand Theatre  |  October 9

🧹 Practical Magic With the Kingston Witches Walk  |  The Screening Room  |  October 9

🚒 Fire Hall Storytime for Fire Prevention Week  |  Glenburnie and Elginburg fire halls  |  October 9 and 10

🧙 Kingston Witches Walk and Witch Market  |  Skeleton Park and The Broom Factory  |  October 9 and 10

🔭 Laser-Guided Tour of the Night Sky  |  L&A Dark Sky Viewing Area  |  October 9 and 10

🎃 Pumpkin Bouquet Workshops  |  Hopeful Harvest, Inverary  |  October 9 and 10

🍁 Fallin’ for Maple  |  Salmon River Sugar Bush, Tamworth  |  October 10

🚚 Monster Trucks All Out  |  Napanee Fairgrounds  |  October 10

🧚 Peter Pan by DuffleBag Theatre  |  The Spire  |  October 10

🐦 World Migratory Bird Day With the Kingston Field Naturalists  |  Kingston waterfront, location to be confirmed  |  October 10

🥬 Free Veggie Market  |  Mutual Aid Gardens, Compton Street  |  October 11  |  🔦 Read our story

📸 Cataraqui Trail Photo Contest  |  Cataraqui Trail  |  July 8 to October 30  |  🔦 Read our story

📢 KFPL’s Loud for Libraries  |  KFPL branches  |  October 1 to 31

👻 Fort Fright  |  Fort Henry  |  October 8 to 11, 15 to 18 and 22 to 31

🥾 2026 Hike Challenge  |  Cataraqui Conservation Areas  |  September 1 to October 31  |  🔦 Read our story

🥕 Lionhearts Fresh Food Market  |  The Seniors Centre and Seniors Centre East  |  Tuesdays and Wednesdays

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