🍂 On the Cover: Fall Colours at Frontenac Provincial Park
🔦 Several amazing local spotlight articles are coming up soon, including Bill Welychka and his perfect circle with Lionhearts, and Susi Powell’s weekly vigil at City Hall!
🔋 Fire Prevention Week: Kingston Fire & Rescue on Charging Batteries Safely
⛴️ Horne’s Ferry Between Wolfe Island and Cape Vincent Could Return Next Summer
🚗 Turn It Off: City Reminds Drivers and Boaters of the One-Minute Idling Limit
🏥 Kingston’s HART Hub Opens on Montreal Street as the Consumption Site Closes
🐶 Kingston 4 Paws Needs Puppy Raisers
🚶 Kingston Kidney Walk Raises $32,536, Well Past Its $25,000 Goal
🍁 Robinson Farm Thanks 100+ Volunteers and Boosts Two Local Food Banks
🔬 Kingston Teen Liam Desré Takes Second at the European Union Contest for Young Scientists
📸 Rideau Heights Neighbourhood Photo Contest | Across KFL&A | Entries Open to January 1
🚘 Driver’s Licence Renewal for 80+ Info Session | The Seniors Centre | October 8
🌲 Fall Colours Forest Therapy Walk | Little Cataraqui Creek Conservation Area | October 9
🌌 Laser-Guided Tour of the Night Sky | L&A Dark Sky Viewing Area | October 9 and 10
🧹 Practical Magic With the Kingston Witches Walk | The Screening Room | October 9
🐦 World Migratory Bird Day With the Kingston Field Naturalists | Doug Fluhrer Park | October 10
🥬 Free Veggie Market | Mutual Aid Gardens, Compton Street | October 11
🚚 Monster Trucks All Out | Napanee Fairgrounds | October 10
🎨 Craft Lab Sundays | The Hive, Bath | October 11, 18 and 25
It’s gotten too long to include here in the summary! Click Events Calendar to see our list for the next few days.
🔦 The Cover
🍂 On the Cover: Fall Colours at Frontenac Provincial Park
Fall colours on the trails at Frontenac Provincial Park. Photo: Les Cseh, Kingston Spotlight.
I spent part of the weekend on the trails at Frontenac Provincial Park, and it was a good reminder of how blessed we are to live somewhere with so many scenic trails close to home. Where’s your favourite fall walk?
🔦 Local Spotlight
🔦 Several amazing local spotlight articles are coming up soon, including Bill Welychka and his perfect circle with Lionhearts, and why Susi Powell is on the steps of City Hall every Saturday afternoon!
📰 Kingston & Area Local News
🔋 Fire Prevention Week: Kingston Fire & Rescue on Charging Batteries Safely
Kingston Fire & Rescue trucks outside City Hall. Photo: City of Kingston.
It’s Fire Prevention Week, and this year it’s all about the batteries hiding in your phone, laptop, kids’ toys, power tools and e-bike. The theme is “Charge into Fire Safety: Safe Charging is a Superpower,” and Kingston Fire & Rescue has a few easy habits to share: use certified chargers, don’t leave devices charging overnight or on a couch or bed, and recycle damaged batteries properly. Firefighters have been visiting schools and stores all week, and there’s still Fire Hall Storytime with the Kingston Frontenac Public Library on Friday, October 9 at Station 8 in Glenburnie and Saturday, October 10 at Station 9 in Elginburg. Health Canada has more lithium-ion battery tips.
Read the full story at: City of Kingston
⛴️ Horne’s Ferry Between Wolfe Island and Cape Vincent Could Return Next Summer
Horne’s Ferry’s MV William Darrell crossing with a load of cars. Photo: The Kingston Whig-Standard file photo.
For more than 200 years, Horne’s Ferry carried people across the St. Lawrence between Point Alexandria on Wolfe Island and Cape Vincent, New York. It stopped in 2024 after operator George Horne died. Now it could be back as soon as next summer. Kingston Daily reports that Cape Vincent resident Dick MacSherry and former operator Bruce Horne are forming a new company, Wolfe Vincent Holdings, to buy the 74-year-old ferry from the Horne family, inspect it and fix it up. The biggest hurdle is customs on the Canadian side. The boat is the MV William Darrell, a 12-car ferry and the only international passenger ferry across the river, according to the Whig.
Read the full story at: Kingston Daily
🚗 Turn It Off: City Reminds Drivers and Boaters of the One-Minute Idling Limit
A driver about to switch off the engine. Image: AI-generated for Kingston Spotlight.
Waiting in the school pickup line? Turn the key. The City of Kingston is reminding drivers and boaters that under its Community Standards By-law, vehicles and boats can idle for no more than one minute in any 60 minutes (tour boats get five). There are exemptions, including emergency vehicles, Kingston Transit, drive-thru lanes, breakdowns, and occupied vehicles when it’s above 27°C or below 5°C. Steve Mothersell, the City’s Manager of Enforcement Services, pointed to school pickup lines and sports field parking lots in a release from the City. Enforcement mostly starts with a complaint, and it’s education first, with warnings before any penalties. Concerns can go to 613-546-0000.
Read the full story at: City of Kingston
🏥 Kingston’s HART Hub Opens on Montreal Street as the Consumption Site Closes
The HART Connect sign at 661 Montreal Street. Photo: AMHS-KFLA.
Update: we first wrote about the plan on April 13. Kingston’s HART Hub is now open. On October 1, Addiction and Mental Health Services KFL&A turned the Integrated Care Hub at 661 Montreal Street into HART Connect, the first piece of HART Hub Kingston (HART stands for Homelessness and Addiction Recovery Treatment). It offers drop-in meals, showers and washrooms, an overnight Rest Zone for up to 28 people, peer support through Peer Support South East Ontario, and links to health and social services. Medical care and addictions medicine are in development. It’s funded by the Ontario government, the City of Kingston and United Way KFL&A. Kingston Community Health Centres closed its Consumption Treatment Service on September 30, and partners set up a planning table to manage the change.
Read the full story at: AMHS-KFLA
🏆 Community Champions
🐶 Kingston 4 Paws Needs Puppy Raisers
A Kingston 4 Paws puppy in training. Photo: Kingston 4 Paws Service Dogs.
Want a puppy without the forever part? Kingston 4 Paws Service Dogs is looking for volunteer puppy raisers to take a future service dog home for 12 to 16 months. You’d handle housebreaking, manners and the basics (sit, down, stay, come), and bring the pup along to meet people, hear new sounds and ride in cars. Kingston 4 Paws covers food, a kennel, the first collar and leash, and vet care, and you get staff support and weekly events. No puppy experience needed. Those pups grow up to help children with autism and people living with seizures or severe anxiety.
Read the full story at: Kingston 4 Paws Service Dogs
🚶 Kingston Kidney Walk Raises $32,536, Well Past Its $25,000 Goal
Walkers at the Kingston Kidney Walk at Lake Ontario Park. Photo: Kari Maracle, via Kingstonist.
The Kingston Kidney Walk set out to raise $25,000. It raised $32,536. About 80 to 90 people walked at Lake Ontario Park on Sunday, September 27, and the money helps people living with kidney disease with things like medical equipment, travel and groceries. It also funds research and the free Kidney Connect peer support program from The Kidney Foundation of Canada. The Indigenous Interprofessional Primary Care Team brought its mobile health van and did about 10 free kidney-health screenings right in the park. Ontario’s Kidney Walks raised more than $1.13 million in all, and the Foundation estimates that 1 in 10 Canadians has chronic kidney disease.
Read the full story at: Kingstonist
🍁 Robinson Farm Thanks 100+ Volunteers and Boosts Two Local Food Banks
The Abrams and Rachel Robinson perform at Robinson Farm on Woodbine Road. Photo: Bill Hall / The Kingston Whig-Standard.
More than 100 volunteers, supporters and families turned up at the Robinson Farm Sugar Shack on Woodbine Road on Saturday, October 3, for the second annual Volunteer Appreciation Brunch and Food Drive, with wagon rides, pancakes with the farm’s own maple syrup, and live country-bluegrass from The Abrams. Donations go to Partners in Mission Food Bank and Southern Frontenac Community Services, and the Kingston Grenadiers Football Club collected for the cause too. “Our first obligation is to our community,” Grenadiers president Stephanie Reyes told the Whig. Organizer Nikki Green said the farm counts on 50 to 100 volunteers a year for the Robinson Community Gardens and the maple syrup. Bernie Robinson and Brian Abrams started that garden 15 or 16 years ago.
Read the full story at: The Whig
🔬 Kingston Teen Liam Desré Takes Second at the European Union Contest for Young Scientists
Team Canada’s Gurnoor Kaur and Liam Desré with their prizes in Kiel, Germany. Photo: Youth Science Canada.
Update: we wrote about Liam Desré in June, after his Best Project win at the Canada-Wide Science Fair. Now the Grade 10 student from Kingston has won one of four second prizes, worth €5,000, at the European Union Contest for Young Scientists in Kiel, Germany, up against 140 young researchers from nearly 40 countries. Here’s the big idea: the universe is expanding faster and faster, and scientists usually credit a mystery force called dark energy. Liam’s computer simulations produced a model that gets the same result without it. His Team Canada teammate Gurnoor Kaur of Waterloo won a first prize, making it Canada’s fifth straight year with two top prizes.
Read the full story at: Youth Science Canada
🆕 New Events In and Around Kingston
📸 Rideau Heights Neighbourhood Photo Contest | Across KFL&A | Entries Open to January 1
The Rideau Heights Neighbourhood Photo Contest logo. Graphic: rhnkphoto.ca.
Got a great shot of your garden, your dog or a sunset over the lake? The Rideau Heights Neighbourhood Photo Contest is back for its fourth year, and it’s free and open to anyone in the Greater KFL&A area, not just Rideau Heights. Amateurs can enter with any camera or phone, and professionals get their own division. There are six categories: Gardens and Homes; Pets; Nature and Wildlife; Artistic and Creative; Community, Friends and Family; and Positive and Happy Moments Across Kingston. The City of Kingston asked for the contest to run again and is backing it with a grant, and judges Janet Trost and Monica Lapajne are back. Last year drew 209 entries. Entries are open until Friday, January 1, 2027, at rhnkphoto.ca.
🚘 Driver’s Licence Renewal for 80+ Info Session | The Seniors Centre | October 8
ServiceOntario’s supports for seniors. Graphic: ServiceOntario.
Turning 80 soon, or helping a parent who is? Today, Thursday, October 8, Lisa Lapierre from Ontario’s Ministry of Transportation is at The Seniors Centre to explain the 80+ driver’s licence renewal program: why it exists, how to get ready, what happens at your ServiceOntario appointment, and what follow-up testing might look like. It’s $5 per person at 56 Francis St., and you register by calling 613-548-7810. Details at seniorskingston.ca.
🌲 Fall Colours Forest Therapy Walk | Little Cataraqui Creek Conservation Area | October 9
A forest therapy tea setup at Little Cataraqui Creek Conservation Area. Photo: Cataraqui Conservation.
Forest therapy is less of a hike and more of a slow, quiet wander, and fall is a beautiful time to try it. Guide Stana Luxford Oddie leads a Fall Colours Forest Therapy Walk on Friday, October 9 at Little Cataraqui Creek Conservation Area. It’s $22 per person, which covers taxes and the gate fee, and registration is required. Only a handful of spots were left at last check, so don’t wait. Register through Cataraqui Conservation’s events page.
🌌 Laser-Guided Tour of the Night Sky | L&A Dark Sky Viewing Area | October 9 and 10
The Laser-Guided Stargazing Tour at the L&A Dark Sky Viewing Area. Graphic: Naturally Lennox & Addington.
Never been stargazing? This is a good place to start. The Lennox & Addington Dark Sky Viewing Area near Erinsville runs a free laser-guided tour of the night sky on Friday, October 9 and Saturday, October 10, weather permitting, with a guide pointing out what’s up there and maybe a peek through a telescope. It’s great for adults and families. The clouds are the boss here, so check the viewing area’s Facebook or Instagram for conditions before you drive out. Details at Naturally L&A.
🧹 Practical Magic With the Kingston Witches Walk | The Screening Room | October 9
The Kingston Witches Walk poster. Poster: Kingston Witches Walk.
Grab your broom. On Friday, October 9, the Kingston Witches Walk gathers at the north end of Skeleton Park for games, dancing and a community spell, then walks through downtown to Confederation Park. The night wraps up at The Screening Room with Practical Magic: The Witches Takeover, a screening of the 1998 film plus a Coven Couture fashion show. You’ll need a ticket for the screening. It all supports Kingston Interval House, so bring a donation. All ages and genders are welcome, and witchy outfits are strongly encouraged. Tickets at The Screening Room.
🐦 World Migratory Bird Day With the Kingston Field Naturalists | Doug Fluhrer Park | October 10
A Tennessee Warbler. Photo: K. Webb, via the Kingston Field Naturalists.
Fall migration is in full swing, and the Kingston Field Naturalists want to show you who’s passing through. On Saturday, October 10, they’re setting up spotting scopes along the waterfront at Doug Fluhrer Park for World Migratory Bird Day, with a display of bird skins, information about migration, and coffee and donuts. It’s free, so just drop by. Details in the KFN newsletter.
🥬 Free Veggie Market | Mutual Aid Gardens, Compton Street | October 11
A Mutual Aid Gardens sign in the garden. Photo: OPIRG Kingston.
Free veggies, no strings attached. Mutual Aid Gardens holds its last listed free veggie market of the season on Sunday, October 11, in the firelane between 106 and 140 Compton St., sharing produce grown together with anyone who wants or needs it. The all-volunteer group started in 2020, has been a working group of OPIRG Kingston since 2023, and is now in its seventh season. Want to help grow next year’s? Details at opirgkingston.org.
🚚 Monster Trucks All Out | Napanee Fairgrounds | October 10
Monster Trucks All Out at the Napanee Fairgrounds. Poster: Monster Trucks All Out.
Big wheels, flying trucks and crushed cars are coming to the Napanee Fairgrounds for the first time. Monster Trucks All Out runs two shows on Saturday, October 10, starring Roboshark, Bucking Bronco, Outfoxed and T-Rex, which makes its Canadian tour debut. Each show has a pit party first, where you can meet the drivers and get photos with the trucks. Kids aged 3 to 9 can race their own Power Wheels at halftime (bring it charged, and bring a helmet). General admission is $35 for adults and $20 for kids 3 to 12, and little ones 2 and under are free on a lap. It’s rain or shine, as the Napanee Beaver reports. Tickets at attendstar.com.
🎨 Craft Lab Sundays | The Hive, Bath | October 11, 18 and 25
An art session at The Hive in Bath. Photo: The Hive Artist Collective.
Got a kid who’s always making something? Craft Lab Sundays at The Hive Artist Collective in Bath give them a whole morning for it, on Sunday, October 11, 18 and 25. Run by MULU Mobile Art Studio, each session has a new art project, and kids can also work on their own ideas, with gentle guidance and no rigid rules. Each Sunday is booked separately. Details and booking at thehivebath.com.
📅 Events Calendar
🗓️ The following is just for the next few days. The full Kingston events calendar lives here.
What’s Happening the Next Few Days
🚘 Driver’s Licence Renewal for 80+ Info Session | The Seniors Centre | October 8
🎤 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 | 🔦 Read our story
🍁 Fallin’ for Maple | Salmon River Sugar Bush, Tamworth | October 10
🎸 Grand Evolution: The Best of Styx and Journey | Kingston Grand Theatre | 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 | Doug Fluhrer Park | October 10
🥬 Free Veggie Market | Mutual Aid Gardens, Compton Street | October 11 | 🔦 Read our story
🗳️ All-Candidates Meeting: Loyalist-Cataraqui District | Online (Zoom) | October 13 | 🔦 Read our story
🩺 How Social Prescribing Is Redefining What Health Means | Delta Hotel Kingston Waterfront | October 13
✂️ Tett Tuesday ft. Collage Club | Tett Centre | October 13
💜 Her Wealth, Her Way | ANAF Martello Unit 377 | October 14 | 🔦 Read our story
🎻 Newfoundland Songbook | Kingston Grand Theatre | October 14
🐦⬛ KFN Talk: Kingston’s Winter Crow Roosts With Steve Manders | Kingston Secondary School | October 15
🎶 She Carries the Song | Kingston Grand Theatre | October 15
💚 Pathways of Hope: Suicide Prevention and Healing After Loss | Donald Gordon Hotel and Conference Centre | October 15
🎨 Craft Lab Sundays | The Hive, Bath | October 11, 18 and 25
🎭 Theatre Kingston: The Year of Magical Thinking | Homestead Baby Grand | October 13 to 25
📸 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 | 🔦 Read our story
👻 Fort Fright | Fort Henry | October 8 to 11, 15 to 18 and 22 to 31 | 🔦 Read our story
🥾 2026 Hike Challenge | Cataraqui Conservation Areas | September 1 to October 31 | 🔦 Read our story
⚖️ Innocence Lost: A Play About Steven Truscott | Kingston Grand Theatre | Thursdays to Saturdays, October 15 to 31
📸 Rideau Heights Neighbourhood Photo Contest | Across KFL&A | October 1 to January 1
🥕 Lionhearts Fresh Food Market | The Seniors Centre and Seniors Centre East | Tuesdays and Wednesdays | 🔦 Read our story
Know of something we should add? Let us know.
🗓️ The full Kingston events calendar lives here.
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