Local Spotlight

🤝 Les Interviews Corrine Stoewsand, a Coach Who Helps People Loving Someone with BPD

Kingston & Area Local News

🎓 RMC Marks Its 150th Birthday as 250 New Officers March Through the Arch
🎸 Kingston Is Getting the Biggest Hip Celebration in 10 Years: "Forever Hip" Is Coming

Community Champions

🤝 A Kingston Business Heard a Mom's Story. Then Paid for Her Baby's Lost Medical Helmet.
🚴 Autism Heroes: One Officer's 1,000km Journey Across Ontario for Kerry's Place Just Wrapped Up
💙 RBC Foundation Drops $500K on Kingston Health-Care Training

New Events In and Around Kingston

🎪 Cirque Mondial — Under the Big Top | Cataraqui Centre | May 14–24, 2026
🏆 Kingston Business Awards | Isabel Bader Centre | May 21, 2026
🎨 Art After Dark | Downtown Kingston (25+ Venues) | May 22, 2026
🧡 Resolve's Walk for Wellness | Lake Ontario Park | May 23, 2026
🎵 Summer Kickoff Music Festival | South Frontenac | May 23, 2026
🌸 Almost Home Charity Gala: Canada: Beyond the Red and White | Our Lady of Fatima Parish Hall | May 29, 2026

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

If that title landed somewhere in your chest, this one's for you. Living with or loving someone with Borderline Personality Disorder is its own kind of exhausting: the hypervigilance, the confusion, the grief of loving someone you sometimes can't reach.

Corrine Stoewsand has spent more than 20 years working with exactly those people. Not the person with BPD, but the ones who love them. She's a DBT (Dialectical Behaviour Therapy) coach who has built her whole practice around giving those loved ones the skills and language they rarely know exist. May is BPD Awareness Month, and Les from Kingston Spotlight + Results Pathfinder recorded a chat with her. It's the kind of conversation that sticks with you.

Read the full article at: Results Pathfinder

Royal Military College held its Convocation on May 14 and its Commissioning Parade on May 15, with more than 300 graduates crossing the stage and roughly 250 of them stepping into the Canadian Armed Forces as newly commissioned officers. It was a milestone-packed weekend on its own.

But this year carries extra weight. The Class of 2026 is the first to march through the arch in RMC's 150th year of operation. That is a distinction they will carry for the rest of their careers. Congratulations to Kingston's newest officers, every one of them.

Read the full story at: Royal Military College

Mark your calendars for August 20–22. The City of Kingston, Tourism Kingston, the Kingston Music Office, and the Downtown Kingston BIA have announced "Forever Hip," a three-day event series marking the 10th anniversary of The Tragically Hip's final concert in our city. It was announced May 13 and the excitement has been building ever since.

The lineup: free concerts at Springer Market Square featuring Choir! Choir! Choir!, Miss Emily, and The Abrams; a CBC rebroadcast of the final concert; a Merch Market; and music walking tours of downtown. There is also "Play Me Kingston," with 10 oversized guitar sculptures by local and regional artists placed throughout the core. And on August 21, the band releases a new live album, "Live July 22 – August 20, 2016," via Universal Music Canada. Kingston has always owned this history. This August, we get to celebrate it properly.

Read the full story at: City of Kingston

When Napanee mom Nicole Wattam lost her infant daughter's cranial reshaping helmet after a May 5 appointment at Hotel Dieu Hospital, the situation felt impossible. These helmets, custom-fitted to gently guide a baby's skull development, cost thousands of dollars to replace. The story got out. And the right person was listening.

Jacob Wilkinson of Jacob Nathan Home Furnishings in Kingston heard what had happened and agreed to help cover the cost. The new helmet is being provided by V2 Innovations, also right here in Kingston. Two local businesses doing what good neighbours do, because someone needed them to.

Read the full story at: Napanee Today

York Regional Police Constable Adam McEachern just completed something remarkable. Over 18 days, from April 30 to yesterday, he ran and cycled 1,000 km across Ontario to raise awareness and funding for Kerry's Place Autism Services. The journey wrapped up just as this issue hit your inbox, making it a perfect closing-chapter community story.

Kerry's Place supports individuals and families living with autism across Ontario. As featured on Global CKWS, McEachern's 18-day push put a very human face on what fundraising looks like when you truly mean it. That is 1,000 km of putting your body where your values are. Well done, Constable.

Read the full story at: Kerry's Place Autism Services

The people who take care of us deserve every chance to practice what they do before they do it on us. The RBC Foundation has donated $500,000 through the University Hospitals Kingston Foundation to power a new simulation program at Kingston Health Sciences Centre. The program lets doctors, nurses, and health-care professionals rehearse complex skills in a controlled setting, in the same building where they deliver real care. That integration, training where you work, is genuinely rare for a hospital.

A permanent simulation lab at the Hotel Dieu Hospital site opens later this year. Combined with previous contributions, RBC's total giving to KHSC now exceeds $1 million. For the patients on the other side of those skills, that investment is everything.

Read the full story at: Kingston Health Sciences Centre

If you have not made it under the big top yet, this is your last-chance reminder. Cirque Mondial has its actual tent pitched at Cataraqui Centre through May 24, and this is a one-ring, 100% human-performer European circus. That means aerial acrobatics, knife throwing, fire eating, contortion, juggling, and clowning in a cozy, intimate tent where you are close enough to feel every gasp-worthy moment.

Two hours of up-close spectacle. Tickets from $17. The tent comes down on May 24, so this week is the week.

Details: Visit Kingston  |  Tickets: Cirque Mondial

This Thursday, the Greater Kingston Chamber of Commerce hosts its 2026 Kingston Business Awards at the Isabel Bader Centre (6 p.m.). Presented by MNP LLP and Enbridge Gas, the evening celebrates 57 nominees across 10 categories recognizing exemplary community service and business excellence from across the region.

This year's nominees include St. Lawrence Youth Association, Loyalist Concierge Co., New Day Marketing Co., and Hülpr Inc. It is always a great night for this community, and a reminder of just how much good work is quietly being done here.

More at: Kingstonist  |  Event: Isabel Bader Centre

This Friday evening, 25+ downtown galleries and shops throw open their doors late for one of the best nights of the year to wander Kingston's streets. Art After Dark runs 7–10 p.m., a free self-guided tour of Princess Street, Brock, and the surrounding blocks, with live music, live painting, pottery demos, and local artists showing their work everywhere you look.

There is also a chance to win $500 toward original artwork. Produced by the Downtown Kingston BIA. No tickets, no cover, just show up and explore.

Read more at: Downtown Kingston BIA

Resolve Counselling's annual Walk for Wellness returns to Lake Ontario Park this Saturday, May 23. Registration opens at 9:30 a.m. and the walk runs 10:30 a.m.–1 p.m. It is completely free.

Mental health awareness in motion: expect a BBQ lunch, wellness stations, and the kind of community connection that is genuinely good for the soul. A perfect Saturday morning to get outside and be around good people.

Details and registration: Resolve Counselling

The annual Summer Kickoff Music Festival fires up in South Frontenac this Saturday, May 23. It is a little outside our primary coverage area, but if you are looking for a reason to get out of town for a day of live outdoor music, this is a solid one. A great way to shake off the last of spring and lean into the season properly.

Details: South Frontenac

Almost Home provides free housing for families of sick children receiving care at KHSC. No government funding. No safety net beyond what this community provides. Their annual gala returns Friday, May 29 at Our Lady of Fatima Parish Hall with the theme "Canada: Beyond the Red and White." It is a beautiful night for a worthy cause.

Tickets are $150 via Eventbrite. Space fills up. If this organization's work resonates with you, now is the time to grab your spot.

Gala details: Almost Home  |  Tickets: Eventbrite

🎪Cirque Mondial — Under the Big Top  |  Cataraqui Centre  |  May 14–24

☀️Victoria Day: Live Music, Drones & Fireworks  |  Confederation Park  |  Today, May 18

🏆Kingston Business Awards  |  Isabel Bader Centre  |  May 21

🎭Finnegans Wake: A Dream Play  |  Kingston Grand Baby Grand  |  May 21–June 7

🎨Art After Dark  |  Downtown Kingston, 25+ venues  |  May 22

🧡Resolve's Walk for Wellness  |  Lake Ontario Park, 920 King St W  |  May 23

🎵Summer Kickoff Music Festival  |  South Frontenac  |  May 23

🛠️Public Works Open House  |  Public Works HQ, 701 Division St  |  May 24

🎵Kate Voegele & Tyler Hilton: One Tree Hill Tour  |  The Spire, 82 Sydenham St  |  May 25

🏆Kiwanis Amateur Sports Awards  |  Memorial Hall, City Hall  |  May 28

🎸Spring Reverb Music Festival  |  Kingston  |  May 28–31

🌸Almost Home Charity Gala  |  Our Lady of Fatima Parish Hall  |  May 29

💙Kingston Defeat Depression Walk  |  Kingston Memorial Centre  |  May 30

⛳Bayridge SS Teachers Golf Tournament  |  Amherstview Golf Club  |  May 30

🐢Turtle Awareness Day  |  Lake Ontario Park, 920 King St W  |  May 30

🎤Open Voices Carnival of Song  |  Cooke's Portsmouth United Church  |  May 30

♿Red Shirt Day Walk for Inclusion  |  James R. Henderson School  |  May 31

🛍️Ten Thousand Villages Fair Trade Sale  |  The Spire, Lower Hall  |  May 31

📚Isabel Turner Branch Grand Re-Opening  |  Isabel Turner Branch  |  June 6

🎬Movies in the Square — Season 19 (8 films, Thursdays at dusk)  |  Springer Market Square  |  June 25–Aug 27

🐾Puppies + Jazz  |  The Caesar Company  |  June 28

🎨Women's Art Festival  |  City Park, Kingston  |  August 8, 2026

🤘Forever Hip — Night 1: Choir! Choir! Choir! + Miss Emily, The Abrams  |  Springer Market Square  |  Aug 20

🤘Forever Hip — Night 2: Merch Market, Music Walking Tours, Big-Screen Videos  |  Springer Market Square  |  Aug 21

🤘Forever Hip — Night 3: Long Time Running Screening + CBC Concert Party  |  Springer Market Square  |  Aug 22

BTW, if you don’t want to receive this anymore, please help all the subscribers by just using the Unsubscribe link at the bottom instead of marking this as SPAM… remember, you did subscribe ;-)

All feedback and suggestions are appreciated!

Too long? Too short? About right?
What would you like to see more of, and less of?

Email Les at [email protected]

Do you have a favourite local business, community champion or organization that deserves a moment in the spotlight? (You can nominate yourself too!)

Help us celebrate the people who make the Kingston area shine. Tell us who they are and why they’re great—or give us the "inside scoop" on your own mission or business!

I find way more "local gold" every week than I can actually fit in this newsletter without turning it into a novel! If you want the daily updates, extra tips, and the cool stuff that didn't make the cut, come hang out with us on our social channels.

👉 Follow us at:
Facebook @KingstonSpotlight
Instagram @KingstonSpotlight
YouTube @TheKingstonSpotlight
TikTok @kingstonspotlight
X @kingstonspotlig

Do your friends and circle a solid and forward this their way. You’ll be the hero of the group chat, and they’ll have a good reason to put down the remote.

👉 Spread the love: https://kingstonspotlight.ca