Olivia Rutt

GUELPH - Opioid-related emergency department visits in the region have doubled over the last decade. Overdoses can be “immediate” and “irreversible,” which is why various government officials and community partners in Wellington County and Guelph are working to address the problem.

WELLINGTON CTY. - Thirty-nine. That’s the number of significant fires in Wellington County in 2016, including 11 barn fires and 21 house fires. The blazes, 10 of which were deemed suspicious, caused well over $14 million in total damages.

MOUNT FOREST - The Mount Forest Museum and Archives invited guests who contributed to its exhibit entitled “In Their Words” to get a sneak peek on Nov. 9. Open from Nov. 11 until next spring, the exhibit features letters, postcards, diaries, memoirs, official correspondence and newspaper articles from the Boer War, and First and Second World Wars. Soldiers, their families, friends or local journalists penned the collection of written documents.

WELLINGTON CTY. - This Remembrance Day two students will have a deeper appreciation for the sacrifices of those who fought in the First and Second World Wars. Ponsonby resident Emily Oakes had the opportunity to stand in front of the massive memorial at Vimy Ridge in August when she was selected for the Beaverbrook Vimy Prize, a two-week journey studying the history of Canada’s role in the First and Second World Wars.

GUELPH - Atop gleaming black horses, riders in bright red uniforms concentrate as they steer the horses in graceful manoeuvres. Then a rush of thunderous hooves pound the ground as the 32-member troop charges together. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police Musical Ride, a famous Canadian performance, returns to Wellington County in September.

FERGUS - Chase Kowalchuk is a crew boss on an initial attack fire ranger crew with the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry (MNRF). He recently returned to Fort Frances, Ontario after two weeks in Alberta fighting the over 500,000-hectare wildfire around Fort McMurray.

ARTHUR - Crystal Conway (nee Bartholomew) has lived in Fort McMurray, Alberta since 2008, but before that she called the Arthur area home. She went to school in Arthur and her family still lives in the area. Crystal, along with her husband Nick and their two children, Maddison, 4, and Maxim, 2, have been displaced due to the 200,000-plus hectare wildfire that has been burning in the Fort McMurray area since May 1.

photo by Olivia Rutt MOUNT FOREST - “Attention Mount Forest firefighters, attention Arthur firefighters, please respond for a fully-involved barn fire,” called a dispatcher on the night of Jan. 14. As Wellington North firefighters, along with three other fire stations, were being called to Woolhaven Arabians just west of Mount Forest, Doris and Rob Woolner were desperately trying to save 13 horses from their barn.

photo by Olivia Rutt PUSLINCH - The brief pounding of hooves against dirt and the ripping of roots break the forest silence. On his 25-acre private property, Greg Parker is busy removing invasive buckthorn from his forest with his team of Belgian draft horses.

Your hand is secure. You can feel the muscles of the bull underneath your legs, hoping the bull will stay calm in the chute. You breathe. You clear your mind and nod. The gate flies open and everything happens at once. The bull is out, bucking, and it takes everything in you to stay on. Those eight seconds are the longest eight seconds of your life. Then it’s over, whether you stay on or get bucked off, it is over.