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Page 4, News, Wednesday, March 9, 1988 TERRACE BAY SCHREIBER The Terrace Bay-Schreiber News is published every Wednesday by: Laurentian Publishing Co. Ltd., Box 579, Terrace Bay, Ontario, POT-2WO. Telephone: (807) 825-3747. Second Class Mailing Permit Number 0867 Production Manager EGIQOL cccccccececsececccssccsscscsccscsscsusscscesssessusrenssescenscsesseseseneees Ken Lusk AAVETRISIING .......sesscsesessssesenssecssnsnenenenssssetsenneassnnsanenses Julie Wright OFFICE ..cceccceceseesscesscenccssscncccensnenseesensnsnensnesnaeessensneens Gayle Fournier ecitcas Saila Young Single copies 40 cents Subscription rates per year in town $15.00/yr. two years $25 out of town $21.00/yr. Member of Ontario Community Newspapers Association and The Canadian Community Newspapers Association (* CNA OFAH welcomes Toronto- compulsory hunter orange is on its way, but will it arrive soon enough to save lives this fall? Ontario sportsmen welcomed the minister of natural resources' announcement of new legislation on hunter orange at the 60th annual conference of the Ontario Federation of Anglers and Hunters in Toronto on Feb. 26. The OFAH, a 69,000. member conservation organization, has promoted hunter safety for more than three decades and has helped to make hunting one of the safest of outdoor recreations. In the past few years, the OFAH has been asking for com- pulsory wearing of hunter orange moves to make hunter orange compulsory clothing to make a safe sport even safer. OFAH provincial coordinator of fish and wildlife services Lance Males said, "Hunter safety training programs have reduced the accident rate remarkably. "But we still have hunting accidents every year. If we are going to increase hunter safety, we must require hunter orange. "The increased visibility in the field created by mandatory hunter orange has reduced accidents in other jurisdictions and it will work in Ontario. "OFAH members would like to see the legislation in place for 1988. Hunters will cooperate and hunter orange can save lives this fall." Dance for Heart Dance for Heart is a nation- wide fund raising event that pro- motes cardiovascular fitness and development of regular physical fitness through aerobic and dance exercise. Participants (over 18 years of age) collect pledges for three hours of fun and exercise. The money raised through this event will assist the Heart and Stroke Foundation in medi- cal research to help reduce dis- ability and premature death' due to heart disease and stroke. The program was held at the Terrace Bay High School on Feb. 25 from 7-10 p.m. Dance for Heart is presented by the Heart & Stroke Foundation and the Terrace Bay Recreation Department. The Master of Ceremonies for the evening was Terrace Bay Recreation Director Dean Main; convenors were Anna McKie, Hazel Lange, Marilyn Warf (Thunder Bay Heart & Stroke representative); Betty-Anne Schroeder and Joan Woods; Assistants were Carolyn Waldenberger, Cathi Stachiw and Nel Stewart; Instructors were Gwen Black, Lorraine Clarke, Louise Boileau, Eileen Belliveau and Lynn Pearen; special thanks to the Stereo Club and the Terrace Bay High School. Letters to the editor Parent/coach appalled at hockey violence _ Dear minor hockey parents of Ontario, A I am writing this letter to you as a fellow minor hockey parent and coach, because I need your opinion, and your help. Over the past six or seven years I have become increasing- ly appalled at the amount of unnecessary violence and use of intimidation tactics that seem to have become part of minor hockey. I am now at the point where I have decided that my three boys will not be allowed to play O.M.H.A. hockey beyond the Atom level (body contact starts at the Pee Wee age group) unless something is done to clean up the game. If you have had, or are hav- ing, the same thoughts, then perhaps we can join together and help change this game for the better. What I am proposing to you is the elimination of body con- tact in all levels of minor hock see page 6 Next time you watch a basket- ball, football or hockey game, do me a favour: listen really, really close. Never mind the roar of the crowd or the oofs and grunts of the contestants, I want you to lis- ten for something else: the refer- ees whistle. - Sound a little different to you? Shriller? More piercing? Louder? The man responsible for that is a soft-spoken Hamilton, Ontario chap by the name of Ron Foxcroft. Ron's a professial bas- ketball referee -- has been for the past 25 years. And for the best part of those 25 years Ron's been flummoxed and confounded by, the main piece of equipment in the referee's arsenal: the whistle. Now, referee's whistles look simple -- and they are, fairly. Just a hunk of injection-molded high impact plastic with a hole to blow in, a hole at the other end to let the air escape, and somewhere in its innards a pea that rattles around in the air stream, creating | a 'trill'. Canadian Ref's Slow to Blow the Fox 40, But the traditional referee's whistle comes with builtin prob- lems. Overblowing is one. If you blow too hard the whistle jams and produces little or no sound. Ever see a referee, cheeks bub- bling, eyeballs. bulging, forehead turning magenta? Chances are he's overblowing. But the big problem with tradi- tional referee's whistles is a very simple one. enough. Oh it'll do for a Leaf Canuck game where the audience is dozing off and there's not much crowd noise. But in big games when the noise gets up to eardrum shriveling levels, the players just can't hear the whistle blow. Ron Foxcroft found that out while refereeing a game during a pre-Olympic basketball tourna- ment in Sao Paulo, Brazil back in 1984. The game was a crucial one. The crowd was backing the home team with noise makers, bugles and all the ling power they could muster. A foul was com- mitted at centre court, Foxcroft It just isn't loud' Asthor Black blew his whistle ... And nothing happened. Oh, Foxcroft blew alright, but no one could hear him. Play car- ried on for another ten seconds until a brief lull in the wall of sound alerted the people that Foxcroft was blowing his lungs out. By then nobody knew why _ he was whistling. It nearly caused a riot. Ron Foxcroft got together with an American referee friend and together they approached a design engineer in Toronto. They told him what they want- ed -- a pretty simple thing -- a new whistle that worked better than the old one. Three and a half years, ten prototypes and more $100,000 later, they came up with the Fox 40. Looks pretty much like a traditional whistle without a pea, but the sound is ... Unmistakable. Foxcroft describes it as piercing, shrill and pulsating. I don't know how to describe it except to say that if somebody blew it at me, I would stop whatever I was doing imme- diately. And possibly lie on my back whimpering like a hound. than~ American sports people are enchanted with the Fox. They are ordering it by the boxcar. How about Canadian sports people -- are they taking to the Fox 40? Not very quickly. "When I. show it to Americans" says Foxcroft, "they blow it once or twice and say 'Great! Gimme a dozen of 'em." But Canadian referees don't even want to try it. They say 'No thanks, I like my old whistle." But the tide is turning. Cautious conservative Canucks are slowly lining up to test, then buy the new whistle. Foxcroft asked one Canadian customer -- a fellow who wouldn't even look at the new whistle a few weeks ear- lier -- why he'd changed his mind. "Oh I read that magazine story" muttered the reluctant con- vert. "I figured if Sports illustrat-. ed did a story on 'em they must be alright."