{"id":19627,"date":"2018-01-19T22:02:17","date_gmt":"2018-01-20T03:02:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=19627"},"modified":"2018-01-19T22:02:17","modified_gmt":"2018-01-20T03:02:17","slug":"skate-with-your-hockey-heroes-and-take-your-ideas-to-council-saturday-at-new-levee","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/skate-with-your-hockey-heroes-and-take-your-ideas-to-council-saturday-at-new-levee\/","title":{"rendered":"Skate with your hockey heroes \u2013 and take your ideas to Council \u2013 Saturday at new Levee"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Brock Weir<\/strong><\/p>\n

It\u2019s been five years since the Aurora Council last had a levee \u2013 then, it was a frigid day in Town Park to mark the Town\u2019s Sesquicentennial \u2013 but Aurora is set to mark the start of a new, warmer tradition on Saturday.
\nAurora residents and visitors are invited to celebrate the start of the year with Mayor Geoff Dawe and the rest of Council at the Mayor & Council New Year\u2019s Levee, which is billed as a new way to \u201cgive [elected officials] a chance to connect with the community.\u201d
\nRunning from 10 a.m. to 12 noon at the Stronach Aurora Recreation Complex, the event will feature cake, hot beverages like hot chocolate and coffee, face painting and crafts from 10 a.m. to 11 a.m., and then Aurora\u2019s Junior A Tigers will take to the ice for a free skate with members of the public from 11 a.m. to 12 noon.
\n\u201cOn behalf of Aurora Town Council, we look forward to enjoying this fun-filled day with our Aurora community and their families,\u201d said Mayor Dawe in a statement. \u201cThe Town of Aurora has several new and exciting projects planned for 2018. The Levee is another opportunity for residents to engage with Council and share their ideas and feedback on what\u2019s to come. We look forward to seeing you there.\u201d
\nThe Levee has its roots in France, where the King would be ceremonially woken up by members of his court to start the day, part of an entrenched social ritual. In time, this tradition evolved into a New Year\u2019s tradition where the Monarch, Governor General, or other elected officials would meet constituents and hear their concerns.
\nHere at home, the fledgling roots of this \u201cnew tradition\u201d were planted, according to Mayor Dawe, by Councillor Sandra Humfryes and the ball just started rolling.
\n\u201cI have been at the East Gwillimbury Levee for the last couple of years and I thought about it here, but when Sandra suggested it, it made sense to see where we could start and where something like this might go. One of the challenges is always getting people engaged and there is a goodly number of people who come out to the skates on Saturdays and Sundays. This is an opportunity to perhaps get a few more people out to the skate and see some of the facilities we have, as well as talk to members of Council, which is always a good thing. The Tigers will be out, so maybe you will have a chance to give an aspiring young hockey player a chance to skate with the Tigers!\u201d
\nFor Lisa Warth, Aurora\u2019s Acting Director of Community Services, job number one in getting this off the ground was giving the general public a fun chance to \u201cmix and mingle\u201d with their Council.
\n\u201cWe decided to do it at the SARC and combine it with the already scheduled leisure skate, so the skating is sort of the central focus,\u201d she says. \u201cWe will have face painting and crafts for the kids, then the Aurora Tigers will be there to mix and mingle as well. They will be there for the whole period of time and then go in the ice to skate with kids and families at 11.
\n\u201cI am interested in seeing the families come out and have a good time. It is always nice to see the kids out participating and to see the smiles on their faces when they get their faces painted and make a craft. I would also be interested in listening to some of those conversations the members of the public might have with their members of Council and hear what people are interested in.\u201d
\nFor more on the Levee, call Aurora\u2019s Special Events line at 905-726-4762.
\n
\nMP TO HOLD LEVEE AS WELL<\/strong>
\nAurora\u2019s Mayor and Council are not the only ones holding their New Year\u2019s Levee on Saturday.
\nAurora-Oak Ridges-Richmond Hill MP Leona Alleslev will host her own event at her constituency office from 1 \u2013 3 p.m.
\nThe free event will feature hot chocolate and other holiday treats, along with a chance to mix and mingle with Ms. Alleslev and your neighbours.
\n\u201cThis is a wonderful opportunity for our community to come together and celebrate the beginning of the New Year,\u201d she said. \u201cI look forward to meeting with you and your friends, families and loved ones to reflect on 2017 and discuss the future of our community and our country.\u201d
\nMs. Alleslev\u2019s office is located at 12820 Yonge Street, Suite 202, in Richmond Hill.<\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s been five years since the Aurora Council last had a levee \u2013 then, it was a frigid day in Town Park to mark the Town\u2019s Sesquicentennial \u2013 but Aurora is set to mark the start of a new, warmer tradition on Saturday. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19627","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general_news","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-56z","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-10 09:44:23","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19627","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19627"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19627\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19627"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19627"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19627"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}