Toronto day in the life 7

What I learned, saw, was told, heard in the city
By Kris Scheuer

So much to say because my latest observations of Toronto cover four days. So let’s get started.
Random act of kindness
Who says Torontonians are cold and unfeeling?
On Saturday Sept. 5, I was walking along College near Spadina when a stranger with a bouquet of daisies handed me a sunny yellow one. It was not just me he made smile with this random gesture, I saw he’d given one to a woman on a bike waiting at the corner as well.
Has anything like this happened to you in this city?

Dancing in the street
Who says Torontonians are uptight and can’t let loose?
This past Saturday night, my mom got back from California and called me to meet up. We went to the annual Fiera Street Festival in Little Italy around College and Clinton. On our way back from dinner we stopped to hear one of the live bands performing on the street, which was closed all weekend to cars and transit.
The song that stopped us in our tracks was Hey Baby (I wanna know if you’ll be my girl). We listened to the live music, sang out loud and danced in the street like fools. It was very fun to act silly and not care if people stared.

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Kid reporter inspires me in Toronto

Nine year old reporter Brennan LaBrie started his own newspaper
This youngster renews my passion for journalism and my job
By Kris Scheuer

I have been a reporter and editor for 11 years and I love journalism.
But I have to say I have good and bad days like everyone else when it comes to feeling inspired.
My focus in on Toronto politics, people and news but I just had to tell you about nine-year-old Brennan LaBrie who lives in Port Townsend near Seattle in Seattle in Washington State.
It was a joy on Sept. 5 to come across a posting on the National Public Radio site about LaBrie’s hand written, self-published paper The Spruce St. Weekly.
I read the story by Ned Wharton about this young journalist LaBrie who interviews people, writes their stories and includes a section called This Day in History, plus fun facts and a hand drawn comic strip. He photocopies his weekly 2-page paper and sells it for a quarter to over 100 subscribers.
But it is watching the You Tube Video of LaBrie talking in his own words about why he enjoys being a reporter that really made me smile.