The Windsor Star from Windsor, Ontario, Canada • 3

The Windsor Star LOCAL Friday. November. 19, 2004 A3 Casino ftate dtarcm WINDSOR IN BRIEF 20-year-old man faces break-and-enter charge Windsor Raceway slots revenue, attendance jump receives a percentage, rose accordingly to $688,257 from $612,454. Slots revenue jumped 49 per cent to $24.6 million in the first quarter of this year, during the strike at the casino. Attendance rose by 750 people a day to 3,360.

The raceway seems to have retained at least some of those gains. Overall, Ontario's three commercial casinos, six charity casinos and 16 racetrack slot operations raked in $975.5 million in gross gaming revenue during the second quarter, with an average daily attendance of 138,870 was due to the strike, which shut the casino and hotel for 41 days. Average daily attendance during the second quarter this year was down slightly to 13,533 from 13,559 last year. However, the border and the U.S. dollar don't explain why gross gaming revenue at the Slots at Windsor Raceway rose by $2 million the second quarter of this year to $18.1 million.

Daily average attendance also rose to 3,072 from 2,658. Revenue to the city, which last year, according to the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation. "Casino Windsor's challenge continues to be the border and the declining value of the U.S. dollar," said OLGC spokesperson Teresa Roncon. "Overall we're pleased with the results, particularly in view of the results from the strike last spring." Gross gaming revenue plummeted 46 per cent to $73.4 million from $136 million during the first quarter of this year compared to last year.

The loss I II. 1 INI IMIIIH. '11 -Spp'-' i rM i i i i -i 'F 1 By Anne Jarvis star staff reporter Continuing uncertainty about crossing the border and the declining value of the U.S. dollar are being blamed for a drop in gross gaming revenue in the second quarter at Casino Windsor compared to last year. Gross gaming revenue at the casino during the quarter ending Sept.

30 was $126 million, down 2.2 per cent from $128.8 million during the same period Haddad to head hospital Windsor native and St. Clair College and University of Windsor graduate Mary Jo Haddad was named president and chief executive officer of the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto Thursday i "I'm absolutely delighted," said Haddad, who had been serving in an interim capacity in the post since July. "Sick Kids is a great organization and this is a great per- sonal accomplish ment for me." Haddad graduated in nursing from St. Clair in 1976 and worked for eight years at the Children's Hospital ivi of Michigan. She returned to studies at the Uni Mary Jo Haddad versity of Wind- sor to attain her baccalaureate in nurs-'' Ing, graduating in 1984.

She moved to Toronto to work at Sick Kids, attaining the position of nurse administrator in Jhe hospital's pediatric intensive-care unit by 1990. She also completed graduate studies at the University of Toronto in health administration in 1998. In 2000 she became vice-president, child health services at Sick Kids, 1 overseeing half of the clinical programs. In August 2002 she assumed the role of chief nurse executive and in June 2003-she became executive Yice-H president and chief operating officer. "Our first priority is to continue providing world-class care to our patients, conducting leading-edge research and promoting excellence in teaching," said Haddad.

"Sick Kids is often the place of last resort for many of the sickest children in Ontario, so it's imperative that we are able to continue to deliver the world-class care our community expects of us. Haddad is married with three children aged seven to 13. HOMELESS: Robert Kelly speaks with Christine Wilson about the perils of being homeless. Kelly has spent several years on the streets of Windsor as did Wilson when she was a teenager. star photo: nick Brancaccio fromthe A male who broke into the home of a sleeping woman in the city's west end was caught by police after the female victim awoke and phoned for help.

Windsor police Staff Sgt. Ed McNor- ton credited the woman for having the wherewithal to phone police when she heard someone rummaging around her home in the 300 block of Partington Avenue. Police say a man broke into the home shortly after 10 p.m. Wednesday and made off with several items including a camera, credit card, jewelry box and purse Police arrived to find a man exiting the home He dropped a purse and led police on a chase through seveial backyards and over several fences. Charged with break and enter and breach of undertaking is Trevor Dusa, 20, of Windsor.

Three-year-old treated for dog bite to head A three-year-old boy was taken to hospital with non-life threatening in juries Wednesday after a dog bit him on the head in the city's east end. The incident occurred shortly after 2 p.m. in the 1500 block of St. Luke Road. The dog, a mixed breed and not a pit bull, escaped from its back yard through an open gate.

The dog, which is owned by Simeon Sanchez, was put under quarantine for 14 days by the humane society and will likely be put down by its owners. Academie Ste. Cecile to open new school Monday Academie Ste. Cecile International School is inviting the public to the grand opening of its new elementary school on Monday. A blessing and dedication of the building on the feast day of Saint Ce ciliabegins at 7:45 p.m., with a reception to follow.

Principal Therese Gadoury said the new building sits on the 27-acre property on Cousineau Road where its high school is located. The elementary school has an enrolment of 130 students, from senior kindergarten to Grade 8. The new building was designed to incorporate the style of the old building the former Holy Redeemer College which was designed by famous ar chitect Barry Byrne, who worked under Frank Lloyd Wright, Gadoury said. The new, building has 16 classrooms, a dining room, a gym, a library and will allow the younger students to have their own space, Gadoury said. The school has grown by leaps and bounds since its opening in Tecumseh in 1993.

The school moved to the Holy Redeemer College site in 1995, establishing an International Baccalaureate program for high school students. Enrolment stands at about 250, Gadoury said, adding there are about 70 international students who board at the school. A concert, commemorating the 25th anniversary of Ste. Cecile Academy of Music, will also be held Nov. 28 at the Capitol Theatre.

Complimentary tickets will be available starting Sunday at the three campuses of Academie Ste. Cecile. Sparky's toy drive gets rolling for holiday season Windsor Fire and Rescue Services' annual Sparky's toy drive kicked off Thursday at the Rack 'N Roll Club on Forest Glade Drive. Fire halls across the city will be accepting new, unwrapped toys until Dec. 17.

The toys will be donated to agencies across the city benefitting underprivileged children. Firefighters will also be collecting toys and money for their "fill the boot campaign" during the Dec. 4 Santa Claus Parade and the Dec. 9 Windsor Spitfires game. i.i i DONATION CAW Uocal 1973 donated more than $4,000 in Canadian Tire money and cash and 100 bags of winter clothes, socks and sleeping bags to Street Helpoa Thursday.

"We're so happy about that," said volunteer Christine Wilson. "We went through 100 sleeping bags last year." to'services to get help, knows a man who lived in a corner of the parking garage at Park and Pelissier streets a couple of years ago. "This was his place for the whole winter," said Monaghan. Cary, another volunteer, says she was homeless for about five months, until last spring. She and her brother and cousins and friends, five in all, sometimes slept in a parking garage attached to an apartment building.

On any night, there are "easily" about 20 people who sleep on the city View By Anne Jarvis star staff reporter Often, Robert Kelly says, he sleeps on a couch under a tree at the end of Mill Street Sometimes he sleeps on the fire escape behind a restaurant on Chatham Street or at the bottom of a stairway in an upscale hotel on Riverside Drive. He has slept in alleys, park-' ing garages and dumpsters. Many people who provide social and Tommunityservfces in Windsor -say that people don't sleep on the street here like they do in Toronto. "That's bogus," says Christine Wilson, the volunteer administrator of Street Help, the non-profit organization that helps the homeless. Throughout the city, hidden from view, homeless people have set up their shanties, she says.

Two or three people a night used to sleep in a tunnel they dug under bushes next to city hall. John Monaghan, Street Help's volunteer advocate, who refers the homeless rounding a new problem-prone press and saw the ownership of the paper change three times. "I've been thinking about doing this for sometime 10 or 11 years," McCor mack said of his Jim decision to McCormack launch his own newspaper. "They say MBAs generally don't become entrepreneurs because we're taught so much about what can go wrong," he joked. "But I feel this is a time when I can do it" Publisher resigns to start own paper street streets, says Wilson.

"There probably is a small core of people on the street," says Mary Ellen Bernard, the city's manager of resi dential services. Wilson has met all kinds, including a teacher and a woman "with so many degrees it was phenomenal." The peo ple living on the street often have men- tal illnesses or addictions that make it difficult for them to spend a night in a shelter with a lot of other people, says "People try to engage them to go into detox or get services or treatment," said Bernard, "and they may or may not" Kelly says he's lived on the street on and off for years. He's 49, but looks much older. He received a sleeping bag from Street Help and lights candles at night for warmth. Sometimes he prefers to sleep on the street he said, even though he can go to the Salvation Army "I want to make sure my friends are OK, make sure they're warm," he said.

"I think I made the paper more urgent," he says. "I think the opinion pages became more forceful and lively. So did our letters page." "He is a very bright man, very inter ested in the world," said Bill Tepper man, a Windsor retailer who became "a friend and admirer" of McCorma ck's. "He was thought provoking, which I think a publisher should be He was al so just to the right of Attilla the Hun which I say with great affection," said Tepperman, a founding member of the left-wing NDP provincial party "He will be missed," said Ontario Court Justice Micheline Rawlins. Offered a last word, McCormack said: "It's been fun." plains.

It's become his life, and he doesn't get a dime for doing it Then again, that's not why he's there. He's of the old school. He loves the game for what it is. And to him, this is hockey at its finest The minor leagues. Kids who can still dream and believe in dreams.

He won't burst their bubble. He won't tell them it can't hap-pea He knows better. He's seen these kids reach beyond talent and skill for something better and achieve some measure of that success. And that's what this is all about That's what Frank is all about he's unremitting in his encouragement and in his support Years ago, the morning after the team won the 1998 Great Lakes Junior championship, I went out to his house just down the road from the arena. It was like a museum of old 73s jackets, baseball caps, pictures, and even a pair of tattered tube skates he used on the icy fields around Ruscom.

I sat across from him in the kitchen. Volunteer mentor is consummate rink rat He said he plans to start "a little weekly newspaper" outside the Windsor region. "I wouldn't want to compete with The Windsor Star. It's a great paper." McCormack said he would miss the paper, its staff, and the city itself. Marty Beneteau, editor of The Star, said he would miss McCormack's "great passion for newspapers.

Jim encouraged us to be an aggressive, ambitious newspaper. I think we're a better paper because of him." Among McCormack's most important contributions was a redesign of the paper. It caused community protest when he replaced unpopular neighbourhood news pages with national and international news. But circulation rose. He's seen it all.

He's tasted championship victories, but also watched players skate off on the last game of the season, mired in the basement There's always tomorrow, he'd say At the end of a season, long after it as a matter of fact he spruces up and slicks back his hair and goes to the annual awards banquet He wants to be there among the boys. To indulge in a little part of their glory, a little of their dreams. Frank has seen them come and go. Some to the OHL, others to teams in Europe or the U.S. From time to time, these boys return to the old barn in Essex, and stop by the dressing room.

And Frank's face breaks into a smile when he sees them. He's happy for them. Followed their careers. And can't forget long winter nights riding slick back roads from Dresden or Wallaceburg and stepping out in the cold parking lot at Essex to help unload the bus. He never tires of it Never com By Chris Vander Doelen star business reporter Jim McCormack resigned as publisher of The Windsor Star Thursday, saying that, at age 47, it is time to go into business with his own newspaper.

His departure marks the end of one of most important periods for The Star which, under McCormack's watch, transformed itself from a somewhat sleepy afternoon local paper into a more aggressive and independent morning newspaper. Arriving from a senior position at the Toronto Sun in early 1997, McCormack spearheaded a sometimes controversial redesign of the look and content of The Star, dealt with issues sur ESSEX At the end of the second period, I went down to the bench. The players had filed out to the dressing room, and the game was already well in hand for the Essex 73s. And there was Frank Matthys gath ering up water bottles and straightening a collection of battered sticks. Seventy-eight years old.

Still at it Still the quiet mentor to some 20 players on this high-flying Junior hockey team. Still the one who pats these MARTY GERVAIS MY TOWN 255-5760 kids on the back, urges them on, cajoles then not to worry too much if they miss a pass, or fan on a shot or get a bad penalty that winds up costing the teaui the game. "You'll do better tomorrow!" he'll tell them. Frank, however, is not their coach. He's the assistant equipment manager.

In effect says Al Lemay, the team's general manager, "Frank does it all! He does all the laundry for the kids There isn't anything he doesn't do for us!" Frank Matthys is the consummate rink rat "How's your boys?" he call up to me when I see him between periods. He's referring to my two sons who once played for that team. "You've got another coming up, too?" "Yeah, we'll see," I say And so we talk. He still remembers their names. That's the thing about him he never forgets.

Somewhere in his memory circuitry is a rolodex of 73s alumni Frank has been here longer than anybody else. Thirty years or more, having started as a goal judge He was smiling like a boy of 10. The team up until that year had struggled. It had finally recaptured some glory It had not won a championship since 1987. As always, over the years, he had reassured the boys their time would come And that morning, he was gushing over the team, and was up on his feet gesturing and trying to relive the night 17-year old Bruce Crowder (later with the Boston Bruins) put the puck past the goalie from Lindsay to win the Ontario finals.

That night Frank was the goal judge He said that when the puck slid past the goalie, his heart nearly stopped. "But I had to be impartial I couldn't put up my arms said. Lemay said the other night Frank told him, he'd be back next year. Maybe his last Sure mgervaisthestar.canwest.com.