The Beautiful Joe Heritage Society participates in events throughout the year such as the Meaford Scarecrow Invasion and the Canada Day Parade, and we hold annual fundraising events such as our first annual Strutt your Mutt dog walk and the Autumn Adventure. Also new this year is Jazz for Joe, a wonderful series of five concerts. Events we have held in the past include Canadian Pet Idol (Cooper shown above was a participant in!) and the Beautiful Joe Golf Tournament held in 2009 to raise funds for the Society. Check back here for news and events updates. Do you want to be up-to-date on all the latest news? Sign up for our quarterly newsletter.

Jazz for Joe Canada Day Concert

If you weren't at Meaford Harbour for the Canada Day evening concert...BOY...did you miss a great session. Vickie Van Dyke hosted an evening of smooth jazz and popular music, accompanied by the very accomplished:

Rob Tardik - guitar

Davor Jordanovski - keyboards

Jack Prybylski – saxophone (came up from Buffalo, NY....just to be part of it)

Sylvain Defoy - percussion

It was a picture perfect moonlit night under the cover of a warmly lit pavilion. People danced away under the stars, and a good time was had by all.

Strutt Your Mutt in the News

Great coverage of the Strutt your Mutt event from simcoe.com. Visit simcoe.com to read the full article.

Strut Your Mutt

Join the Beautiful Joe Heritage Society on June 9, 2012 at 10:00 am for our first annual fundraising dog walk Strut Your Mutt.

3 km, easy to walk route.

Goody bags for canines and humans.

Lunch for humans available after the walk.

Participation entrance by donation.
Sponsorships are encouraged.
Pledge sheets available at: The Waggin’ Tail Café & the Beautiful Joe office at Meaford Chamber of Commerce.

Proceeds to go towards the creation of a Margaret Marshall Saunders Memorial.

Click on the poster to view larger image.

Jazz for Joe

SiSi Trattoria and The Mill Café Present Jazz for Joe

Two new concerts added to our JAZZ FOR JOE lineup!

Canada Day - July 1 - A FREE SHOW at the Meaford Harbour (7-9) with Rob Tardik, Davor Jordanovski and Vickie van Dyke.

Sunday July 15 in Beautiful Joe Park (1-4). A very special singer-songwriter day with Sam Dockar, Luke Brody, Vickie van Dyke and Davor Jordanovski - also FREE with donation. See you there!

Concert Lineup at McGinty's Upstairs

Tickets are $20

June 24 – Chris Smith at McGinty's Upstairs (4pm to 7pm).

August 26 – Vickie Van Dyke with special guest saxman Jack Prybylski at McGinty's Upstairs (4pm to 7pm).

October 21 – Wendy Lands Trio at McGinty's Upstairs (4pm to 7pm).

December 5 – Special Christmas Show with Vickie Van Dyke and Friends at McGinty's Upstairs (4pm to 7pm).

With special thanks to Solitudes Spa and Tanning Studio.

Click on the poster for more information.

Earth Day 2012

And the Community Came!!!! The best showing yet with an offer of Tim Horton's coffee and donuts, the community rallied to clean up Beautiful Joe Park in Meaford in just two hours! Approximately 20 folks were on hand to give a kick start to cleaning up the garden beds, rake the grounds, pick up garbage, remove dead tree limbs and clean off the winter grime from our monuments. Thank you to Tim Horton's staff who not only provided us with coffee and donuts, they provided t-shirts, garden gloves, garbage bags, mugs, etc. The staff also helped with the clean up. Thanks as well to our Coordinator Linda Owens, and the Municipality of Meaford for getting our tool shed ready and spruced up with new siding.

Evelyn Dean - Chair Beautiful Joe Heritage Society

Jazz for Joe Thank you!

A huge thank you goes out to Rob Tardik, Carson Freeman, Davor Jordanovski and special guest vocalist (and proud Meafordite) Vickie Van Dyke. With special thanks to Sylvain Defoy who stepped in on percussion for the event (after being gently persuaded by Vickie!).

Top quality smooth jazz and lots of laughs... we raised $1,500 for the Beautiful Joe Park accessibility project and the silent auction went very well. We are very grateful to everyone who attended and especially our wonderful sponsors: Sisi Trattoria and The Mill Cafe in Thornbury, Solitude's Spa & Tanning Studio, Foto's and Flowers in Meaford, Ardiel Animal Hospital, Aqua Massage Therapy, Blossom Health Club for Women, The Bruce Wine Bar, Complete Care Cleaning, Craig & Elenor Breen, Gary Chick (Artist), GreatSmile Dental, Kingstone Chiropractic, Isobel Parkin (Artist), Simply Unique, Trafalgar Trophies & Engraving, Waggin Tail Cafe, as well as our hosts McGinty's and McGinty's Upstairs!
 
A very special thank you to Vickie Van Dyke for steering the whole event. Her dynamic presence was inspiration for us all! We would also like to say a special thank you to Michael Biggins, a long-time Beautiful Joe supporter, Beautiful Joe Heritage Society creator and former Chair... for manning the box office! To view the Jazz for Joe photo gallery (courtesy of Vickie Van Dyke), click here.

In the News

The Beautiful Joe Heritage Society's accessibility plans, leash-free park proposal and plans to purchase the Beautiful Joe home were discussed at Meaford's council meeting on Monday February 13th and the story was featured in the Meaford Independent and the Sun Times. Click on the links to read more.

Accessibility Project

The Beautiful Joe Heritage Society has been working on an accessibility project for Beautiful Joe Park. To view the proposed project, please click here.

Meaford Museum

No visit to Meaford is complete without exploring the Meaford Museum. Not only will you find interactive exhibit rooms, there are also many interesting artifacts that tell of the history of Meaford including a Beautiful Joe display.

Beautiful Joe has been translated into over 40 different languages. Included in the Beautiful Joe display is a Japanese copy of Beautiul Joe. Recently, a Japanese publishing house requested that one of it's translators translate the book. Amazingly, the young man they asked was from Meaford and knew all about the story! He requested permission to contact the Beautiful Joe Heritage Society and through them, he was able to provide added information in the book. A short history of the Society and their work was also added to the book.

To learn more about the Meaford Museum, click here.