Nearly 200 runners from across the province – and some from even further – pushed themselves to the limit over the May 22 – 24 weekend at the Paradise Backyard Ultra (PBU).

Beginning Friday afternoon, runners completed a 6.7 kilometre loop around Octagon Pond every hour on the hour in an intense ‘last man standing’ competition that ran until 5 a.m. Sunday morning when Ryan Quinlan, 39, of Paradise was named the winner after completing 41 laps, equating to a staggering 275 kilometres, while enduring rain, wind, and cold.

“You go through sleep deprivation, you’re up for two days, you’re putting your body through something that it’s never gone through before,” said Quinlan.  “The amount of support I got from my family and friends was unbelievable.”

Quinlan has run each PBU since the inaugural event in 2024. That year, he completed 18 loops. Last year, he ran 25.

Heading into this year’s event, Quinlan said he didn’t have a particular goal in mind, only that he wanted to do better than last year.

“If I got to 26 hours, maybe I would have got to the next milestone, which would have been 30 hours, which would have got me over 200 kilometres,” said Quinlan. “After that I was just trying to hit small milestones. I had A, B, and C goals.”

Quinlan maintained an average pace of about 52:29 a loop, focusing more on endurance than speed so as not to exhaust himself. He had a lap-by-lap plan for how to spend the minutes between laps.

“You would either focus on rest, nutrition, or gear change,” said Quinlan. “I had my wife, my friends, my brother to help me out. They were my crewmates, so when I would get in, they were assisting me with those things. I would tell them, ‘I need a can of soda,’ or ‘I need some rice pudding,’ and ‘Can you have that ready for me, I’m going to lie down for five minutes, can you wake me up before the two-minute buzzer?’”

Funny enough, Quinlan lives about three kilometres from the start line, and the course took him in a homeward direction.

“The thought of continuing on to my house and just not finishing the race did cross my mind,” said Quinlan. “That was a frequent thought I had.”

Of the nearly 200 runners, only four reached the 30-loop milestone –Quinlan, Ryne King, Chris Nash, and Ian Royle.

Royle, of St. John’s, finished 31 laps, while Nash, of Mount Pearl, made it to 33.

King and Quinlan ran seven laps together before King, of St. John’s, finished at 40 laps (268 kilometres,) leaving just Quinlan to make a final lap and claim the title.

Quinlan said his previous experience running the PBU gave him a leg up over the competition in the final stretch.

“In my mind Ian was the front runner, but when he dropped out, then it was down to Chris Nash, Ryne King, and myself,” said Quinlan. “And those guys had never run the event. I think having experience in this event is crucial, just knowing how your body is going to feel after running for 24 hours, and the emotions that you’re going to go through, and having that experience really played to my advantage.”

He credits King with keeping him going during the final loops.

“You need an assist,” said Quinlan. “You need to have that person who was going to push me to 41, which was Ryne King. And I’m so happy that he showed up because my number would have been much lower if he wasn’t there.”

Quinlan played sports in his youth, but had little experience with long distance running. In 2015, while living in Goose Bay, he registered for the Trapline half marathon.

“I considered myself very fit, but there were people much older than me passing me gracefully,” said Quinlan. “And I thought, ‘How is this possible?’ I’m a young, fit dude, and these guys are just cruising by me. And that planted the seed.”

He credits the first PBU with kicking his running career into full gear.

“I think it’s the concept that really captured it for me,” said Quinlan. “If you’re here to ask me, ‘Hey, do you want to go run a 100-kilometre race, I would say, ‘No, that’s ridiculous…’ but the question becomes, how many (6.7 kilometre loops) can you do before you have to stop. And that’s where it becomes very interesting. I like that mental aspect of it. Because it becomes a puzzle. But I think everybody has their endpoint, and in order to find it you have to take yourself there. And for me, having good preparation, having good family support, having a good crew, and having proper training, I wanted to see how far I could go with it. If it was one loop, so be it. If it was a lot of loops, perfect, at least I found my endpoint and I did something that was hard, and pushes me, and gives me some purpose.”

As the winner of this year’s event, Quinlan will have the opportunity to represent the province as a member of Team Canada at the Big Backyard Ultra World Championships in British Columbia in October.

Along with bragging rites and a spot on the Team Canada roster, Quinlan received $2,000 worth of prizes, including a silver Canadian dollar from East Coast Coins, Auctions, and Collectibles and ice cream cones for life from Eva’s Chimneys food truck.

When The Shoreline reached him on the Monday afternoon following the race, he had sufficiently recovered with plenty of bed rest and a giant stack of French toast.

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By Olivia Bradbury, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

Amalgamated Academy in Bay Roberts is known for its biennial musical productions. This year the school impressed its audiences once again with its production of The Little Mermaid Jr.

It’s the school’s sixth musical production, with all its previous plays also coming from the Disney Jr. series, which are abridged versions of classic Disney tales made to better suit live theatre. Some 100 students from Grades 4 to 9 started preparing for this year’s show starting last September 2025. The play was directed by Jane Dwyer, an English teacher at Amalgamated. In the past Dwyer sometimes assisted Corey Morgan, a fellow teacher who directed the school’s previous musical, with elements of production. After Morgan retired last year, Dwyer took up the mantle of director.

Dwyer said she enjoys watching the students take on a variety of responsibilities.

“They’re coming into practice, got their lines learned, they’re totally taking ownership of their roles” she said. “Same thing with the lights and sound guys.”

Music teacher Sherry Crowley, the production’s musical director, noted students make up the entirety of the cast and crew.

“The best part is that kids run everything,” Crowley said. “There’s no adults, so there’s kids doing all the lights, there’s kids doing the sound, there’s kids doing the curtain.”

For some students it’s their first foray into theatre. Others have been involved in previous Amalgamated productions, or external theatre groups. They say watching the performance, singing the songs, spending time with friends, meeting new people and getting some time off from class are all reasons for participating. Some said they plan to continue with theatre in the future.

Eighth-grader Myla Roach stars as the titular “little mermaid,” Princess Ariel. Roach acted in Amalgamated’s 2024 musical Frozen Jr.. “It kind of feels like leadership to the younger people,” Roach said of her role this year. “They look up to you so much.”

After the May 12 and 13 shows, some of the younger students asked to have their photos taken with ‘Ariel.’

Roach, who is usually more involved in athletics than music or theatre, said her favourite part of the production was interacting with people she may not have otherwise. “It brings everybody together,” she said.

The post Role models appeared first on The Shoreline News.

Author Geraldine Ryan-Lush provides readers with a love triangle in a post-war backdrop in her new novel, Terrace Houses, which launches June 6 with an event at the Jumping Bean location on Topsail Road.

Ryan-Lush, a longtime Mount Pearl resident now based in St. John’s, said the story centres around the son of a soldier afflicted with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and deals with the impacts that has on the child, along with the challenges of growing up in wartime Britain.

“I was always fascinated with World War II, because I come from a war family on both sides,” said Ryan-Lush, who already has 20 books published.

The main character eventually grows up, gets married to the daughter of a German banker and moves to Canada. His marriage of convenience becomes challenged when he meets another woman.

“And so it goes, in terms of love stories. Things get, you know, pretty intense from there,” said Ryan-Lush, adding that her main character finds redemption and comes to grip with his childhood traumas. “It’s a journey of discovery for him.”

Ryan-Lush has established herself in the literary world in a number of genres, from poetry to ghost stories and children’s fiction, including the Canada Book Award-winning novel, The Seashell’s Lament, and the renowned children’s book Hairs on Bears.

The book launch runs from 2-5 p.m. and will include a reading from Terrace Houses. Copies of most of her previous work will be available for purchase and there will be a giveaway of a soft cover copy of Hairs on Bears. She says the giveaways are rooted in her belief in literacy and exposing children to books, something that stems from her upbringing in rural St. Mary’s.

“There wasn’t a library in the community where I was from,” she said. “The only books we were exposed to were the ones in school and whatever my parents could get for me. I always seemed to want more books. I could never get enough books because I was a voracious reader.”

The book launch is also a bit of a family affair, with son Shannon Marshall Lush and his book titled His Soldier’s Coat, which centres around the 1942 Knights of Columbus fire.

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The Town of Holyrood has awarded a contract to upgrade the Penney’s Lane waterline to Kelco Construction for a cost of $97,239, HST included.

“Penney’s Lane has had quite a number of leaks there in the last year, and we’re trying to be proactive here and improve that and take on the problem areas as we can and keep fixing and replacing the old pipe with new,” explained councillor Steve Winsor.

The Town received seven quotes by the deadline, with Mayor Laura Crawley noting that some of the prices were “astronomical.”

Winsor said that Kelco’s quote was the most cost competitive.

The councillor added that the town is actively keeping track of problematic waterlines across town.

“We have recognized different areas in the town that have had failures in the past,” said Winsor. “So, what Director (Robert) Stacey is doing is keeping a record of all that – how many times we’ve been back there, how many times we’ve repaired something, how many people are on that road, what is the cost involved, and so on, and we try to prioritize that and allocate money in every year’s budget for those purposes.”

To that end, Winsor said that council would like to accomplish even more around town, but their hands are tied financially.

“We would like to do more,” said Winsor. “We always want to do more, right? When we reviewed these quotes – and all the quotes, actually, compared to years past – there’s a noticeable increase. We’re all seeing it at the grocery store and at the gas pump, right? – and you can see it in these quotes, too. Those contractors have costs. Their materials costs have escalated, their fuel costs for mobilizing their equipment and operating their equipment, [the cost of] paying their personnel, and it’s getting more expensive to repair things. So, we want to do more, but it’s something to think about, for all of us, in our budget deliberations next fall for next year.”

Mayor Crawley added that when council approved the 2026 budget, no one could have anticipated the rise of fuel costs associated with the war in Iran.

“Unfortunately, that’s the situation we’re in right now,” said the mayor. “Everyone’s feeling it.”

Councillor Mable Tilley was absent from the meeting, but other than that the motion passed unanimously.

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Paradise council has approved a 119-lot subdivision off St. Thomas Line, which includes extensions to Phoenix Drive and Kemble Avenue.

The application marks the completion of Octagon Development Corporation’s Picco Ridge subdivision, which has been in the works since 2015.

Including lots formerly approved by council over the years, the subdivision will boast nearly 200 lots all told, including both single dwelling and semi-detached dwellings.

Councillor Sheldon Antle noted that over the years a number of residents, particularly those on Madison Place, have raised concerns about the development, especially the construction of a walking trail.

Last year, council received a petition signed by 16 residents against the walking trail, arguing it would intrude on the privacy of homes on Madison increasing the risk of thefts. Fears about possible contamination of well water due to blasting for the trail was also raised.

Antle suggested that as the trail is one of the last things to be completed, council could approve the application for the houses now and work out the details on the trail later.

“It’s a phase-by-phase piece, so (the trail development) would certainly be down the road a fair bit,” said Antle. “I believe that would allow time for the applicant and the developer to have a discussion with respect to their needs and their requirements, and in the interim, the other work can get going. We would allow them time to work through some of the concerns with respect to Madison Place, so I think that’s a bit of a compromise we can find. My understanding is that this is a developer who has a fair bit of common sense and will certainly work with the applicant, and I know that the residents there are willing to work alongside as well.”

Deputy Mayor Kimberley Street said she was happy to hear that staff will contact the developer and residents on Madison to discuss the concerns.

“I’m going to support this development approval moving forward, however I would like to see, as councillor Antle had mentioned, basically a hold off on this particular open space determination right now until those concerns are addressed,” said Street.

Councillor Jennifer Hiscock said she was hoping a happy medium could be struck.

“Like Deputy Mayor Street said, I would absolutely support this development moving forward, this is something that has been in the works for a long time, but I would like to reconsider that trail piece,” said Hiscock, who suggested moving the trail elsewhere, if possible.

CAO Lisa Niblock cautioned that if council insists on the trail not being developed until a consensus is reached, a condition saying as much must be included in the application.

“Once you approve it as is, that (trail work) could be the first thing that starts tomorrow morning,” said Niblock.

Councillor Glen Carew voiced his support of a trail, given the lack of sidewalks on St. Thomas Line, but agreed with pausing approval of it until the kinks can be worked out.

Similarly, councillor Erin Furlong supported the idea of the trail, and said she hopes the developer and residents can work out an agreement.

“I’m definitely in support of the project moving forward, as long as we can figure this trail piece out later,” said Furlong.

Ultimately, council approved the application, subject to 24 conditions, with the understanding that any trail construction will be brought back for another vote before work begins.

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Bay Roberts council this April approved what staff and councillors are hoping are the final two change orders related to phase one of the Shearstown Road project.

Change Order 8 was for additional costs for property reinstatement, including additional topsoil, sods and asphalt for various properties along Shearstown Road in the amount of $96,234, HST included.

Change Order 9 was for $10,476 worth of additional curb and gutter over and above what had been approved in the previously approved Change Order 7.

The new change orders bring the total project construction cost to $ 2,569,902, HST included.

“This is the final, the final, please God, invoice for this contract,” quipped CAO Dave Tibbo.

Both change orders were approved unanimously.

The upgrades, which include road upgrades and installation of new water and sewer lines, was approved in December 2024, are cost shared between the town, the province, and the feds, with the feds pitching in $737,706 and the province and the town pitching in $737,485 a piece, for an initial total project cost of $2,212,676.

Costs above and beyond the original cost fall on the Town.

The post Bay Roberts approved final change order for Sheartstown Road project appeared first on The Shoreline News.

Adrian Green, 21, of Carbonear has been named the top batter at a World Softball tournament in Colombia.

Green wasn’t in the line up for the first game at the 2026 World Baseball Softball Confederation (WBSC) U23 Men’s Softball World Cup in Sincelejo, Colombia, and didn’t expect to be made a full-time player. But in Game 2 he was put in opposite of Jack Besgrove, the Australian softball star recognized as one of the best, if not the best, pitchers in the world.

“I was like, ‘I’ve got to put the ball in play here and not strike out,’” said Green – and that’s exactly what he did.

“I got a hit off Besgrove, and I guess the coach liked that, because it was history after that,” said Green. “I was put in every game.”

Green played in seven of the eight games, and finished the tournament with a .545 batting average. He was the only Canadian to receive a statistical award. Besgrove, meanwhile, would be named the tournament’s best pitcher with a 0.59 earned run average.

Green has come quite a long way from his days playing with the Carbonear Islanders minor softball program, and has travelled the world playing ball – in fact, this wasn’t his first time competing in Sincelejo, Colombia. He competed with the Canadian U18 Men’s National Team there in the 2023 Pan American Championships.

“We were in the exact same hotel, and, funny enough, I was in the exact same room, as last time,” said Green.

The tournament ran from April 25 till May 3 and saw 12 countries compete for gold. Japan finished in the top spot, while Australia and Mexico earned silver and bronze medals respectively. Canada ranked eighth place in the 12-team tournament.

The games, featuring some of the world’s best young ball players, brought in thousands of fans on a nightly basis.

“For our last game against Colombia, I think they said there were 9,000-plus fans,” said Green. “It was crazy, man. I felt like I was playing for the Blue Jays. It was unreal.”

Even with the tournament behind him, Green has no plans of putting away his bat any time soon. He recently signed with the Ontario-based Kingston Axemen and will compete in a number of tournaments this summer, including the 2026 International Softball Confederation World Tournament in Melbourne, Ontario in August. He’ll also compete in the junior national tournament in Saskatchewan, and with the Galway Hitman in the senior national championship.

Green has tried his hand at a number of sports over the years, including table tennis, ball hockey, ice hockey, and cross country, and has excelled in all of them, but said softball remains his favourite, largely due to the camaraderie among the players.

“Teammates are so close knit, it’s almost like a family,” said Green. “I have so many friends and close buddies now because of softball that I would have never met (otherwise). I know guys all around the world, from the USA to New Zealand, just from playing ball.”

His ultimate softball goal is to make the men’s national team.

When not on the ball field, Green is hitting the books. He recently completed a four-year kinesiology degree at Memorial University and will be studying podiatry at the Michener Institute of Education in Toronto this fall.

The post Carbonear softball star shines in Columbia appeared first on The Shoreline News.

I am turning to your readers for help!  My sister in Ireland (I am the only one of my family to live in Canada) had a “best ever” vacation with McCarthy’s Party a few years ago.  Fell in love with everyone and every place.  A couple of years later I found these earrings and sent them to her.  They became her favourites.  Every time she wore them, someone asked her where she got them.  And one day she came home and only had one. Alas the lost one never showed up again.  I have called every craft and art boutique I could find a listing for in. Newfoundland and have drawn only blanks. There are similar ones…but not as big or as dangly or as colourful as these.   If one of your readers knows where these ones came from or who produced them, I would be thrilled.  I can be reached via FB. I live in Kitchener, On.  I would put my email here but I doubt it is allowed!  I really want to surprise my sister with another pair just like this one! 

I would be happy to pay the postage to me as well as the cost of the earrings. I also ADORED my 3 week solo trip to Newfoundland ten years ago …drove all over… and the kindness of strangers blew me away. I had stories to tell. 

I know this is not a typical Letter to Editor…but maybe you can find somewhere to put my plea.   Please call 1-519-896-4690.

Sincerely

Ronnie Lowrey, Kitchener, On

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Captain Tim Burrill of Paradise was recognized by Sikorsky at a tradeshow in Atlanta this March for logging 10,000 flight hours on the S-92 helicopter.

As impressive as that statistic sounds, it doesn’t even tell half the story – since receiving his commercial helicopter license in 1976, Burril has accumulated more than 27,000 accident-free flight hours, an average of about 500 flight hours a year.

“It was an ambition out of high school to be a pilot,” said Burrill, who hails from Nova Scotia. “I started out training in airplanes. Then I eventually specialized in helicopters, and liked that a lot better.”

Burrill started off flying a three-seat Bell 47 with plexiglass bubble, a single-rotor helicopter popularized by the war time comedy drama M*A*S*H.

The Sikorsky S-92 Burrill flies today, meanwhile, can seat up to 19 passengers, and boasts a large stand-up cabin and automatic flight control system. The S-92 is specially designed to handle well even in messy weather, and can land in foggy conditions, to a point.

Burrill’s career has taken him all over the world flying helicopters. He moved to the province and began working with Cougar in 1997, flying workers back and forth to the Hibernia oil rig, and works with Cougar to this day.

He has passed down his passion for flying to his children. His son, Luke, works for Cougar in the company’s Search and Rescue division. Another son, Peter, flies 767 Boeings for Air Canada.

Meanwhile, a grandson in Ontario, Simon, says that he wants to be a pilot when he grows up as well.

“I guess they saw how nice a job I had, so they pursued those careers,” said Burrill.

Burrill and son Luke even had the opportunity to pilot an S-92 together in 2020.

While he’s flown hundreds of times over the years, it’s a flight that he wasn’t on that Burrill says he’ll never forget— Cougar Helicopter Flight 91.

“I was flying when Cougar lost their helicopter offshore, which is a bad day in our history,” said Burrill.

Burrill flew out at 8 a.m. on the morning of March 12, 2009. Flight 91 flew out an hour later at 9 a.m., and went down at 9:48 a.m. Of the 18 onboard, only one survived.

“You never know where you’re going to be on the schedule, and you don’t get to choose your own aircraft, so it could have very easily been me that lost their life,” said Burrill. “But the good Lord decided that it wasn’t my time to go. So, I remember that day for sure.”

For anyone considering piloting as a career path, Burrill says it requires a significant upfront investment, but it pays off in the long run.

“When I did my training, it was only $10,000, and I thought that was a lot of money,” said Burrill. “Now, it must be well north of $150,000. Most of that’s the cost of renting the helicopter and the instructor. And you need 100 hours of training. It’s a difficult field to break into, but it’s the equivalent of getting a university education, but you can do it all in one year instead of spreading that expense out over four or five or six years.”

Others, said Burrill, opt to join the military in order to learn to fly.

While most of us are content to sit in the passenger seat and leave the piloting to others, Burrill, and others like him, are drawn by the excitement and feeling of freedom that piloting promises.

“If flying is your dream, pursue it,” said Burrill. “One lady at work, who lived in Labrador, she told me the other day that her passion was to be a helicopter pilot when she grew up. And today she is. So, it’s attainable for anyone. I tell people, if you can ride a bicycle, you can fly a helicopter.”

Additionally, if you’ve ever thought of taking to the skies yourself, now might be a good time.

“There is a shortage of experienced pilots in the helicopter industry,” said Burrill. “There’s also a big shortage in the airline industry. So, there’s never been a better time to pursue aviation.”

Most young pilots starting out, said Burrill, ought to expect to work in more remote areas.

“I would recommend the career,” he added. “It’s been a good career for me.”

Burrill lives in Paradise with wife, Ruth. He’s recently completed his yearly exam, and so he’s been cleared to fly for another year, barring any medical complications.

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It’s that time of year again when CBS council and other municipalities across the province threaten to take a hard line with property holders who still owe taxes for the previous year.

Council gave its approval last week for staff to start issuing water cut-off notices and take other measures to cajole late payers into getting their taxes in. The Town is owed some $4.25 million from last year.

Staff have a progression of collection moves at their disposal ranging from the threat of cutting off water, to handing over the accounts to collection agencies and even seizing and selling off properties in order to collect the money. The latter is a drastic measure that only occurs after a significant period of time has expired.

“This is where we get after we’ve tried numerous times to collect outstanding taxes on properties, businesses and so forth,” said Mayor Darrin Bent after Ward 3 councillor Gerard Tilley made the motion to start collection efforts. “This is what we call the last-ditch attempt to recover that money that may require water disconnection as a first step, collection agencies and a court action, possibly even the sale of the property,” Bent added. “So, it’s an extreme move, but it’s something that we have to do because it’s our duty to ensure that we collect the taxes to pay the bills here so that everybody is paying their fair share and that other people are not shouldering the bill of people that aren’t paying. It’s unfortunate we have to do this, but it’s not a first step. This is a last step. We’ve been down this road with all the people on the list for quite a while, and here we are, so it’s unfortunate.”

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