Wednesday March 22, 2023
 
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March 16, 2023

e-Edition
2 mars 2023



 





Upcoming events


ST. PATRICK'S DAY PARTY at the Royal Oak Orléans, 1981 St. Joseph Blvd. (corner of Jeanne d'Arc Blvd.) Join us for the biggest St. Patrick’s day in Orleans! Green beer, live music all day and night & Irish-inspired food! Doors open at 9 a.m.

ST. PATRICK'S DAY PARTY at the Taproom260. $7 Guinness and Kilkenny. $5 shots of Jamieson. $14 chicken pies and curry. Entertainment 3-7pm Chris Evans Band. 8pm to midnight Maddy O'Reagan Trio.

TAPROOM260 presents the Where’s Waldo Trio live and in concert starting at 8 p.m. Taproom260 is located in the Centrum Plaza across from the Shenkman Arts Centre.

SHAMROCKED SATURDAY at Moose McGuire’s. Celebrate St. Patrick’s Day 2.0 and enjoy some Irish music by Gamut. Things kick off at 9 p.m. Moose McGuire’s is located at the corner of Innes Rd. and Jeanne d’Arc Blvd.

THE ORLEANS BREWING CO. presents MAMMA MIA! the ultimate music trivia night. Up to six persons on a team are allowed. Call 613-830-8428 to register.

 

Spic & Span owner struggles to rebound from pandemic
Fred Sherwin
March 16, 2023

Parwin Parie has been altering people’s clothes in Orléans for over 30 years. The first business she had was in the Turkish Village strip mall on St. Joseph Blvd.

The native of Afghanistan learned how to sew when she was just six years old and crochet by the time she was eight.

 
Parwin Parie is a master seamstress who has been operating a business in Orléans for nearly 30 years. FRED SHERWIN PHOTO

When she immigrated to Canada in the 80s, she wanted to help out her family financially and started a dry cleaning and alterations business in 1996. In 2004, she moved her business to the Chapel Hill mall at the corner of Jeanne d’Arc and Forest Valley Drive and renamed it Hill Cleaners.

A number of her clients moved with her and she started building on the solid foundation she had created at the St. Joseph location.

In 2016, she moved her business again when she took over the Spic & Span location in the Orléans Garden Shopping Centre.

It was a risky move, but Parie was confi-dent that her existing clientele and her well-earned reputation as a seamstress would make the transition as seamless as the move from St. Joseph to Chapel Hill 10 years earlier.

And for the first three years, it was relatively clear sailing until the COVID-19 pandemic hit.

Before the pandemic, more than half of Parie’s business was dry cleaning due to the fact that many of her clients were professionals who need their suits dry-cleaned on a regular business.

But when the pandemic hit everyone had to start working from home. Face-to-face business meetings were replaced by doing facetime on Zoom and formal business wear was no longer needed. Suits were replaced by casual wear. And when formal business wear was no longer needed, neither was dry cleaning.

The dry cleaning side of Parie’s business dried up almost overnight. But ironically, dry cleaning services were declared an essential service by most governments, including the Ontario provincial government as they provided frontline workers with a means to properly clean and disinfect their clothing.

In order to keep trying to pay the bills, Parie remained open and she used her sewing skills to make literally hundreds of face masks. But even that dried up when most of the pandemic restrictions were lifted last spring.

Now she is struggling to make ends meet and keep up with her commercial rental payments.

She began doing upholstery jobs last summer, and specializes in making outdoor seat cushions using whatever material the client provides her.

She can also make tailored clothing for men, women or children, either from a pattern or without one. And she can alter and repair almost any type of clothing, including replacing damaged zippers.

You can find Parwin Parie and Spic & Span Dry Cleaners in the Orléans Garden Shopping Centre at the corner of Jeanne d’Arc Blvd. North and Orléans Blvd.

 
Entertainment

  Sports


Spring has sprung early at the Shenkman Arts Centre

Brilliantly written holiday production an instant Christmas classic

Plenty to see and do at the Shenkman Arts Centre this fall


Blondin, Weidemann wrap up season with world title

Gloucester Cumberland Wolverines win one gold, three bronze in home tournament

Documentary tells the story of improbable championship run

 
Local business

  Opinion

 


MAKER FEED CO. Cumberland Village restaurant unveils new fall menu

 

SANTÉ CHIROPRACTIC & WELLNESS CENTRE: Where healthy people go

 

180-FITNESS CENTRE: Home of the Biggest Loser

 

 

 


VIEWPOINT: Auditor General’s reports outlines egregious dereliction of duty

 

WALTER ROBINSON: What a long, strange trip the last two years have been

 

Doug Feltmate:COVID-19 pandemic the final straw for troubled industry

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www.orleansstar.ca
745 Farmbrook Cres.
Orléans, Ontario K4A 2C1
Phone: 613-447-2829
E-mail: info@orleansstar.ca

 

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