With a Scottish song in her heart, a Collingwood piper recently brought home accolades from the Glasgow International Piping Festival.
For this week’s edition of People of Collingwood we spoke with Sheila Stewart, 69, piper with the Beinn Gorm Highlanders and former nurse.
Q: For how long have you lived in Collingwood?
A: I was born and raised here. I’m second generation.
I went to Victoria Public School, Senior Public and then CCI (Collingwood Collegiate Institute).
I lived away in my 20s for a few years, in Toronto, Hamilton and eventually Edmonton where I did my nurse’s training.
When I was in Toronto, I did a childcare worker’s course at George Brown College but I didn’t like it that much. After that, I did a bit of travelling.
At the end of my 20s, I moved back to Collingwood. I was thinking I was only going to move back for a year but I wound up staying.
I worked at Collingwood General and Marine Hospital in obstetrics for 35 years, and then another department after that. I’ve been retired for five years now.
Q: What was it that made you want to return to your hometown back then?
A: I think it’s the best place ever to live. My parents were still here. My friends were still here. It’s home. It’s a beautiful place and it’s always felt like home.
Q: When did you start piping?
A: I started as a kid, I think when I was 11 or 12 years old. A fellow who lived in Stayner started a kid's pipe band. I played with them for about three years and then dropped it because at that point, the CCI band was planning to go to Japan and I had to decide between the two bands. I wanted to do the travelling.
When I moved back to Ontario after finishing nursing school, I ran into the fellow who taught me as a kid. I joined up again and played off and on. I got married and had a couple of kids. When I was pregnant, I would drop it for a little while, and then get back into it.
In 1999, the town hired me to play The Lament at the cenotaph on Remembrance Day. They always need a piper for that.
I was playing and I looked down the street and the veterans were marching behind a Jeep that had pre-recorded bagpipe music playing. After that ceremony, I ran into a friend of mine Garth Wilson, who is a pipe band drummer.
We thought it was a travesty that our veterans were marching to canned music, and we thought, we should start a band. I phoned pipers. He phoned drummers.
In 2000, we were able to start the Beinn Gorm Highlanders. The name Beinn Gorm means Blue Mountain in Gaelic.
A lot of the local settlers came from Islay in Scotland so we contacted the Islay band and they wear the McDonald of the Isles tartan, so we adopted that tartan.
We rapidly learned that we would have to teach, so I started going to piping summer schools to make sure what I was teaching was accurate. Over the years, we built it up from the two of us to about 40 members now. We give free lessons to anybody in the community that wants to come. It’s open to all ages – we have a 10-year-old and an 85-year-old right now.
It’s a close-knit, tight family that welcomes newcomers. It’s been a real labour of love.
Q: You recently earned an award at an international competition in Scotland. Can you tell me about that?
A: Recently, in the last year and a half, I decided with a friend of mine to start doing competitions just to keep up my own skills.
In Scotland, there’s a league called the Competitive League for Adult Solo Players (CLASP) and they run online solos. Because it was the World Pipe Band Championships in August, they ran a live competition for CLASP. It’s divided into grades – Grade 5 is the lowest, up to Grade 1 and then professional.
I was in Grade 4, so I was not the world champion of anything. (laughs) I did win it though, which I was absolutely thrilled with. I had to play a few different (kinds) of bagpipe music. I was quite pleased with it.
The whole band got to go over. For the last three years we’ve been saving our money working toward celebrating our 20th anniversary by competing in the World Pipe Band Championship. We all went over and had a coach there. We participated, played and competed. We were on BBC. We came in 11th out of 28. I was happy with that, because a lot of the bands were from Scotland.
Man, it was a thrill.
Q: Do you have any other hobbies that you’d like to talk about?
A: I love hiking. My youngest daughter and I have done some big hikes. We went to Everest base camp a couple of years ago, and the Tour Du Mont Blanc before that – that was 176 kilometres, and the West Highland Way, and the Laugavegur Trail in Iceland.
I think that’s my main other hobby.
I also like to cook, read, look after my grandkids. I’ve done some canoe and kayaking trips. I’ve been really lucky in my life. I’ve had some really wonderful experiences.
Q: Is there anything else you’d like people in Collingwood to know about you?
A: I don’t think so about me, but about the band, if anybody wants to join, again, we give free lessons. Everyone is welcome. We’re hoping to get enough kids to start a youth band. We’re at the Collingwood legion on Tuesday nights. Come out, we’ll chat and see what we can set up. We’ll be there.
For our feature People of Collingwood, we’ll be speaking with interesting people who are either from or are contributing to the Collingwood community in some way, letting them tell their own stories in their own words. This feature will run on CollingwoodToday every weekend. If you’d like to nominate or suggest someone to be featured in People of Collingwood, email [email protected].
