Durham Region’s ONLY Wildlife Rehabilitation Hospital
MOVED to School due to the Arena Construction
Welcome to Soper Creek Wildlife Rescue, Durham Region’s ONLY Wildlife Rehabilitation Hospital; we are licensed by the Ministry of Natural Resources & Forestry and Canadian Wildlife Services to rescue and rehabilitate sick, injured, abandoned, and orphaned wildlife. Our goal is to release our patients back into the wild.
Events:
Learning how to bandage teddy bears
How to feed a baby animals station
Nutrition Matching Games
Skulls, Pelts, and other various animal artifacts
Flip & Match Games Associated with wildlife rehabilitation
How to help wildlife in your own backyard.
Schedule:
Saturday/Sunday: 10:30 am, 1 pm and 3 pm each show is approximately 30-45 minutes
– Contributing Sponsor GTA Hardware Inc
The 4-H Club’s Lawn Tractor Pull is one of the favourite annual events at the Sunderland Maple Syrup Festival.
This year the action gets underway at 11:30 on Sunday, at the corner of Albert St. near River St.
The lawn tractors are modified by the 4-H members themselves, and designed to pull weighted sleds. The SMSF event will be a demonstration only, but it’s good practice for the 4-H kids who will be entering competitions later in the year.
This attraction is lots of fun for visitors to watch, and even more fun for the competitors!
Welcome to the new age in Petting Zoos, where the world’s animals come together in an interactive and educational environment. The young and the young at heart will enjoy petting, feeding & learning about the animals that most have only read about or seen on TV.
Watch the children’s faces light up as they ride a live pony for the first time. Don’t forget your camera as you will want to keep this proud moment for all to see.
The Tiger Paw Exotics petting zoo and pony rides are located beside the arena. While the petting zoo is free, pony rides are $5 per ride.
Centre of town at High Noon Brock Rugby has decided this year to have bath tub races so Clean up your Act and join in the fun. Make that bath tub real pretty, dress up with a wild imagination and win BEST DRESSED
2026 marks the 29th year that Harlaine Maple Products has welcomed visitors to its sugar shack as part of the Sunderland Maple Syrup Festival. Hundreds of people have visited their farm on Concession 1 south of Sunderland to see how an old-fashioned product is made using the latest in modern technology.
Douglas and Gloria Harder purchased the farm in 1954 from Vince Beaton (sons Jack and Jim) who had previously boiled sap at this maple bush, since 1933. Douglas started boiling at his parents maple bush when he was in his early teens, and continued on after purchasing the property. At age 87, Douglas passed away in 2004.
Paul and his Dad tapped around 500 to 600 taps in the 1970’s, all with buckets. In 1984, they put in the first pipeline with approximately 150 taps. The next year, the whole bush was on pipeline. They always had a used evaporator, approximately, 4×8, and boiled in the bush with no hydro until 1991, when a new building was built near the house. Now there is water and hydro for late night boiling. The building includes an evaporation room, a store, a kitchen and a small bottling room. Once this building was erected, we were able to expand and now have approximately 2,500 taps.
Old Fashion boiling – Photo by Harriet Drake
In 2011, we finally purchased a new Lapierre Force 5 evaporator. It’s all stainless steel and very efficient. We still fire it with wood, and it can process approximately 250 gallons of sap an hour. On a good year, with many cold nights and warm sunny days, we can make approximately 1700 liters of maple syrup. We also make maple butter and maple sugar candy, for sale along with the popular maple syrup. During the festival years, we have seen over 4,000 people come out to the bush to watch the syrup being made. We have had people involved for the last 18 years of the festival, hosting bush tours, demonstrating maple syrup production, boiling sap in a large kettle as the pioneers did, and showing how the native people boiled sap using a hollowed out log and hot stones from the fire.
Harlaine Maple Products store is open during the festival, plus we have a booth on the main street of Sunderland. In 2012, we hosted the first tapping for the Kawartha Haliburton Maple Syrup Association. We are also members of the Ontario Maple Syrup Producers Association.
Harlaine Maple Products have toured the world and we are proud to be able to produce pure maple syrup: A Canadian tradition. As for recipes, we always enjoy fresh maple syrup on Old Fashioned Johnny Cake, maple syrup pie, maple butter tarts and maple apple crisp. Maple Syrup is also excellent on fruit and with carrots, squash and turnip.
REMINDER: Get your bus tickets for a tour of Harlaine Maple Products at Sunderland Public School during the Sunderland Maple Syrup Festival!
Making Maple Candy at Harlaine
Maple syrup season is in full swing here at Harlaine Farms. Here is the process of how we make maple candy. Starting with bowling down the syrup, then running it through a machine to create the candy texture. The moulds are filled, cooled and then ready for snacking. All of this is done hands on at our family farm in Sunderland.
Through his Friendly Fables Rap-A-Long books, songs & videos ‘Lexy the Rap Dad’ is igniting children’s imaginations and exploring the world around us with fun-filled adventures
Lexy the Rap Dad is a children’s author and rapping dad from Ontario, Canada. The creator of Friendly Fables, a collection of 14 stories and Rap-A-Long songs, is making a name for himself by combining rapping with storytime and it’s fun for the whole family!
It all began when Lexy left the corporate world unexpectedly to care for his infant son who required surgery at The Hospital For Sick Children in Toronto. He created the book series to entertain his own family and found his calling in rapping the stories for others.
Fast forward to today and Lexy is generating buzz among kids and parents for his wildly popular book, songs and YouTube channel. So much so that his 1st and 2nd albums have each reached #1 on the iTunes Children’s Music charts in Canada!
2026 marks the 29th year that the Sunderland Maple Syrup festival has offered bus tours at an economical price.
This year, tour buses will be visiting Harlaine Maple products bus tours. Stock Transportation provides the buses and the drivers, and the staff from the CIBC bank in Sunderland take on the responsibility of ticket sales.
CIBC Manager Jodi Buck says, “We love our community and we want to be part of our community.” “We are thrilled that the proceeds all go to the community. We all benefit greatly from the Sunderland Maple Syrup Festival and the wonderful work it does.”
“Everyone likes jumping on the bus and going on the tour together,” said Sharon Graham, Charter Coordinator at Stock. “It gives people from out of town a chance to see our community and what it has to offer.” Visitors from as far away as Windsor have joined the thousands of people who take the Stock bus to Sunderland Maple Syrup Festival trip destinations.
Maureen Nicholls, Operations Manager at Stock, pointed out how much the festival has grown over the years. Usually two buses run, but sometimes it is necessary to add more. Local drivers Harry Sarvis, Angela Hubers and Al Simpson have been providing transportation for the Festival every year since it started. Stock has even had a bus driver from Pickering volunteer to participate. “He wanted to be part of it,” said Maureen.
“We have our business in the community and we want to show our support for the festival,” she added. Driver Angela Hubers always looks forward to the Festival. Taking people on the tours “is fun,” she commented.
Welcome to Soper Creek Wildlife Rescue, Durham Region’s ONLY Wildlife Rehabilitation Hospital; we are licensed by the Ministry of Natural Resources & Forestry and Canadian Wildlife Services to rescue and rehabilitate sick, injured, abandoned, and orphaned wildlife. Our goal is to release our patients back into the wild.
