The Drumheller Mail welcomed their second bike winner of the Canada Day Bike Contest. Ashtin Sweep, son of Alannah Sweep both reside in Texas but plan on moving back to Drumheller in the near future.

Pictured above is grandma Anna Sweep (Donais) holding on to the prize until they arrive. Great-Grandparents Eugene and Nonie Donais are also from the valley. 

The Senior Titans are sporting a 2-1 record after a convincing win at home versus Olds.

The Titans started the season rolling with a win over Pincher Creek but lost to Canmore 15-25. Last Saturday they hosted Olds and trampled the Spartans 41-6.

Coach Ken Fournier likes his team’s progression. In fact, he felt that the Canmore loss was in reach.

“We fumbled the ball five times and turned over three times at our own 30-yard line. So when you look at the score that makes all the difference,” said Fournier.

They cleaned up some of those mistakes versus Olds last Saturday night. Derrick Carrier led the team with three touchdowns. Despite this, Fournier says there is still room to improve.

“We still racked up penalties,” he said. “We had two touchdown plays called back and a few drives that were halted because of penalties.”

“We have the ability to score, we just have to be more disciplined on retaining position to be able to strike.”

One boost the team has had of late is a longer bench.

“We went into our first game with 18 dressed. At this game (Olds) we had 33. We have had a large jump in players and it helps improve the quality of practice,” said Fournier.

“With these type of practices that are more structured, we can move young players forward, and add depth to key positions.”

The Titans will have their work cut out for them this coming weekend as they travel to Taber to play W.R. Myers. They are currently ranked third in Tier IV.

“They are always a strong team and had a very strong running game last year. We are going to have to potentially look at eliminating their large runs,” said Fournier.

Alberta 55 Plus is sponsoring the Calgary 55 Plus Summer Provincial Games from August 10 - 12 at a variety of venues throughout Calgary. Individuals will participate in Track and Field, Slo-pitch, Tennis, Swimming, Ice Hockey, Cycling, Badminton, Pickleball, Golf, Horseshoes and 5 Pin Bowling.

Drumheller will be well represented with a total of 12 participants in 5 sports. Over 900 participants are expected to attend, with opening ceremonies and banquet on, Thursday, August 10.

Medallists from these games will qualify for the Alberta team going to the Canada Games in August 2018 in New Brunswick.

The last summer games were held in Strathmore, Alberta in 2015 and there were Drumheller participants in three sports.

This year, 9 of the 18 member bowling team are from Drumheller, Phil Wade is playing slow-pitch, Ron Bell is competing in golf and Jim Millman will compete in cycling - both the recreational 10 km and the 40 km road race.

Bowling members include Remie DeFoor in the men’s scratch division, a 55 plus team made up of Mike and Barb Barker,

Linda Traquair and Daryl Saboe and a 70 plus team - Wendy Sisson, Sandra Irwin, Ron Keats and Richard Nodder.

The Drumheller participants are part of Zone 2 - Big Country Seniors Sports Society which stretches from Banff to Hanna.

The Zone will send over 190 participants to the Games and will have representatives in all sports.

Following the Calgary Summer Provincial Games in August, members will focus on preparing for the fall games to be held in High Prairie on September 14 - 16.

Currently, four individuals have qualified for floor shuffleboard and two individuals will represent the Zone in cribbage. The Craft competition will occur on August 18 and 19.

Watch for the results of these competitions.

(Photo Submitted)

Due to excessive winds, the entire south central part of Alberta felt like Lethbridge for a day.

Winds reached up to 100 km per hour on top of the hill, with Keoma reaching the highest recorded wind strength of 117 km.

In Drumheller, no record breaking winds occurred but damage was evident.

“It was pretty minimal overall like there was a couple of downed trees, like there was a tree that fell over by Riverside Park,” said Darryl Drohemerski, Director of Infrastructure Services.

According to Environment Canada, reports from last night’s winds reached just under 100 km per hour in Morrin and Hand Hills area.

Work crews including the Town of Drumheller and Carillion work have worked seamlessly to discard any debris that may have obstructed homes and roadways.

“We work well together between the Town and Carillion to kind of make sure that we’re not inconveniencing our residents or visitors by determining who’s responsibility it is,” said Drohemerski.

At approximately 10:30 p.m. last night, Drumheller Fire crew responded to a tree that had fallen across the North Dinosaur Trail near the Dinosaur RV Resort, where they worked tirelessly through wind and rain to clear it.

On another note, no reports indicated water levels rising enough to cause flooding within the valley.

“‘It was more of a spray than a heavy downpour so it was just more of the wind,” said Drohemerski.

The Dinosaur Trail Golf and Country Club has closed down this morning as many of trees and branches have littered the course.

A tree branch was found on another tree, causing it to lean onto a power pole near DVSS, ultimately causing some power issues.

“ATCO is dealing with the tree right now,” said Drohemerski.

More than one power issue happened last night as Rosedale was completely out of power due to arcing from some trees where they continually hit power poles.

As calls come into the public works branch, workers will deal with the situation.

Citizens are urged to call the Public Works Office at 403-823-1330 or call the Town office at where you will be redirected.

Anyone is also encouraged to share their information and problems on the Town of Drumheller Facebook page. Any major problems on evenings or weekends can be directed to the after-hours phone number at403-823-2512.

“There’s a lot of the cities recovering from extensive trees and a lot of the wind damage as a result of that storm but it seems that we were lucky and escaped the brunt of that storm,” said Drohemerski.

The Martian landscape of Drumheller was used to the fullest last weekend as the first Canadian International Rover Challenge took on the hills.
The University of Saskatchewan Space Design Team has organized the weekend. There was also a team from Carleton University in Ottawa and observers from the Missouri Institute of Design and Technology.
“The premise of the competition is there is an establishment of habitation on an extraterritorial body, in this case, Mars, and the university teams have to design a rover that assists that establishment,” explains Justin Gerein, a member of the Saskatchewan club.
The rover teams were challenged with tasks such as retrieval of items in rough terrain or simulating prospecting for things such as resources or signs of life.
This is the first year of the Canadian event. Many of the students have traveled to other competitions including the United Kingdom, and the premier University Rover Challenges at the Mars Desert Research Station in Utah.
Gerein said Drumheller is well suited for the competition.
“It offers more opportunities for terrain that would be like on Mars; the dry, the rough, the iron rich soils,” he said. “We could have gone to the Badlands of Saskatchewan and found similar terrain, but there is infrastructure here to support attendance.”
The challenges took place throughout Saturday and Sunday at Midland Provincial Park and McMullen Island. Spectators came out to check out the action.

At approximately 8:30 a.m. on June 8, St. Anthony's School went into lockdown after receiving word from a youth that the possibility of firearms could be entering the school.

RCMP responded and arrived promptly to the threat at 8:40 a.m. The police investigation revealed the youth had posted a photo of his airsoft gun to social media the previous evening, showing off new decals he and his mother had applied.  

Another youth then made inappropriate comments online about bringing the gun to school.  RCMP have cleared the first youth of any wrongdoing and have spoken with the other youth believed to have made the inappropriate online comments.

Drumheller RCMP were pleased to see the quick, safe, and extremely effective lockdown as completed by St Anthony's School, and that no one was injured. The local RCMP have now resolved the issue.

The students are safe and calm and the school has resumed normal operations. There is no further cause for concern. These are always troubling situations, and we thank the parents, community, and RCMP for their patience and support.

It won’t be long until the squeak of new sneakers will be heard in the school hallways throughout the area, and Principal JoAnne Akerboom of St. Anthony’s is looking forward to the new school year.

While the school will not know its official numbers until school begins, Mrs. Akerboom says the registration remains strong.

“Last year we were at about 425, it goes up and down… but we are hoping to maintain that,” she said.

This year they are welcoming Kelsey Magnan who will be teaching Kindergarten.

The school’s focus will be on Mathematical literacy.

“This is a focus for our whole division, and a continuation of literacy, and English language learners,” she said. “We have an increased percentage of students who are coming in with English as a second language. That really fits well with our literacy initiative anyway because all of these strategies for English language learners are good strategies to strengthen reading and writing.

Another exciting initiative for the school is they are taking on Physical Literacy. The school has received a grant from Ever Active Schools to fund this on.

“The Physical Literacy initiative has a number of components to it and teachers Cheryl Straub and Paula Neuman are taking that on,” said Akerboom.

“We have some new equipment and have received some mentoring and we are really encouraging the continuation of Physical Literacy.”

With that in mind, they are hosting yoga. Local instructor Jennifer Wright will be at the school and will be offering two free classes a month for staff and students in the evenings.

“She is also going to be doing some teaching in the school during physical education classes,” said Akerboom.

The school is continuing its high school redesign. Last year the school introduced three-day modules where students could take on different areas of interest. They are continuing with this again this year.

“We had people from the community come in and teach. We had plumbing, small engine repair, photography, web design and graphic design. We had 10 things and the majority were taught by members of the community, with a teacher. It was really well received.”

Spots are filling up fast for the 14th annual Southern Alberta Grazing School for Women held by Starland County.
After ten years of being on the Southern Alberta Grazing School for women committee, Starland County is able to host the event for another year, running from July 25 to 26.
“It rotates throughout southern Alberta,” said Dara Kudras, Assistant Agriculture Fieldman of Starland County.
Starland has hosted twice before with both successful attendance rates.
“It usually always sells out,” said Kudras. “We take 45 registrants and then 5 industry people.”
On the first day, the school focuses onrange and riparian health, weeds, grazing principles and water systems for cattle and pastures as well as plant identification.
“We do a plant ID quiz out in the field as well,” said Kudras.
To finish up the day, the Last Chance Saloon out in Wayne hosts a supper for the large group.
For the second and final day, the morning consists of classroom style learning of riparian health assessments and the role of beavers and other important contributors to the ecosystem.
Ranching women will also be coming in to speak about their own operations like Jesse Williams from Special Areas.
Tamara Quashnick with Steadfast Veterinary Services will give a speech on post-calving care. “She is a really good speaker,” said Kudras.
In addition to the morning classes, a talk on verified beef and social license will be presented from a Canadian Beef round table member.
After that, everyone hops onto a well-maintained bus for a field trip up to Primrose Farms located south of Big Valley. A tour of the robotic dairy and mixed farm operation will be the highlight of the trip.
“Cremona Primrose is one of our ranching women so she is going to talk a minute about her story,” said Kudras. “She’s got pigs and chickens and all kinds of things.”
After visiting Primrose’s, the group will travel to Calvin Raessler’s ‘Top Grass Beef’ farm where the range health assessment and plant identification quiz will take place.
“It’s just a really nice setting, it’s right below the Hand Hills and I think it’s a little bit different for the people that come from down south,” said Kudras.
Kudras is beyond excited to share her love of the land through education and experiences.
“It’s going to be a jam packed two days – I’m just excited to showcase Starland County and show what we have to offer.”

To sign up for the event, click the link here.

A recipient will receive an email that will appear to come directly from Interac advising of a refund owed back to the recipient and provide a deadline to receive the money.

“There are different ways for them to approach you on an email and what they are trying to get from you,” said Drumheller RCMP Staff Sergeant Kevin Charles. “Basically it is tricking you into releasing your personal banking information.”

Sergeant Charles revealed to The Mail that most people are conscious if someone is sending or receiving money online.

“Most people know if you owe someone money or someone owes you money and how much so if you get this random email from some person saying ‘Oh, here’s some money for you.’ That should put up a red flag in your mind going ‘Hold on one second, nobody owes me money, what is the real purpose here?’”

It is recommended that if you're not expecting any type of money transfer via Interac E-Transfer to do the following: Contact the 'refunder' directly through another medium like a phone, a different email account or attend in person if possible. Do not open any attachments in the email and do not click any links attached to the email as it could share personal information. Lastly, do not provide any personal details via email in a response.

“A lot of times, you got to be careful about downloading attachments or opening attachments in emails because it could be a virus and lock up your computer,” Sergeant Charles said.

Although there are a variety of scams targeting people via email/regular mail/phone, there are many commonalities to be aware of.

They often involve a sense of urgency by using a deadline, an emergency or expiration date. This is intended to get the victim to act without thinking things through or conducting their own research into the subject matter.

It’s often disguised as something legitimate but will vary from how the legitimate Institute typically operates.

An email scam stating that CRA is sending the police to collect on an outstanding tax bill - the police don't act in this capacity and CRA sends their correspondence through the mail, not email.

The item being offered seems too good to be true like the Stars Lottery email scam where the victim is told they've won a significant prize but needs to pay in order to receive it.

If you find one of these scams come across your screen, a report can be made to the anti-fraud centre which is available online.

Whatever the case may be, always be prepared and be safe when conducting online financial business.

“The old rule of thumb is if it sounds too good to be true, it is,” Sergeant Charlstated.

    The Drumheller Stingers boys peewee baseball team are one step closer to the provincial tournament after playing in atiering tournament in the Valley last weekend.
     In all, six teams including Drumheller, Clive, Olds, Red Deer, Trochu, and Stettler were in the competition. The teams will be playing in a round robin tournament that began last Saturday in Drumheller and will continue in Stettler this coming weekend.
    “It is basically atiering tournament,” said coach Lyle Cawiezel. He explains from these results, the top teams will be in tier 1 and the rest will betired versus similar competition levelscome to the provincials.
    “We are all going to provincials, it is just deciding which division we are playing in so provincials are competitive,” he said.
   In their firstgame, Saturday morning, they fell to Trochu 17-7.
  “It went alright and it should be good this coming weekend too,” said Cawiezel.
    Drumheller had two teams playing in league play this season but combined to go to the provincials this summer. The team is coached by Lyle Cawiezel, Jay Mulgrew, Jeff Paarup and Scoot Freilinger.

The Drumheller Stingers, peewee boys baseball team headed to provincials last weekend and came home with a silver medal.

The team qualified for the championship tournament and earned a spot in Tier 1 of like sized communities. They headed to Trochu for the playoffs.

Coach Lyle Cawiezel said the Stingers matched up in pool play versus Trochu, Clive and Dawson Creek. He said the competition was very well matched and they had to go to a tie breaking formula to determine the ranking. Drumheller made it to the semifinals.

There, they faced Westlock and cruised to a 14-12 win.

“It was a close game and towards the end we kind of held on and it went down to the final out,” said Cawiezel.

This win put them into the championship versus Trochu. The Stingers knew they were in tough as they faced them in the qualifying tournament.

“Trochu is a really good team, they are solid and went undefeated through the whole provincial tournament,” said Cawiezel. “We knew we were going to be in tough and the boys battled really hard, but in the end, it was over for us.”

Trochu won 15-6.

“Trochu is a really good hitting team and they have pitchers that are really tough to hit off,” He said. “We never gave up and we tried to keep up with them but they were just too tough.”

This was a great finish for the Stingers, and Cawiezel said it has been quite some time since they fielded a provincial team.

“It was their first kick at provincial ball, and they figured it out and did really well,” he said.

On Friday, June 9 at 7:36 PM, Beiseker RCMP, Alberta Sheriffs, Carbon Fire, Linden Fire Departments and EMS were dispatched to a collision on Highway 21, approximately 2 kilometres north of the Highway 9 intersection.  

Initial reports are that extreme weather, including heavy hail and rain was occurring at the time of the collision between a southbound vehicle with 3 occupants and a northbound SUV with 1 occupant. 

Upon arrival, it was determined that STARS air ambulance was required for one of the patients and an alternative landing zone was set up due to inclement weather in the area of the collision.

 Tragically, a 16-year-old female passenger was pronounced deceased on scene. A 67-year-old female was transported to the STARS landing zone and was then airlifted to a Calgary area hospital with critical potentially life-threatening condition.  A 43-year-old female was transported by ground ambulance to a Calgary area hospital in serious non-life threatening condition. 

 The lone 58-year-old female driver of the Northbound SUV was transported to Three Hills hospital in non-life threatening condition. 

A Collision Analyst was contacted and is currently on scene investigating.  Traffic on Highway 21 was rerouted for a short time and was cleared. 

The name of the deceased will not be released by RCMP.  Beiseker RCMP would like to express their condolences to the family during this time. 

Do you have a passion for making events happen in your local community? The Terry Fox foundation has the answer. The foundation is currently seeking enthusiastic and driven individuals or groups to become a new run organizer. In the past 31 runs that have been held in the valley, Drumheller has raised over $150,000 towards the foundation. Contact wendy.kennelly@terryfoxrun.org or call 403-212-1336 for more details.

In celebration of Canada’s 150th year, The Red Couch Tour is traveling across the country to get your opinion on what Canada means to you.

Spanning 63 days and 20,000 kilometers on the road in an RV, by September, the couch will visit every Province and Territory in Canada.

To be a part of the fun, be sure to keep an eye out for the couch from noon until 2:00 p.m. tomorrow, August 11!

Even some well known Canadian celebrities have shared their thoughts on the country like Bubbles from The Trailer Park Boys which can be seen below.

Each person or group has one minute or less to share their pride. From there, the videos will be posted on

YouTube and promoted through social media. The website will also host a digital mosaic of photographs taken during the tour, showcasing people met on the journey as a portrait of contemporary Canada.

To view your own video as well as people across the country, visit here on the Red Couch Tour website.

This unique tour is one of 38 signature Canada 150 projects selected by the Government of Canada to create opportunities for Canadians to celebrate and build a sense of pride and attachment to Canada.

The Atlas Coal Mine National Historic Site received an upgrade on Holiday Monday, as members of the Drumheller Rotary Club came out to install new interpretive signs.

The existing signs that interpreted the Tipple Trail had become weathered and out of date. The Rotary Club along with Canadian Badlands were able to financially support replacing the 13 signs and the club had a work bee to install them.

“Our signs were out of date and really weathered, and these new panels will really last us, easily a decade,” said curator at the Atlas Jay Russell.

The signs are composed of the same material as the Valley Mine Driving Tour signs and Russell did the research to update the signs with relevant information.

“I really enjoyed doing the research in it and we found a lot more information about the Atlas when we were revamping the signs so it was a good opportunity to do that,” said Russell.

He says that phase 2 of the interpretation sign upgrade will be for the machinery yard.

“We have the signs now and we just have to do a little groundwork and we will erect those signs,” he said.

The project cost about $25,000 for the 13 signs on the Tipple Trail and another 12 in the machinery yard.

The Atlas is experiencing a great year, and in fact, the holiday weekend brought on one of its best days ever. This is the 80th anniversary of the Tipple and the 30th year for the operation of the historic site.