At only 15, Matt Howard is on his way back to the Greatest Outdoor Show on Earth.
Over the last few years, Howard has been making a splash in the Junior Steer Riding Alberta Circuit. This will be his third appearance at the Calgary Stampede. He will be riding this Wednesday, July 12.
He is excited to be back at the Stampede and explains that in the Junior Steer Riding division there is no need to qualify, but he has proved so far that he is up to the task.
In the Canadian Professional Rodeo Association (CPRA) Alberta Circuit, while he hasn’t won any event this season he is ranked in the top six.
“I was third up until this weekend, and he I was bumped down to fourth or fifth,” he said.
This is Howard’s last year of Steer Riding and then he will go up to junior bulls. Howard rides for Bridgemen Services ofDidsbury, and wears the Canadian Cancer Society patch on his vest inhonour of his mother Tanya Howard who passed away from cancer in 2008.

The valley will be rumbling to the sweet sound of shovelheads, knuckleheads, and v-rods as Motorcycle Madness rolls into Wayne again this weekend.
The annual motorcycle Poker Run and Show and Shine will be raising funds for the Greentree School and St. Anthony’s School breakfast programs.
It all kicks off Friday night, July 7 at 5 p.m. with a meet and steak ride.
On Saturday, July 8, the Last Chance Saloon will be hosting breakfast at 9 a.m. before the Show and Shine begins with registration starting at 10 a.m.
The Last Chance Saloon is in the historic community of Wayne. Just follow the 11 bridges down Highway 10X.
After the Show and Shine, stick around for biker games that could include everything from the ring joust to the slow ride.
The Poker Run starts at 12:30 p.m., where riders will travel to different stops around the valley to pick up a card to make a hand. Supper begins at 5:30 p.m. at the Last Chance, with entertainment to follow.

Valley Bus Drumheller employees stand in front of their new unit, a 2017 Ram Promaster, that was purchased in mid-June of this year for $78,000. The cost was shared between the Provincial government and Valley Bus fundraisers and the new vehicle itself can seat nine people in total. Back Row (l-r) Dwaine Kipling, Bill Pratt. Front Row (l-r) David Carter, Janice Brereton, Barbara Drever, Karen Moore, Dan Ripper, and Gunnar Mortensen. Missing in the picture is Anita Adams. The valley bus system offers transportation to communities within Drumheller including East Coulee, Midland, Nacmine, Newcastle, and Rosedale. If anyone requires their service, they can call Valley Bus at 403-823-1319.

(Photo Credit to Bill Wulff)

A few classic car enthusiasts were cruising the valley in style June 22 weekend as the Alberta Packard Club enjoyed the valley’s roads.

   Members of the club began showing with their vintage ridesand they had a full weekend planned of sightseeing, camaraderie, and the open road.

Member of the Club Brian DeBoeck, says local Packard owner Dan McDermid was instrumental in bringing the cruise to the valley.

“We‘re here until Sunday, so we will visit some of the attractions. The Atlas Coal Mine, the Wayne Hotel and the Tyrrell Museum,” said DeBoeck.

The 28 strong club is on the road every season and tries to mix up their destination. They have been through the valley on a number of occasions before. That weekend they had at least a half a dozen cars on the road.

"1949 is the oldest one we have here, and, up to 1955,” said DeBoeck.

 For DeBoeck, his attraction to the car is simple.

“The Packard was the second car I ever bought and I thought it was a good car, so I bought another one, and another after that,” he said. “They are a very well built car.”

Packards are all about luxury. Their first rolled out the door in 1899. And while in 1950, they outsold Cadillac, the company purchased Studebaker in 1953, and the last true Packard was it's 1956,concept the Packard Predictor was built.

 While some cars still carried the Packard Marque, over the next couple of years the Studebaker-Packard Company pulled the nameplate in 1959.

The car still holds a place in the member’s heart and turns heads when they cruise down the road.

A strong final weekend for the Canadian Badlands Passion play helped to boost ticket sales, however over all, the heat in the previous weeks saw attendance wilt in the sun.

The Passion Play wrapped up its third and final weekend on Sunday in front of an appreciative audience. While they had a slow start, they finished strong.

“We were pretty deep in the weeds going into that final weekend,” said Executive Director Vance Neudorf. “We topped over 5,000 entrances in the final week, so that is really nice.”

“Overall attendance was down 5 per cent (compared to last season).”

Going into the final weekend of the Canadian Badlands Passion play, the show is receiving rave reviews but weather warnings are cutting into the attendance.

The sun shined for the first two weeks for this year’s Passion Play, but maybe a bit too bright. Neudorf says one of the deciding factors was not the weather, but rather the weather warnings.

Over the last couple of weeks, the valley has enjoyed beautiful, hot, sunny weather. However, these translated into heat warnings.

“This policy to put out heat wave warnings, what it does is paints a big red square over our area on the Environment Canada website,” said Neudorf, adding this may have scared off potential audience members.

Just as soon as the heat warning came down, the air quality warning sprang up due to the BC forest fires.

“We went from the entire map in Southern Alberta turning red; our seniors look at that, and they are probably going to stay home, and then it was all grey saying stay indoors.

He says the Passion Play is well equipped for the hot weather. It has shaded areas, misters, and even golf carts with frozen treats and refreshments.

“We take care of people, but unfortunately we can’t put all of that on the Weather Channel.”

The air quality warnings did dissipate before last weekend’s show, which may have helped the attendance.

The drop in attendance means a drop in revenues for the show. He explains that approximately 50 per cent of the play’s revenue comes from admissions. Because of this, they will have to make it up in other areas.

“We are looking at trying to find more monthly donors. We have a list of stuff to do and put back together before next season, the fall is the time to do it, so we need those people behind us through the fall,” he said.

The Prairie Land Regional School Division Board has voted to remove one of its trustees for missing three consecutive meetings.

Chair of the board Marsha Tkach toldThe Mail that at their meeting on May 25, Trustees have disqualified Ward 2, Subdivision 1 Trustee Jada Hill, however, there are conditions.

“The motion reads ‘that Jada Hill be disqualified as trustee due to being absent for three consecutive meetings, as per the School Act, Section 82 (1) unless a medical certificate certifying her absence is provided to the board chair prior to June 15, 2017,’” said Marsha Tkach.

She says the motion is based on the provision of the School Act.

She said that under the School Act, a trustee cannot absence them self without being authorized by a resolution of the board, to do so from three consecutive regular meetings with the board.

The Act does allow for the absence due to an illness if the person provides evidence of that illness in the form of a medical certificate.

Tkach says that she understands that two of Hill’s absences were because she was not able to get away from work.

   The Mailreached out to Ms. Hill for comment however as of press time, she did not respond.

   Tkach said there were six trustees present at the meeting however at the time of the vote, Hill had left the meeting. The remaining five voted for the motion.

Riverside Value Drug Mart is back in the winner’s circle after topping Drumheller United in the final of the Drumheller Coed Recreational Soccer league.

The championship match was played on Thursday night, June 22, and Riverside Value Drug Mart won 7-2 to end the season undefeated. This is the third time in four years that Riverside has won thehonour.

“This year was a different team, we only had a half dozen returning from last year. So it was a mixture of a lot of new players combined with the old,” said GavinMakse.

   While Riverside repeated as champion, it is not indicative of the real competition on the field.

“This is the first time the team that finished first in the regular season has actually won the league championship,” saidMakse.

   The score was also not indicative of the play on the field. Drumheller United put up a strong fight versus Riverside. Coach David Easter saw great improvement throughout the season. This team has students from both DVSS and St. Anthony’s.

“Honestly the growth we saw from them was awesome. The score tonight doesn’t fully reflect how much growth they have had,” said Easter.

 He said when they started this season, there was talent but no cohesions.

   “We grew into working as a team, moving as a unit, especially defensively,” he said.

League-wide, it was a great season.Yavis topped Recovery for the third place.

“We had over 60 players registered in four teams,” saidMakse, adding that drop-in over the summer will be at the new St. Anthony’s School field on Tuesday and Thursday night.

Riverside Value Drug Mart (first photo) took home the championship for the third time in four years, while Drumheller United (seen here) took home silver.

What started as a sports day for the community, has evolved into one of the premier rodeo events in Alberta.

The Lions Club Rockyford Rodeo is turning 60 this year. While many rodeos have fallen by the wayside, the event offers an extravaganza of rodeo events, family fun, and a good time for all.

According to “Rockyford: Where We Crossed the Creek and Settled,” before 1957 the community would gather for a sports days with events such as tug of war, baseball, and horse races.

A few of the organizers that year decided to make it an even bigger event and the rodeo was born.

The initial events included calf roping, cow riding, wild cow milking and some races.

The day started with a chuckwagon breakfast, a parade, and a flag raising ceremony before the rodeo took off. Gilbert Burke was the first arena director.

Louie Geeraert details how he decided to build a chuckwagon to serve the annual breakfast. He, along with Joe Koester, Bert Davenport, and Stan Harry worked to make the breakfast a success with the community pitching in supplying the food and utensils. The wagon even caught fire but everyone was safe.

Their second year more joined in to help, and Fred Keeler and his orchestra provided music at the breakfast. In the early years they would hitch up the wagon and pull it in the parade, however, they soon found they would never finish serving in time to get in the parade queue.

The rodeo grew and by 1960, the track was improved to make way for pony wagon and chariot races, and a fair was added in 1962.

In 1965 they began to build the new facility and in 1967 it became a Foothills Cowboy Association (FCA) event, with a full slate of events including bareback, saddle bronc, bull riding, steer wrestling and calf roping, boys steer riding and wild cow milking. This was along with the gymkhana and chuck and chariot races.

The rodeo grew into a Saturday event, and by 1973, they added an evening show to accommodate all the entries. By 1976, it was a full weekend show.

Another mainstay to the rodeo was the addition of Stampede Wrestling, which attracted even more fans.

This year the spirit lives on with an FCA sanctioned events, a parade, breakfast, and beer gardens. This year slack begins at 11 a.m., Friday, followed by chuck and chariots at 6:30 p.m. and family dance at 9 p.m.

Saturday it all gets going again with breakfast starting at 7 a.m., with the parade at 10 a.m., and rodeo events beginning at 12:30 p.m. There is a beef barbecue dinner at 5 p.m. with the chariots and chucks and then the cowboy ball at 9 p.m.

Sunday opens with breakfast at 7:30 a.m., with the rodeo at noon, beef on a bun at 5 p.m., and then the chucks and chariots at 6:30 p.m.

Garrett Holowath (20) of Rumsey, Alberta, will play baseball for the U21 Alberta team at the Canada Summer Games in Winnipeg from July 28 to August 13.

After one of the coaches in the same men’s league approached him to play for the team, Holowath made his way through try-outs to make the Alberta team.

“I’m left handed and that really helped me,” said Holowath. “I think it gave me a little advantage compared to the rest of the guys.”

After lots of experience and games, Holowath was ready to tackle something higher on the ladder.

“I’ve been playing ball for most of my life so it just kind of worked out and an opportunity presented itself to go and I took it and now we are in Manitoba,” Holowath said.

The team officially formed in October of last year and have been practicing ever since. They have competed at senior men’s tournaments for the last month and a half in order to prepare for the upcoming Summer Games.

For the next 17 days, Holowath will be playing at the John Blumberg Softball Complex in Winnipeg. Sure to be in the cheering section would be Holowath’s family as his grandparents reside in thecentre province.

“My grandparents live in Manitoba so I’ve been coming out here to Portage, Oakville area for my entire life every other summer,” said Holowath.

Holowath is excited and proud to be representing his home province of Alberta.

“It’s a great opportunity and I’m pretty pumped to be out here.”

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.

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.

 RCMP from Beiseker have arrested two suspects following a complaint of a suspicious vehicle and a lengthy foot chase. 

At 1:40 am on June 15, Beiseker RCMP responded to a complaint from a rural resident reporting a suspicious vehicle near Highway 566. When officers located the white Ford truck, it fled into a field where the occupants abandoned it and ran away on foot. The Ford was found to have been reported stolen out of Calgary a few days earlier. 

RCMP police dog services from Airdrie as well as Airdrie Rural members attended to assist. The police dog tracked the suspects for two hours before locating them hiding in a wooded area. 

Joshua METHOT, (28) from Whitecourt, AB, has been charged with assaulting a peace officer, resist arrest and possession of stolen property. He has been remanded into custody and is scheduled to appear on June 22 in Airdrie provincial court by CCTV. 

A 16-year-old female who cannot be named has also been charged with assaulting a peace officer, possession of methamphetamine and possession of stolen property. She was released to the custody of her parents and is scheduled to appear on July 20 in Airdrie Youth Court.

The Beiseker RCMP continue to request that any suspicious vehicles or activity be reported and wishes to extend a thank you for the tips already received.

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