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Fourth Annual Relay For Life starts Friday night - Aiming to break $1 million

    The one place to be this coming weekend is the annual Relay For Life as it continues on its quest to raise $1 million.
    This is the fourth annual Relay in Drumheller. The event kicks off at the Drumheller Stampede and Ag Society grounds at 5 p.m. on Friday night, June 11, and continues until dawn Saturday morning. Organizer Merridy Martin said all the elements are in place to have a successful event.
    So far, there are 18 teams signed up for the event. These teams have been feverishly raising funds to support those with cancer and cancer research. The creed of the event is to Remember, Celebrate and Fight Back, and the whispers made by the teams speak volumes for those affected by cancer.
     The Relay For Life opening ceremonies begin at 7 p.m., and these immediately lead into the Survivor’s Lap. This is where cancer survivors stand up and are counted as victors. To inspire the event along, piper Dave Daly will lead the procession. This year they expect another strong showing with at least 85 survivors signed up to take part.
    This is followed by the team parade where team members take to the track to start their personal relay. This is also a time for costume judging. Every year enthusiastic teams, often with a theme, will show their true colours. Any guesses as to what Relay stalwarts the Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Elvis will be wearing?
    After the parade, the main stage lights up with locally grown entertainment. First up: Live in Stereo. Other entertainers to follow include Starland Sadie, Band O’ Coots, and taking the midnight slot is Fire Coulee Bandits.
    In a Relay For Life tradition, at 10:30 p.m., the Luminary Ceremony will take place. This starts with a minute of silence and one by one, the luminaries, small bags that are bought in dedication of those who have won the battle with cancer, those who have lost, or those who are still battling, are lit. In short work, the track is illuminated with all these wishes. Luminaries can be purchased in advance from ScotiaBank in Drumheller as well as online. They will also be available onsite.
    Throughout the night emcee Jason Blanke will be holding court directing the action, which includes all kinds of other activities including possibly a limbo contest, a head shaving, face painting, and to get the blood going in the early hours of Saturday morning, a rooster calling contest.
    Martin is grateful for the support the Relay continues to garner from the community and is confident the event will break the $1 million mark.
    “We are sure hopeful,” said Martin.
    To prepare for this year’s Relay, Martin said there is a volunteer’s meeting at the Stampede Barn tonight (Wednesday, June 9) at 7 p.m. to organize for this year’s event.

Wintering Hills wind project earns government’s OK

    The Wintering Hills wind power project has jumped another hurdle, as Suncor Energy has won regulatory approval to build its planned 88-megawatt turbine near Drumheller.
    Suncor Energy Products said Monday the Alberta Utilities Commission had approved the installation of up to 55 turbines on 6,475 hectares of private land 21 kilometres southeast of Drumheller.
    “This is an important milestone," said Suncor spokesperson, Sneh Seetal.
    “It brings us one step closer to Suncor’s largest wind power project to date.”
    In peak operation, the project can be expected to generate enough clean electricity to power approximately 35,000 Alberta homes.
    This output is the equivalent of 200,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide a year.
    The project is expected to be completed towards the end 2011.
    Construction will begin this summer.
    “Wind farms are able to be constructed in fairly short order,” Seetal said of the rate of development.
    Suncor said they had conducted “extensive” public consultation, using letters to land owners, open houses, public meetings with Wheatland County, ads in local papers, and consultation with 27 land owners within a 2 kilometre radius of the proposed site.
    Suncor Energy products currently has joint ownership of four wind farms already in operation, with a combined generating capacity of 147 megawatts.

Memories Recovered Project to preserve veteran’s experiences

    A documentary filmmaker is wanting to tell the story of veterans across Canada, and will be interviewing Drumheller service men and women this summer.
    Allan Cameron has been working on the Memories Recovered Project for the past few years and has interviewed on camera and documented the stories of more than 200 veterans. The videos are then provided to schools, museums, legions and families of the veterans to preserve the living history of veterans of World War II and the Korean War.
    The Memories Recovered Project Association is registered as a non-profit organization.
    “It has been really busy and we are trying to document as many as we can,” said Cameron. He has been in contact with Bill Eremko of the Drumheller Legion. “It is for all veterans.”
    Currently they are looking for a site to conduct interviews and are hoping to get underway in the next few months.
    The project is the brainchild of Cameron. He has an extensive broadcast background and has always has a keen interest in history. The immediacy of the project was brought to the forefront by his own experience.
    “My uncle was with the North Nova Scotia Highlanders and was a carrier driver on D-Day. He went in the second wave, and went from the beaches to Germany. He is mentioned in the North Novies war diary,” said Cameron. “We were going to get together to have an interview with him back in 2001 and he was pretty busy at the time, and I moved out west. He said, ‘When you come back for a visit we’ll sit down and have a chat.’ I had this funny feeling in my gut it wasn’t going to happen and several months later I received the phone call that he passed away. He was trying to impress upon me how important this is to be done, and that was why he was stepping forward to talk. That was a catalyst to make it all happen.”
    They did their first interview in 2006 in Calmar.
    “The first few years were just gaining credibility for the project and letting people know I was out there. Once they started seeing what I was doing, that I was serious about it and actually cared, I think it brought a lot of people closer to the project,” said Cameron.
    Since then, he has interviewed veterans from all points in Canada, although right now he is concentrating on Alberta for logistics.
    His original intention was to get the documentaries into schools, museums and libraries. He has also learned the importance of getting the project to the families, and donates a copy of his work to each veteran’s family. He also makes sure a sponsoring Legion gets a copy of the work.
    For more information on the Memories Recovered Project, go to www.thermp.org.

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