A Drumheller Woman pursuing her music career has received a big boost by winning a prestigious songwriting contest.
Danae Kimpinski won first place in the singer/ songwriter category of the Great American Song Contest. This is an international competition that attracts scores of singers and songwriters. Kimpinski’s entry is a song entitled “Mother Dear.”
“I am very excited to see what door it opens up,” Kimpinski tells the Mail.
She graduated from St. Anthony’s in 2017 and from there went on to complete a songwriting program at Prairie College in Three Hills.
“We made a CD as a final project of the program, and I entered my song into contests, and this one came back and said I was first place out of 1,900 applicants, which is crazy,” said Kimpinski.
She won a monetary prize as well as memberships in songwriting communities and networking websites.
Kimpinski says she has been writing since a very young age.
“I would write songs to like study for school or process little kid things. But I really started to take it seriously when I was 16, I thought ‘this could be something I could pursue,”’ she said. “We were always connected to music, we would perform with the Wheatland Band, they would push us along to sing our own stuff and mentor.”
She also spent time living in the art community of Rosebud where she was able to let her creative juices flow, writing a play with original music.
“And we would play at the Farmer’s Market and do things like that,” she said.
She also spent six months in Germany working as an Au Pair and was able to perform for the family’s church.
With this win, she hopes to capitalize on the exposure and the contacts she has made while she continues to pursue her music.
“I am actually recording another song in May in High River,” she said. “I really want to take the opportunity to tell people, ‘I’m not just an average songwriter, I can win awards!’” she laughs.
Her music is available on many streaming platforms, including Apple Music, Pandora, and Spotify.
She is uploading more music to YouTube for fans to watch. She also performed at the Rosebud Country Inn on Mother’s Day with her sister Jenna.
For more information, check out www.danaekimpinski.com.

A group of nine Drumheller firefighters have signed up once again for the Firefighter Stairclimb Challenge and will be participating at the Badlands Community Facility.
The Firefighters Stairclimb Challenge is an event put on by Wellspring Calgary. This event was inspired by the sister of a Calgary fallen firefighter and the proceeds from the event support firefighters and residents in the community who are battling cancer.
Team captain Duane Bolin himself, along with Merv, Mitch, and Kyle Smith have signed up, as well as, Ken Vereschagin, Jon Molzahn, Keith Hodgson, and Savannah Richardson. Jeff Gerlinger of the East Coulee Hall and Phil Thompson of the Rosedale Hall are also on the team.
This year the event is a hybrid of in-person and virtual. The in-person event is at Canada Olympic Park. The Drumheller Fire Department will be taking on the challenge on Wednesday, June 1, at the Badlands Community Facility.
“We are doing it on a stair climber, between 3 p.m. and 5:50,” explains Bolin. “Each firefighter will go on the stepper, and it should take each guy 25 minutes to do the 1,205 steps. We thought it would be good exposure,” said Bolin.
To support the event go to www.calgarystairclimb.com and search out the “Drumheller Dino Climbers” team, contact individual members to donate, or come out to watch on June 1.