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Art gala showcases talent, strengthens connections

Some spectacular pieces were on display Thursday night for a Youth Art gala put on by the Drumheller and Area ASSET Development Coalition, but the focus was not just on creating the art pieces but on strengthening family and community connections.

The gallery space at the Badlands Community Facility has been donated for the cause by the Badlands Art Association and is filled with a variety of art in different mediums, from a welded rose to a painted walking stick, paintings, sculptures, and photography. On November 8 elementary and junior high students from Morrin, Delia, and Carbon schools came together with their families to celebrate their creations.

“It’s about prevention and promotion to get them connected to people in their lives so they can have those supports,” said organizer and Morrin school wellness worker Katie Suntjens.

The event is combined with National Addiction Awareness week happening later this month. The ASSET coalition consists of a number of partners from Drumheller and the surrounding communities and aims to promote supports in the community aimed at reducing risky behaviour or situations occurring with youth by fostering community connections. Members of the RCMP attended in Red Serge as well as representatives from Starland County and Drumheller councils.

Owen Phoenix, a grade 5 student in Morrin, won a couple awards that night for the metal rose he welded together with the help of his family.

“All my family helped except for my brother. I think it turned out greater than I hoped it would and I’m going to do it again,” he said.

Winners this year included, in the elementary category: Best Overall – Tia Van Bavel (Carbon School); Make the Most of You – Owen Phoenix (Morrin); Make the Most of Your Family – Kate Rice (Carbon); Make the Most of Your Community – Tia Van Bavel (Carbon). For junior high: Best Overall – Austin Armstrong (Morrin); Make the Most of You – Meghan McNaughton (Morrin); Make the Most of Your Family – Nathan Reding (Delia); Make the Most of Your Community – Taylor Macfarlane (Morrin). Carbon School was awarded a $200 classroom prize, and Owen Phoenix was voted in for the People’s Choice Award by the attendees.

The gala has been put on for three years now and sees a number of entries from rural schools around Drumheller, but did not receive any entries from valley schools this year. Entries have continued to become more complex and expand to mediums outside of paint or drawing. The pieces are on display at the Badlands Community Facility now.

Update: Greentree Mall will remain standing but future uncertain, Co-op says

News this week that the remaining tenants of Greentree Mall were given notice to exit next year has led to questions of the mall's future, but Westview Co-op says the building will remain standing once the last businesses leave by March 2019.

The decision was made based on the facts that Greentree Mall was operating at a "significant loss" of approximately $500,000 a year and two of the three remaining tenants had given notice they had plans to relocate, says general manager Dennis Laing.

"It is not sustainable in that way and a decision had to be made that was in the interest of the members of the entire Co-op, not just the tenants of the mall," he says, adding they wanted to "formalize an exit date" for tenants and close the mall in 2019.

"By limiting that half a million dollar loss on the bottom line that will afford us the opportunity to invest in the business units that our members and guest are strongly supporting."

In the short-term future, the mall will remain standing until the Co-op decides what to do with the building. As of now, Westview Co-op isn’t certain they’ll put the mall up for sale immediately once the last tenants move out in March.

He got the goat: over $7,000 raised for cadet’s Juno trip

One man is a goat richer and the Drumheller Sea Cadets reached their fundraising goal with the culmination of the “Whose got your goat?” fundraiser.

Chompur the goat was delivered to Ken and Mia Richmond of Rumsey after they failed to purchase ‘goat insurance’ which would have prevented them from being the recipient of a new four-legged friend. He was delivered late Thursday evening to the Richmonds after their names were drawn this week.

“Well it was a little bit surprising, but I just thought I never win much and why not roll the dice and just not buy the insurance,” says Ken Richmond, who has three kids who love animals and says Chomper will be in a good home on their acreage.

The fundrasier brought in $7,300 for 16 local Sea Cadets to help fund a trip to Normandy, France in May next year. They will participate in a re-enactment of the D-Day landing, where they will arrive in watercrafts and walk in the footsteps of the soldiers who fought there in World War II.

Sea cadet Katie Hanik says the experience will be meaningful as two of her great-grandparents fought there.

“We are going to be learning about what they went through and what their lives were like. I think it’s going to be an incredible opportunity,” Hanik says.

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