The Leonhardt family held its family reunion over the weekend, July 7 to 9, at the Verdant Valley Community Centre. A total of 207 family members were in attendance, with the furthest attendees coming from Toronto, and some from Chicago. Normally, the family gets together every five years, though this reunion was postponed an additional three years due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and celebrates the Leonhardt family legacy as one of the first families in the Drumheller area to homestead. The Leonhardt family can trace their direct family history back to the 1700s where Konrad Leonhardt left the Frankfurt area in Germany and emigrated to Russia during the time of Catherine the Great; during this period, German settlements were encouraged along the Volga River, and for over 150 years the Leonhardt family farmed and lived in the village of Grimm in Russia before oppressive political conditions prompted them to make the difficult decision to leave everything behind and come to North America. The family spent some time in Chicago before making their way north to Canada. Today, three family members from the first generation of Leonhardts to make their way from Europe to Canada remain—Ron Leonhardt, Shirley Davidson, and Eleanor Richmond; there are five surviving branches of the family, with one branch still in Chicago. During the reunion, the family enjoyed a family heritage treasure hunt among many other outdoor activities, as well as just enjoying catching up and renewing ties. Family trees from the various branches of the family were on display, as well as photo albums and posters with family photos. Each family wore different colours to represent the various branches of the family tree (l-r) in red were descendents of Jacob Leonhardt, in yellow the descendants of Amelia (Leonhardt) Salzman, in green the descendants of Julius Leonhardt, and in blue the descendents of Alex Leonhardt.

Wheatland County officially declared a municipal agricultural disaster following a motion by its council during the regular Tuesday, July 4 council meeting.
County of Stettler was the first municipality to declare an agricultural disaster mid-June this year, followed by Foothills County south of Calgary and County of Paintearth, north of Hanna, later the same month.
“Low growing season moisture compounded by extended periods of extreme heat, both of which have substantially depleted our soil moisture reserves have dealt a severe blow to all facets of agricultural production within Wheatland County,” a press release from Wheatland County states.
Dry conditions and drought have been an ongoing challenge for producers across Alberta.
Wheatland County was among a total of 43 municipalities to declare states of local agricultural disaster across the province in 2021, and the Alberta government announced $340 million in support for affected producers through the Canada-Alberta Livestock Feed Assistance Initiative.
The Alberta government released its crop conditions report on Tuesday, June 27 which shows much of the south and central regions, which includes Wheatland County (South) and surrounding Kneehill and Starland County (Central), experiencing dry conditions.
While the central region tips more towards the moderately low to low soil moisture reserves, the south region is facing more dire conditions with much of the region seeing soil moisture reserves in the extremely low to driest conditions.
Kneehill County continues to monitor the situation closely, but at this time has not declared its own agricultural disaster. Starland County has also not declared a municipal agricultural disaster, although council is aware of poor growing conditions faced by producers throughout the municipality, and continues monitoring the situation.