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Wayne’s Jack Evans enters Alberta Hockey Hall of Fame

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    A former Wayne resident who worked his way up through the hockey ranks is being honoured posthumously, by being inducted into the Alberta Hockey Hall of Fame.
    “A rough rugged hombre, 'Tex' as he is known to his teammates is gradually honing his defensive skills to a superior level,” reads a description of Jack Evans on his 1956 hockey card when he played for the Rangers. “Opponents rate him one of the toughest defenders in the league.”
    Evans, who passed away in 1996, is one of this year’s inductees into the Alberta Hockey Hall of Fame. This comes just two years after the Drumheller Miners Allan Cup championship team was inducted. Brent Pedersen of Drumheller nominated Evans in the outstanding achievement category.
 According to hockeydb.com, Evans played for the Lethbridge Maple Leafs from 1947 to 1949 before playing three games with the New York Rangers. He jumped back and forth between the NHL, AHL and WHL and eventually worked his way into a full time role with the Rangers. It was with the Chicago Black Hawks that he really shone. He was part of the 1961 Stanley Cup winning squad, playing along side Bobby Hull and Stan Mikita. He made All-star appearances in 1961 and 1962.
    He retired from playing hockey in 1972 and went behind the bench to coach. He led the Salt Lake Golden Eagles of the Central Hockey League to two championships and  was selected "coach of the year" three times. He coached in the NHL for the California Seals, the Cleveland Barons and ran the bench for the Hartford Whalers from 1983 to 1988.
    Rugged is a good description of Evans, according to Jim Fisher, who is also part of the nomination committee for Hockey Alberta.  Evans, in his playing days, was 6’ 1” and 185 pounds but he stood up to the best of them.
    “As a hockey player he was well respected. Rather than talk, he played the game well,” said Fisher. “His defense partner was Pierre Pilote who was the flashy type of guy. They would talk about Pilote a lot, but I thought if you look closely, it was Evans who was anchoring that defense.”
    "No one took any liberties with him.”
    Off the ice, Fisher describes him as astute and quiet.
    Evans is among three inductees in the achievement categories, which also includes the 1977 to 1980 University of Alberta Golden Bears and the 1970-1971 Red Deer Rustlers.
    To be nominated, the person must have lived in Alberta for at least five years, must have personal and professional accomplishments in the game of hockey, must have made an impact in the game beyond a local or regional level and must have received significant other recognitions. Nominations could be made for either an individual or team, active or retired.
    The induction ceremony will take place at the Hockey Alberta Awards Gala on Saturday, June 12 at the Capri Hotel and Convention Centre in Red Deer.
    The Alberta Hockey Hall of fame is located within the Alberta Sports Hall of Fame in Red Deer.   

The Pioneer Club needs more leaders

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    The Pioneer Club, run by the Salvation Army, is desperately looking for more leaders to expand.
    The club is open to children from grades 2 through 6, both boys and girls, and the focus is to build children’s self worth and self esteem through their understanding of them as a child of God. 
    Started at the end of January 2010, the Drumheller Pioneer Club runs on Wednesday night from 6:30 p.m. to 8:10 p.m., and has proved popular for children with currently 12 registered and 11 on a waiting list. 
    Through fun activities, such as singing, crafts and games, children learn about team work, self improvement and developing skills. 
    Lt. Rachel Sheils explains how children benefit from the club, “Children have fun and a safe evening. They get to play with other youth their age, so they are working on their social skills, and having them know more about God and be more confident in themselves plus it provides them with a fun environment to learn.” 
    One of the activities the club has been working on for the past month was learning about healthy snacks, with a skill component and a Christian component being rewarded with awards and badges.  Children learned and talked about healthy snacks, as well as doing a memory verse from the Bible learn to look up versus  in the Bible.
    To enable more children to benefit from the club, the Salvation Army is now looking for more leaders. Lt. Shiels says, “If people have an interest or a gift or a talent working with kids, we would love their support. Right now we are looking for three or four leaders.”

For information on how to become a leader or how to register a child with the Pioneer Club, please contact Lt. Rachel Sheils of the Salvation Army at 403-823-2215.

$1 m grant application for upgrades to Arena denied

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    An application for a grant of $1,000,000 the Town of Drumheller applied for from the Recreational Infrastructure Canada (RInC) program to carry out energy efficiency upgrades to the Drumheller Memorial Arena has been denied.
    The grant application formed part of a $3,062,800 capital cost project to upgrade the refrigeration system of the Drumheller Memorial Arena, to include energy savings for building operations, replace the compressor equipment and provide the ability to make ice for the arena, curling rink and a future ice surface.
    Paul Salvatore, Community Services director, told inSide Drumheller that the program the application was made under expired on January 31, 2010, therefore council will need to determine how they want to proceed and will have to look at alternatives for funding and in terms of priorities.
    The setback doesn’t affect the arena, as Salvatore pointed out, “At this point the equipment is still functioning well, we are obviously keeping on top of the operating and maintenance side of things for that equipment, it has served everyone well and it’s been very effective this year. We want to make sure we are pro-active about replacement down the road.”
    The letter from Western Economic Diversification Canada (WD) explained that  they had received a total of 1,588 RInC submissions from the West, requesting in excess of $400 million.  It also stated they had given consideration to the Town’s application but due to the extraordinary demand for available funding, they were unable to fund the Town’s request.


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