The Drumheller Filipino Association had the honour this summer of hosting the Consul Gen Emma Sarne of the Philippine Embassy.
President of the Drumheller Filipino Association Heidi Galleon tells the Mail on August 15, Consul Gen Emma Sarne was planning a trip through Drumheller with her husband. The Association quickly put together a reception and hosted her.
Consul Gen Emma Sarne works out of Calgary, one of four Philippine Foreign Service Offices in Canada. It provides services to Filipinos in Alberta and Saskatchewan.
“This office provides many services such as civil registration, legal documents, passports, citizenship, travel documents and social services.
“She also promoted the registration of nurses,” said Galleon noting there is a program where the process of recognizing the credentials of foreign-trained nurses has been streamlined in Alberta.
There is also support for foreign workers as well as promoting trade and tourism.
“It was short notice when we were told they were going to come visit the museum. So we took advantage of the situation and invited her to have dinner with us and meet some community members.
She also invited members of the community from Hanna and Strathmore for the reception.
Sarne is new to this post, starting in June of this year. Before this post, she served as Minister and Consul General of the Philippine Embassy in Phnom Penh Cambodia.
Accrdong to her bio, she was posted at the Philippine Embassy in London, United Kingdom from 2012 to 2018, and served as the Alternate Permanent Representative of the Philippines to the International Maritime Organization in London during that period.
She was first posted to the Philippine Mission to the United Nations in New York from 2004 to 2010 where she handled the Sixth Committee (Legal Committee) and Philippine initiatives in the UN General Assembly such as the resolutions on Oceans, Fisheries, and Interfaith Dialogue and Cooperation for Peace and Development. She was also the Alternate Permanent Representative of the Philippines during its term at the UN Security Council from 2004 to 2005.

The East Coulee School Museum was closed last Sunday to clean up after a break-and-enter and vandalism overnight.
Cindy Clark, executive director of the East Coulee School Museum, tells the Mail sometime in the late hours of Saturday, August 17 or the early hours of Sunday, August 18, culprit(s) broke into the institution. It appears they gained access through the window. It appears to her it may be young people.
“There were some beer cans, and they stole some of the consigned jewellery and things from the gift shop,” said Clark. “They pushed around some things and knocked some things over.”
The damages also included a liquid poured into the carpet in the gift shop, a bed in the miner’s room was broken, as well as a window.
“When I look at all the damage they could have done, they didn’t,” said Clark.
“Inside, when I think of all the artifacts they could have damaged, or they could have spray painted, but they didn’t do anything like that, so it doesn’t look like a targeted vandalism type of thing.”

“It appeared to me that maybe some tourists were camping around East Coulee and the kids were hanging out and fooling around.”
The Drumheller RCMP came out to assess and gather evidence from the crime scene and so far it is still under investigation. The museum was back open on Monday.
“It’s disappointing in the sense that somebody did that, but as far as loss the museum or damages to the museum it was very minimal. It is just heartbreaking that they could do something like this,” she said.
The afternoon before the break-in, staff also noticed the strap used during history school was missing from the classroom, which was also disappointing.
“Maybe they got scared off by our ghosts, I hope so,” Clark chuckles.