Don’t worry guys, shoes will be provided… but if you have your own pair of bright red stilettos that you are used to, the walk might be a little more comfortable.
    The Big Country Anti-Violence Association (BCAVA) is hosting its second Walk a Mile in Her Shoes. The event is an opportunity for the community to come together to support ending sexual and gender violence. BCAVA President Cindy Stelmaschuk says the main goal of the event is to get people talking.
    “Our motto is ‘end the silence, stop the violence,’ and this brings it to the forefront. It gets people talking and realizing domestic abuse is a big issue,” said Stelmaschuk. “The more people who are talking about it, the less hidden it is.”
    And the silence can be painful or even deadly. While about one in three women experience sexual assault in their lifetime, only eight percent of sexual assaults are reported to police. In the majority of cases of victims who have not reported a sexual assault, they say they did not feel it was important enough. Walk a Mile in Her Shoes is a chance to show solidarity.
    “Just having the men walking in a unified way with women, shows the support that they will not strike women and don't want to have violence in their lives,” she said.
 The event is slated for Wednesday, May 16 at 11 a.m. The group will muster at the Drum FM parking lot and will venture east on Highway 10, with the brave men trekking in high heels, and conclude with a barbecue at the Drumheller Co-op.
    In 2010 the BCAVA hosted its inaugural event and 50 men participated.  BCAVA look on track to repeating this success. 
    “We have 24 committed walkers and we haven’t even begun really shaking the trees yet,” said Stelmaschuk.
    On top of showing solidarity and raising awareness, the event also supports programs and resources to help those who have violence in their life. The 2010 event raised about $19,500 and assisted the BCAVA in developing a website linking victims and the community at large to resources and service. They also began the development of an emergency fund to assist families in accessing emergency shelter.  The funds also supported training and prevention efforts.
    Pledge sheets are available from Marian Ewing at the Drumheller Health Centre, Cora Bolt at Addictions Services Drumheller or BCAVA president Stelmaschuk. Participants are asked to obtain a minimum of $100 in pledges.
    More information on this initiative is available at www.walkamileinhershoes.org, www.bcava.com or by contacting BCAVA President, Cindy Stelmaschuk at (403) 823-3095.

After a year-long celebration of the centennial of coal mining in the valley, the committee is holding its final event to honour the miners and the volunteers who made the celebration a success.
    2011 marked 100 years since the first commercial coal mine in the valley was established, and the community celebrated the milestone. This Friday they are honouring the volunteers who helped make the celebration a success at a private function. At the same time, the new gallery at the Badlands Community Facility is opening and its first exhibit will be part of the celebration.
    “It is exciting because Town Council felt it was really appropriate to open the new gallery in the new facility with the story of Drumheller and this is what this is,” said Linda Digby, executive director of the Atlas Coal Mine.
    The exhibit is called Through the Lens: Coal Town Years and it is a collection of images of the valley. These come from the Atlas Coal Mine’s extensive collections, as well as many of the images collected from residents to help celebrate the mining centennial.
    “Collecting images that depict life in Drumheller during the coal mining years is an ongoing process at the Atlas Coal Mine, which is an Affirmed Museum with the Alberta Museums Association.  These images are priceless for research and interpretation of local history.  It is impossible to show them all in one exhibit. Selecting images from our archives to show in this exhibit was fun, and involved some tough decisions,” said Digby.
    Some of the images also come from the Royal Tyrrell Museum’s archives depicting the early years of dinosaur hunting in the valley, continuing the narrative of Drumheller, as the coal industry collapsed and tourism became a major industry.
    Digby credits the Royal Tyrrell and its staff for helping display the collection. The photos will be displayed in groupings with like-themed images and displayed on canvas. The Communities Anniversary Grant the committee received from Heritage Canada helped to pay for the materials to complete the exhibit.
    “It is gorgeous, I think people will be delighted with how their history looks,” said Digby.
    The images will tell the complete story of life in the mining years; from the miners working to the social life, the homes and the commercial sector.
    “I think people will love to see the town from the view of an earlier era,” said Digby.
    The gallery will make its premier at a volunteer appreciation night on Friday, March 23, and will open to the public on March 24. Digby encourages the community to come see the works. The exhibit will only be installed until March 31, as there are more bookings for the space. Digby said there may be a chance the images will be displayed later in the year.