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$1,000,000 windfall!

Lotto win for Rosedale couple

A Rosedale resident has struck it rich playing the new LOTTO MAX.

Don and Flora Cunningham learned they were $1 million winners of the relatively new lottery. Their winning ticket was from the November 6 draw, the same week the Manitoba resident won $50 million grand prize.
    "I was numb,” said Flora upon learning they were winners.
    The couple are regular lottery players, and every Friday purchase their quick picks for Lotto 649 and LOTTO MAX from the Drumheller Co-op. Last Friday Flora went to buy their tickets for the week and check her previous plays. The machine read out they were $1 million winners.
    “The ticket was laying around on the table, and we stuck it up on the fridge, we never realized we were sitting on a million dollars,” said Don.
    While the couple has played for years, their biggest prize before this windfall was $50.
    Ethel Seippert was working at Drumheller Co-op when Flora came in with the ticket.
    “I was shaking, I was just so happy for them,” said Seippert.
    Cunningham was born in Wayne and grew up in Cambria. He left after high school but returned to the valley when he retired, and has been a volunteer in the community and served on the MD of Badlands and then as a councillor for The Town of Drumheller.
    The couple verified that indeed their ticket was a winner and must travel to St. Albert to pick up their cheque next week. They have locked away the ticket in a safety deposit box until then.
    “I feel uneasy holding on to the ticket,” he laughs.
    For the Cunninghams, they have no plans yet for the money other than buying a new car.
    “Ours is 10 years old and we need a new one,” he humbly says.
    They plan to continue to reside in Rosedale.
    They say lightning doesn’t strike twice in the same place, but it comes pretty close. In March of this year their neighbour in Rosedale won $100,000. They also checked their numbers at Drumheller Co-op.

Hoodoos to be immortalized in song

    The Hoodoos have been a sentinel that have surpassed the tests of time and weather, and now they will be forever preserved in song.
    Through listener votes, the CBC has named the Hoodoos/ Badlands as one of 13 places to be immortalized in song by 13 Canadian artists.
    The premise for the contest was simple. Everyone knows if you make it anywhere you can make it in New York, thanks to the song. Corb Lund’s Hurtin’ Albertan also summed up the province in a time of boom. The contest answers the question, what other places, especially in Canada can be preserved through song?
Earlier this fall CBC Radio 2 asked listeners to nominate what locations in Canada they would like to see celebrated in song, and then further, which 13 artists whom should be commissioned to write about those places. One for every province.
    The Alberta nomination came in as the Hoodoos’/ badlands. It beat out Calgary, Edmonton, Banff and Drumheller as locations to write a song about.
    The artists nominated to write the Alberta song included Chloe Albert, Colleen Brown, Dragon Fli Empire and Woodpigeon. The winner was Jay Sparrow.
    Sparrow is originally from Thunder Bay, but grew up in New Sarepta. He was the lead singer for the band Murder City Sparrows which recorded an album, produced by Gordie Johnson of Big Sugar and Grady. He has since split with the band and is working solo.
    Described in his official bio as a “punk and a poet who wears his tattooed heart on his sleeve,” comparisons range from Steve Earle to Johnny Cash. Shades of Wilco come out as he mixes folk, country and rock and various measures in each, while maintaining a stance that is all punk.
    He has released two solo efforts the first called the Running in 2008, and most recently Good Days Gone By.
    Now listeners are in a holding pattern waiting to hear the songs.
    On October 26 the 13
artists and locations were announced. Come November 23 the songs will be revealed.
    “What better way to share our collective passion for Canadian music than to hear directly from Canadian communities on what places and artists mean most to them?” said Mark Steinmetz, director of music programming, CBC Radio. “The Great Canadian Song Quest is an incredible way to discover and bring together the places, artists and music that make the Canadian musical landscape unique.”

Students at Delia School raise funds for Europe trip

    Students at Delia School have been working hard to raise funds for their exchange trip to Europe.
    The trip is set for April 2011 with 19 high school students already registered. The cost for each student is $3,700 which through fundraising , teachers are hoping to cover up to $2,000 for each student.
“Our community has offered fabulous support and the students are very energized about the trip. We will continue to look for new ways to raise funds and hope to see more students register for the trip,” said Carmen Spritzer of Delia School.
    One of their first fundraisers was the bottle drive that raised $3,737. Students and teachers are coming up with fund raising ideas hoping to find some that haven’t been done before.
    Some of the fundraisers being used throughout the year are Moms Pantry, Spring bank Cheese and a Christmas event.
    Parents of students registered for the trip volunteered to work the “Delia Rocks” event on October 17.

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