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Heart and Stroke Foundation Big Bike embraces valley

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The RBC gold medal team presents a cheque to Heart and Stroke Foundation area manager Josie Doll. The Big Bike is structured to hold 29 bikers including the driver to make a total of 30 people at any given time.

RBC, Scotia Bank, CIBC, and Western Financial participated in the Big Bike Ride held by the Heart and Stroke Foundation on a trail around town in support of critical heart and stroke research on Tuesday, June 6 at the Badlands Community Facility in Drumheller.

“A lot of it’s about team building, about getting out, getting active, getting your heart rate going, and that sort of thing,” said Josie Doll, Heart and Stroke Foundation Area Manager.

The groups raised over $10,000 with RBC taking on their fourth year and becoming a gold medal team after raising more than $5,000. Medals are awarded to teams that reach and or exceed the $5,000 goal.

“That's a lot of money to raise from a small town especially,” said Doll. “We were lucky to have a very beautiful day – clearly great people involved in doing that for us.”

Each bike holds 29 riders with the addition of a driver who announces and plays music during the ride.

“It’s quite a unique experience really for people to get on there and to see it moving,” said Doll. “There is no motor, so we actually do pedal that thing. It can be hard work but everybody had a lot of fun on it so we’ll be back again next year.”

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The Heart and Stroke Foundation plans to reach a southern Albertan goal of $75,000 in support of Heart and Stroke research this year. So far, a grand total of $60,000 has been raised across the southern half. The bike itself can be found all across Canada but two can be found in the province during the summer months.

“It’s really like you are part of something very large,” said Doll.

The money raised usually goes towards research at Universities like the University of Calgary and the University of Alberta.

“There are a number of things where the money goes,” said Doll. “We placed AEDs throughout the country – that was part of the plan last year so we have 8,000 of them across Canada.”

Drumheller Triathlon founder wins race

t took six tries but founder and organizer of the Drumheller Dinosaur Trail Triathlon Morgan Syvertsen won his own event.

Syvertsen competed in the Olympic distance triathlon last Saturday morning, June 10 and completed the course in 2:52.46, winning gold.

“It’s the best thing that happened for me in a long time,” said a jubilant Syvertsen.

It wasn’t a cakewalk for Syvertsen. He was competitive in the swim and was doing well in the cycle on the cold and windy day, but was overtaken.

“One of the other competitors managed to get about 2 kilometres ahead of me on the bike,” said Syvertsen. “I couldn’t even see him, he was gone. So catching him was a surprise.”

Syvertsen made up the difference on the run and won by under a minute.

The Hans Kushke team won the Olympic Relay and Cesar Martin won the sprint. The fastest sprint relay team as Team Keely.

In all, there were 46 entries on the course.

“It was as great turn out, a great race very competitive,” said Syvertsen. “We had a lot of out of towners, and a big contingent comes down from Three Hills every year.It is all about building awareness.”

Morgan would like to grow the event however that will take the support of volunteers. While he had a great contingent on race day, he would like to have a triathlon committee put together to help with the organization and promotion of the event.

“There is definitely interest and if we can get more people involved in the organization and planning, we can pull it off and have more people out.”

All of the results can be seen on the Drumheller Dinosaur Trail Triathlon Facebook page here.

Boyko signs with Tri-City Americans of WHL

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   A Drumheller goalie was selected in the third round of the WHL Bantam Draft and signed with the Tri-City Americans.
Talyn Boyko, 14, son of Kelly and Sharla, has been playing Bantam AAA Hockey at the Pursuit of Excellence academy in Kelowna. He was the 53rd pick overall in the Bantam Draft, and then signed with the team.
   “He was really excited to go to Tri-City, it was one of the places he wanted to go, it is a good franchise with lots of opportunities,” said his father Kelly.
   This year his team, the Bantam Prep team won the CSSHL with Talyn in net. He had a 13-2 record with a 2.90 GGA and .896 save percentage. He notched two shutouts.
    “13 of the top 22 guys drafted came out of the CSSHL,” said Kelly, and 12 players came from the Pursuit of Excellence Academy.
    “He played lots and had a really good year,” said Kelly. “He was really fortunate to be part of that great group of guys and it was an honour to be drafted by Tri-City, It’s a great organization.”
   The Tri-City Americans play out of Kennewick Washington and plays in the US Division of the WHL along with Seattle and Everett, Portland and Spokane. Carey Price of the Montreal Canadiens is a Tri-City Alumni.
   This doesn’t mean he is off to the big league just yet. This coming season he will stay at the Pursuit of Excellence and play Major Midget AAA.
   “He will go to the camp at Tri-City at the end of August,” said Kelly.
    A 15-year-old can only play five games in the WHL, so the following season he hopes to work hard and carve out a spot on the roster.
   “It will be tough, but that is his dream and the first step towards his ultimate goal,” said Kelly. “It’s a stepping stone to the next level.”

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