$1.3 million fund-raising campaign kicks off

Every little drop counts, Davidson’s Swimming Pool committee is reminding folks as it kicks off a fund-raising campaign to build a new swimming pool.

Little drops may eventually fill buckets, but it would help the community if money came pouring in, because the pool committee has given itself an ambitious mandate to raise $1.3 million in two years. They hope to start construction on the new pool in the summer of 2015.

Davidson’s Swimming Pool committee launched the fund-raising campaign last week after town council, on Tuesday, OK’d its fund-raising plan.

To start, the committee is sending letters to local citizens, detailing the project. An important part of the package is a survey seeking peoples’ opinions on the new pool.

“We set down a list of must haves and we have a wish list. We want to see if our must haves are the same as the community’s,” said Jessie Foster, swimming pool committee member.

They want people to fill out the surveys and return them to the town so that the new pool will meet the community’s expectations.

The surveys will also give the committee insight into the sorts of extra accessories people want the pool to have should the community exceed the fund-raising goal.

One design being proposed suggests a rectangular-shaped, six-lane pool that is 84 feet long and 35 feet wide. Added to these dimensions, in the concept, is a J-shaped section that has a beach entry towards the shallow end that creates a separate paddling pool area for toddlers and waders.

The new pool will be built just north of the current pool’s location, on a parcel of land being donated to the project by Bryan Ulmer.

Town administrator Gary Edom said Ulmer offered to donate some land for the pool with the stipulation the land is used for a swimming pool and pool only.

“We can’t have anything commercial on the donated land,” Edom said.

To read more please see the July 23 print edition of The Davidson Leader.

Cure to Craik doctor dilemma still needed

The Five Hills Health Region and the potential new doctor for Craik are in negotiations to open a clinic in the town, but emergency services operating out of the Craik Health Centre still appear to be off the table.

Randy Weekes, Saskatchewan Minister of Rural and Remote Health, held a meeting at the Rural Municipality of Craik office last Monday where he met with Craik Mayor Rick Rogers, RM Reeve Hilton Spencer, Davidson Mayor Mary Jane Morrison, Five Hills CEO Cheryl Craig, Dr. Francisco Lang and the potential physician to try and open up a dialogue among the different parties.

“I asked for the meeting because of their concerns and just wanted to get together with all the stakeholders in the community to discuss their concerns about the doctor leaving,” said Weekes about Dr. Maree leaving Craik for a practice in Moose Jaw at the end of July.

“It was a very positive meeting we had with all the stakeholders. I think there was a lot of information given about various issues. Now the health region is negotiating with the physician to work in Craik.”

The terms of the contract, namely what services the physician can offer and their working conditions such as on-call services, has been left up to Five Hills to negotiate with the doctor. The minister’s involvement was mainly to make sure “open communication and good dialogue” is kept up.

“I think the health region has a plan in place to continue to provide very good primary health care to the citizens in Craik,” said Weekes. “If they negotiate a contract with the physician, that would be an important piece of that health care. In Craik, they have a nurse practitioner and other health care professionals that are providing health care as we move forward.”

Weekes added that it is a “challenge” to attract doctors to rural areas, so community involvement as well as working with their health region is “so important” to attract and then retain physicians.

To read more please see the July 23 print edition of The Davidson Leader.

Hoop dreams at Sask. games

The Prairie Central under-14 basketball team competing at the 2012 Saskatchewan Summer Games in Meadow Lake July 29 to August 1 may be underdogs, but they are not shy about getting into battle against meaner competition.

The team boasts five ballers from the area on the 10-player roster including shooting guards James Morrison and Mark Rettger, centre Ben Nykiforuk, and point guard Huck Rettger from Davidson as well as forward Austin Evans from Kenaston. Assistant coaches Ian Kadlec, from Bladworth, and Davidson’s Luke Edwards are helping skipper Ken Rettger, a junior basketball coach at Davidson School, to prepare the team for the tournament.

“We have a great group of kids,” said coach Rettger. “You never know going in as we have all kinds of kids from different towns and they don’t know each other, but there is some very nice team chemistry.”

Rettger said the four players from Davidson have been playing together for the past five years, so they have a “pretty good idea” of what each other is up to on the court, plus the player from Kenaston used to play with them on a Basketball Saskatchewan team a few years back. He said their main obstacle is they are an inexperienced team as a whole compared to their opponents.

“We’re young but we’ve got some pretty good ball handlers and some good shooters,” he said. “We have a couple of big kids too, like we’ve got a boy from Osler who plays centre as well and he’s six foot four. We have a little bit of everything, some big guys who play well inside, some very good ball handlers and some shooters. They’re coming together. The last couple practices they really started to play as a team.”

The main competition at the tourney will be the city clubs from Saskatoon and Regina, which seems to be the case at every tournament due to their higher number of players available. Team Saskatoon appears to be a real threat, considering the team is made up of almost exclusively club players from the Saskatoon Slam.

“I’m hoping we can learn to play against them,” said Rettger, adding the team will have a chance to match up with Saskatoon during exhibition play before the tournament at the PAC gym at the University of Saskatchewan in late July. “I don’t know if we could legitimately go in there thinking we could win, but I just want to play well against them and show them what we’ve got.”

Hanley 4-H Beef Club win at Junior AG Showcase

On Friday, July 6, members of the Hanley 4-H Beef Club moved into Prairieland Park for their Regional 4-H Show. Stalls were set up and animals settled in for the busy days of competition ahead.

Saturday morning began with the multi-species judging competition.  Members judged beef heifers, dairy heifers, sheep, light horse and quilts.  Members from the club placed well in the judging competition.

Saturday afternoon members competed in the Stockman’s competition by giving a presentation to the judges on showmanship, grooming, or selecting their project animal.  These scores were combined with judging scores, and Calina Evans placed in the top 10 overall, and was awarded a monetary prize.

In Team Grooming Saturday night, the junior team  of Kennedi Libke, Kaitlyn Yelich, and Kassy Read won their age group, and Calina Evans, Leah Libke and Anne-Marie Collins placed third in a large class of juniors. The senior and intermediate teams represented the club as well.

Sunday morning began early with showmanship competition.  All members competed and Calina Evans was Champion Junior Showman and Shelby Evans was Champion Intermediate Showman. Once all champions were named, they went back in to compete for the Supreme Showmanship title. The Senior Champion was named Supreme Showman, and Calina Evans was honored to be chosen Reserve Champion Supreme Showman.

The Heifer Show was next and Shae-Lynn Evans had Champion Charolais Heifer, with the Reserve going to Calina Evans.  Reserve Champion Cow/Calf went to Calina Evans’s two-year-old pair.

Monday was the day of the big steer show and sale.  Hanley club members winning their weight classes were Wylie Vermette, Kassy Read, Harley Libke and Shelby Evans. Wylie Vermette also went on to have his steer named  one of the Lightweight Division Champions. The steers sold Monday night, and members packed up to head home.  It was a very successful weekend to wrap up a great year. Thanks to everyone for their hard work and to leaders Travis and Shannon Libke for all their organizing and hard work.  4-H begins again in the fall!

It is with great sadness, and a sense of relief, that we announce the passing of Octave Andre LePoudre on Thursday, June 28, 2012 at the age of 92 years. Octave was born to Jules and Marie LePoudre on Christmas Day in 1919. His family had immigrated to Davidson leaving their beloved Belgium. Octave was one of 11 children in the family and was raised on the LePoudre homestead. He had three main loves in his life: Family, farming and visiting with his many friends.

Octave was predeceased by brothers Octave and Andre (in Belgium during the World War I), Andre and Clifford and by sisters Mary (Leva), Andrea, and Susan. He is survived by sisters Leona, Paula and by brother Paul. During World War II Octave joined the navy and made several trips across the Atlantic with the Royal Canadian Navy. His stories to his family about the war were very interesting and funny especially the stories about the times he got into trouble and he had to scrape and paint a room on the ship several times. He didn’t like talking about the dangers of war and kept those thoughts inside because he didn’t think his family should know about that aspect of war.

In 1948 Octave married Fern Reeves and they started their 63 years of life together on the family farm. The raised a family of seven children. Octave was very proud of the fact that they managed to raise and help all their children from a very meager beginning on this farm.

Octave was predeceased by son-in-law Jim Gottschalk and Pacee McLaren (great-grandson), is survived by his wife Fern and the following children:  Daughter Brenda: son Corey with his wife Crystal and daughter Morgan; daughter Crystal and children Dameon, Bryton, Madison, Chynna and Bryant;

Son Allan Joseph (Rose Marie): daughter Karen Kaye (Mark); daughter Kristi (Gerry) children Kiera, Declan and Kinley; daughter Tonia (Elmer) and son Raymond;

Son Glenn (Marnie): daughter Bobbi-Jo (Roland) children Jasmine, Derian, Randy and Robin; daughter Natasha (Kevin) children Kyle, Kassey, and Kloe;

Son Keith (Faith): daughter Jadean (Blair) children Lincoln and Colton; son Andrew (Natasha) children Nathan and Nixon; daughter Ashton;

Son Monte (Holly): daughter Dana ( Tony) and Wyatt; son Darnel;

Daughter Marie (Larry): son Kailin, daughter Jurrai;

Daughter Donna (Brett): daughters Brooke and Jordan, son Jesse.

Octave was always proud of his children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren and always found ways to support them or encourage them. He was known by all the grandchildren and great-grandchildren for the following:

1. When they visited Grandpa and Grandma, Grandpa would always have a loonie or toonie for each of them. This took planning to make sure enough loonies and toonies were on hand for major holidays when most of the Grandchildren would visit.

2. Grandpa always had gum or treats for the kids when they came to visit.

3. Grandpa and Grandma would also always reward the children if they passed into the next grade, usually with a $5 bill.

4. If any of the grandchildren needed something to help them move forward in their lives grandpa often helped out if he could.

5. Grandpa was known for teasing and for telling stories to the kids about aspects of his life.

When Octave and Fern moved to Davidson to retire, Octave could be found having coffee with his many friends at the Husky. He loved to visit and talk about farming, politics and what was going on in the community. These coffees would take place two to three times a day and would always end in the group flipping coins to pay for the coffee or playing the numbers game. This became a very important part of Octave’s life in his later years. Jim Ulmer once sent Octave a loonie because he thought he should pay up front because he often lost the coin flip.

Fern and Octave’s house often would host visitors from the community and from many parts of Canada. These people would stop and visit because they had met Fern or Octave sometime in the past and just wanted to stop by and say hi. Octave’s legacy will be his large family, many friends and his ability to talk to everyone. He had a long and eventful life and will be sadly missed!

Prayers were held Monday, July 2 at 7:30 p.m. and Mass Tuesday, July 3 at 11:00 a.m. at the Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Davidson. Interment will be at a later date. Donations to the Davidson Health Centre, Canadian Cancer Society, Heart and Stroke Foundation or any charity of your choice. Arrangements entrusted to Hanson’s Funeral Home.

Auto enthusiasts cruise to Craik car show

The Craik Museum Fun Day and Car Show proved to be a great success for event organizers as people from town and the surrounding area came out to the party July 8 to bask in some Prairie history and show off some hot rods.

Pauline Dixon, friend of the museum, said over 150 people headed over to the Prairie Pioneer Museum’s annual fundraiser to take a gander at the six buildings on the site including the former Sprattsville School, which serves as the main museum.

The day also featured food and crafts, games for the kids to enjoy and a showcase of 20-25 sport and vintage cars parked on 3rd Street in front of the Legion.

She said the final amount raised during the fundraiser has not yet been tallied up, but was optimistic a lot of money was put into its coffers for future upgrades to the site.

“The money raised is for upkeep and anything that is needed there like cleaning supplies or shingles and sometimes we do flooring,” said Dixon. “Also maybe the doors might have to be fixed and you need nails and screws and this kind of thing, so we need money for that.”

Shayne Stubbington came to the fun day to show off his rebuilt 1927 Ford Model T and ongoing project 1928 Ford Model A. He said cars have been his passion since he was 16 and he invests a lot of time into fixing up old cars.

“This Model T was my first one,” he said. “I’ve got lots of other ones though. I just always liked them. I grew up around cars.”

To read more please see the July 16 print edition of The Davidson Leader.