Monthly Archives: November 2013

Sports

Sabers fall in provincial semifinals

The 2013 football season came to a close for the Hanley Sabers senior boys team after a provincial semifinal 74-64 loss Nov. 2 to the North Valley High Eagles at Lemberg.

Sabers head coach Mark Anderson said the game came down to a “couple plays here and there” that could have turned the final result the other way, but he is proud of the effort his team displayed against a team that had some “good athletes” playing their best in a wide open game.

“We didn’t score in the fourth (quarter),” said Anderson, noting the first provincial game played at Lemberg for the five-year-old Eagles club provided a great playoff venue. “It comes down to tightening up a bit. They took off at the beginning (of the game) and got a lot of points and then we took it to them through the second quarter. The third quarter was soft in many ways and then the fourth quarter they scored and we didn’t.

“That was the difference in the game. A dropped ball here, a tackle there would have made the difference.”

The semifinal was a high scoring back and forth game that saw the Eagles soar out to a 32-22 lead after the first quarter. The Sabers roared back to make the score 52-44 in their favour at the half. Play tightened up in the second half as Hanley led by a close 64-60 score after three, but was not able to sustain the lead eventually falling 74-64 to the Lemberg team.

Leading the Sabers once again was safety Mike Lohrey who played a strong defensive game while also scoring two touchdowns when seeing some plays on offence and offensive end Kody Rowlet who had a big game with four touchdowns. Sabers linebacker Damon Prystupa and centre Kirk Simonsen, who added another two touchdowns for Hanley, also had really strong games.

Anderson said the team played great this season considering they lost seven “all-stars” to graduation last June, but rebuilding is always a part of high school football. He said the coaching staff is “very pleased” with the team for their effort this fall.

“It’s always interesting to see who will step up and play and we really came together as a team,” he said. “To go 8-1 is a fantastic season anytime to get that result.

“This year we lose seven players again, so it’s tough every year. Next year we have a very small senior group of four boys, but our Grade 10 and 9 (players) are a really strong group. I think we’ll be fine for years to come.”

Davidson

Davidson painter adds a little colour to local art scene

Davidson artist Gail Prpick is currently transforming her two-floor home on Washington Avenue into an art gallery as she prepares for her Art Show and Sale this Friday.

Prpick said she is removing a lot of her and her husband Tom’s furniture and would be covering the walls with paintings for her first art show to be held in her home in five years. She said the show that begins at 5:30 p.m. and goes on till whenever would be a “come and go” that will feature her own creations.

“It’ll be all paintings,” said Prpick. “All different sizes and colours. I like to do faces, but I also like figuratives and landscapes (or) pretty much any kind of painting. I’m always experimenting.”

Prpick has always sketched or painted “or been the one at school to do all the backgrounds” of the school plays, but decided to practise the craft more seriously about 10 years ago. She said a few of her friends then asked to purchase a couple of her paintings and everything accelerated from there.

“I’ve had lots of support in Davidson over the years and appreciate that,” she said. “I thought I’ll have a show and people can come and see and have a night out.”

Right now the house is filled with works laying on the ground, up on easels and hanging on the walls or just leaning against them. As you walk through the front door her newest paintings of Mother Theresa and Albert Einstein smile out to greet you.

“I do them with lots of colour and try to get a little emotion in their faces,” said Prpick. “Right now I’m just experimenting with a few, last minute stuff.”

Prpick said it isn’t difficult for her to sell her creations because if it wasn’t for the sale part of the show she wouldn’t have funds to paint in the first place. She said the desire to always create something new keeps her from getting attached to any one piece.

“I get tired of one thing, so I might be in the middle of a painting and I flip over to a different one and (then go) back to it,” she said. “I’m kind of all over the place. I want to go on to something new instead of stick with the old.”

Davidson

Imperial gets moving on fund raising for breast cancer research

The Imperial Cougars senior girls volleyball team joined the school’s inMotion committee last month to raise money for breast cancer research and the group’s determined effort can only be categorized as a hit.

Katherine Rieger, principal of Imperial School and a Cougars volleyball coach, said the sixth annual Imperial Cougars senior girls volleyball team’s five-kilometre walk Oct. 17 raised over $1,589 for the Breast Cancer Research Foundation. She said this amount is incredible considering the team usually raises around $150 to $300 at the yearly walk that coincides with a Cougars home tournament.

“Our belief is parents and our community does so much for us and this is the one thing, once a year that we can give back in a really positive way and raise awareness,” said Rieger, noting the girls still baked their signature pink ribbon sugar cookies for the event. “I’m proud of the (senior) girls for doing that and I’m proud of the inMotion committee for helping us do it because, although it was the same girls for the most part, you can’t do it completely by yourself without all the other people of town joining in and helping.”

The inMotion committee is a student group that tries to keep kids at the school and members of the community healthy through an active lifestyle. The committee helped plan the walk through first mapping the route, divvying up the different jobs, putting up posters and then approaching members of the community.

“The kids themselves contacted the Town of Imperial to see if they would give us the Hall for free to have the burger (lunch) at,” she said. “The kids talked to the Service Club to see if they would cook the burgers and the (rest of the) town just fell into place and started donating things. We had a donation of hotdogs for us and a donation of condiments.”

Rieger said there was a little help from herself on the volleyball side and teacher Jade VanDamme with the inMotion committee to organize the walk, but for the most part the whole campaign was student-driven. She said the kids spearheaded the project and deserve the recognition for pulling off such a fantastic event.

“The students are the ones who took the initiative and kept working on it,” said Rieger, adding the Cougars finished second at their home tournament losing to the Loreburn Aztecs in the final game. “Its fun and it makes me feel pretty good.”

Davidson

Laughter helps raise the roof of a new Hanley fire hall

Fire is no laughing matter, but the folks in Hanley found much to chuckle about Oct. 26 at the Hanley/Rosedale Fire Department’s steak supper and comedy night.
The event featured comedian Dez Reed who gave people a case of the giggles.
It was all for a good cause: to raise money to build a new fire hall in Hanley.
The new building is needed because the fire department has outgrown its current facility, which was built in 1977.
The current fire hall has two bay doors, making it a tight squeeze for the Hanley/Rosedale Fire Department’s three trucks, says Hanley administrator Darice Carlson.
When the vehicles are in the hall, it doesn’t give much room for the volunteer firefighters to move around.
The Town of Hanley has dedicated a parcel of land to build the new fire hall and has allocated $13,500 from its 2013 budget.
The new building will have three main bay doors with a fourth additional bay, giving the fire department much more room to store equipment as well as incorporating a training room in the facility.
The steak and comedy night raised $5,000 towards the new hall, adding to the current $12,800 that’s been raised so far. This total includes donations from Millsap Fuel Distributors, $1,000; Brightwater Blackstrap Wildlife Federation, $2,000; Thall’s Service, $2,500 and the Hanley and District Ag Society, $5,000.
If they continue adding to the fund, Carlson said they hope to build the new fire hall starting in June 2014.
The steak supper was well supported with the community selling 134 tickets for the event that included a silent auction and 50/50 draw.
Carlson gives credit to Darren Grindheim for organizing and overseeing the steak night as well as all the volunteers who helped out.
As well as a new hall, the fire department is also looking for new volunteers. More members are always needed. If anyone wants more information, they may contact Fire Chief Les Kroeger, Darren Grindheim, emergency measures co-ordinator, or the town office.

Obituary

obit Remmen

Helen Remmen
April 25, 1925 – October 30, 2013
Helen Remmen passed away peacefully in her sleep on October 30, 2013.
Left to mourn are her husband of 59 years, Rolf; daughter Marilyn (Gerald); son Arnold (Wendy) ; daughter Betty (Derrick); daughter Cathy (Dwight); son David (Tammy); and son Murray (Cathy); 16 grandchildren and one great-grandson; sister Nellie Ballard; sister-in-law Lillie Schultz; brothers-in-law Allen (Lil) Toles, Patty, Ivar and Punch Remmen, as well as numerous nieces and nephews.
Helen was predeceased by her parents, Ernie and Rosa Harbor; her parents-in-law, Tom and Anna Remmen; her brother Stanley (WWII); her sisters, Doris Toles and Catherine Suttie; her sisters-and brothers-in-law, Lyle Ballard, Jim Suttie, Stella (Sveinung) Trulsred, Torger (Bertha) Remmen, Irene Remmen, Harold Schultz, Marie (Cliff) Doncaster and niece Ann Archibald. A funeral service for Helen was held on Nov. 5, 2013 at 11 a.m. at the Hanley Lutheran Church. Pastor Kristin Soveran officiated.
Hanson’s Funeral Home, Davidson were in charge of arrangements. Her cremains were laid to rest at the Sunny Valley Cemetary.

featured

Employee caught snooping into X-rays

The Heartland Health Region is in the process of trying to come up with a set of recommendations to address a serious privacy breach where an employee inappropriately viewed the personal health information of 883 patients.

Greg Cummings, CEO and president of Heartland Health Region, said an investigation into the incident is still ongoing and they do not want to jump to a conclusion before the whole analysis is completed. He said the region needs to take action to understand what happened and why it happened, so from a “root cause analysis” they can decide what actions are needed in order to prevent it from occurring again.

“It obviously indicates that there’s a weakness in our ability to audit these kinds of actions by employees in real time,” said Cummings. “We clearly need to tighten up our auditing and security measures, but the problem even with that is that we know that’s something that happens after the fact. It’s too late by the time you’ve caught somebody via an audit, so there will be other things that we will need to do to ensure that employees are well aware of their responsibilities.”

Cummings said the region’s investigation first involved a look into the affected system to see all of the people who accessed the system and the number of times a health record has been viewed. He said then through a closer examination they were able to discover whether or not the person who was looking at the information had a legitimate reason for doing so.

“A legitimate reason would be that the care provider is part of the team that is working with the particular patient and was looking at the record in order to have the right information to be able to deliver appropriate and safe care,” he said. “In this case we found that the employee looked at a lot of information that the employee had no legitimate reason to be viewing.”

The information viewed was electronic records related to the diagnostic imaging (X-rays) department and the person who viewed the information was an employee in this department at this time. Heartland Health Region’s X-rays in most of their sites are done digitally and sent electronically and employees access the information through an electronic Picture Archiving and Communication System (PACS).

Personal information collected by PACS includes a patient’s name, address, phone number, date of birth, health services number as well as information about the type of diagnostic imaging exam, clinical results and the physician’s name.

Cummings said what the offence committed comes down to is “snooping” and they do not know what the employee’s motivation was. He said the region has since dealt with the employee “accordingly” for their actions.

To read more please see the November 4 print edition of The Davidson Leader.