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Davidson

RCMP seek help in solving RM of Rudy break-in

A farm shop break-in near Hanley has prompted a constable with the Outlook detachment of the RCMP to remind people to be vigilant when encountering strangers.

During the early morning hours of Aug. 10 a truck entered a farm located in the Rural Municipality of Rudy. Its occupants broke into a shop at the farm where they stole several items including wrenches, bench clamps and an orbital sander before getting away.

Outlook RCMP Constable Elliot Chubak said a resident of the property discovered the robbery in progress and when he shone a light into the Quonset the crooks took off. He said the robbers managed to steal under $5,000 worth of items before they fled.

Chubak said the resident did not get a good look at the get-away truck and they have no leads at this point. He said this could be different if people report suspicious vehicles to police when they are first encountered.

“The people that do this usually go out scouting first and drive by, go into the yard and ask for directions,” said Chubak. “It’s very important to try and get a plate number and a description.”

This information gives authorities something to look at right away in an investigation, he said, so people should report anything suspicious in the area from strangers selling bibles to asking for hunting information to police.

“It’s a great start for people to notice anybody coming in asking for something just to get a plate number.”

If anyone has any information about the Aug. 10 break-in, the Outlook RCMP is asking them to contact the detachment or Saskatchewan Crime Stoppers.

Sports

Tigers and Hitmen put on show for local ball fans

The Saskatoon Tigers and Regina Hitmen baseball clubs put on an exciting show for local ball fans earlier this month when the two Special Olympics teams took the field for a well-played afternoon doubleheader at Davidson.

“It was good,” said Tigers third baseman Braden Skillitier. “We had a lot of hits. We had a loss and a win. Regina was good.”

The scorching sun beating down on the teams Aug. 10 at the Davidson Ball Diamonds didn’t stop the players from giving their all in both halves of the two-game series that featured Tigers pitcher Trevor Unrau peppering the corners with smoke and teammate Morley Varcoe knocking the stuffing out of the ball to Hitmen ball players Morris Aisican running hard around the bases and Jason Mercer turning two from second. The boisterous crowd that filled the bleachers behind home plate showed their appreciation for the good effort whenever a nice hit was cracked or a strong defensive play in the field stopped a runner from advancing.

“It was great competition and great sportsmanship from everybody,” said Tigers coach Steven Koszman. “It’s a good social atmosphere and it’s a good opportunity for us to play in a game because our athletes practise (and) practise, but it’s really hard for us to find games. That is really what these games are all about. Give them that opportunity to compete.”

Rick Sanden, coach of the Regina Hitmen, said whenever the two teams meet the games turn out to be a fun experience for everyone involved and serve to keep the interest up among the players. He said a few members of their recent bronze medal winning team from the Special Olympics Canada 2014 Summer Games dressed for the Hitmen in the Davidson doubleheader and along with the new faces on the club allowed him to see where the team is at as they prepare to travel to St. Paul, Alberta, later this month for the Conrad Jean Slo-Pitch Tournament.

“Some of our guys (made plays) we haven’t seen before,” said Sanden. “There are a few things we’ve got to work on, but it was good (and) two close games.”

Koszman said the doubleheader at Davidson and everything else they do during the year is made possible through various fund-raising initiatives put on by Special Olympics teams including their popular SlugFest Charity Slo-Pitch tournament. He said the annual spring tourney raised over $15,000 this year and helps support the Special Olympics Saskatoon softball program through giving their athletes the money and opportunity to take part in sport, which sits fine with his third baseman.

“I love the game,” said Skillitier while the team packed away their equipment after the series.

Davidson, featured

Local entrepreneur donates profits to Swimming Pool

Farrah Low is going to have a nice ‘what I did this summer’ story to tell her classmates when she heads back to school in a couple weeks.

Farrah, 8, started a body scrub manufacturing company this past May called Flow Aqua and has spent the past four months making and selling the $5 bath products to needy customers through her mom’s (Arlene) and the Davidson Buy and Sell facebook pages. The business achieved almost instant success and the young entrepreneur has already accumulated $300 in sales, which she is donating to the new Davidson Swimming Pool fund.

“I’m very happy,” said Farrah, who is entering Grade 3 at Davidson School this September. “I’m proud that people love my scrubs and they’re buying them and I’m very thankful that they do that for me.”

Farrah learned how to make the body scrubs by watching a YouTube video on the products and decided to enter some of her creations as silent auction items at the Davidson Optimist Dance Club spring recital in early May. The hand-made body scrubs proved so popular at the auction that the emerging business guru decided to turn the idea into a company called Flow Aqua.

She said the scrubs are made from sugar, coconut oil and food colouring as well as a “very special ingredient” called essential oils. Farrah explained these oils are medicines that come from the earth.

“They always make you do different stuff,” she said about the various scrubs she makes with the help of her mom and grandma. “Be Balanced is like a grapefruit kind, Be Reflective is a spicy kind, peppermint is Be Peppy and we have Be Lazy. That is a lavender one. My favourite is probably either Be Balanced, the grapefruit one, or Be Refreshed, a lime one.”

Creating the body scrubs is only one aspect of the finished product, however, as Farrah also decorates their containers. She said once the jars are filled up she ties a ribbon about the container, attaches a spoon to the jar and then goes to “this special funky website” where she designs her own label for each one.

“Then we wrap them all up in bags,” said Farrah. “We take the order and we (hand-deliver) them.”

Flow Aqua’s main customer base in Davidson, Lake Diefenbaker and Rosetown shouldn’t fear an end to their body scrub supply when Farrah returns to school in a couple weeks, as the industrious eight-year-old plans to keep the company running for the foreseeable future. The only difference is she is planning to realize a better profit for her company now that her goal of raising $300 for the new swimming pool has been met.

“I’m going to keep the money,” she said about the new business plan.

Sports

McNabb hoists Cup as a Kings black ace

Brayden McNabb got the chance to hoist the Stanley Cup at centre ice in Los Angeles’ Staples Center this past June when the Kings defeated the New York Rangers in five games, but he still doesn’t consider himself a Stanley Cup champion quite yet.

McNabb, 23, lifted the Cup as a member of the Kings black aces, a taxi squad of minor league players brought up to the big club during a long playoff run to serve as extra players during practice and as emergency replacements in case of injury. The 6’4″ and 205 lb defenceman didn’t see any game action during the playoffs or the regular season with Los Angeles.

“It was a good learning experience for me just to see what a team like that goes through to obviously win the Stanley Cup,” said McNabb, who was joined on the Staples Center ice after the Kings win by his father Kim and brother Dean. “I wasn’t part of it on the ice, but to be around and practising with the team and being in all the meetings, it was cool. It was more of fuelling the fire in me to win a Stanley Cup.”

McNabb began the 2014 playoffs with a goal of capturing the Calder Cup as a member of the Manchester Monarchs. After the Norfolk Admirals defeated them in the Eastern Conference Quarterfinals, he joined the Kings in time for Game 2 of their Western Conference Quarterfinals series against the Anaheim Ducks.

McNabb said he practised with the team through the remainder of the Ducks series and the Conference Finals series against the Chicago Blackhawks. During the Stanley Cup Finals, he and the three remaining black aces took the ice after the Kings had finished practice and went through drills with assistant coaches John Stevens and Davis Payne.

On game days the black aces would come in at warm-ups and work out with the trainer before heading to the dressing room to watch the game on TV. He said the group still got to feel the craziness of NHL playoff action from the room because they could they could hear the highs and lows of the crowd that packed the stands above them.

“It was pretty emotional watching (the game from the room),” he said. “It’s almost more nerve wracking watching than playing, but like I said it was a great experience just to see a team like that go through all the ups and downs and the bad adversity they had to go though. So it was definitely a cool experience.”

A month and a day after the Kings lifted the Stanley Cup for the second time in three years, McNabb signed a two-year one-way contract with the big club giving him a good opportunity to stay in Los Angeles all year.

To read more please see the Aug. 18 print edition of The Davidson Leader.

Sports

Hanley Sporting Grounds plays host to National Sporting Clays Championships

Sporting clays enthusiasts from across Canada descended on the Hanley Sporting Grounds earlier this month for their annual shooting competition.

The around 70 participants who took part in the Canadian National Sporting Clays Association (CNSCA) 2014 National Championships Aug. 1 to 3 at the Hanley Sporting Grounds each put on a display of their shotgun shooting skills in a 5-stand competition on the first day followed by FITASC (Fédération Internationale de Tir aux Armes Sportives de Chasse) and the main event of English Sporting on the next two days.

Graham Perry, owner of Hanley Sporting Grounds, said the annual CNSCA national competition moves from shooting range to shooting range across Canada each year and is open to shooters of any ability as long as they are CNSCA members. He said there are CNSCA affiliated ranges across the country and it just so happened his range, which is located seven kilometres east of Hanley, was picked by executives from the organization to host nationals this summer.

“We are pretty proud of that to have it out here in Saskatchewan,” said Perry. “We’re fairly central, so we draw people from all around, but to hold an event of that sort is pretty special.”

Sporting clays is similar to golf with a shotgun, said Perry, and like golf involves courses where no two are completely alike. The Hanley Sporting Grounds, which opened its doors in 2009 and is Saskatchewan’s only fully automated sporting clays range, features multiple stations over its about kilometre-wide course that each give a participant an opportunity to experience near-life hunting situations.

To read more please see the Aug. 18 edition of The Davidson Leader.

Davidson, featured

Burglars enjoy long weekend holiday at Davidson

Members of the business community in Davidson headed back to work last Tuesday after enjoying a relaxing August holiday only to find that thieves had remained hard at work over the long weekend.

Gary Edom, administrator with the Town of Davidson, said three town buildings make up half of the six total businesses in town that suffered a break-in. He said the town hall, doctor’s office and dental/optometrist office were all broken into, but no equipment in the buildings, including a few laptops in the dentist’s office, was stolen.

“The (lock) was wrecked on the dentist’s office and the two interior locks into the optometrist’s rooms are both wrecked,” said Edom. “They broke into the dispensary and examination room (in the doctor’s office).”

Edom said there are no marks on both the front and back doors of the town hall and all were locked when town staff came to work Tuesday morning, but they know burglars were in the building over the weekend because the door frame to the recreation director’s office is damaged.

“In Trevor (Ouellette’s) office they pried the casing away from the jam and they kicked the door a couple times,” he said, adding it doesn’t appear that thieves managed to enter the room. “It’s just a matter of tightening things up again. They didn’t really wreck it.”

A member of the Craik detachment of the RCMP said Davidson is the only town in the area that reported break-ins after the long weekend and nothing appears to have been stolen in two of the instances with only cash missing in the other four. He said the crooks entered the buildings sometime between early Sunday morning and early Monday morning.

“In some instances the businesses had their door unlocked, so they were able to walk in,” said the officer, noting there were no alarms or cameras in any of the businesses affected. “In the other places they either damaged the back door or they snapped the lock on the front door.”

The Davidson Leader office was one of the businesses that was broken into over the August long weekend. The burglars snapped the lock on the front door in half and also attempted to pry their way in through the back door. It is believed that the building was entered, but nothing appeared to be out of place Tuesday morning and no equipment such as cameras and computers was stolen.

The Craik RCMP officer said long weekends in the summer months are an easy time for thieves to target businesses because most people head off to the lake or a cottage during this time. He said it is important that business owners take precautions such as having alarms or security cameras installed on their property for this reason.

To read more please see the August 11 print edition of The Davidson Leader.