All posts by Tara de Ryk

Obituary

Turner

It is with great sadness the family of Joffre Turner announce his passing at the Davidson Health Centre on Saturday, September 29, 2012 after a very short illness.

He was born Sept. 14, 1916 at Staffordshire, England. The family moved to the McCraney district in Saskatchewan in 1922. He went to school at McCraney, Briggs, Wyondotte, Horseshoe Lake and Chatham. He began working at the age of 14 as a farmhand in Saskatchewan, Alberta, and B.C. He joined the R.C.A.F. in 1941 and stationed in Calgary.

On Sept. 6, 1942, he married the love of his life Nadine Seaward – having 60 years of marital bliss. They had three sons, Reg (Marlene), Ron (Sandy) and Gordon (Pam); one daughter Susan (Ed) Camber, six grandchildren and 12 great-grandchildren. After discharge in 1945, they started farming at Bladworth until they retired to Davidson in 1996.

He was predeceased by his parents George and Elsie; brother Jack; four sisters Nancy Lovatt, Joyce Mathers, Chris Butler and Marj Kadlec and daughter-in-law Irene Turner; son Gordon Turner and devastated in 2003 by the loss of his wife and best friend Nadine.

The celebration of Joffre’s life funeral service was held on Friday, October 5, 2012 at the Davidson United Church at 11 a.m. with Rev. Diane Eurig officiating.

Interment in the family plot, Bladworth cemetery. For friends so wishing memorials in memory of Joffre may be directed to the Bladworth Cemetery Fund or to the Davidson and District Health Care Foundation.

Hanson’s Funeral Home, Davidson, in care of arrangements.

Davidson

Sun West students continue to shape up

Students in the Sun West School Division are improving in their overall fitness according to the latest report from the recently implemented FitsStats program.

In the 2011-12 school year, 64 per cent of students ranked in the top two categories of physical fitness which classifies them as very fit, while the number of students in the lowest category of physical fitness dropped five percentage points from the school year previous to 20 per cent.

FitStats is a division-wide program that acts as an online tool for phys-ed teachers and individual students to track grades 6 to 12 student’s fitness levels through a common test in terms of health, which focuses on cardio-respiratory fitness and muscular strength, and in terms of skill related fitness, which takes into account power and agility.

Miles Bennett, Sun West School Division athletic commissioner/phys-ed mentor, said these results show students and phys-ed teachers are using the FitsStats program to improve on the division’s student fitness levels.

“No other jurisdiction in the province and no other school division in this province have this kind of data,” said Bennett. “Every phys-ed teacher out there is working almost independently. They are doing fitness tests and might be doing similar fitness testing, but you can’t really correlate the data because it’s not necessarily going to be all the same in how you do it.

“Based on the results that we’re seeing is the health of kids in Sun West is all pretty good and we can use that data to plan what we can do to improve the health of those kids in the lower (category). That is our objective.”

He said this program has provided “standardization” for all phys-ed teachers in the school division to test their students properly in order to understand where their students stand compared to other schools in the division.

Bennett first tried the program as a pilot at his school, Rosetown Central High, where he has served as a phys-ed teacher for 26 years. He then took the proposal for FitStats to the school division and three years later all the schools had signed on.

“We had a push-up test…in the 2010-11 year we had 2,800 entries and last year we had just about 28,000 entries,” he said. “It was a 1,000 per cent increase.”

To read more please see the Oct. 22 print edition of The Davidson Leader.

featured

Locals receive Jubilee medal

Jason Shaw and Gerrid Gust were honoured Oct. 10 for their strong volunteerism throughout the years. Each man received a Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal at Government House in Regina.

Milan Puckett was also awarded with a Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal for her work on Davidson town council first as an alderman for four years starting in 1976 and then as mayor of Davidson from 1980 to 1988.

During her tenure as mayor, Puckett was able to upgrade badly needed infrastructure in the town including a lift station, treatment plant, new well, streetlights and pavement. She regularly worked from early in the morning to late at night to help build the town into what it is today.

Puckett was unable to attend the ceremony due to health reasons, but will be presented with the medal here in town by Regina-Lumsden-Lake Centre MP Tom Lukiwski at a later date.

Gust said it was “really nice to be honoured” for his national and provincial agricultural work. He was nominated by Lukiwski and presented with the medal by Lieutenant Governor of Saskatchewan Vaughn Solomon Schofield at the ceremony.

“There is a lot of people that maybe should get it and didn’t, but it was really nice to see the volunteer work that I do get recognized,” he said.

Gust is currently the chair of the Western Canadian Wheat Growers Association, which is a voluntary farm policy organization that is dedicated to creating a more profitable and sustainable agriculture industry. He is also the Wheat Growers representative on the board of directors for the Western Grains Research Foundation, which is a farmer funded and directed non-profit organization investing primarily in wheat and barley variety development to benefit western Canadian farmers.

Shaw’s name was put forward for the medal by Bladworth resident Marj Crabbe in recognition for his continued dedication to the town in the form of volunteering with numerous sports clubs and serving as a town councillor for the past six years.

“The (Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal) was to be given to people who went above and beyond the call of duty in their communities and I thought that he actually was a perfect match because of everything he’s done over the years,” said Crabbe. “It’s not just this year that he has volunteered, he’s volunteered as long as he’s been an adult.”

Shaw presently coaches the Davidson Cyclones as well as minor baseball, is the secretary of the Davidson Junior Athletics Association, volunteers with the Kinsmen Club and was instrumental in organizing a group to re-vamp all the Davidson ball diamonds.

The Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medals were created to honour the Queen’s 60th year on the throne and are presented to deserving Canadians who have made an important contribution to a portion of Canada.

Sports

Volleyball players raise funds for Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation

The Davidson Raiders senior girls volleyball team played with heart this past week both on the court and off. Despite a losing record during week play the players still managed to bring hope to those who have more to worry about than a game of volleyball.

The Raiders ended the week with a loss to the Loreburn Aztecs at the Davidson gym last Wednesday after coming out on the short end in tournament play Oct.12 and 13, but the club and other schools at the tourney raised funds for the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation in the third annual tournament for the cause held at Craik and Davidson schools.

Tony Baldwin, head coach of the Raiders, said the team raised funds for the Foundation through canteen sales. Donations were also made by the competing teams at the Friday night and all-day Saturday tourney, which also saw the other schools bunk at Davidson School on the first night.

“We had a lot of teams stay over which was lots of fun for the kids,” said Baldwin. “They stay in the school and play volleyball half the night. Those are good tournaments as far as fans because they generally bring a pretty good entourage with them from the towns they’re from.”

He said all four teams that were in their pool including Asquith, Colonsay, Elrose and St. Walburg stayed overnight at Davidson School, which is “better than driving home.”

The Davidson team was split in two for the tournament, a blue and a white club, but both came out with equal results.

“We played our hardest,” said blue team member Elise Packet who played at Davidson. “We didn’t do very well, but it was nice to see some good volleyball and lots of girls supporting the breast cancer society.”

To read more please see the Oct. 22 print edition of The Davidson Leader.

Davidson

Hodgins host Quebec exchange student

Vive le Québec!  Long live Saskatchewan!

The act of being immersed in another’s culture, language and day-to-day life is being embraced by a Davidson School student and her “twin” from Québec as they travel and live in each other’s homes, communities and provinces for a span of three months this school year.

Davidson School Grade 11 student Paige Hodgins, 16, is welcoming École secondaire De Rochebelle Grade 10 pupil Andrea Rocha, 15, to her home in town this fall as part of a Saskatchewan-Québec student exchange program, which will see Paige travel to Québec City at the end of January.

While in their different communities, the girls are and will be immersed in the other’s language and culture in order to gain a better understanding of their twin’s unique part of Canada.

“Davidson is really different from Québec,” said Andrea adding residents of Québec City refer to it as just Québec. “The first things that I saw when I came here is it is really more familiar, maybe because it’s smaller. There is more religion, like more churches here too.”

Andrea said the school in town is a bit smaller than De Rochebelle, which translates to beautiful stone and has over 2,000 students, but that is fine with her. She said the residents of Davidson are “really nice” and Paige’s friends have taken her in as one of their own, so she is doing OK as she discovers the Land of the Living Skies.

“It’s a new experience for me,” she said. “In Saskatchewan it’s rural, but that’s really important. There is more English for sure. It’s in the same country, but I think something that I could say is the society is a little bit different. I hope to learn in the same country how we can live differently and how the people can be different.”

Paige said she is “really excited” to move into Andrea’s home in Québec City at the end of January, which will have her plunge into the French language and culture of the historic city on the banks of the Saint Lawrence River.

“I can’t wait,” said Paige. “We don’t have French offered here anymore because Ms. Low (former Davidson School French teacher Arlene Low) left the school, but I did take French over the summer and a little bit now until we finish. I have taken it all through school, but the best way to learn is immersion and that is why I wanted to do this.”

Paige said she applied to enter the exchange program in the last school year on the advice of Low and will join several other students from across Saskatchewan who are travelling to la belle province for French language studies.

To read more please see the Oct. 22 print edition of The Davidson Leader.

Obituary

Rosalee M. Johnson (Trask) (Gregg)

1916 – 2012

On Saturday, Oct. 13, 2012 Rosalee passed away at the Sarcee Hospice in Calgary. Rosalee was raised in Hanley and married hometown sweetheart Jack Gregg on Dec. 6, 1941. After spending the war years in eastern Canada they returned to Hanley where John and Gena were born. In 1951 they moved to Armstrong, Ontario and in the fall of that year Jack drowned and Rosalee moved back to Hanley.  Rosalee worked at a variety of jobs and in 1955 she became a teacher. While at Summer School she met and married Bruce Johnson and moved to Kenaston, unfortunately Bruce passed on three years later and Rosalee moved back to Hanley. She taught in McCraney Country School, Kenaston, Hanley and finally moved to Saskatoon in 1967, where she retired in 1981. She remained there until 2009 and then moved to Calgary to reside with Gena till July 2012.

Rosalee was predeceased by husbands Jack and Bruce, sister Gladys, brothers Coral, Woodrow (Woody), Marion (Shorty) and Warren (Corky).

She is survived by children John (Deb) and Gena, grandchildren Rob, Kelly, Caralee, Carey, Christa and John, nine great-grandchildren, sister Neeta Haraldson, sisters-in-law Vernice Trask (Corky), Pat Jansen and numerous cousins, nephews, nieces and friends.

In lieu of flowers please make donations to Hanley United Church (treasurer), Box 210, Hanley, Sask. S0G 2E0