A Second World War flying helmet once worn by Hanley’s Lew Duddridge has found its way back to safe keeping in Saskatchewan, but by the most unusual means.

The leather Type C flight lieutenant helmet that was used by Duddridge when he flew out of a Royal Air Force station in Cark England during the war was stolen a few years ago from his summer home in Hanley. The theft had largely passed from Duddridge’s mind when a letter from Rod Dignean, a Saskatoon teacher and Canadian Forces reservist, arrived at his and his wife Hilda’s door in Victoria asking if the helmet belonged to him and whether it could now be placed in a travelling historical military display.

“I donated it to him because I thought this was a wonderful effort that he was making,” said Duddridge, noting Dignean bought the helmet fair and square from a military memorabilia collector in California for his display and deserved to keep it. “I knew in the future it was going to be for everybody to see and as long as it was with me it was just for me to see and my family.”

Dignean said the helmet now has a prominent part in his large First World War, Second World War, Korean War and Vietnam War collection that tours schools, Legions and armories in the area. He said there is also a little write-up in front of the helmet about how it ended up where it did and whom it belonged to previously.

“I got into this about 25 years ago (for) three main reasons,” said Dignean, noting he recently held an exhibit at Clavet School. “I do it to keep the history of our military service alive and teach new generations about Canada’s military history. Secondly, (this is) to honour my own ancestors as a First Nations person who served in Canada and the United States and thirdly, (it’s) to honour all those that served past and present.

“Being a serving member in the reserves and a veteran of Afghanistan myself, I can go out there and walk the talk and speak to the students first hand about it and give them a little taste of history.”

Duddridge said the jacket he married Hilda in back in Wales during the war is still in his collection, so having one of his flying helmets part ways isn’t that much of a big deal. He said also having a person near Hanley being able to display it makes him “exceedingly happy” about how things seemed to work out.

Dignean said the RAF helmet ending up in Saskatchewan again involves an “incredible” twist of fate and circumstance and he is proud to be able to now display the military artifact with his collection.

“I think it was meant to come back,” he said. “It was meant to come home where hopefully I can show it and it can be appreciated and remain part of local history.”

Driver patience and a bit of sun is needed after an abundance of culvert failures this spring and a week of rain and snow late last month created a frustrating time for some area motorists as they plow mud as opposed to just driving down pristine country roads.

Lorne Willner, Reeve of the Rural Municipality of Arm River, said the snowmelt around four weeks ago was very fast and water ran across roads in a lot of places because the culverts couldn’t keep up. He said the two inches of rain and two inches of snow they received a couple weeks ago then washed out a number of those same roads again making for muddy conditions.

“All you do is you put flags up,” said Willner. “You barricade roads off, block roads (and) put warning flags up. I haven’t heard of anybody that’s had accidents. That’s all we can do is warn people that the hazards are there or block the roads, so they don’t drive on them.”

Willner said at this stage of the spring the RM can’t bleed mud or haul gravel when the roads are too muddy to drive on, so they just have to wait for the sun to come out and dry up some of the water. He said it is going to be an ongoing process to fix all the washed out roads and dig out the culverts, so people need to drive according to the current road conditions.

“If there’s flags, if there’s markers (or) if there’s barricades then beware that there are hazards and watch out for them,” he said. “As far as driving in the mud (people) just have to be patient. There is nothing we can do about the muddy roads. The gravel’s there, it’s just all chewed up.”

RM of Dundurn Reeve Fred Wilson said they have a few heavily travelled roads that were in pretty rough shape, but their higher ground helped to dry them out a little faster. He said getting the snow graded off before the original melt also helped keep the roads in good condition.

“We had a couple spots (with) maybe a four or five inches layer of slop on top of them,” said Wilson, noting they’ve run their grader a few times since the melt and have already put the gravel back in place. “A couple of them we graded it right off, but most of them it wasn’t too bad. We don’t have near the roads like (Arm River) has. We’ve got Highway 11 right through the middle of us, so that takes a lot of pressure off us.”

Hilton Spencer, Reeve of the RM of Craik, said the abnormal runoff this year has washed out some of their roads. He said the recent rain and snow then made the roads really sloppy, but the RM employees are out trying to get everything fixed.

To read more please see the May 5 print edition of The Davidson Leader.

The Davidson Communiplex enjoyed an outstanding 2013 revenue wise and so, in turn, did the town’s taxpayers who subsidize the building.

Trevor Ouellette, recreation director for the Town of Davidson, said they were able to recover 78 per cent of the Communiplex’s $280,000 worth of expenses last year bringing $220,000 back into Davidson’s coffers. He said the goal is 40 to 50 per cent of revenue recuperation in any given year and in 2013 the town had only budgeted to recover 45 per cent, so the jump to 78 is quite the feat.

Ouellette said Davidson increased minor hockey rates to bring them in line with other towns and established an equal ice rate for the Tractor Bellies, Babes on Blades and Old Timers hockey teams to help create some of this new revenue generation. However, the main new generator of revenue this year was increasing the usage rate of the rink by bringing in more out-of-town events.

“By bringing in outside money it helps us,” said Ouellette, noting skating fees produced $5,000 more in 2013 than forecasted. “It really reduces the taxpayer’s responsibility to subsidize the building. Even though $60,000 still seems like a whole lot, to have $280,000 worth of expenses (and) have the taxpayer responsible for $60,000 versus $150,000, that’s huge. To be honest that’s a pretty good year.”

In addition to the higher skating fees, Ouellette said the rink kitchen brought in over $17,000 more than estimated. This improvement in skating fees and kitchen revenue go hand in hand and has to do with having a plan and system in place to welcome outside managers into Davidson, help them with putting on a tournament and have the resources available to pull it off.

“We can say, ‘here is what you need, this is what has been done in the past (and) we have this and this and this. We have an excellent volunteer base that can help out in the kitchen, so we can make sure you guys get food.’ The community makes my job a little easier by (being able to say) I can provide these services.”

Streamlining costs and improving the usage of the rink has been a priority for Ouellette since he was hired as Davidson’s recreation director in 2011. This focus has resulted in the taxpayer’s cost of subsidizing the Communiplex going from $143,000 in the first year he took the job to $68,000 a year later and finally $60,000 in 2013.

To read more please see the May 5 print edition of The Davidson Leader.

Father Joseph Gyim-Austin welcomed nine fellow African priests of the Saskatoon Roman Catholic Diocese to Sacred Heart Parish at Davidson last week to act as a support group for each other as they try to understand the troubles in their home countries and to reflect on their own work here in Saskatchewan.

“As much as we are here working your mind is always on your people,” said Gyim-Austin, a native of Ghana. “You want to be sure that whatever they are doing wouldn’t distract you from your work, but of course you still think about your relatives over there.”

Father Patrick Ampani, Father Aloysius Anyichie, Father Emmanuel Azike, Father Augustine Ebido, Father Iheanyi Enwerem, Father Ndubuisi Mbah, Father Modestus Ngwu, Monsignor Matthew Tuffuor-Amoah and Father Martin Vuni joined Gyim-Austin in Davidson last Monday and Tuesday. The 10-person group includes two Ghanaians, seven Nigerians and one native of South Sudan.

Gyim-Austin said each man briefed the others on the situation in their home country Monday evening after supper to help each of them think about what is occurring on the ground in the west central African coastal countries of Ghana and Nigeria and the east central landlocked country of South Sudan. He said this knowledge helps them to pray for peace in these countries.

A focus on relaxation was also high on the priest’s agenda, said Gyim-Austin, as last Monday did follow the hectic days of Easter celebrations at each priest’s Parish. He said the men used the evening’s downtime to discuss how they celebrated Easter as well as the work each of them does at the Diocese and how to help the Diocese to grow.

“On Tuesday morning…they all were there for mass,” said Gyim-Austin, adding each of the visiting priests was able to help him celebrate mass because they all had their stoles and albs with them in Davidson. “Then after mass we also went to the Hall for breakfast which was very good because going from the mass to the table also was part of getting to know the people and to know the community that I’m serving. They got some sense of the life here in the Parish and in the community.”

Gyim-Austin said the Easter Monday gathering was the second time the African priests were able to get together for a discussion on their homeland and their work in Canada. He said the group first got together last Christmas in Martensville through an invitation by the Saskatoon Diocese after it was learned the number of practising African priests in Saskatchewan is increasing.

“We realized we do not know (each other) even though we are from the same continent,” he said. “It’s a means to get in touch with priests within other parts of Africa, so that at least you (know someone) if you have to go and visit a friend who works here in the Diocese. It’s (then) to continue the friendship that we have already established.”

The next meeting is tentatively planned for this August at Manitou Beach, but the group would like to extend their membership to other African priests working in this province.  Gyim-Austin said they are now working on trying to find new members of the group in areas such as the Archdiocese of Regina and the Diocese of Prince Albert.

“We are just trying to form the group,” he said. “We know there are a lot of other priests from other countries in Africa working in other places. It’s a gradual process to get in touch with them and then put our program before them.”

The Davidson United Church is welcoming everyone to take a journey towards shaping and sharing their own stories in relation to the ‘kin-dom’ of God through a resource used to explore and understand the Bible as a ‘novel’ format.

Mary Smillie, a member of the Davidson United Church, said they are working to help people accomplish this goal by presenting sessions on “The Story” at the United Church beginning this Sunday at 9 a.m. with the creation story. She said these sessions are a follow-up on their recently concluded rural spirit study that found, in part, people don’t really know what is in the Bible and consider the book inaccessible.

Smillie said the Bible has a tonne of “chapters and verses and verses and chapters” in different books, so what the authors of “The Story” have done is distilled these parts down to the key stories. She said it reads like a novel in 31 chapters from Genesis to Revelations and in addition to the book there are also DVDs and CDs and a few other different resources to make the teachings of the Bible easier to relate to.

“They suggest that the Bible offers us a glimpse of the upper story, what the authors call God’s plan for us on Earth, as well as the lower story, which is how people of that time either did or didn’t do what God was hoping for, so it’s fairly basic,” said Smillie. “What we have going at Davidson United these days is we’ve had the opportunity to invest in some audio/visual equipment, so we have…the whole big screen and sound system and stuff in the main part of the church, (and) it really lends itself for us to do this multi-media approach to bring together the various resources together of “The Story”.”

Smillie said it is their church’s belief that there is multiple ways to approach God and it is really an individual process. She said they have no intention of saying the Bible is the only way, so they are encouraging people to shape their own path by embarking on whatever journey they may want to be on.

“What we’re creating is an opportunity for anybody who is curious about what is in the Bible to have an easier way (of) figuring out what’s in it and what meaning they might be able to bring from it,” she said, adding “The Story” has many age-specific versions and can be accessed by people from preschoolers to adults.

To read more please see the April 28 print edition of The Davidson Leader.