DAVIDSON-Last Tuesday at Davidson School’s annual pep rally Blair Frederickson was presented with the SHSAA West Central Outstanding Male Coach of the Year for the 2013-2014 school year.
The award recognizes coaches who lead quality programs, display good sportsmanship and instills these values through coaching and involve a large segment of the school’s population.
Frederickson was nominated by Davidson School student Andrew Read, who was motivated to nominate him because of the impact that Frederickson has made in his life with his involvement in senior and junior football, junior basketball and bantam hockey.
“He made me appreciate each sport more and encouraged me to push myself to do better,” Andrew said. He knew in June that his nominee had won the award but it hadn’t arrived in time to be presented at Davidson’s yearend awards ceremony, so it was presented at the earliest opportunity this school year with Andrew presenting it to a man that he has quickly gained respect for.
“Mr. Frederickson has made an impact on not only this school, but on the community,” Andrew said.
To learn more, please see the Sept. 15 print edition of The Davidson Leader. To subscribe, Please call 306-567-2047.
Category Archives: Davidson
Thrift store closes doors
DAVIDSON—After two years in business, the Revived Family Thrift Store on main street Davidson has closed its doors.
A lack of volunteers is the main reason the non-profit store had to close, said its founder Russell Sparks.
The store had advertised for volunteers to help run the shop that sold second-hand goods at steep discounts. Sparks said they made it clear in the advertisement that without volunteers, the store would have to close. No volunteers came forward, so the store closed its doors a few weeks ago.
He and his wife Angela worked at the store over the Labour Day weekend packing the store’s merchandise, including stuffing over 100 garbage bags with clothes.
Russell said most of this clothing was given to a company that collects clothes to send overseas. He said the company gave them a cash donation for the clothes. Russell said they are working this week on distributing the store’s proceeds.
It may have struggled to find volunteers, but Revived Family Thrift Store was a success in many other ways.
“We were always impressed with how generous people were with donations,” Angela said.
Revived Family Thrift Store donated its remaining stock to the Davidson Kinettes and the new swimming pool committee. These two groups will sell it in a garage sale Oct. 18 in conjunction with Centennial Ford’s Drive 4 UR Community event at Davidson Communiplex. Besides the garage sale, the Kinettes will run the canteen and there will be Halloween-themed children’s activities being supervised by high school-aged students.
To read more, please see the Sept. 15 print edition of The Davidson Leader. Call 306-567-2047 to subscribe.
Schroeder wins National Triathlon Championship
DUNDURN—Dundurn’s Kaycee Schroeder exceeded her personal goals this summer by winning Triathlon Canada’s Youth Elite Series and Triathlon Canada’s National Championship.
The series has Canada’s best Under-16 athletes competing in four grueling triathlons that consist of a 500-metre swim, 10-kilometre bike and a 4-Km run.
Based on her strong performance in the 2014 series and the subsequent improvements she made in her times over the course of her training last year, going into the summer Triathlon Canada Youth Series Kaycee had hoped to finish in the top three.
At the series opener in Pike Lake near Saskatoon in June, the first stop in the four-race series, Kaycee, 15, showed that she may of set the bar a little too low. She was in the lead pack of girls the entire race and powered through the run to win by nearly a minute ahead of her nearest competitor.
In mid-July the race series moved to Quebec. On July 12 Kaycee competed in the race at Lac DeLage. She had an amazing swim, coming out of the water first. In the first transition, she hit a snag and couldn’t immediately locate her bike and missed the first pack of girls. This didn’t deter her. She powered on, catching the lead pack to return to the transition in first place. During the 4-Km run she stretched out her lead and pulled away from the field to win the second race in the series.
To learn how Kaycee did in the rest of the series, please see the Sep. 8 edition of The Davidson Leader.
Locally-born fighter pilot honoured
Tomorrow, in the north of France, the mayor of Saint-Thierry will place a memorial plaque near the entrance to the village’s church.
The plaque commemorates Major Don Beerbower who 70 years ago on Aug. 9, 1944 was killed while leading his fighter squadron in a strafing attack against 30 German aircraft at a former French airbase near Reims. Beerbower’s P-51 Mustang was hit by ground fire and crashed into a nearby vineyard.
The vineyard’s owner, M. Lemaire was first to the crash site.
Lemaire’s grandson Antione Lemaire is now the mayor of Saint-Thierry and fittingly, it will be he who recognizes Beerbower’s sacrifice to help liberate France from German occupation.
Besides military dignitaries, mayors from nearby towns, also on hand for the plaque’s unveiling will be Paul Sailer, author of “The Oranges are Sweet: Major Don M. Beerbower and the 353rd Fighter Squadron”.
The book tells the story of Beerbower from November 1942 to August 1944. The book is a result of Sailer’s father’s friendship with Beerbower and the stories his father would tell about his friend.
Sailer recalled that when he as a boy, he looked forward to winter nights when his dad would get out his World War II scrapbook.
“He had letters from Don and news clippings about Don. Dad would talk about his friend, that he lost his life,” Sailer said.
“I remember I caught a fever. I got quite fascinated with airplanes and fighter pilots,” Sailer said. This passion eventually had Sailer joining the U.S. Army . He became a pilot and flew helicopters in Vietnam.
To read more, please see the Sept. 8 edition of The Davidson Leader.
Back to class at area schools
DAVIDSON—The school year got off to a chilly start for staff at
Davidson School last Tuesday.
Despite warm temperatures, the school’s teachers, educational assistants and interns found themselves shivering outside in the afternoon sun having just been on the receiving end of the Ice Bucket Challenge.
Davidson’s Grade 12 class stood atop the school roof and poured buckets of ice water over the heads of their teachers down below as the entire student body gleefully watched.
The Ice Bucket Challenge is a popular fund-raiser for the ALS Association that, worldwide, has raised $109.4 million for research and to support people with ALS.
The Ice Bucket Challenge was a fun ending to the first day of school in Davidson and a way for the socially conscious school community to set a positive tone for a new school year.
So far Davidson is off to a good start.
Principal Jason Low pegs initial enrolment at about 242 students, an increase from last fall’s 228 students. Davidson welcomed 18 Kindergarten students this September.
To learn more about the first day of school and enrolment numbers at area schools, please see the Sept. 8 edition of The Davidson Leader.
Rising ice rental fees force Davidson JAA to explore financing options
Members of the Junior Athletic Association (JAA) are exploring their financing options after the Town of Davidson recreation office raised the ice rental fees they charge the JAA for this upcoming season.
Leah Herback, treasurer of the JAA, said the association pays a flat rate per team to the town for ice rental and that is going up by $2,500 this year to bring the total amount charged to the association to around $14,500 for the year. She said members of the JAA now have to decide what plan of action they need to take this season to offset that added cost.
Herback said the JAA raises money to pay this ice rental charge through player registration fees, putting on tournaments and charging fans at the door who come to watch the games. All money that is raised through kitchen sales at the rink goes directly to the town.
She said this added $2,500 charge to the JAA doesn’t necessarily mean player fees are going up this season, as they will try to find ways with their other two money-raising options to make up the difference. Herback added the addition of a midget hockey team in Davidson this winter should also help bring in more funds to the association.
“Because we’re having a midget team that will be more hockey in Davidson, so hopefully the door and another tournament will make up for the increase,” said Herback. “Because there will be a lot more midget games going on there will be more revenue from the door.”
Trevor Ouellette, recreation director for the Town of Davidson, said increased ice usage and increased costs to run the ice plant as well as keeping the lights on longer as a result of having a new midget team is the reason for the increase in the JAA ice rental fees. He said the increase is not an attempt to reduce the town’s subsidy to the JAA and they are still paying “probably half” of what other associations in nearby towns such as Watrous are being charged.
Ouellette said ice rental rates charged to the Monday night recreational hockey league is also going up this season, while the Cyclones, Babes on Blades and Tractor Bellies fees are staying the same as last year. The amount charged to out-of-town teams for holding tournaments in Davidson is also going up due to the high demand the town has for their ice and the little time available during the season to rent it out.
To read more please see the September 1 print edition of The Davidson Leader.