A celebration two years in the making brought hundreds of revellers to the Elbow Community Park May 17 for a Peace Tower dedication that puts the final touches on the village’s playground and garden.

Grace McTavish, a member of the Elbow Community Park committee, said the Peace Tower and now completed Elbow Community Park is incredibly important to the village because it brings “spirit” to its local residents and the many visitors who holiday at the resort community. She said the dedication ceremony that helped to open the two-day “Peace Party in the Park” celebration is the culmination of all the hard work that went into creating the gathering place as well as an opportunity for the community to come together on a beautiful spring day to enjoy it.

“We are a tourist community and we like to think this is one more reason that people would like to come and spend time in this peaceful place,” said McTavish. “When people come here it is peaceful and they’re happy. It’s their quiet time and we think that this park just adds to that and gives them a place to come and sit and be a part of nature.”

The hundreds of attendees who made their way to the park May 17 for the dedication ceremony enjoyed the chance to witness and revel in the unveiling of the massive blue tower that features white birds of peace breaking free from the structure and flying into the community. Four walking paths lined with plaques memorializing the history of the community’s pioneers to picture plaques illustrating the beginning of the village all the way up to the thoughts of Elbow’s present day children lead people up to the base of the tower.

The Peace Tower occupies one corner of the four-acre park that also features walking trails, a large kids play structure, a memorial garden and life-size teepees on the grounds. The other elements of the park were installed in May 2012 with the help of over 300 volunteers.

Hundreds of family and friends crowded into the Davidson School gymnasium May 17 to congratulate the graduating class of 2014 on their many accomplishments and to wish them success in all that life has to offer.

Graduates Aiden McJannet, Kim Baldwin, Kirby Manz, Bryce Dean, Jon Taylor, Travis Bublish, Brad Brazeau, Matthias McCreary, Patrick Nordmarken, Vanner McDonnell, Sarah Nykiforuk, Heather Glowatski, Paige Hodgins, Casey Lloyd, Mike Kowalski, Cara McNabb, Jessica Riecken and Kari VanDeWiele each stood before the crowd at the ceremony to be both praised for their hard work and determination and playfully jabbed for the many fun and humorous moments that have marked their path in making it to this day.

Arlene Low, learning coach with the Sun West School Division and guest speaker at the graduation ceremony, said the students gathered before the crowd have helped and taught her how to be a better person during the time she has shared with them. She said the only thing she can now pass on to the students as they move onto a new path is to learn to be happy during all their pursuits.

“What matters is the person you are and what you strive to become,” said Arlene. She added this can be accomplished through being grateful and thankful everyday, exhibiting kindness and taking note of it for guidance, remaining physically active, being mindful of feelings and striving to be a connector between friends, family and the community.

“You all have the skills to keep life’s priorities in check,” she advised the graduates.

Davidson School principal Jason Low said he has mixed emotions watching these young adults close one chapter in their lives and start another. He said the six years he has shared with the class of 2014 has been “quite a ride” and on behalf of all the staff at Davidson School he wants to congratulate the students on this great accomplishment and to wish them the best in the future.

Valedictorians Kirby Manz and Jessica Riecken said the theme of Grad 2014 is “stay golden,” which represents the classmates continuing drive as they move forward to achieve everything they desire.

Jessica described her classmates as a “family” and said she hopes each one of them stays true to themselves and to what they believe in.

Kirby congratulated his classmates for making it to this day before ending the ceremony with a message to take into the next phase of their lives.

“Remember,” he said. “Stay golden.”

The bloodsucking tick season may have been delayed a bit by the cooler spring, but the pests should be stepping up their onslaught as the weather finally warms up.

Phil Curry, entomologist with the Saskatchewan Ministry of Health, said ticks have been active in the province since the snow left and the temperature warmed up to around 4ºC, but their movements have been pretty slow due to the continuing cold weather. He said they are bound to become more bothersome now as it begins to get hotter outside and people start hiking and camping in areas where the ticks are.

He noted ticks have been established in certain areas of the province for quite a while and their populations seem to go up and down. Curry said this makes it hard to tell if Saskatchewan is facing a bad tick season this year or not.

“What’s happening in the last 10 to 15 years is that our most common ticks, in the eastern part of the province it’s the American dog tick or some people call it a wood tick and in the western part of the province it’s the Rocky Mountain wood tick…they’ve expanded their range northward,” said Curry, noting ticks are becoming established as far north as Prince Albert and Melfort. “When people think ticks are increasing, they are…in certain areas. Whereas in other areas like in southeastern Saskatchewan they’ve had ticks for many many years.”

Curry said the area around Davidson is starting to experience increased tick activity particularly down near river valleys. He said the bugs are being transported into these areas by migrating birds and deer and even people visiting parks and campsites who drop off ticks.

“It takes them a few years to become established, but they do become established,” he said. “The American dog tick likes more bushy woodland areas whereas the Rocky Mountain wood tick is more down in the river valleys. It can stand a little more hot dry weather.

“We have found small numbers of the blacklegged deer tick in the province. That is the one that can carry Lyme disease. They get dropped off from migrating birds and we occasionally find them as well, so our message is avoid getting tick bites of any sort.”

There are several things people can do to prevent getting fed on by ticks such as if a person is walking along a nature trail or through tall grass they should wear light coloured clothing. Curry said this helps in noticing the “easily visible” pests so they could be removed before they strike.

He said walkers should also wear long sleeves and long pants when out enjoying the sun. Tucking pant legs into the socks is also recommended as is wearing closed toe footwear.

To read more please see the May 26 print edition of The Davidson Leader.

For over 30 years a number of ladies with the Redeemer Evangelical Lutheran Church have been spending their winter months designing quilts and care packages destined for people in need around the globe.

Phyllis Mason, one of the ladies who helps sew and pin the quilts, said the group designed 57 60″x80″ quilts this year between January and Easter. These quilts were on display last Monday at the annual Redeemer Lutheran Church Tea, which is held to raise money for the Canadian Lutheran World Relief We Care program that ships the quilts to destinations around Canada and the world.

In addition to the quilts, the ladies showcased nine sewing kits, four children’s kits, four hygiene kits, 12 baby layettes and over 20 pneumonia prevention vests for infants and toddlers as well as a few other items that will be also be shipped to refugees and orphanages in needy countries.

“It’s a humanitarian thing to do,” said Mason, noting the ladies have no idea where their work is headed. “We in this country have so much. We don’t know how lucky we are.”

Mason said the five or six ladies who are involved in sewing and pinning the quilts try to use heavier materials such as polyesters and heavy cottons in their design. The materials used are generally donations to the group for the work.

She said the other handiwork such as blankets and the items in the various kits and bundles are also donated to the group or supplied by the members. These items include things like thread, buttons and needles for the sewing kits or soap, toothbrush, toothpaste and “something fuzzy” in the children’s kits.

The group gets together during the winter months to assemble these bundles and sew the quilts on donated sewing machines. They also spend time at home completing the work in time for the May tea.

“We believe it helps,” said Mason, who has been involved with the program since it began. “The people that receive them really need them.”

The Hanley School Drama Club production Pandora exceeded the expectations of its writer and director this season thanks in large part to the hard work and fantastic performances displayed by the various students who put the play on.

“I like this production the best personally probably because I’d had some opportunity to do it twice before, so it was a lot of fine-tuning,” said Prairie South School Division special education resource teacher Leanne Griffin. She recently served as director of her play Pandora at Provincials earlier this month in Regina after Hanley School won Regionals.

“The first time I did it at Hanley we had younger actors whereas this script I worked with most of them for a couple of years (already). They are still a pretty young group, but they’ve had some experience working with me,” she added. “I painted the set this year. I had a vision of how I wanted that to look, so I was happy how that turned out. And (it was) just a really strong group of kids, so that worked out really well.”

Pandora is the story about twin sisters Becky (Nicola Classen) and Pandora (Hannah Fehr). The title character is disabled and can’t talk or move independently, but through a magical musical ritual can enter a child-like fantasy world inhabited by a chorus (Taylor Seymour, Morgan Lester, Lauren Griffin, Megan Fehr and Lizzy Ettinger) where she can speak and move.

The play concerns Becky who is about to leave school and is faced with the difficult decision of whether she should leave home and her sister knowing that their mother cannot care for Pandora by herself. In essence, it is a play about transitions, hope and despair.

“I’ve enjoyed every time I’ve done it,” said Griffin, noting she first staged the play 16 years ago when she worked at Allan School and then again 12 years ago at Hanley. “I had the benefit of learning from what I’ve done before and adding it to this group’s performance.”

The play had a dream finish at Provincials held May 8 to 10 at the University of Regina Riddell Theatre. Pandora crew stage manger Alana Pauli won the Debbie Baker Cheer Award and Hanley School Drama Club actors Hannah Fehr, Nicola Classen and Taylor Seymour each won a certificate of merit for acting.

Also, Pandora’s lighting crew member Truman Griffin took home a best technical performance award, Alana and assistant stage manager Shelby Millions shared the best stage manager award and the play itself took the runner-up to best visual production award.

Griffin said this is quite the achievement considering Hanley has an extra-curricular drama program where rehearsals and instruction takes place solely outside regular school hours, while the 10 other plays they competed against involve city school productions with hundreds of students studying drama as part of their high school credit programs.

“In a way we’re like an underdog because 100 per cent of what we do is after hours, but that being said I think we have a very tight group,” she said. “We call it the drama family. They are a really tight group of kids and they take a lot of pride and ownership and work extra hard because it is 100 per cent their own time.”

An alarming increase in all-terrain vehicle deaths and injuries has prompted the Saskatchewan All-Terrain Vehicle Association (SATVA) to launch a province-wide campaign this spring to promote the use of helmets for ATV drivers and passengers along with other general safety measures.

John Meed, general manager of SATVA, said there were eight fatalities involving ATVs in this province last year and in five of those deaths the rider of the machine wasn’t wearing a helmet. He said this is a “record” mortality rate in Saskatchewan, so SATVA feels they have to remind people of the dangers of operating the vehicles without taking appropriate safety precautions.

Wearing a helmet “can obviously save your life,” said Meed. “It can save you from serious brain injuries and we think it is a message that needs to get out.”

Meed said it is the law in Saskatchewan to wear a helmet when riding an ATV on public property. He said a person also has to wear goggles when operating an ATV if the helmet doesn’t have a face screen.

“We’d love people on their own property to wear their helmet too,” he said. “We know that the farming community is one that rides a lot on their own property, on their own land, and we’d like to promote that they wear their helmets as well.”

Along with eight deaths involving ATVs in 2013, there were also 47 injuries resulting from ATV accidents. This was the second highest injury rate in 14 years.

Since 2000, 50 people have been killed and 442 have been injured while riding an ATV. There has already been one death and injury in the province involving unsafe ATV use in 2014 after a 40-year-old man was killed and his 14-year-old passenger injured in what is believed to be an alcohol-related accident near Togo earlier this month.

Meed said an ATV tends to be a more bumpy and rocky ride than what someone experiences in a car, so people need to be in control of their faculties when driving the machine. He said a wrong decision or wrong reaction could cause the vehicle to flip over or hit something resulting in a bad injury or death.

Proper ATV training is also important for any riders of the machines. Meed said this can be accomplished through taking either the SATVA training course or one offered by the Canadian Safety Council.

To read more please see the May 19 print edition of The Davidson Leader.