The new Davidson Swimming Pool committee surfaced at town council last Tuesday with an update on the progress of their fund-raising efforts, the flowing design and costs of a new pool and a few requests the committee has of the town.

Swimming pool committee members Erin Gust and Crystal Johnson told town council the fund-raising effort to date has been going swimmingly, with a new development coined “Farming for the Pool” about to add many more drops over the next eight months.

When contacted a day after the council meeting, Gust said the “Farming for the Pool” initiative came about courtesy of an offer by two farmers, who wish to remain anonymous, looking to donate their land, labour, machinery, fuel and eventual crop this year to the new pool fund. She said the men, who farm a quarter of land next to Davidson, will be donating all profits made on their fall yield to the pool with the exact money raised not known until the crop comes off the combine.

“What we’re looking to do is work with Viterra right now in trying to find them their input,” said Gust, noting the committee is very grateful for the farmers’ donation and hopes more come on board with similar initiatives. “We’re trying to find seed and chemical and a little bit of fertilizer for them. Hopefully we can get those donated by the chemical companies, so he is not out that part of his donation too.”

At town council, the committee members said they have raised $140,000 so far for a new pool since it began seriously trying to bring together funds in September, but that is still only a little over 10 per cent towards their total goal of $1.3 million that they hope to raise by 2015 in order to build the proposed new 84 feet long and 35 feet wide six-lane pool to be located adjacent to the current pool.

Gust said this initial design and the funds proposed to build it could be changed over the next few months after the town and various swimming pool building companies meet in consultation, but a few elements in the initial design are not up for discussion. She said a beach entry for kids and seniors as well as a deep end and diving board will always remain part of the final structural plans.

“We are working towards more of a concrete design of the pool and more of a concrete cost structure,” she said.

To read more please see the Feb. 25 print edition of The Davidson Leader.

The grades 5 and 6 students at Davidson School are “excited about pretty much everything” concerning their trip to We Day in Saskatoon later this month, but pop rock band Hedley seems to be the big draw.

“More students want to go than we are able to take, but we are fortunate to be able to include so many by registering early and by showing commitment right from the start,” said Davidson School Grade 5 teacher Paul Stinson, noting 43 kids from the school will be heading to the Credit Union Centre in Saskatoon Feb. 27 for the celebration of youth volunteerism.

“I expect this to be an inspiring experience and that the students will be bringing ideas and enthusiasm back with them from the event. Hopefully this will be a recurring event and there will be more opportunities next year for more students to participate.”

The first We Day in Saskatchewan will welcome 15,000 young people from schools across the province for a day of motivational speaking by celebrities and activists Martin Sheen, Mia Farrow and Free the Children founders Craig and Marc Kielburger as well as a concert by Hedley among other presentations.

“Hedley’s awesome,” said Grade 5 student Jesse Palmer. “I’ve never seen him before and that will be cool.”

Tickets to We Day are not sold and are only given to deserving young people who commit one act of local and one of global change for the betterment of others.

Grade 6 student Josh Warkentin said his class got tickets though their work on a toy sale they organized with the money raised going to help the less fortunate in Haiti and by working in a community garden.

Jordan Matheson, a Grade 5 student at Davidson School, said they earned their tickets to We Day by participating in Free The Children’s “Pennies for Change” initiative, which raised funds for clean water improvements in third-world countries, and building a community garden inside their classroom.

Stinson said the student’s dedication to improving the lives of others both locally and globally is nothing new for these kids as they do this every year. He said they learn about local and global issues through classes such as art and social studies and have worked on many different projects throughout the years that “show leadership and benefit others,” which makes him extremely proud of his students.

“It’s so easy to take things for granted or to focus on trivial problems,” he said. “I see classroom dynamics, how students treat each other and their willingness to work together to take action to improve things as a parallel to society as a whole. It makes me hopeful.”

Fifty years in, dance in Davidson finally has a home to call its own.

The Davidson Optimist Dance Club (DODC) moved into their two new dance studios located in the basement of the Davidson Library on Washington Avenue this past October after spending the previous six months first investigating the structure and then renovating the former Davidson School Division office space.

Vonné Johnson, president of DODC, said the 83 dance students who train at the club in the disciplines of ballet, point, jazz, hip hop, tap and lyrical can thank the generous support of the many volunteers who helped transform the offices into the two studios as well as the donations that came in from members of the community to help pay for the needed repairs.

“This is the first time since Davidson (first) had dance in the 1960s that we have our own space,” said Johnson. “We’ve always relied on using the school or using churches, so it’s nice to have our own space where we don’t have to pack everything up (after classes finish).”

Johnson said the volunteers and paid professionals took out a few walls, insulated the ceiling to keep music from reaching the upstairs library and put in two different types of flooring among other things to get the space workable for its dancers after Davidson town council first let the club go ahead with renovations of the basement last March. She said they have also installed mirrors to enlarge the space and cleaned and painted the basement rooms to “give it some colour and some life” in an effort to inspire the dancers.

The DODC offers 30 different classes to its dance students, who range in age from four to 17, on three nights a week from the beginning of September to its final recital on April 14. The club also participates in various competitions during the spring months against other dance clubs.

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

Got a sore back, neck or shoulder? Rejoice! Your salvation is at hand.

Trevor Donald, practising physiotherapist and acupuncturist, opened up a practice Jan. 25 in Davidson at the Robinson Block, located at 702 Railway Street, and will be providing services to people of all ages on Fridays of each week.

Donald, who has been practising physiotherapy for 11 years, said his area of expertise is determining movement pattern problems and developing corrective strategies, especially if it is anything that is an ongoing problem or a repetitive strain problem. He said his work on back, shoulder and neck pain most applies to people who have a muscular or skeletal problem that stems from anything including car accidents to work and sports injuries.

“I try and figure out where the problem is in the movement pattern that is creating that issue,” said Donald. “Some of them are a little more clear cut. You get some where somebody had a car accident and hurt their neck or they’re playing hockey and pulled their groin. The repetitive ones are more correcting the movement patterns.”

He said the acupuncture services he provides will release endorphins in the body, “which are your body’s natural painkillers,” treating muscle tightness. Blood flow improvement and nerve stimulation are also an advantage to the “dry needling” technique he practices.

“You don’t have to have a physician referral (to get services),” said Donald. “The only reason somebody might need it is through their health plan or their group insurance.  Sometimes they require the physician referral, but actually coming and seeing a physio (therapist), you don’t need one.”

A graduate of the University of Saskatchewan, Donald currently practices four days a week in Saskatoon at Flaman Physiotherapy and decided to dedicate his off day to physiotherapy in Davidson and area earlier this year. He said there were no services available before he came, so he thought providing physiotherapy and acupuncture services here would help anyone looking for help without having to travel to the city.

“With physio, we do a lot of exercise prescription as well,” he said. “It gives people exercises to work on or will help them with their gym or training program and that’s to design (the gym program) and progress as well. Physio involves a lot of the exercise component.”

Instructional time for the 2013-2014 school year in Saskatchewan is being set to last a minimum of 950 hours, forcing school divisions in this area to readjust their calendar.
The Sask. Party government proclaimed legislative and regulatory amendments on Jan. 1 choosing the 950-hour minimum face-to-face teacher-student time that will apply to the next school year. Saskatchewan school divisions did not offer a minimum amount of instructional time before these amendments were introduced and the changes are an attempt to create a standard consistent with other western Canadian provinces.
Instructional time does not include teacher in-service days or teacher preparation.
Larry Pavloff, chair of the Prairie Spirit School Division board of education, which represents schools in Dundurn and Hanley, said they did not know the changes were “coming down,” but they did hear it was a possibility. He said the new legislation may or may not be a positive thing for students and teachers, but that depends on the quality of education provided.
“Just the fact that we add more time to the calendar year does not mean that student achievement is going to improve,” said Pavloff. “If we add the same quality of time that we know our teachers are presently providing, I don’t know how it can’t help but improve student achievement.”
Pavloff said the Prairie Spirit School Division will have to add 30 hours of instructional time in the coming year to meet the legislative requirements, but how that will happen will not be known until the division board of education calendar committee, which sets out the schedule of the school year, comes to a conclusion of what options they will decide to implement.
He said the committee will meet “very shortly” to work out these details and will then submit their proposals to the school board before April 1.
“Then the board has until May 1 to get their choice of calendar or present their calendar to the ministry,” he said. “The board has to have the decision made by May 1 as to what our school calendar is going to look like.”
Darby Briggs, communications coordinator with the Prairie South School Division, which represents Craik School, said the division is currently putting together a package of options to get up to the 950-hour minimum. She said they would then present that package to the board Feb. 12 in an effort to decide what they’re going to do come September 2013.
“We currently don’t have the 950 (instructional hours minimum), so we’re definitely going to have to take a look at things,” said Briggs. “We’ve got a lot to look at and definitely a lot of options to examine in making sure that what we decide is best both for the kids and the teachers, but also meets the ministry’s requirements.”
To read more please see the Feb. 4 print edition of The Davidson Leader.