Category Archives: featured

Davidson, featured

New era as Co-op opens liquor retail in Davidson

Tim Broadis, operations manager for Riverbend Co-op in Davidson, stands next to a display in the new liquor retail area at the Home and Ag Centre.

By Joel van der Veen

DAVIDSON — The space is still under construction, but Riverbend Co-op is ready to serve liquor shoppers at the Home and Ag Centre in Davidson.

Monday, July 3 was the first day of operations for the Co-op’s liquor retail outlet, which now covers roughly 1,800 square feet of floor space inside the Railway Street business.

Renovations at the centre have been underway for several months to make room for a selection of beer, wine and spirits.

As of last week, construction was not yet complete, as employees were awaiting the installation of the walk-in cooler, measuring about 540 square feet.

Operations manager Tim Broadis said the refrigeration unit was expected to arrive during the coming week.

“I’m guessing in two weeks we’ll have it up and running,” he said.

When finished, the cooler will also feature nine doors filled with single-serve products.

Last week, Broadis said, employees had received and stocked between 500 and 600 SKUs (stock keeping units). Once the anticipated stock has arrived, that number will be closer to 1,000 SKUs.

Riverbend Co-op’s ability to purchase products directly through vendors opens up the possibility of specials and promotions.

Broadis said they’re aiming to offer a variety of Saskatchewan-made products, and they’re also open to input from shoppers about what they’d like to see.

“We’re still feeling out our customers,” he said Wednesday. “If you don’t see something that you think we should carry, let us know.”

For the full story, please see the July 10 edition of The Davidson Leader or call 306-567-2047 to subscribe today.

Craik, featured

“This is our day”: Craik bids farewell to class of 2017

Pictured is the Craik School class of 2017: (from left) Colton Dolman, Sky Stinson, Brady Kemp, Chase Bakken, April Loxton and Jake Korchinski.

By Joel van der Veen

CRAIK — As Sky Stinson put it, they’re not textbook students anymore.

Craik School sent off the six students who make up the class of 2017 with the traditional graduation exercises on June 30.

Stinson, the class valedictorian, deftly delivered a memorable speech that mostly consisted of a spoken-word poem entitled “This Is Our Day.”

She reminded the grads of what they’d learned — some things tangible, others not — and encouraged them to stand out, be different and achieve something worthwhile with their lives.

Stinson’s poem ended with a reference to a new day: “A day for us/These differences on a stage/To say, Defy the traditions/This is our day.”

The Friday-night program opened with the singing of “O Canada,” led by Emily Ehman.

Next, principal Charla Edwards introduced the graduates, who entered one at a time, accompanied by their parents.

Guest speaker Debbie Wildfong described the grads as “a vibrant and energetic group of four dominating males and two resilient women.”

Though the boys would say they ruled the classroom, she joked that they’d been deceived.

“Sky, the ultimate task master, was secretly in control at all times,” said Wildfong. “She only let you think that you were in control.”

She shared memories of the Grade 12 class and gave them three main pieces of advice: develop a strong work ethic, value others by spending time with them, and love and appreciate life.

For the full story, please see the July 10 edition of The Davidson Leader or call 306-567-2047 to subscribe today.

featured, Kenaston

Kenaston shows Canadian pride at street party

Nolan Briggs (right) holds a maple-leaf flag in one hand and a stick of cotton candy in the other. He and his brother Devin were visiting with grandparents Eldon and Theresa Owen in Kenaston and took in the village’s Canada 150 festivities on Wednesday.

By Joel van der Veen

KENASTON — Canada Day festivities got off to an early start in Kenaston on Wednesday afternoon, with food and fun for the whole family.

A section of Third Street was blocked off for a community street barbecue, organized by the village, the Chamber of Commerce, and local clubs and businesses.

Vickie Holder, one of the organizers, said they were pleased with the turnout and the weather. The skies were sunny for most of the afternoon, though the rain finally came around 6:30 p.m.

“We almost made it till 7,” said Holder. “We held out as long as we could . . . It was a very quick, fast-paced clean-up.”

Popcorn, cotton candy, Sno-Cones and mini doughnuts were offered up and down the street.

Attractions included a bouncy castle, balloons and face painting.

Hamburgers, hot dogs and salads were served at the Adams Centre, along with a red-and-white Canada 150 cake.

Multiple businesses were offering draws for raffle prizes, while the volunteer fire department had two vehicles on display, available for guests to check them out.

Members of the Circus Club from Kenaston School provided entertainment, performing tricks and walking on stilts.

Village councillor Brad Owen and his father Eldon were offering rides around the village in a 1926 Ford Model T.

Eldon has owned the car for more than 30 years, having restored it to running condition. The car had previously been abandoned to rust on a section of pasture land.

“I traded a piece of moose meat for it,” Eldon said, recalling that when he found it, the car had no roof and the left rear wheel had rotted off.

Mitch Hunter and his son Pierre, visiting from the Mistawasis First Nation west of Prince Albert, took a ride in the Model T.

Pierre is a home-school student who takes courses through the Distance Learning Centre. The family was in town for school-related matters and decided to take in the afternoon events as well.

“He’s never seen (a car) like that before,” Mitch said, adding that they enjoyed the afternoon. “It’s nice to have it as a community, (and) everyone gets together.”

Elbow, featured, Sports

Art Knutson, 92, left a legacy beyond the rink

Art Knutson (skip), Ernie “Twink” Vaughan (third), Gerhard “Gay” Knutson (second), and Elmer Knutson (lead) won the Canadian senior men’s curling championship in 1978.

By Joel van der Veen

ELBOW — Their victories put Elbow on the map for a generation of curling fans.

A trio of brothers — Art, Elmer and Gay Knutson — and skip Doug Wankel made headlines in February 1967 when they claimed the provincial men’s curling title with a win over Harold Worth’s rink from Saskatoon.

Though Elbow was then in its boom years — its population had grown from 281 in 1956 to 470 a decade later, thanks to dam construction on the South Saskatchewan River — the Wankel rink was still widely seen as a long shot.

“They were the underdogs,” recalled Ernie Richardson, who skipped his own rink to four Brier wins between 1959 and 1963.

The Tankard win took Art Knutson and his teammates to the Brier, where they competed admirably, ultimately falling short of the national title.

But as friends and family recalled recently, that was merely one accomplishment in a life filled with them.

Art, who died in May at age 92, went from a Saskatchewan farm to the wartime skies over Europe, serving as a Lancaster tailgunner in the final months of the Second World War.

He was an accomplished curler who competed on the provincial and national stage for decades, as well as a dedicated husband and father.

“Anything he did, he excelled at,” said Art’s son Pat, who works for a printing company in Altona, Man.

Richardson, who grew up in Stoughton, said he met Art in the 1960s and felt a connection with the small-town curler. They remained in touch for decades, meeting up for an occasional round of golf.

“He was the kind of guy you couldn’t help but like,” Richardson told the Leader. “He never forgot where he came from.”

For the full story and more photos, please see the July 3 edition of The Davidson Leader or call 306-567-2047 to subscribe today.

Craik, featured

Craik woodcarver wins awards

Two models made by Austin Eade of Craik — a bufflehead duck (left) and a pine grosbeak (right) — recently won awards at a pair of competitions.

By Joel van der Veen

CRAIK — Each one starts as a humble block of tupelo wood.

The body and features are carved with care before the finishing touches — glass eyes and paint — are added.

Each bird has a unique posture or “attitude” that the carver needs to capture in his or her work. If they’ve done that properly, Austin Eade said, a trained eye can identify the bird even before it’s painted.

“It’s a connection to nature,” he explained. “If you can’t identify the bird or the subject before you paint it, you didn’t capture the essence of the bird.”

Eade, 73, has strengthened that connection over the past decade as he has pursued his woodcarving hobby.

In that time, he has completed roughly 30 birds. He works on them over the winter months, finishing two or three in an average season.

Eade, a longtime Craik resident, recently won awards for his work at a pair of competitions, including an international show in the U.S.

He had two entries in the Prairie Canada Carvers Show and Competition, held April 22 and 23 in Winnipeg.

There, his female pine grosbeak won best of show at the open level, while his bufflehead drake also placed first in its category.

A week later, he had the same two pieces entered in the Ward World Championship, held in Ocean City, Maryland from April 28 to 30.

The grosbeak won Best in Category (songbirds), outranking other entries from Canada, the U.S. and the U.K, while the bufflehead was a runner-up for Best in Species.

For the full story, please see the July 3 edition of The Davidson Leader or call 306-567-2047 to subscribe today.

Davidson, featured

Filipino family awaits reunion in Canada

Soon Joseph Glenn and Valerie Anne Lopez’s family will be complete. Their children David, 9, Beatrice, 4, and Georgina, 3, will arrive in Canada August 22.

In 2016 Canada welcomed 320,932 immigrants. Joseph and Valerie Lopez are some of those immigrants. They came to Canada to work, to send money home to the Philippines to support their family. In Canada — Davidson in particular — they found a caring community and opportunities. They found their future. Now they just need to bring their kids here.

By Tara de Ryk

DAVIDSON — When she was a little girl living in the Philippines, Valerie Anne Lopez says she dreamed of growing up in Canada.

It seemed like a fairy tale place where common folk — not just rich people — had bathtubs in their homes.

Canada is also a place where the habit of buying a carton of milk is a daily occurrence, not a carefully considered expense, a big reward that consumes a big chunk of a daily wage.

“My childhood was difficult. I had to work and earn something or we couldn’t afford to go to school,” Valerie says.

She watched her father come and go. He worked as an international seafarer for 13 years.

She recalls going to the airport to meet her father’s flight home. Sometimes he didn’t arrive on the much-anticipated plane and she’d be heartbroken.

Valerie did get to come to Canada. She arrived in December to join her husband Joseph Glenn, who’s been living and working in Canada since 2014.

Before meeting Valerie at the Saskatoon airport, Joseph stopped into Midway Flowers to buy a bouquet of roses, explaining he was picking up his wife, whom he hadn’t seen for nearly two years.

Their happy reunion was bitter sweet because their three young children David, 9, Beatrice, 4, and Georgina, 3, remained in the Philippines where Joseph’s mother is taking care of them.

Joseph’s been apart from his children for nearly three years.

“Our situation is not that unique because every other immigrant has this story,” Joseph says.

A common story for immigrants, perhaps, but it’s one difficult to imagine for most Canadians who get to tuck their kids in bed each night.

For the full story, part of our Canada 150 special, please see the June 26 edition of The Davidson Leader, or call 306-567-2047 to subscribe today.