The Rall’s Island Community Park has been a hub in the community and there is a dedicated board in place that is committed to providing it a little TLC. The community park has been a great place for families, friends and youth to get together and engage in various physical and social activities.
“The Rall’s Island Community Park is a great drawing area for the community,” said Rall’s Island Community Park Board Chair Greg Hunter. “There are a lot of activities that kids can do throughout the park and it’s a nice place to meet up. On a weekend, it’s great to enjoy the equipment and facilities, from the outdoor skating rink to the ball diamond or playground. It’s just a nice spot for people to get out, meet up and get involved.

The Pas Arts Council is bringing some Celtic rock to the tri-community area next month. The Derina Harvey Band will be performing their original songs as well as some traditional folk ones. Lead singer Derina Harvey’s powerful vocals earned her a 2025 Canadian Folk Music Award nomination for Contemporary Singer of the Year.
The Derina Harvey Band has been described as an edgier version of another Canadian band, Great Big Sea, if they had lead singer, Adele. Their music and performance brings a high-energy show that engages audiences.
The band has released three albums, the latest of which came out in 2023, called Waves of Home. In 2024, the Derina Harvey Band took home a 2024 East Coast Music Award for Fans’ Choice Entertainer of the Year.

Editor’s Note: This article contains content that may be traumatizing or triggering.
The long-awaited inquest into the death of Kevin Anderson has finally taken place over the span of three weeks, which started on March 2, 2026. Judge Timothy Killen allowed the media to sit in on the inquest, but prohibited the media from recording any testimony or statements. The media was also instructed not to release details of the testimony given until all those called to testify had done so.
Anderson and co-worker, Chris Rushton, were seriously injured and trapped after a freight train was derailed in northern Manitoba, near Ponton, back in September 2018. The men were unable to call for help due to their radios not working. The crash was discovered two hours later by a civilian helicopter that was flying overhead.

In late 2025, the Manitoba First Nations Police Service (MFNP) installed AXON Fleet three camera systems in all marked Police vehicles. This was done as part of a commitment and investment to keep First Nations communities safe. These cameras serve a dual purpose by recording all vehicle stops and prisoner transports and are equipped with an Automatic License Plate Recognition (ALPR) system. On March 1, these cameras were activated in Opaskwayak Cree Nation as part of a pilot test.

The efforts of local business and community leaders were in the spotlight at The Parkland Chamber of Commerce Celebration Night, Mar. 18, at Countryfest Community Cinema.

Dr. Kara Vanderheyden, owner of WillowBrook Eye Care, was presented the Business Person of the Year Award.

The award recognizes a well-known passion for excellence and leadership in the business community and a commitment to economic development, innovation, business ethics and community involvement.

Flying under the radar for many years, Ritz Machine Works came out into the light as the Outstanding Business Award winner for 2026.

Criteria for the award considers success in positive company growth including sales, growth prospects, and employment creation, while demonstrating a clear strategic vision and engaging in innovative practices, which have a continuing positive impact on the community.

Any healthy business requires the presence of young entrepreneurs, who exemplify the qualities of effective leadership, innovatively applied know-how, and excellent potential for growth.

The Young Entrepreneur of the Year, presented to an individual between the ages of 18 and 35, who has been in business no longer than two years was presented this year to Jarrod Delaurier of Delaurier Welding Ltd.

The Start-up Business Award, presented to an undertaking which has been in operation for  less than two years and shows promise in positive growth, while creating new employment opportunities, was this year presented to Flett’s Custom Cutting in Gilbert Plains.

A pair of awards named after a former mayor, recognized contributions through personal efforts to the well-being of the community as a whole.

This year the Eric Irwin Community Appreciation Award Individual was presented to Lindsay Dingwall, while the Dauphin RIDE Program took home the Eric Irwin Community Appreciation Award Group.

Carla Vandenbrink of Carla’s Adventures accepted the Side Hustle Business Award. The award recognizes an entrepeneur, who demonstrates success within a venture they choose to operate outside of their regular job.

To bring the clebration to a close, Gary Sydor was posthumously presented the Legacy Award with his accomplishments highlighted in a video presentation of Dauphin MLA Ron Kostyshyn reading a Member’s Statement in the Manitoba Legislature.

The award recognizing Sydor’s extraordinary accomplishments, which benefited the region in unique and meaningful ways and served as an inspiration for the community, was accepted by his wife Liz.

The Sunflower Early Learning Centre is looking to grow and expand in terms of size. The demand for local daycare in Minitonas has increased, so the centre needs to increase its size to accommodate the demand.
“We are licensed for 35 children between the ages of 12 weeks and 12 years of age, and provide care to a total of 46 children from our Valley, with shared spots and accommodating part-time spots,” said Sunflower Early Learning Centre Executive Director Michelle Rinsdorf. “We employ 10 people from our Valley, including youth seeking after-school jobs who are interested in joining the field and summer students.
“We are currently located in the old Minitonas Early Years School, where we began in 2016. We strive for an inclusive, high-quality program and provide daily activities in a variety of curriculum areas based on the developmental needs and abilities of every child. We arrange our environment indoors and outdoors to be a space that inspires children to grow and learn freely, often adding and adapting learning areas to enhance their learning in specific interests.
“For example, when they were interested in airplanes, we provided activities that expanded their knowledge of airplanes and even created a giant cardboard airplane in their room,” said Rinsdorf. “We strongly believe in community engagement and seek opportunities to connect the children and families in our program with our local businesses and organizations. We love to attend the local library every week in the summer, we take the children on field trips and bring in a variety of locals as guest speakers and shop locally for our supplies and materials. We have worked really hard at ensuring that our program is more than just a babysitting service and strive for excellence in our everyday operations.
“When the school closed, our daycare stayed back in the building and continued growing. We added infant spaces since opening and then received our funding for school-age spaces, and almost two years ago, we expanded our preschool spots. We are very happy that we have grown so much, but we have outgrown the space needed to ensure we are providing the best care possible.
“The building we are utilizing has rooms designed for school-age children, with multiple sets of stairs in the way of getting to the rooms and for our younger children,” said Rinsdorf. “Especially since we’ve expanded and have more younger children in care, it continued growing as a safety concern and not a truly inclusive environment, as anyone who had physical limitations. This included some children who broke their leg and couldn’t attend childcare, which meant their parents’ employment was affected.
“We also don’t have infant/toddler-sized washrooms available and the available ones are located outside of our rooms and upstairs, which has been quite difficult when it comes time for children to learn how to use a potty safely. The building is also an aging building, and it became obvious that it wouldn’t be a long-term home for us without extensive work that was not an option at the time.
“The opportunity to purchase our own building presented itself when the old local Knox United Church came for sale and our volunteer board of directors carefully and thoroughly deliberated before reaching the decision to move forward with this plan,” said Rinsdorf. “The plan is to ensure our community is able to provide steady and reliable high-quality child care for years and years to come.”
A drafted plan of what the renovated space for the centre will look like has been released.
“We get the comment a lot and know that the new building is smaller than the school building we are in; however, there is sufficient space to actually exceed government regulations for room sizes for each group of children while also ensuring we will have ample space for storage, a programming room with craft materials and supplies, an office and a kitchen,” said Rinsdorf. “We are excited that we are expanding the mezzanine to create a whole other floor that will be used for extra space.
“There will be child-sized bathrooms in each room so that children will be able to successfully learn how to use the potty safely and our play yard is going to be a beautiful green space. We will have doors in our infant and preschool rooms leading directly outdoors to the play space, which makes transitions smooth and safe, and we will be installing a lift system in our entrance way for anyone with accessibility needs. The space will be much more appropriately sized and utilized for our program.
“The designs have been looked over, adapted and tweaked a few times now to ensure the space we are creating will, in fact, be a long-lasting, high-quality environment,” said Rinsdorf. “We have worked closely with MB Early Learning and Child Care to develop plans as well as public health and fire and safety. We have been very fortunate that we have a wonderful board member with an eye for design who has volunteered many hours talking and planning with me about what a high-quality daycare would have, including collaborating with other centers in the province who have built or done renovations.”
With the plans completed comes one of the more challenging tasks, which is raising funds to get the renovations started. The Sunflower Early Learning Centre has already begun fundraising and currently has some fundraisers on the go.
“We started our fundraising for this project since we purchased the building in 2023,” said Rinsdorf. “Some of our fundraising efforts have included monthly hot lunches for our families, Mabel’s Labels, Muddy Buddy Sales, an indoor garage sale, and a few 50/50 raffle draws. Last Christmas, we did an art auction of special artwork the children worked hard on and that was a fun and special opportunity for our community and families.
“This past December, we had the opportunity to do a Travel Voucher fundraiser where the winner got to choose between $3,000 cash or a $4,000 travel voucher through Swan Valley Travel. We were so fortunate last fall that we were chosen by the Swan Valley Co-op for the Fuel Good Day. We did a BBQ at the gas station that day with their support, and had a record-breaking event. We brought back our Trivia Night Fundraiser in 2024 and hosted our third annual night on February 28th. Last year, that brought us in over $10,000.
“We also do a 50/50 draw, silent auction, and this year we are doing a meat raffle sponsored by Red Bull Farms at the event,” said Rinsdorf. “Last year, a local community member took home $2,400 in our 50/50 draw from Trivia Night. We are currently selling raffle tickets for Countryfest, which was fully and generously sponsored by JB Construction, Campbell’s Construction T.A. Bartel Family Grain Farms and Cody Conrad.
“We have also been grateful recipients of local grants to put towards our project, including significant grants from the Swan Valley Credit Union and the Community Foundation of Swan Valley. Local businesses and families have an exciting opportunity to partner with us on this project as well, and all support will be honoured with a commemorative plaque in our completed building.
“We have a really fun fundraising event lined up for June 20th, 2026, that is a truck/machine explore event for families,” said Rinsdorf. “We have so many fun ideas lined up for that day, as it will also commemorate our 10-year anniversary.
“We would love to raise $100,000 to be able to put directly into this project, and we are so appreciative of every donation, grant, support of materials or items, or opportunity to fundraise because no amount is too small. I am very grateful to be a part of this and excited to see it come to life.”
As the centre continues to raise funds, they are waiting on final approvals before the work can begin.
“Now that our plans are almost complete and waiting for final approvals, we are itching to get the real work started,” said Rinsdorf. “What we have learned to be true is that everything with the government takes some extra time, so we have had to be patient and wait for everything to be approved along the way. Ideally, this time next year, we will be in our completed building.”

The last curling event at the Swan River Community Centre took place on Wednesday (March 18), and thanks to the warm, melting weather, the ice was ready to take out on Friday (March 20) – the first official day of spring – an apropos symbol of the changing seasons. Pictured here, a rented loader service from Cook Bros. Cartage cleans up the painted slush.

March 11th 11:45 am
RCMP received a call from a manager of the Natural Conservatory of Canada regarding finding dynamite in a barn located on land that the government was managing. RCMP in Russell contacted the RCMP bomb squad who attended to the farm near St. Lazare and found several boxes of dynamite had degraded due to age and had become very unstable and much more likely to ignite while being moved. Because it couldn’t be transported off site safely, the RCMP bomb robot was sent in and the dynamite was safely dragged from the barn and into a field where it was safely detonated.
March 11th 5:30 pm
A female attended to the Russell detachment reporting that a Russell man had made comments she didn’t like on Facebook. The female did not want any investigation into the matter but asked police to take away this man’s phone. She was advised that police couldn’t do that. She was also given information on how to apply for a restraining order if she so wished.

Read the whole RCMP report on page 3 of this week's Russell Banner.

A lot of Canadians have at least heard about Brent Butt. Many of us - especially on the prairies - loved the Corner Gas series largely because it felt like small town Saskatchewan, where it was set and filmed and their neighboring Manitoba farm communities.
Although Butt is probably best known for the popular Canadian series which he created and starred in from 2004 to 2009 when the series ended, aside from working on a pilot for a new series, he’s has taken to stages across Canada for his recent tour,.
Russell ended up being one of those spots as the Russell Flying Club hosted their annual gala evening.
“We had a sold out crowd of 500 people,” Richard Wileman of the Russell Flying Club said adding that there were people in the crowd ranging from teenagers to well up into their 80’s.
“The entertainment was fantastic and Jessica Turnbull and her crew treated everyone to a wonderful roast beef meal with all the trimmings.”

Read more about this event on page 2 of this week's Russell Banner.

Families in Binscarth and the surrounding area will soon see more childcare spaces become available when an ambitious expansion project by Little Bloomers Learning Patch comes together.
Little Bloomers has been part of the Binscarth community for quite a while. The board was first formed back in 2009 with the goal of creating a childcare centre that local families could rely on. After several years of planning, fundraising, and hard work, the centre officially opened in February 2013.
Since then, it has grown along with the community and become an important part of everyday life for many families.
For years, the program has operated within Binscarth School, and organizers say they are very grateful for the support they have received from the school and from Parkwest School Division. Right now, the centre runs a mixed-age room licensed for 12 children, and it’s full.
There is also a nursery school program licensed for 10 children and a school-age program licensed for 12 children in a separate room at the school, which are also at capacity.
The nursery school runs three mornings a week and continues to serve as many children as possible within the limits of the available space.
At the moment, Little Bloomers is operating at full capacity in every program it offers, and the waitlist continues to grow. The centre currently has about 50 families on the waitlist, and that number is expected to increase as the community grows.

Read more of what "Little Bloomers" is all about on the front page and page 2 of this week's Russell Banner.