It’s been some time since Adult and Teen Challenge of Central Canada (ATC) set up a community office in Swan River, with the intent to reach out to people with addictions in the area and help them overcome the challenges in their life, whether that be by being a place to talk to somebody or by being the first step towards one of the inpatient recovery programs that ATC runs.
For the time being, ATC currently runs a monthly program called Freedom Church at their community office located at the former First Baptist Church in Swan River at 224 Fifth Avenue North.
“We have been getting people from throughout the community – whether it be from the churches or people off the street – to join us on a Sunday afternoon for some food and listen to some testimonies, some live music and be able to share stories with others,” said Terry Thiessen, who works on the ATC Regional Team in relation to alumni and community development.
“We usually have a small group of volunteers that help us reach out into parts of the community and connect with that demographic that we know to be there that we can help by showing some love.”
Thiessen noted that they have had quite a few referrals into either inpatient or outpatient programming by connecting with people who attend Freedom Church.
The greater plan that ATC had for the space includes a full-time staff couple that would live at the facility and be able to connect with people on a more regular basis.
“We have a job posting, but I think there’s a bit of a shortage in the job market right now for both people applying and those that have the right skill set for the position,” said Thiessen.
“Our goal is to become a centrepoint for outpatient programming. We have a goal of having women’s groups and men’s groups held separately as outpatient support where people can come and receive support through a weekly gathering, through various relevant studies, all done through an umbrella that we call ‘Ready Now Recovery’. And, people get an opportunity to receive basic, weekly regular support for the life-controlling issue that they’re walking through.
“We also plan to launch a family support system called ‘Concerned Persons’,” Thiessen continued. “What that does is it focuses more on family, friends and loved ones that have somebody they know who is in addictions but they’re not exactly sure how to navigate that.
“We walk alongside them in a nine-week course called ‘Concerned Persons’ and we help them gain some perspective and some different ways of being able to respond to their situation of pressure that you go through when a loved one is in addictions and how to respond in the best way that doesn’t just continue a cycle but maybe it can help to stop a cycle. It goes deeper into maybe not being able to change our loved one – despite wanting to try – but how can we change the atmosphere that we are helping to change or create for them that’s going to steer them towards wanting to get some help.”
Thiessen added that the support program also helps in the sense that people can often feel like they are the only ones in those situations, and it really helps to know that others are going through the same challenge that you are.
Thiessen also noted that not only has the monthly services helped get some referrals for individuals who need the long-term programs, but it has also helped the community by gathering a group of volunteers that have a heart for the community, which can benefit an eventual full-time staff person in their success.
“There’s a base of high-quality volunteers that believe in their own community and want to make a difference,” said Thiessen. “Those two things are the biggest wins so far.
“There’s a general consensus of everyone being eager to get this (greater programming) going. As part of the regional support team, we’ve tried to do our best to at least have a consistent presence as much as we are able to. But, I think that the excitement is there and we are hoping to find the right person to step into that (full-time) role, which would open up the opportunity to move into some more regular and frequent type program.”
A job posting for the Swan River position is available at teenchallenge.applytojobs.ca.

The storage container outside of the Royal Canadian Legion Br. 39 Swan River club room is getting an aesthetic upgrade, with the Legion hiring local artist Jenna Smith to beautify the space with a scene of poppies, topped off with the words ‘Lest We Forget’. Smith has already spent many hours on the project, expecting to finish it in the coming weeks. Murray Eagle did the sandblasting on the container to prepare the surface for the artwork. Here, Smith uses her patient and skillful hands to apply her vision. 

On June 4, 2023, at Bethany Lutheran Church in Inglis, Bauereiss was ordained as a minister in the Evangelical Lutheran Church.

She is the first woman to be ordained in Bethany Lutheran in what has been the first ordination in that building since 1938. She has been serving as a Deacon since 2022.

Find out more in this week’s issue.

Prairie Mountain Health (PMH) is offering a new recruitment incentive of $75,000 to all new physician recruits, including ‘in-progress recruitments, to the region.

The new incentive was announced to communities and municipalities in a letter from PMH CEO Brian Schoonbaert dated Aug. 3.

Read all about it in this week’s Review.

Do you enjoy trying new things, or meeting new people? Join us every other Saturday afternoon starting in September for fun with board games.

If board games aren’t your style we will be hosting more craft hour activities in the library as well, for kids, families or just adults!

More about the library in this week’s Library Report.

Simon the Scientist is back again in this year’s Pow Wow Pitch semi-finals and his platform for learning and teaching science has grown significantly in this last year. Simon Monteith, spent a good portion of his time teaching science experiments and lessons via YouTube, but now has branched out to a lot more teaching and demonstrating to a classroom audience.
“This year, I’ve done a variety of different things,” said Simon. “I reached out to school divisions in the north, like Frontier School Division, and done monthly STEM sessions during the school year. I also did some work with Let’s Talk Science.”

Oscar’s Place is providing a very much needed service in the tri-community as an emergency shelter. It has been faced with some challenges such as not enough space to meet all the demands for emergency shelter and finding casual and on-call staffing, which has not been uncommon for make organizations and work places.
“Oscar’s Place currently is a 12-hour overnight emergency shelter, which is open from 8 p.m. to 8 a.m., 365 days per year and provides individuals who require safe overnight services with a warm space to sleep, a warm meal, laundry service, public washrooms, and shower facilities,” said Canadian Mental Health Parkland and The Pas Region Chief Executive Officer James Wigley. “As an overnight emergency shelter, both male and female clients can spend the night who are 18 years of age or older.

The Town of The Pas has completed their Asset Management Plan thanks to the assistance of the Federation of Canadian Municipalities. Recently a report about the Asset Management Plan was published on the town website; it is a report summarizing the process, not the actual study itself.
“We have some information out about our Asset Management Plan on our website,” said Town of The Pas Mayor Andre Murphy. “The thing about asset management plans is that they are complicated spreadsheets to understand if you are not working with or directly involved in the process. The study takes the assets in one’s community and determines the life left in these assets, what needs to be replaced and how a council can make those decisions going forward.

Swampy Cree Tribal Council held their Annual General Assembly (AGA) in the beginning of August. The council is made up of eight First Nation communities in northern Manitoba that consists of Chemawawin Cree Nation, Mosakahiken Cree Nation, Mathia Colomb Cree Nation, Misipawastik Cree Nation, Opaskwayak Cree Nation, Sapotaweyak Cree Nation, Wuskwi Sipihk First Nation and Marcel Columb First Nation. At the AGA, the election for the Swampy Cree Tribal Council was held and a new Grand Chief was elected.
“When the Swampy Cree Tribal Council holds their AGA, there is an election that is held every two years,” said Swampy Cree Tribal Council Grand Chief Elwood Zastre. “There are eight First Nations that make up the Swampy Cree Tribal Council and every Chief from each of those communities can run for the position of Grand Chief.

Writing and publishing a novel is something that a few people dream of, but sometimes never find the actual time to do. A former Valley resident, despite his extremely intense schedule and career, has found an opportunity to achieve that very thing he has dreamed of. Dale Fedorchuk has a career that is beyond impressive; one that really sounds like it’s out of a book all its own.
“I was born in Swan River and my parents are Bill and Rose Fedorchuk,” said Dale Fedorchuk. “I grew up on a farm in the Big Woody District. After I graduated from the Swan Valley Regional Secondary School (SVRSS) in 1977, I started at the University of Manitoba in the same year. I obtained a Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science in 1980, and a Bachelor of Laws degree from the U of M in 1983. I was called to the Bar in Manitoba in 1984. I practiced law in Manitoba from 1984 to 2001.
“In 1994 I participated as a Controller in a joint military, intelligence and police field training counter-terrorism exercise in advance of the Commonwealth Games in Victoria, B.C.. Three years later, I was offered a contract to develop military exercises and provide instruction part-time for the United States Air Force Special Operations School. United States Special Operations Command – Joint Special Operations University picked up my contract and I became part of a team briefing Special Operations Forces, which is mostly Navy SEALs and Army Green Berets before they were deployed to Afghanistan and Iraq.
“I served in this capacity part-time for 16 years from 1997 to 2013, while I continued to practice law,” said Fedorchuk. “In May 2001, my wife, Anika, and I moved to Calgary. I was called to the Bar in Calgary in 2001 and I have practiced criminal law here since that time. In 2010, I was appointed a Queen’s Counsel. After King Charles was crowned, I became a King’s Counsel. I am a criminal defence lawyer and I litigate most of my cases before a jury. I live in Cochrane with Anika and our pets, and I practice law in Calgary and its surrounding regions, with no plans to retire.”
The dream of writing and publishing his own book was something that had intrigued Fedorchuk at an early age. He had a love for reading books that turned into a flare for writing, but it wasn’t until much later that he took the plunge and wrote his first novel.
“Since I was a teenager, I wanted to write science fiction stories,” said Fedorchuk. “I was an avid comic book and science fiction reader from the age of 10. I spent many hours as a youth devouring a hamburger nip, a cold Pepsi in a glass bottle, and numerous comic books at Dick’s Café in Swan River. The owners of Dick’s Café had been so kind to me; they would allow me to sit and read comics for hours while Mom and Aunt Jean Fedorchuk shopped.
“In high school, my English teacher challenged me to write a science fiction short story and publish it in the Star and Times. I wrote it and, to my surprise, the Star and Times printed it in its entirety. I still have the article buried somewhere in my personal papers. After I left high school, though, the pursuit of a legal career swept my ambition to write under the carpet, until last year.
“I had attended a family wedding in Swan River, where I sat with my nieces, Micayla and Nadia Krahn,” said Fedorchuk. “In the 1980s, I wrote poetry, including a series of poems about a fictional character called Tul’ran the Sword. I gave a copy of my poetry to my sister, Connie, many years ago, and my nieces read the poems. At the wedding, Micayla and Nadia told me how much they enjoyed Tul’ran’s poems and asked me why I never wrote a story about Tul’ran. They challenged me to write a novel and I accepted the challenge.
“Writing my novels is one of the strangest experiences I’ve had. When I sat down to start writing my first novel, the words poured out of my mind, through my fingertips, and onto the keyboard. I couldn’t type fast enough to keep up with my thoughts sometimes. I see passages of the book like scenes from a movie in my mind. I try to record those scenes as accurately as possible.”
The storyline of Fedorchuk’s book has an ironic sense of what he has experienced in his career but with a more Sci-Fi/Fantasy twist.
“The novel starts in an oasis in the desert near the city of Ur in Mesopotamia in 2005 BC,” said Fedorchuk. “The lead male character, Tul’ran az Nostrom, known as Tul’ran the Sword, is brooding under a palm tree about his life. Although Tul’ran is wealthy and legendary, there is no peace within him. He hears a woman’s scream, and rides his stallion, Darkshadow, to the aid of Erianne of Kabolon. Erianne is an intelligent and courageous woman running from assassins.
“Together, they flee and fight various assassin groups, as they try to rejoin her fellow travellers. As they do so, they learn truths about one another that take this story far beyond the ordinary. This is not a typical fantasy, historical romance novel; it has twists and turns drawing the reader into an unexpected journey. The series is centred around Tul’ran and Erianne, and their efforts to administer justice against violent crimes perpetrated against men and women alike. As the books go on, other characters join them.”
Fedorchuk wrote his first novel in record time, but the real challenge was determining the best course of action to get it published.
“It took only eight weeks to complete the first draft of the first book, The Ballad of Tul’ran the Sword,” said Fedorchuk. “My wife, Anika, is also my paralegal. I turned the draft over to her for editing and she did an excellent job of it. Once she edited the first draft, I created a second draft and emailed it to my beta reading group.
“The group consisted of men and women ranging in age from 14 years old to 72 years old. I received an enthusiastic response and suggestions for edits. After incorporating the edits, I began the process of trying to get the first book published.
“All the articles I read about publishing suggested a traditional publisher would not entertain a manuscript submission unless I had an agent,” said Fedorchuk. “I prepared a query letter and approached several agents, who either rejected my proposal or ignored it. On the last weekend of April 2023, I attended the Calgary Expo. I met Amanda Muratoff there, who co-authored a fantasy series. She was kind enough to speak to me at length about her experience with self-publishing, more commonly described as indie publishing.
“I formatted my manuscript to meet the requirements of Kindle Direct Publishing. Using Artificial Intelligence drawing programs, I created images for Tul’ran and Erianne, as well as a desert scene. I manipulated the images with Corel Photoshop and created the covers. The first novel was then published on July 13. It is being distributed through Amazon worldwide. Since publication, I’ve learned the bookseller, Barnes & Noble, has picked up my book and is selling it in the United States.”
Since his first novel, Fedorchuk has actually written a series from The Ballad of Tul’ran the Sword.
“The series currently consists of The Ballad of Tul’ran the Sword (Book I), A Time, and Times, Half a Time (Book II), and Abandon Hope (Book III),” said Fedorchuk. “I have written two-thirds of the fourth book, Wolf’s Den. The second book, A Time, and Times, and Half a Time, will be published on Nov. 6.
“I will publish the third book, Abandon Hope, on March 24, to coincide with my mom’s 85th birthday. There is no set publication date for Wolf’s Den just yet, but I anticipate it will be published in the summer of 2024. I’ve sketched the concepts for the fifth book, When the Sky Falls, but I haven’t started writing it.”
Fedorchuk has found writing the easiest part of the process, but when it came to finding ways to publish his novel, that proved to be more trying.
“I am blessed in that writing, so far, has been the easiest part of the process,” said Fedorchuk. “As I’ve said, the passages in the book appear as scenes from a movie in my head: all I must do is record them. The most challenging part has been the attempt to engage a traditional publisher.
“The advantage to having a traditional publisher is their expansive ability to market a novel. In my experience, it was as difficult to secure an agent as it was to secure a traditional publisher. I hope my books are regarded well enough to engage the interest of a traditional publisher. Sometimes a traditional publisher will sign an author who is an indie publisher.
“The most enjoyable part of the experience has been sharing it with my wife, Anika, my 14-year-old niece, Payton Goller, and my 72-year-old military brother, Mike Bennett,” said Fedorchuk. “Mike is a retired Green Beret, having left the US Army with the rank of Lieutenant Colonel. He wrote the Foreword to the book.
“These three people have read all the manuscripts and commented on them, giving the books a much richer depth. I’ve spent hours talking to each of them about the nuances of the characters I’ve created in the novels, and the emotional waves the reader will coast as they progress through the series.”
Fedorchuk’s books are available to purchase on Amazon, but he is currently exploring other retail platforms.
“My books are available on Amazon worldwide, although only the first has been published to this date,” said Fedorchuk. “As well, my American friends can purchase them from Barnes & Noble. I am currently in discussions with Chapters/Indigo bookstores for the distribution of my novels in Canada.”
Fedorchuk is working to finished writing his fourth book and has now moved on to writing the fifth, with no shortage of ideas or writer’s block stopping him.
“I’ve completed 225 pages of the fourth book, Wolf’s Den, which means it is two-thirds complete. All my novels are over 350 pages long. I have plans to start writing the fifth novel, When the Sky Falls, as soon as Anika has begun editing the publisher’s proof copy of Wolf’s Den.”