The Roblin Métis Local, in partnership with the San Clara/Boggy Creek Métis Local and the Shell River Métis Association, hosted a National Indigenous Peoples Day celebration Wednesday evening at the curling rink.

The festivities began with opening prayers and greetings and a tasty supper featuring stew and bannock.

Check out the pictures in today’s paper.

Build it and they will come, has been the philosophy behind the Grace Lake Boardwalk and Boreal Trail that Opasquia Trails has been developing. Recently a soft opening was launched to get people to use the boardwalk and trail to see how it held up and what the feedback is.
“The project is about 94 percent completed on what we wanted to do this year in order to have our grand opening,” said Opasquia Trails Board Member Al McLauchlan. “We’ve decided to do a soft opening, which will allow people to get out and enjoy the trail. We realize that people have been itching to get out and see the boardwalk and boreal trail. We were holding people off, because it was a construction area, and we didn’t want anyone to get hurt.
“We’re at a point now where we want to see people on the boardwalk to see the reaction from group of people and how it will go over. It’s well designed and built, but we want to test it out before we do an official opening of it.”

An Indigenous Grandparents’ Rights Walk will be taking place starting on July 3, at Opaskwayak Cree Nation. The walk is to raise awareness of the rights of Indigenous grandparents and their need for support in raising their grandchildren.
“Off and on I raised my grandchildren and then in 2006, I was going through the court system and was told by a judge that I did not have rights in the courtroom, because there were no grandparents’ rights,” said Indigenous Grandparents’ Rights Walk Organizer Marlene Carriere. “I couldn’t talk on behalf of my grandchildren, and it was so frustrating, because every time I left the courts, I was so emotional. At the very last court hearing I said, ‘well you wait and see what I can do. I’m a kookum’.

Cleaning up sharps has become a concern in the tri-community. As the snow melted this spring, people were finding discarded sharps left behind on the street, in parks and even in playgrounds. The Pas Bear Clan Patrol has been diligently responding to all calls received about discarded sharps being found and needing to be disposed of.
There are times when The Pas Bear Clan Patrol receive multiple calls a day to come pick up discarded sharps left in public areas. These calls have been coming in steadily.
A troubling and recent incident that The Pas Bear Clan Patrol responded to involved a four year old child running around with a used and discarded sharp that had blood and was chasing other children in an attempt to try and poke them with it. The post indicated that it was reported the child had also been sucking on part of the sharp.
“Lately we’ve been getting an influx of calls to pick up sharps found in the tri-community,” said The Pas Bear Clan Patrol Member Linda Michelle.

The Town of The Pas held a regular council meeting and a public hearing on a variation last Monday. The public hearing was on an application for a variation for the Manitoba Metis Federation’s (MMF) new daycare build, to accommodate a bus garage.
“Council is supporting the variation in the Public Hearing with the Manitoba Metis Federation (MMF),” said Town of The Pas Mayor Andre Murphy. “The variation is to change the maximum height. In our current zoning there’s a maximum height of 12 feet for buildings in the community. The variation is asking to move that to 19 feet to accommodate a smaller bus garage for the daycare. That’s the only variation they’ve asked for. It’s a minor variation and we still expect that they will ensure the building will be suited and compliment the neighborhood.”
The BIizzard hockey team has been in the works with the Town of The Pas on a three-year agreement and to host the team at the Roy H. Johnson Arena.
“The agreement is a three year one and from our understanding the Blizzard and Opaskwayak Cree Nation (OCN) have ended their agreement,” said Murphy. “We were asked if we would be interested in hosting the team at the Roy H. Johnson Arena. We’ve had discussions over the last month to see if this would make sense and how it would impact the community. I believe the council and our administration have come up with a good license agreement to ensure that the Blizzard is staying in the community.

Never forget that sometimes individual effort can inspire a community and make a difference in the world.
Such is the case with local crafter Linda Daviduik, who crocheted a total of 205 prayer cloths and cards to benefit breast cancer research in Manitoba and those suffering from it.
Each package that Daviduik assembled comes with a crocheted prayer cloth, a laminated prayer card and a pink ribbon pin to wear.
“The prayer cloth idea came from a gift I received from a neighbour who made prayer cloths for sale,” said Daviduik. “I immediately thought, ‘why can’t I make prayer cloths that are pink for breast cancer research?’”
When she presented the idea to where she wanted to donate them in Winnipeg, Daviduik noted they were thrilled with the idea, took what she already had made and gave her two large rolls of pink ribbon to make more.
“I said I wouldn’t mind making them but I couldn’t sell that many in Swan River as our community is small,” she said.
This happened prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, and once the pandemic affected everyone’s lives, Daviduik had lots of time to make her 205 prayer cloth packages.
Daviduik was sure to mention her friends that helped out with providing some of the supplies or donate to the cause, such as Adam Maksuta, manager of Ace Hardware at the time, who donated two balls of pink yarn. Rachael Stober, owner of Bee Gee’s Stationery also donated paper, printing and laminating services for the prayer cards, and other friends donated money to buy the rest. Friends who donated $10 each include: Annie Zaretzky, Elizabeth Yablonski, Helen Klimuk, Tammy Zaretzky-Denischuk, Mary Jenner, Helen Proskie, Helen Martinussen and Dorothy Dixon.
“I am so grateful for caring friends who reached out to help me with this project,” said Daviduik.
She estimates that if the prayer cloth packages are able to be sold at $4 each, that could raise $800 for breast cancer research.
Daviduik is an avid crafter who has had projects taken all over Canada.
She also spends lots of time volunteering and giving back. She has volunteered as a Heart and Stroke coordinator as well as involved in coordinating fall suppers, rodeo luncheons and the Loving Hearts event.

Some of the Valley’s youngest graduates celebrated a milestone last week. Six members of the ESRSS Daycare will be moving on to Kindergarten next year and so they invited family and friends to honour their achievements last Tuesday (June 13) at the centre. 

After the most successful season ever for the Dauphin Clippers rugby program, the teams held their awards banquet, last Thursday.

The Most Improved Player Award for the girls was shared by Ruth Evans and Tanya Devos, while Rhett Tkachyk won for the boys.

The Top Back Award for the girls went to Chloe Fletcher, while Oliver Dandeneau won for the boys.

Emma Fox won the girls’ Top Forward Award, while Will Miner won the boys’ award.

Megan Thompson and Matthew Zurba won their respective Playoff MVP Awards, while Raylyn Koshowski and Scott Gower were recipients of the Spirit Award.

The Rookie of the Year Award went to Bree Walker for the girls 7s team and Janna Manzano for the girls’ 15s program. Louis Prevot and Guzman Garcia shared the boys award.

The first-ever Mavericks Award was awarded to Brooke Miner and Dandeneau.

The MVP Award for both the girls 7s and 15s was shared by Brooke Miner and Emma Fox, while the boys’ MVP was won by Joseph Lopez.

The community of Ste. Rose is celebrating a windfall which will allow for the completion of phase two of the Turtle River Trails project.

Through its Community Spaces program, Co-op has pledged $85,000 towards the project as part of a $1 million investment in 15 community projects across Western Canada.

“We are so very thankful to be the recipient of the Co-op Community Spaces Grant, to have Co-op partner with us to create such an amazing space for the people of Ste. Rose and surrounding communities to enjoy,” said Shari Shankaruk, chair of the Turtle River Trails Committee. “Valuable projects like ours, and communities across the country are becoming a reality because of this program. Co-op is a community-minded business and is undoubtedly known for their generosity and support in communities such as ours. On behalf of the Turtle River Trails project committee, I would like to extend a huge heartfelt thank you to Co-op for believing in our project and partnering with us to make it a reality.”

Intended to enhance, beautify and promote healthy living in the community, the Turtle River Trail system built during phase one, through phase 2 will be augmented with the construction of a toboggan hill, nature trail and nature play park, as well as a nine-hole disc golf course.

Dauphin Ste Rose Co-op general manager Lorne Eiffert said the local business is pleased to be involved with the development as it “reflects our vision to enrich the life of our communities.”

“Each project can be different in a community where it’s located and that’s the beautiful thing about local residents building their communities, they understand the community needs,” he said.

“I want to thank the Turtle River Trails committee for your commitment and extraordinary work you do on a daily basis. That makes such a big difference in the community of Ste. Rose. Co-op is proud to be part of bringing this project into reality and together we are improving the places where we meet, play, learn and share.”

Since 2015, the Co-op Community Spaces program has provided $12.5 million to 175 projects in three categories: recreation, environmental conservation and urban agriculture.

The program was developed as part of Co-op’s commitment to invest in the communities it serves.

Funding has also been secured through the provincial Building Sustainable Communities Fund in the amount of $83,250, as well as a $10,000 grant from the Thomas Sill Foundation which, when combined with the money from Co-op Community Spaces means phase two will be able to proceed without any further fund-raising being necessary.