The community of Swan Valley demonstrated its lasting legacy when the Community Foundation of Swan Valley (CFSV) held their 18th annual meeting and grant night on Wednesday (Dec. 7) in the banquet room of the Westwood
Inn. During the evening, more than $140,000 in grants and scholarships were announced...

Junior high teams from Minitonas and Swan River converged in the gymnasiums of the SVRSS and the ESRSS on Wednesday (Nov. 23) to compete in Valley Champs, determining the best junior high volleyball team in the Swan Valley.

The Valley Stage Players made their grand return last weekend (Nov. 18-20) with a production of Deputy Jan, a play by Richard Gremel produced by special arrangement with Heuer Publishing LLC. Proceeds from the dinner theatre event went to benefit the Swan River Valley Agricultural Society.

Community Remembrance Day services returned to being held indoors for the first time since 2019.
Prior to the service in Swan River on Nov. 11, a parade – featuring RCMP members, Cadets, Swan River Fire Department, Canadian Rangers, the Swan Valley Stampeders and community members – marched from the Veterans Community Hall to the Cenotaph near Taylor School to lay four wreaths – to honour the Air Force, Navy, Army and RCMP.
The outdoor ceremony continued indoors at the Veterans Community Hall.
Royal Canadian Legion (RCL) Branch No. 39 President Neil Griffith opened the ceremony by requesting to March on the Colours. O Canada was sang before trumpeter David Gnida performed the Last Post, followed by a minute of silence, the Rouse, and the Act of Remembrance. Griffith also recognized those from the Swan River Legion who have passed on, which included Maurice Roberge and Brent MacDuff.
After the Deposit of Colours, those in attendance observed 24 wreaths laid by Veterans, local government members, RCMP, the fire department, service clubs, and families honouring their relatives who fought.
Pastor Bob Lewis led this year’s service, opening with the song In Flanders Field from the Taylor School Choir.
“Beauty has a cost,” he said. “We see through the poppy, to the men and women who gave and sacrificed their time, their energy, their lives.
“Today is set aside for those living icons, the men and women of the First War, and then that Second War, and then the Korean War, and the peacekeeping missions, and in Afghanistan and around the world today. We do look to them for their knowledge and wisdom, and as living icons, we look through them to see humanity. We see us, and that capacity within us to give of ourselves, our capacity for sacrifice.
“We have not been able to gather together on this day, these past two turbulent years,” Lewis continued. “Remembrance Day is the only day of the year that we as Canada gather together in one room with all of our differences, political, religious, ethnic, cultural. Remembrance Day is not about us. This service looks beyond this month, this day, this hour, because of the serge, the poppy and the veteran.”
Following a Prayer of Remembrance, the ceremony concluded with the singing of God Save the King, and with the March off of the Colours.
And, until the next Remembrance Day, we will continue to remember them.

The Swan River Curling Club hosted a curling clinic on Friday (Oct. 28) for all ages, bringing in instructors Lorne and Chris Hamblin from the Cargill Curling Training Centre in Morris. Sessions included stick curling in the afternoon and a Learn to Curl session for everyone in the evening. Saturday and Sunday (Oct. 29 and 30) also included other more advanced individual and team classroom and on-ice sessions to hone the skill of the local curlers.