Town of Pincher Creek Councillor Wayne Elliott at Saamis Teepee in Medicine Hat

Town of Pincher Creek Councillor Wayne Elliott

photo by Lucy

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2015 Pincher Creek and District Chamber of Commerce Awards Night

Congratulations to the 2015 winners

T. Lucas photos

Toni Lucas

The Pincher Creek and District Chamber of Commerce held the 2015 Pincher Creek Awards of Excellence on Wednesday evening, October 21 at the Heritage Inn.  Over 150 people attended the dinner, with more joining later on in the evening to watch the awards.  This was the 20th anniversary of the awards.

People in your neighbourhood - Firefighters Sandra and Duncan Gano

Firefighters Sandra and Duncan Gano

Toni Lucas

"We moved here in September,"  said Sandra Gano.  "I wanted to be involved in the community and help where I can."  The couple came from Manitoba and the two decided to volunteer at the local Lundbreck Fire Hall.  Duncan was a volunteer firefighter in Manitoba for five years and Sandra is joining a hall for the first time.  Sandra was volunteering at the Pincher Creek Humane Society and SPCA and recently has joined the team of paid staff.  They choose to move here based on proximity to woods, mountains, and family that is centered close by in Montana.  "We really  like it here, the people have been so friendly," said Sandra.

The people in your neighbourhood: Pincher water park proponent Jen Draper

Jennifer Draper with sons Jet, Jaydon and Jayce at a water park

Toni Lucas

"I feel pretty confident, I'm really excited," said Jen Draper regarding the possibility of an upcoming spray park in Pincher Creek.  Draper first proposed the idea at Town Council in September 2013.  "I wanted it so I wouldn't have to leave town to entertain my children."  Draper has three very active boys Jaydon, Jet, and Jayce that love going to water parks in hot weather.  She discovered a lot of other young families in the area really liked the idea of creating a water park so she spearheaded the initiative to have one in Pincher Creek.  She is currently the co-chair of the Spray Park Committee.

The people in your neighbourhood - Egg entrepreneur Sarah McClelland

Sarah McClelland

Toni Lucas

The entrepreneurial spirit is alive and well in the Pincher Creek area. 9 year old Sarah McClelland is a grade 3 student at St. Michael's School in Pincher and lives with her family on a farm near Beaver Mines. Her personal business is raising several varieties of fowl and selling their eggs. "I started my business when I was like, 6, maybe 7," she explained.  At home she has to pay for half of the cost of the feed. She sells the eggs for $3.00 / dozen, collects approximately a dozen a day, and has learned a lot about her fowl, their care, and habits in the process. She currently is keeping approximately 20 chickens, a few ducks, and geese.

The people in your neighborhood - Eight is not enough for Jean Parker of Beaver Mines

Jean Parker at The Junction

Jean Parker moved to a Beaver Mines area acreage from Calgary approximately six years ago. She volunteers at 'The Junction', Pincher Creek's food bank, is a busy mom with foster and adopted children, and works for Bridges Consulting. She was a Calgary Urban Project Society (CUPS) volunteer in Calgary, helping people overcome poverty, and also volunteered with Pediatric Advanced Life Support (PALS), with her pet therapy dog.

Five time District High School Rodeo champ Cooper Zur

Cooper Zur

Chris Davis

Young Bull Rider Cooper Zur recently won his 5th consecutive District High School Rodeo championship.  Zur is in his graduating year, and intends to move up to adult rodeo.  He's also working on his career.  "I'm going to be an electrician. I'm apprenticing right now, Cox Electric in the Pass." He was seriously injured last year when a bull landed when he shouldn't, which sidelined his career for awhile, but he appears to be fully recovered now. He says his family is okay with him being back on the bulls.

Thank you from Rodney Cyr

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Thank you to all the Ratepayers of Pincher Creek MD #9 for the privilege to serve you as councillor for 15 years.

                     ~ Rodney Cyr, Division #2

POP off the air

DJ Frankenstein

Chris Davis, Pincher Creek Voice
revised

Frank van Zandwijk aka DJ Frankenstein started Pincher Creek's POP Radio in 2011 when he was 13 years old.  He was determined to give area listeners a choice of something other than country music and talk radio, and in the ensuing years has developed a strong local following, despite the fact his transmitter didn't spread the POP signal much beyond the boundaries of the town of Pincher Creek.

Athlete of the Day May 26, 2013: Justine Jorgensen

Justine Jorgensen

Justine Jorgensen of St. Michael's School placed First in the Junior Girls 100 Meter Dash, First as part of the St. Michael's team in the 4x100 meter relay, First in the Long Jump, and First in the Triple Jump at the 2013 Senior High West District Track and Field competition held at St. Michael's School field on Wednesday,  May 22.

Justine is a multi-talented athlete, being an excellent competitor in Volleyball, Rugby, and anything else she chooses to participate in.  She's been awarded "Most Inspirational" at the Sword and Shield Awards and her academic achievements are also quite notable, including regularly making the Honor Roll.  On top of all that, she consistently personifies good sportsmanship.

Athlete of the day May 22, 2013 : Mitchell Zoratti

Mitchell Zoratti

Mitchell Zoratti is a grade 8 student at St. Michael's School.  He was pitching strong and hard while wearing #7 for the Junior Dust Devils during their game against Sparwood on May 21.  Mitchell also plays basketball and volleyball for the Dragons and has a long history of achievement with 4-H.

He was named the Most Valuable Jr. High Boys Player of St. Michael's Dragons Junior A Boys basketball team along with Michael Svab (who also plays for the Dust Devils) at St. Michael's 2012 Sword and Shield athletic awards.  He was also the Running Champ in his division in the 2012 Dust Devils skills competition.  A well-rounded athlete and a good sport too.

Congratulations to rodeo champ K's Thomson

K's Thomson at the 2012 Pincher Creek Rodeo
C. Davis file photo

Congratulations to K’s Thomson, a student at Livingstone School, who is the new Alberta Junior High School Bull Riding and Boys All-round Champ. He will be travelling to Gallup, New Mexico, at the end of June to compete in the National Junior High Rodeo Finals in four events: bull riding, team roping, goat tying and break away roping.

My hero

Eileen Lucas

Toni Lucas

Eileen was a tiny, elfin woman with a will of iron.  I got to know her after she had already started her family.  She told me once about a hard time that she had with her twins.  It was in the 60s, and she lived in a small town outside of Calgary that didn't have a hospital.   She called her doctor in Calgary to tell him that the younger twin was ill.  After describing the symptoms, he told her that it seemed to be a cold, and that most new mothers tended to overreact.   With four children at home, two under two months old, she didn't tend to overreact to every simple sniffle.  He told her that if she wanted to bring in the baby in the next few days for a check up, she could.  If the weather permitted.  The snow was already deep, winds were high, and the weather was getting worse.

Welcome to Pincher Creek, Iris Wang

Tom Holoboff and Iris Wang
C. Davis photo

Chris Davis, Pincher Creek Voice

Tom Holoboff introduced his "new daughter" Iris Wang to the Pincher Creek Rotary Club during their Thursday afternoon meet last week.  Iris is from Taiwan, and is staying with the Holoboff family as an exchange student.  Tom's daughter Katrina is in Brazil as part of the same exchange program, and the girl from Brazil is at Iris' house.

"Iris landed two weeks ago Thursday," Tom explained.  "Friday we whisked her of to Saskatchewan for a week.  So it's only been this week, getting settled and everything."  Iris is attending grade 12 at St. Michael's School, and she enjoys volleyball and swimming.

Local RCMP Constable goes viral on YouTube

A still from "The Coolest Cop Ever"

Local RCMP Constable Douglas Sokoloski has been dubbed "The Coolest Cop Ever" by campers who thought they were in trouble when he pulled up to their rock 'n roll encampment. "We all assumed that we were in trouble, but really he just wanted to shred on the guitar and play the drums a bit. What a nice fella," says the individual posting it in the video description. At last count the video had more than 210,000 views, and is still rapidly climbing.  Kudos to our Top of the Pops Cop with the chops.

Here then,  a video we dearly wished we had taken of the shredding officer on guitar and drums:

Constable Sokoloski, you have an open invitation to jam with the Voice band anytime.  We can even loan you a drumkit.

POP Radio continues to dial up the hits

Josh Davis, Pincher Creek Voice

POP Radio's Frank van Zandwijk
J. Davis photo

Run by Frank van Zandwijk, 102.3 FM Pop Radio plays a mix of the best modern pop and hip-hop music. The 14 year old originally started Pop Radio Pincher Creek in 2011 as an online radio station in order to create more listening options for the people of Pincher Creek. Hosted through www.listen2myradio.com, Frank was able to offer a 24 hour live-stream of popular music aimed at Pincher’s teenage populace.

However, after 6 months the talented teen grew dissatisfied with the online-only experience, seeking to reach a larger audience than he could find on the internet. He decided to expand, buying a HLLY CZH FM transmitter and an antenna; a week later, Pop Radio was on the airwaves.

St. Michael's celebrates 40 years of Dr. Mack

Chris Davis, Pincher Creek Voice

Dr. Mack, Science teacher extraordinaire

Dr. Mack, who teaches Science to grades 10 through 12 at St. Michael's School, was celebrated by his students and fellow faculty members on the afternoon of Thursday, March 24.  The affection and respect accorded him was very much in evidence.

"Dr. Mack has taught some of your parents, he's taught some of your grandparents, and according to some of your parents they also hope that Dr. Mack is going to teach some of your kids, and some of their grandchildren," said Principal Don Kuchison.  "We basically hope that Dr. Mack is going to be around for a long time at our school  He's a good guy, a special person, and I know that over the years I've learned a lot from him.  He is a special teacher to have with us."

Dr. Mack seemed a bit reticent to be in the spotlight, while obviously pleased by the recognition, the sincerity of which was made clear by the overwhelming and spontaneous cheering by the assembled students assembled.

"I started teaching here, and have been teaching here the whole time," he said.  "I enjoyed it, and the years went by very quickly.  I've had a lot of great kids and a lot of great experiences over the time.

Student Amelia Woodard was enthusiastic in her acknowledgement of his efforts as a teacher.  "Mr. Mack is an amazing teacher and he really makes you understand," she said.  "He uses examples to help you understand and it's really fun.  People come from different schools to have him teach them.  He's that good of a teacher.  He's an awesome science teacher."

A presentation was made to him by student Katrina Holoboff, and then he led an honour guard of students to the cafeteria, where a plentitude of 40th anniversary cake capped an afternoon of celebration.

Citizens of the Year: Joe and Edna Thompson

Joe and Edna Thompson were named Citizens of the Year in acknowledgement of 40 years of community service at the recent volunteer appreciation event held in Pincher Creek's Community Hall.

Joe and Edna Thompson
2012 Citizens of the Year
C. Davis photo

Yvonne Dingreville celebrated for 20 years of service at Crestview Lodge

Chris Davis, Pincher Creek Voice

Millie Loeffler, Yvonne Dingreville,
and Neil Stewart

Crestview Lodge was full of merriment on Friday afternoon, April 20 as residents and staff gathered to fete Yvonne Dingreville.  Yvonne began working at Crestview 20 years before, to the day, on April 20, 1992, working her way up to Head Housekeeper, the position she holds today.  She was named Housekeeper of the Year in 2010 by the Alberta Senior Citizens Housing Association.

Music was provided by the Fitzpatricks, who played a melodious blend of golden oldies before and after presentations were made.

"We tried to keep today as a surprise, but that's pretty hard for Yvonne," said Pincher Foundation CAO and Facility Manager Millie Loeffler in her opening remarks.  "She knows everything that goes on in the Lodge.  She knows where everything in the Lodge is.  If we don't know, we ask Yvonne."

"I've been working up at Crestview..."
C. Davis photo

Minnie Pearl and Yvonne Dingreville
C. Davis photo

The Lodge staff joined together in a bowdlerised version of "I've been working on the railroad", which became "I've been working at Crestview."

Pincher Creek Foundation Chairman Neil Stewart presented Yvonne with a gift and a plaque commemorating her service.

Special guest "Minnie Pearl" brought a touch of humour to the affair.  Co-worker Sharon Scott gave Millie a gift on behalf of the Lodge staff.

John Sinnott represented his fellow Crestview residents, presenting Yvonne with a golden plunger and extending heartfelt thanks on their behalf.  Poems were read and tears were shed, everyone had refreshments, cake, and more music was forthcoming from the Fitzpatricks.

Yvonne Dingreville and John Sinnott
C. Davis photo

President and Co-founder of D.A. Electric Del Allen to be honoured by University of Lethbridge

Del Allen

Del Allen Scholarship to be awarded annually

The outstanding achievements of D.A. Electric President and Co-founder Del Allen will be recognized at the University Faculty of Management's 25th Annual Scholarship Fundraising dinner, to be held Thursday, April 5, 6 pm at the Coast Lethbridge Hotel.

The Del Allen Scholarship will be awarded annually to a Faculty of Management student.  The scholarship has been established by the faculty through community support.