It’s nice to see Lorne Lukan out in the community with his new food truck venture (actually a trailer), called the ‘Cook Shack.’ We’d hoped to do a story about it in The Leader, but he declined the offer. We wish him all the best and look forward to seeing him dishing out the grub around the area.
A sports story in a paper in Flin Flon, Manitoba caught our attention last week. It was about Ethan Mercer of Slave Lake, who has been playing for the Flin Flon Bombers. The story, by Eric Westhaver, says Mercer is bound for the MacEwan University Griffins in Edmonton. His Junior hockey career included stints in Brooks (where he won a national championship) and Olds in the AJHL. Good luck to him!
Nobody should be surprised at the condition of Hwy. 88 anymore, but it is still a bit of a shock to see how deeply a truck can sink into the shoulder if it has the bad luck to pull off the edge of the pavement. How can the material that the roadbed is built out of be so soft? Especially in such a dry year?
Unofficially, these are the winners of the Rotary NHL Playoff Pool. Todd Laing ($1,000), Kelli Flint ($500), Megan LaFrance ($250), Murray Packolyk ($125), Kyle Hehn ($87.50), Pat Potvin, Terry Kristoff, Paul Caffaro ($87.50), Tom Bidart ($50), Ali Mouallem ($50), Jim Emes ($50), Arlene Gramiak ($50).
Congratulations to all and we’ll see you at The Leader on June 22 to get your picture taken!
As for who wins the Media Challenge pizza from Alimo’s…..good effort by our opponent Jason Swanson at the Town of Slave Lake, but he had too much faith in Edmonton and Boston, and not enough in Las Vegas and Florida (same goes for a few hundred other entries).
Here’s a question: If you need to replace your portrait of Queen Elizabeth with one of King Charles, can you just find a photo of the new king and do it? Or do you have to apply to somewhere for an official, approved version? The M.D. of Lesser Slave River is facing just such a dilemma.
Last week, when a crew was doing some filming of council in action, they had to take the queen’s picture off the wall, to avoid ‘dating’ the scene. That’s when the question arose. Nobody knew the answer.
We hear there’s a new viewing tower up at the Flat Top Motocross track south of Slave Lake. Not only that, the track is in good shape, and things are all set for a riding clinic on the July long weekend and a weekend of dirt bike races on July 22 and 23. Congratulations to the revived motocross club, and we look forward to doing a proper report on all that’s happened out there recently as well as what’s coming up.
Correction: Last week’s wildfire article said that Slave Lake Wildfire 095 wasn’t near any communities.
However, this was a mistake. It was near the farming community around the Hamlet of Sweathouse in the M.D. of Greenview. For a few days, those people were evacuated. Sweathouse isn’t on most maps, but is lumped in with Sunset House on the M.D.s website. These are south of High Prairie on Hwy. 747.
Canada Post has unveiled a new postage stamp honouring Métis activist Thelma Chalifoux (1929-2017). She lived in Slave Lake for a time and was a co-founder of the Slave Lake Native Friendship Centre.
People wanting to volunteer on the Saturday July 8 of Riverboat Daze can call Brenna Emes at 780-805-6779. Help is needed with a kids parade, mini golf, groups that may want to set up a tent or something, entertainers, and anything else people can think of.
Northern Haven Support Society helps people escaping intimate partner violence in Slave Lake and area. On social media, it posted a link to a new campaign for Brain Injury Awareness Month.
The YWCA Metro Vancouver has started a campaign to promote research into concussion caused by intimate partner violence. Its website says, “for every NHL concussion, over 7,000 Canadian women, girls and gender diverse people suffer concussions by an intimate partner.”
This is 92 per cent of the 290,000 women, girls and gender diverse people who experience intimate partner violence in Canada.
June is also LGBTQ2S+ (lesbian gay bi-sexual, trans, queer, two-spirit, plus) Pride Month. Somebody has pointed out the fact that the Town of Slave Lake used to recognize this by flying the Pride flag in June, but that does not appear to be happening this year. Apparently an organization needs to request it (we’re told).
Journalism and creative writing are among the locally developed courses (LDCs) which were proposed to the Aspen View School Division board as part of the June 15 meeting agenda.
The list also included courses on acting, graphic arts, dance, audio, painting, teepee making, smudging, yoga, and life skills.
Aspen View runs Smith School.
At least two people in The Leader office get to look at a new cute cat or dog on their wall each month, thanks to the Animal Rescue Committee of Slave Lake (ARC) annual calendar fundraiser. It’s a bit early (or maybe late) to be thinking about calendars, but they do brighten up the place.
The June cat is named Hobo.
