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Junior Lifeguards to the rescue

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On August 7, a windy day at Seba Beach, two junior lifeguards had to put their skills to use.

Benjamin and Amelia Gerber were out on the lake with their mother, Lora Gerber, and some other family on a pontoon. The activity is a fun pass-time for the Gerber family, and it’s something they do every summer.

Lora said it was getting windy, and the family had decided they would turn back in for the day. However, before they could get far, they were flagged down by a man on a Sea-Doo who had spotted an overturned sailboat in the lake.

There were two men in the water. One was an older gentleman and his adult son. Both had a lifejacket on, but they weren’t great quality, and the father was struggling with his while trying to stay afloat.

Lora recognized they were in danger and sent her kids into action.

Benjamin, 12, and Amelia, 10, had been in the Junior Lifeguard Club for five years and had undergone extensive training to handle a crisis. Lora said they remained calm the entire time, focussing on what needed to be done.

Benjamin, being the oldest of the two, went right to the father, performing an assist, with Amelia there in case he needed help. Benjamin says he maneuvered around the man, grabbing him in the lower neck area and pulling him back to the boat. He says this is the technique to use, so the victim doesn’t pull you down or interfere with swimming.

Once Benjamin reached the boat with the father, Lora’s dad and her brother-in-law worked to get him into the pontoon. It turned out to be a bit of a struggle.

Benjamin and Ameila Gerber

Looking forward to a nice relaxing summer? Not so fast. As we (finally!) approach the nice bit of 2026, I thought  it would be useful to put together a list of the things I am currently worried about. And if I’m going to worry about them, so should you.

I’m worried about the way our provincial government is extending its own powers. The UCP is attempting to broaden its authority in areas that have traditionally been under federal jurisdiction. At the same time they are limiting the powers of municipalities and school boards to act without provincial approval. If all this comes to pass we are going to have one honking big (and powerful) government in Edmonton. That should give every one the collywobbles. If the NDP had tried something like this while they were in power we’d have been screaming to the high heavens. 

I’m worried about our friends to the south. Every time you think America can’t get any more dystopian they find a way to prove you wrong. And the noise! It’s like living next door to a frat house. 

I’m worried about retirement. The Canada Pension Plan works just fine. I’m looking forward to collecting my CPP in a year or two. Brand name beer here I come! The thought of ditching the CPP for a new and untried Alberta Pension Plan makes me more nervous than a long tailed cat in a room full of rocking chairs.  And yet that’s what the provincial government seems intent on doing. I’m sorry, I’m sure Danielle and the gang have nothing but good intentions, but I don’t trust them not to make a complete and utter mess of things. If they feel like gambling I wish they’d do it with their own money.

I’m worried about the amount of ill-informed bile I see on social media and elsewhere directed at immigrants and refugees. This stuff invariably comes from people who claim to be acting to protect Canadian values. Clearly we have a different view on exactly what Canadian values are. 

I’m worried that our thoughts and prayers don’t seem to be doing enough to prevent school shootings, public transit attacks or any of a raft of other atrocities. And I’m worried that I seem to have lost count of the number of those atrocities that have happened already this year. Perhaps we should all try thinking and praying harder?

I’m worried that we seem to spend more time focussing on the things that divide us than on the things that unite us.

I’m worried that these days, when you come across something that doesn’t match your own narrow world view, you’re free to select your own set of alternative facts to back up whatever bonkers theory you’re supporting. And if someone points out that your set of facts aren’t actually very, umm, factual, you’re able to label him as a stooge of big government who’s too blind to see that the Earth really is flat, 9/11 was the work of the Illuminati, the Kremlin is controlled by Disney etc. etc. etc.

I’m worried about inflation. I’m worried about Iran. I’m worried about the Blue Jays’ pitching. I’m worried about gas prices and I’m worried about property tax.

There. I’m glad that’s off my chest. Now It’s time to get out and enjoy that sunshine!

Three degrees with a chance of flurries? I did not see that coming. Dammit!

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The Hearts and Hands Quilters’ Guild did more than just draw winners for their annual quilt raffle last week. They also presented 14 quilts to All Are Daughters for use at their women’s rehabilitation facility.

The guild boasts 28 members from the community, and all of them work to build quilts that can be donated to people in need. Each year, they hold a raffle fundraiser for three quilts, and the proceeds are then split between three different organizations.

This year they raised about $700 for their guild, the Kickstand Youth Hub, and STARS, along with their donation of quilts to All Are Daughters.

Trina Beckett, the vice president of All Are Daughters, was on hand at their meeting to accept the donation. 

“About a year-and-a-half ago, a group of us women got together to start working on this dream of so many of us to open this recovery centre for women,” says Beckett.

She says there are members of the board who have gone through addiction and have been in recovery for years. Beckett is the mother of an addict, and her experience helping her daughter get through the first few months of recovery made her want to help others going through something similar.

“As a parent, you do anything to help your child because you know they’re in there somewhere,” she says.

Beckett says her daughter was involved with the centre before she passed away last summer. Despite the loss of her daughter, Beckett still wants to see the centre completed.

Right now, the facility is ready to go, but they don’t have an open date just yet. The organization is currently waiting for funding from the Province to cover operating costs, as well as getting licensing in order.

“We do have all our rooms spoken for as sponsor rooms right now,” she says. “We are just waiting for the go-ahead to get open.”

She says there aren’t any recovery centres for women in rural communities. Having both a men’s and a women’s centre is a positive thing, she says.

“We thank you guys for your support as well,” she told the guild. “Without the support of the community, we wouldn’t be able to do so far what we’ve done.”

The winners of this year’s raffles were Mel Sibley from Warburg, who took home Wolves on the Prowl; Pam Baker, who won Winter’s Day; and Wendy Nordell received One Up One Down.

The guild is always looking for new members, and they meet on the third Thursday of each month at the Beehive Support Services Building, but don’t meet in July or August. They also have regular sewing days on Wednesdays. 

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Email

Opportunity Home’s first Spring Shaker was a success, says executive director Danna Cropley.

“The event sold out within the first few weeks,” says Cropley. “Beyond that, the event went absolutely amazingly.”

The evening had a dance, a catered dinner, and silent auction items to help raise funds for the rehabilitation centre. Cropley says it wouldn’t have been possible without the volunteers who helped put the event together. About 230 people attended.

“Jen Winter, Janice Kupsch, and their crew organized the event. The room was full of energy and community; it was so great,” says Cropley.

One of the reasons for the event, along with raising funds to help run the facility, was to educate the public about what the facility does and how it helps those in need. Opportunity Home opened its doors in February 2023, and has seen numerous people complete the 90-day program during its three years of operation.

Earlier in the week, Cropley also spoke to town council with the same goal in mind.

“Because the council is fairly new… we just wanted to update them on Opportunity Home’s mission, vision, and values, [as well] as the value our project brings, not only to the municipality but also our provincial community and out to our country.”

Cropley says the facility has offered beds to people from across the province, British Columbia, and some from the United States. She says she wanted council to see the reach that they have now and how they are supporting Recovery Alberta’s response to the current opioid crisis.

In her presentation to council, Cropley touched on the community, social, and economic value the centre brought to the community. This included the volunteer work the clients provided, homelessness and poverty prevention, as well as reducing taxpayer costs for emergency, health, and justice services.

She says community investment is a crucial part of the success of the centre, not in terms of dollars, but in terms of interest from the community, volunteers, and feedback. 

“I just really wanted to make sure that town council was aware of who we are and what we do,” says Cropley.

Opportunity Home is hosting another event on June 19 from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. that is open to the public: a memorial tree planting ceremony, along with a barbecue and tour of the facility. Cropley says they will also have different resources and services at the event for people to connect with if needed. 

She says the tree-planting ceremony will be in honour of some community members who have recently passed away. Members of the public are welcome to donate to plant a tree in memory of someone they have lost. 

It seems that those pushing for Alberta independence have enough signatures to force a referendum on the issue. That put me in mind of something I wrote a few years ago that I think still holds water. 

If Alberta’s going to ditch the rest of Canada we need to set a few rules. This is going to take a while, so it’s best to start talking about it now so we know where we stand if and when it comes to a vote.

First we have to figure out what an Albertan actually is.

There used to be a guy who lived down the street from me who had a bumper sticker that said, “Canadian by birth, Albertan by the grace of God.” It always struck me as a little odd.  That was partly because it was on the rear bumper of the first Toyota Prius I’d ever seen with a gun rack. But it’s also because I’ve lived in this province for well over three decades, and I’ve never been able to figure out what makes an Albertan an Albertan.

OK, so an Albertan is someone who comes from Alberta. That’s according to no less a source than the Oxford Canadian Dictionary so I’m not about to start arguing.  But the results of the most recent federal census suggest that’s a pretty broad group. If the number and variety of languages spoken in this province is any kind of a guide, Albertans come from all over the place, both within Canada and from every corner of the globe.

That’s true of other places too of course. Places like London and New York are breathtaking in their diversity.  What makes Alberta different is that everything here is so new. We’ve been a province for not much more than a century and have evolved so rapidly in such a short time, with so many waves of immigration from so many parts of the world that it sometimes feels as if we’ve never developed a separate sense of ourselves. At least not in the way you’d find among the societies of Africa, Asia or Europe, or even in Newfoundland, Nova Scotia or Quebec. 

So what do we have that binds such a broad group together and sets us apart from the rest of the country? There’s the Flames and the Oilers I suppose. And beef. We like beef and are justifiably proud of both the quality and quantity this province produces. I think it’s also fair to say that we work hard. Not me, obviously, but most of the rest of you. And perhaps most importantly right now, there’s a sense of frustration that we always end up with a federal government that most of us didn’t vote for.  But even at the last election, when dislike of Ottawa was probably at its peak, more than a third of us voted either Liberal or NDP and a significant number of us didn’t vote at all. So things are not as black and white as they may appear.

Anyway, as far as things that set us apart from the folks in Toronto or Tuktoyaktuk, that’s about it. Don’t get me wrong. I love this province and I love the people who live here (most of you anyway)  but it doesn’t feel like we’ve got much to build a country on. Albertans are good people and we have a lot to offer the world. But at the same time we’re an odd and interesting mixture that doesn’t seem quite sure of its own identity. Sort of like a Prius with a gun rack.

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The Eleanor Pickup Arts Centre will be hosting the Yellowhead Regional One-Act Plays Festival on April 10 and 11 this year.

Ashley Luckwell, the chair of the board for River Valley Players, says the regional festival will have five performances this year. Cast and crew from Leduc, St. Albert, Devon, Beaumont, and Drayton Valley will be participating in the event.

“There are five different groups from the Yellowhead Region that are coming,” she says.

Luckwell says the event is being put on by the Alberta Drama Festival Association (AFDA). This festival is one of several that are occurring across the province, with the winners from each heading on to the provincial festival in Leduc in May this year.

“We’re really excited to have it here,” says Luckwell. “It’s great to show off the EPAC; it’s great to have them come into our community.”

The festival will take place over two days, with each of the plays lasting anywhere from 30 minutes to about 45 minutes. RVP members Leah Sanderson, Sarah Chapman, Katherine De Varennes, and Jan Wright will be performing their play Overtones on Friday night.

Luckwell says the play is one she directed and was written by Alice Gerstenberg in the early 1900s. It was first performed in 1915 at the Bandox Theatre in New York. 

The play highlights the difference between what people say and what they are actually thinking. Two of the actors will be playing characters having a conversation, and two younger actors will be playing a younger version of themselves giving voice to the first two character’s inner thoughts.

The other plays will be Steven Goes to Japan to Run a Marathon, Crystal Blue Persuasion, The Crimson Cab Ladies Hit the Beach, and Don’t Mention Hollywood.

Luckwell says there has been lots of support from local businesses for this event, with some giving discounts on food and others sponsoring the festival as well. 

“It’s been really great,” she says.

Tickets for the event will be for sale at the doors for $15. Luckwell says cash is preferred as it is not the EPAC that will be taking the funds, but rather volunteers for the AFDA. 

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At Valley Dental, our goal is to provide great patient care and high quality dentistry with a smile. We offer an extensive range of dentistry from preventative care appointments to smile design and replacement of broken or missing teeth. We offer various products across individual and group space comprising of life, health, child plans, retirement solutions, travel and employee benefit segments. Our primary focus while offering products is to ensure that customer needs are met, through their life cycle – child education, family protection, long term savings, and retirement while ensuring value for money.

 “He could not help whatsoever. He was disoriented; he didn’t even know where his cabin was,” says Lora.

In the end, Benjamin had to push him up out of the water while the others hauled him into the pontoon. Lora says they assessed the man, looking for injuries. “He was just in shock. We don’t know how long they were in the water for,” she says.

Benjamin says while he was working, he focused on his training. “[I had to] remember my training and stay as calm as I could be. That way I’m not drowning him, rather than trying to save him.”

While they were doing this, Amelia swam out to pick up any loose items in the lake, such as a hat or lifejackets. “My sister is the clean-up-crew,” says Benjamin.

Lora says once they had the father safe, they kept their eye on the son, who they could see was getting tired. His life jacket also wasn’t ideal and he’d been keeping his dad safe in the water for an unknown amount of time.

Eventually, the son and the man on the Sea-Doo managed to flip the boat back up. The son climbed onto the Sea-Doo and then got into the boat.

Lora says they went in the general direction the father had given them. Eventually, they came across a dock where a woman was waving frantically to get their attention.

Looking forward to a nice relaxing summer? Not so fast. As we (finally!) approach the nice bit of 2026, I thought  it would be useful to put together a list of the things I am currently worried about. And if I’m going to worry about them, so should you.

I’m worried about the way our provincial government is extending its own powers. The UCP is attempting to broaden its authority in areas that have traditionally been under federal jurisdiction. At the same time they are limiting the powers of municipalities and school boards to act without provincial approval. If all this comes to pass we are going to have one honking big (and powerful) government in Edmonton. That should give every one the collywobbles. If the NDP had tried something like this while they were in power we’d have been screaming to the high heavens. 

I’m worried about our friends to the south. Every time you think America can’t get any more dystopian they find a way to prove you wrong. And the noise! It’s like living next door to a frat house. 

I’m worried about retirement. The Canada Pension Plan works just fine. I’m looking forward to collecting my CPP in a year or two. Brand name beer here I come! The thought of ditching the CPP for a new and untried Alberta Pension Plan makes me more nervous than a long tailed cat in a room full of rocking chairs.  And yet that’s what the provincial government seems intent on doing. I’m sorry, I’m sure Danielle and the gang have nothing but good intentions, but I don’t trust them not to make a complete and utter mess of things. If they feel like gambling I wish they’d do it with their own money.

I’m worried about the amount of ill-informed bile I see on social media and elsewhere directed at immigrants and refugees. This stuff invariably comes from people who claim to be acting to protect Canadian values. Clearly we have a different view on exactly what Canadian values are. 

I’m worried that our thoughts and prayers don’t seem to be doing enough to prevent school shootings, public transit attacks or any of a raft of other atrocities. And I’m worried that I seem to have lost count of the number of those atrocities that have happened already this year. Perhaps we should all try thinking and praying harder?

I’m worried that we seem to spend more time focussing on the things that divide us than on the things that unite us.

I’m worried that these days, when you come across something that doesn’t match your own narrow world view, you’re free to select your own set of alternative facts to back up whatever bonkers theory you’re supporting. And if someone points out that your set of facts aren’t actually very, umm, factual, you’re able to label him as a stooge of big government who’s too blind to see that the Earth really is flat, 9/11 was the work of the Illuminati, the Kremlin is controlled by Disney etc. etc. etc.

I’m worried about inflation. I’m worried about Iran. I’m worried about the Blue Jays’ pitching. I’m worried about gas prices and I’m worried about property tax.

There. I’m glad that’s off my chest. Now It’s time to get out and enjoy that sunshine!

Three degrees with a chance of flurries? I did not see that coming. Dammit!

Facebook
Email

The Hearts and Hands Quilters’ Guild did more than just draw winners for their annual quilt raffle last week. They also presented 14 quilts to All Are Daughters for use at their women’s rehabilitation facility.

The guild boasts 28 members from the community, and all of them work to build quilts that can be donated to people in need. Each year, they hold a raffle fundraiser for three quilts, and the proceeds are then split between three different organizations.

This year they raised about $700 for their guild, the Kickstand Youth Hub, and STARS, along with their donation of quilts to All Are Daughters.

Trina Beckett, the vice president of All Are Daughters, was on hand at their meeting to accept the donation. 

“About a year-and-a-half ago, a group of us women got together to start working on this dream of so many of us to open this recovery centre for women,” says Beckett.

She says there are members of the board who have gone through addiction and have been in recovery for years. Beckett is the mother of an addict, and her experience helping her daughter get through the first few months of recovery made her want to help others going through something similar.

“As a parent, you do anything to help your child because you know they’re in there somewhere,” she says.

Beckett says her daughter was involved with the centre before she passed away last summer. Despite the loss of her daughter, Beckett still wants to see the centre completed.

Right now, the facility is ready to go, but they don’t have an open date just yet. The organization is currently waiting for funding from the Province to cover operating costs, as well as getting licensing in order.

“We do have all our rooms spoken for as sponsor rooms right now,” she says. “We are just waiting for the go-ahead to get open.”

She says there aren’t any recovery centres for women in rural communities. Having both a men’s and a women’s centre is a positive thing, she says.

“We thank you guys for your support as well,” she told the guild. “Without the support of the community, we wouldn’t be able to do so far what we’ve done.”

The winners of this year’s raffles were Mel Sibley from Warburg, who took home Wolves on the Prowl; Pam Baker, who won Winter’s Day; and Wendy Nordell received One Up One Down.

The guild is always looking for new members, and they meet on the third Thursday of each month at the Beehive Support Services Building, but don’t meet in July or August. They also have regular sewing days on Wednesdays. 

Facebook
Email

Opportunity Home’s first Spring Shaker was a success, says executive director Danna Cropley.

“The event sold out within the first few weeks,” says Cropley. “Beyond that, the event went absolutely amazingly.”

The evening had a dance, a catered dinner, and silent auction items to help raise funds for the rehabilitation centre. Cropley says it wouldn’t have been possible without the volunteers who helped put the event together. About 230 people attended.

“Jen Winter, Janice Kupsch, and their crew organized the event. The room was full of energy and community; it was so great,” says Cropley.

One of the reasons for the event, along with raising funds to help run the facility, was to educate the public about what the facility does and how it helps those in need. Opportunity Home opened its doors in February 2023, and has seen numerous people complete the 90-day program during its three years of operation.

Earlier in the week, Cropley also spoke to town council with the same goal in mind.

“Because the council is fairly new… we just wanted to update them on Opportunity Home’s mission, vision, and values, [as well] as the value our project brings, not only to the municipality but also our provincial community and out to our country.”

Cropley says the facility has offered beds to people from across the province, British Columbia, and some from the United States. She says she wanted council to see the reach that they have now and how they are supporting Recovery Alberta’s response to the current opioid crisis.

In her presentation to council, Cropley touched on the community, social, and economic value the centre brought to the community. This included the volunteer work the clients provided, homelessness and poverty prevention, as well as reducing taxpayer costs for emergency, health, and justice services.

She says community investment is a crucial part of the success of the centre, not in terms of dollars, but in terms of interest from the community, volunteers, and feedback. 

“I just really wanted to make sure that town council was aware of who we are and what we do,” says Cropley.

Opportunity Home is hosting another event on June 19 from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. that is open to the public: a memorial tree planting ceremony, along with a barbecue and tour of the facility. Cropley says they will also have different resources and services at the event for people to connect with if needed. 

She says the tree-planting ceremony will be in honour of some community members who have recently passed away. Members of the public are welcome to donate to plant a tree in memory of someone they have lost. 

It seems that those pushing for Alberta independence have enough signatures to force a referendum on the issue. That put me in mind of something I wrote a few years ago that I think still holds water. 

If Alberta’s going to ditch the rest of Canada we need to set a few rules. This is going to take a while, so it’s best to start talking about it now so we know where we stand if and when it comes to a vote.

First we have to figure out what an Albertan actually is.

There used to be a guy who lived down the street from me who had a bumper sticker that said, “Canadian by birth, Albertan by the grace of God.” It always struck me as a little odd.  That was partly because it was on the rear bumper of the first Toyota Prius I’d ever seen with a gun rack. But it’s also because I’ve lived in this province for well over three decades, and I’ve never been able to figure out what makes an Albertan an Albertan.

OK, so an Albertan is someone who comes from Alberta. That’s according to no less a source than the Oxford Canadian Dictionary so I’m not about to start arguing.  But the results of the most recent federal census suggest that’s a pretty broad group. If the number and variety of languages spoken in this province is any kind of a guide, Albertans come from all over the place, both within Canada and from every corner of the globe.

That’s true of other places too of course. Places like London and New York are breathtaking in their diversity.  What makes Alberta different is that everything here is so new. We’ve been a province for not much more than a century and have evolved so rapidly in such a short time, with so many waves of immigration from so many parts of the world that it sometimes feels as if we’ve never developed a separate sense of ourselves. At least not in the way you’d find among the societies of Africa, Asia or Europe, or even in Newfoundland, Nova Scotia or Quebec. 

So what do we have that binds such a broad group together and sets us apart from the rest of the country? There’s the Flames and the Oilers I suppose. And beef. We like beef and are justifiably proud of both the quality and quantity this province produces. I think it’s also fair to say that we work hard. Not me, obviously, but most of the rest of you. And perhaps most importantly right now, there’s a sense of frustration that we always end up with a federal government that most of us didn’t vote for.  But even at the last election, when dislike of Ottawa was probably at its peak, more than a third of us voted either Liberal or NDP and a significant number of us didn’t vote at all. So things are not as black and white as they may appear.

Anyway, as far as things that set us apart from the folks in Toronto or Tuktoyaktuk, that’s about it. Don’t get me wrong. I love this province and I love the people who live here (most of you anyway)  but it doesn’t feel like we’ve got much to build a country on. Albertans are good people and we have a lot to offer the world. But at the same time we’re an odd and interesting mixture that doesn’t seem quite sure of its own identity. Sort of like a Prius with a gun rack.

Facebook
Email

The Eleanor Pickup Arts Centre will be hosting the Yellowhead Regional One-Act Plays Festival on April 10 and 11 this year.

Ashley Luckwell, the chair of the board for River Valley Players, says the regional festival will have five performances this year. Cast and crew from Leduc, St. Albert, Devon, Beaumont, and Drayton Valley will be participating in the event.

“There are five different groups from the Yellowhead Region that are coming,” she says.

Luckwell says the event is being put on by the Alberta Drama Festival Association (AFDA). This festival is one of several that are occurring across the province, with the winners from each heading on to the provincial festival in Leduc in May this year.

“We’re really excited to have it here,” says Luckwell. “It’s great to show off the EPAC; it’s great to have them come into our community.”

The festival will take place over two days, with each of the plays lasting anywhere from 30 minutes to about 45 minutes. RVP members Leah Sanderson, Sarah Chapman, Katherine De Varennes, and Jan Wright will be performing their play Overtones on Friday night.

Luckwell says the play is one she directed and was written by Alice Gerstenberg in the early 1900s. It was first performed in 1915 at the Bandox Theatre in New York. 

The play highlights the difference between what people say and what they are actually thinking. Two of the actors will be playing characters having a conversation, and two younger actors will be playing a younger version of themselves giving voice to the first two character’s inner thoughts.

The other plays will be Steven Goes to Japan to Run a Marathon, Crystal Blue Persuasion, The Crimson Cab Ladies Hit the Beach, and Don’t Mention Hollywood.

Luckwell says there has been lots of support from local businesses for this event, with some giving discounts on food and others sponsoring the festival as well. 

“It’s been really great,” she says.

Tickets for the event will be for sale at the doors for $15. Luckwell says cash is preferred as it is not the EPAC that will be taking the funds, but rather volunteers for the AFDA. 

Facebook
Email
LinkedIn
WhatsApp
Get your perfect smile with specialists in service

Add Your Heading Text Here

At Valley Dental, our goal is to provide great patient care and high quality dentistry with a smile. We offer an extensive range of dentistry from preventative care appointments to smile design and replacement of broken or missing teeth. We offer various products across individual and group space comprising of life, health, child plans, retirement solutions, travel and employee benefit segments. Our primary focus while offering products is to ensure that customer needs are met, through their life cycle – child education, family protection, long term savings, and retirement while ensuring value for money.

“I was so proud of them,” says Lora. “They never even hesitated.”

“They reacted, stayed calm, and did what they were trained to do,” says Lora.

Benjamin says he would recommend Junior Lifeguards for everyone, even if it’s only for a year or two. “People need to learn how to swim, and if there is somebody drowning, you know how to keep them afloat,” he says.

Desiree Janzen, the coach of the Junior Lifeguard Club at Park Valley Pool, says the program teaches kids life-saving skills in and around water. She says there are competitions, but she says the program is not just about competition.

“A lot of the stuff we do in the events, you can take that and [apply it] if you see somebody in distress in the water,” she says.

Janzen says the life jackets the father and son were using were the type that inflates when it comes into contact with water. “They’re not the best life jackets in the world, but they are better than nothing,” says Janzen.

Janzen says it was amazing they were able to help the man out without putting themselves in harm’s way. “They deserve to be recognized,” she says. “I’m very proud of them.”

She says she is contacting the Life Saving Society to share Benjamin and Amelia’s accomplishments. The society does award medals and Janzen hopes the kids’ actions will qualify for one. “I’m hoping that they will get recognized through the Life Saving Society as well,” says Janzen.

Image of columnist Graham Long in front of heading tired and emotional

Am I worried? Actually, yes

Looking forward to a nice relaxing summer? Not so fast. As we (finally!) approach the nice bit of 2026, I thought it would be useful to put together a list of the things I am currently worried about. And if I’m going to worry about them, so should you.

Read More »

Spring Shaker sells out

Opportunity Home’s first Spring Shaker was a success, says executive director Danna Cropley.
“The event sold out within the first few weeks,” says Cropley. “Beyond that, the event went absolutely amazingly.”

Read More »
Image of columnist Graham Long in front of heading tired and emotional

Kiss me I’m Albertan

It seems that those pushing for Alberta independence have enough signatures to force a referendum on the issue. That put me in mind of something

Read More »