After coming close to closure last year Drayton Valley’s Toastmasters group is enjoying a new lease of life.
“I am happy to report we are alive, actively recruiting new Toastmasters and recently received two awards,” says Leah Sanderson, past president of the Derrick Toastmasters.
The first of those awards is for public relations, the second is for Toastmaster of the Year, which was won by Sanderson herself.
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“The Toastmaster of the Year Award is presented to recognize and honour that Toastmaster in District 99 who achieves and maintains the highest standard of excellence as a member of Toastmasters International,” said Kathy Pors, Division A Director. “Sanderson’s dedication, resiliency, integrity, perseverance and communication achievements are but some of the reasons she is receiving the Toastmaster of the Year Award for 2021-2022.”
Toastmasters International is a nonprofit educational organization that operates clubs worldwide for the purpose of promoting communication, public speaking and leadership. The Derrick Toastmasters have been active in Drayton Valley for 32 years. Last year declining membership left the group’s future in doubt, however Sanderson says things have since improved dramatically.
“Developing leadership skills is not an easy road. What I initially thought was the end of a 32-year charter was actually the beginning,” she says. “I faced and overcame perceived and actual obstacles. As a leader I learned to use being uncomfortable, overwhelmed, at times deflated and defeated to bust through and beyond to that one next step…Each foot forward meant another step towards saving our club and its 32 year charter.”
Here we go then. In October we’ll be heading to the polls to vote on the future of this province with respect to its role in Canada.
Sort of.
This is not a referendum on whether Alberta should leave Canada. This is a referendum on whether Alberta should have a different, separate referendum on whether Alberta should leave Canada at some indefinite point in the future.
Hmmm.
If Premier Danielle Smith called the vote in order to take the wind from the sails of separatists within her own party, there’s an obvious and not terribly promising comparison in recent history.
That obvious comparison is with the United Kingdom’s decision to leave the European Union. Prime Minister David Cameron decided to call a referendum on the issue in order to quiet a noisy section of his party. Cameron campaigned to stay in the EU, as did both the major opposition parties. What could possibly go wrong? Just about everything. The vote was lost. Cameron had to quit. And then: turmoil. The aftermath was reminiscent of that scene from the Simpsons where Sideshow Bob repeatedly steps on a series of rakes, each one of which hits him squarely in the face. It’s hilarious when it happens to someone else, but if it’s your face getting the rake handle treatment, you might not like it so much.
Since then the UK has stumbled along in a manner that makes headless chickens look like they’ve really got it together. And they’ve gone through a series of prime ministers none of whom have done much to impress. That list includes, at the absolute lowest point, a woman by the name of Liz Truss who did a pretty good job of tanking the economy in spite of only being in charge for about 20 minutes.
So not great then.
But enough of laughing at other people’s misfortunes. What does this all mean for Alberta, or for Canada, or for both?
What the Brexit experience teaches us that seismic events have repercussion upon repression upon repercussion.
If the separatist side loses the vote they are unlikely to just go away. Two lost referendums in the the late 20th Century did little to dampen the enthusiasm of the Parti Quebecois. Quebec and Alberta are very different places but there’s no reason to believe that the outcome of a defeat here will be any different than it was for our friends to the east. A loss would see the separatist side withdraw and regroup before attempting to start the whole process again using what they’ve learned the first time around as a spring board.
And if the separatist side wins and we vote to have that second referendum then, well, all bets are off.
In the meantime we have several months of uncertainty that will only serve to weaken Canada’s hand in negotiations with the United States, or anyone else for that matter. Meanwhile here in Alberta we can expect increasingly shrill rhetoric and mounting conflict between now and October, culminating in a vote that, either way, is going to leave some people extremely unhappy.
Doesn’t sound great, does it?
The Awaso Canadian Academy Foundation had another successful fundraiser to support a school in Ghana last weekend.
Anne Murphy, one of the volunteer organizers and master of ceremonies for the event, says it was such a success because the community came together to make it possible.
“There were a lot of volunteers on board. We want to thank the very generous donors who contributed from the community in live and silent auction items,” says Murphy. “There were many volunteers who were available and really helped to get the event organized.”
During the evening there was a silent auction, a live auction, a game of Deal or No Deal, and student sponsorship packages available. They also had four more people sign up to sponsor a student for a year.
“It’s a one-time payment of $400, and students get what they need,” says Murphy. “That includes daily meals, supplies, and school uniforms.”
Murphy says every penny raised goes to the school. Volunteers who travel to Ghana to volunteer there pay their own way, and the entire organization is composed of volunteers.
“We have no overhead costs and any of the trips, including the very last group which went in January of 2025, all of our travel expenses from our committee end has always been done on our own, independently,” she says.
Emphasizing that all the money goes to the school is important, says Murphy, and she says that’s not common with non-profit organizations. She says many solid sponsorships have come on board due to the fact that ACAF keeps none of the money.
The academy in Awaso, Ghana was the dream of Father Paul Mensah, the priest for the St. Anthony Catholic Church, in 2000. He shared stories about his hometown, Awaso, with his parishioners, and they made his dream a reality.
The first visit to Awaso was in 2007, and by 2010 they had built two classrooms for girls in the community. Since then, they have been adding pieces to the school.
Over the years, there have been many additions to the building and many student success stories.
“Since adding a junior high, the students graduating from Grade 9 have graduated with distinction, giving them all the opportunity to move to a good high school in the larger cities and do extremely well academically,” says Murphy. “Now the school is seeing the fruits of its labour, as alumni are returning to encourage the students to reach their potential.”
Since their last fundraiser in 2024, the ACAF has funded two major updates regarding the academy. One was an upgrade to the water filtration system to provide safe drinking water to the students and the staff. They also drilled a new well that has purification equipment.
They also provided safe drinking water to the entire community.
“This necessitated the improvement of road access, the upgrading of the existing generator, and additional equipment and tanks, as well as the purchase of recyclable water bottles and dispensers so the community can come get their water there,” she says.
The second update is that the school is now offering a music program thanks to a generous donation.
“Last year, the academy purchased new instruments for the academy to form a band,” says Murphy. “That’s been really exciting for them.”
The ACAF is currently looking for volunteers for the foundation, as the board still consists of many original members. Murphy says they would like to have younger people involved so the academy can still be successful for years to come.
Those looking for more information, how to volunteer, or a way to donate to the cause can visit www.awasoacademy.ca and receive a charitable receipt. The ACAF can also reach out to the organization at admin@awasoacademy.ca.
Sports! All your questions answered!!!
What’s this World Cup I keep hearing about?
It’s the global festival of football that takes place every four years.
Football? I love football! Go Esks … sorry, I mean Go Elks!
Er, it’s not that kind of football. We’re talking about the game where you actually kick the ball with your foot. Not the game where you pick the ball up and run around a bit.
So when you say football you mean soccer. Stop being deliberately difficult.
OK, anyway, the World Cup is kicking off next month. It’s the world’s biggest sporting event and some of the action is taking place right here in Canada.
Right here?
Well, not right here. In Toronto and Vancouver.
Neither of those is anywhere near here.
Fair point. There are also games in cities in the United States and Mexico.
This is starting to sound familiar. Did Canada qualify?
As one of the host nations we get a free pass to the tournament, so Canada will be there without having to go through all the inconvenience of the qualifying rounds. Also in the mix are the usual big boys from the likes of Brazil, Argentina and Germany along with some places that aren’t traditional powerhouses like Haiti, Uzbekistan and England.
I see what you did there. What are our chances of winning?
The entire thing? Remote. But Canada did manage to get drawn in one of the easier groups for the round robin. We’ll be facing Bosnia and Herzegovina, Qatar and Switzerland during the group phase. Those are decent teams, especially the Swiss, but none of them are unbeatable. And if we make it to the knockout rounds, anything can happen. Although, to be honest it usually doesn’t.
Any particular players to watch out for?
Alphonso Davies is probably Canada’s brightest star. In his day job he’s a regular starter for Bayern Munich so officially counts as being Quite Good at Football. And he grew up in Edmonton! So far so good, but he stretched the bejesus out of his hamstring (this may not be the correct medical term) in a match against Paris Saint-Germain May 6 and is expected to be out of action for several weeks.
Oh dear. And when is Canada’s first World Cup match?
We face Bosnia and Herzegovina on Friday June 12. So depending on your definition of “several weeks” Davies may or may not be able to play.
I can already feel the tension building. Any other drama to look out for?
Plenty. This will be the last World Cup for Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo, both of whom are getting on a bit and will be very keen to go out with a bang. Scotland, Austria and Norway are back in the competition for the first time since 1998. We’ll see the World Cup debut of a number of nations including the likes of Curacao (population 180,000 and land area of 444 square kilometres) which is the smallest country ever to make it to the finals.
And Iran have qualified and have games in Los Angeles and Seattle.
You have captured my imagination with your insights. I can’t believe I used to say there was nothing interesting in the paper. I will purchase a large flag and a novelty inflatable maple leaf prior to June 12. Is there anything else I’ll need to get the most out of the tournament?
Patience. The first game kicks off June 11, but the final isn’t until July 19, 102 games later. That is a lot of football.
Book club helps build community
Angela Patty and her family have lived in the Berrymoor area all her life, and she would like to see the Berrymoor Centre as busy as it was when she was younger.
“Berrymoor seems to have grown so much in the last while that we don’t even know who our neighbours are anymore,” says Patty.
She wanted a way to get to know the families in the area better, and since she has a love of reading, she felt encouraging youth to join a book club could be a good way to achieve that.
“I know there’s a lot of kids who are struggling in the schools and just in general with reading, and I want to bring excitement to the stories,” she says.
The Bookaneers have been meeting at the Berrymoor Centre every Thursday night from 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. for the past couple of months. Patty says the use of the hall was donated to them, courtesy of the 3Bs Board. The club has received book donations, and parents have been helping out by bringing healthy snacks, but the remaining costs come out of Patty’s pocket.
“It just makes me happy. I love seeing how excited the kids get with the books, and I’m very grateful that they’ve all really enjoyed the book choices that we’ve had so far,” she says.
Originally, the plan was to make it just a junior book club. However, it has become much more than that. Patty brought some of the toys her kids had used to the hall, and now they also have activities to participate in before they settle in to read.
“A lot of aunts, grandparents, and parents come, and then everyone just kind of gets to visit as well,” says Patty.
Though the book club is aimed at area residents, Patty says she wouldn’t turn away anyone who was willing to drive out to the club. The club is free to join, though donations are appreciated.
“We’re willing to expand and I can definitely get more parent volunteers to come out,” she says.
Currently, there are two groups reading two different books. The members get to choose which book they are more comfortable reading. The ages of the children are five to 13.
Patty says the children are always given the option to read aloud if they would like to, but she won’t ask them to because she wants them to feel comfortable.
“The last thing I want is for anyone leaving our group feeling discouraged,” she says.
Patty is also considering holding an adult book club in the future. She says she’s been putting feelers out to see if any parents would be interested.
Along with the book club, Patty also has a park play at the playground at the Berrymoor Centre every second Monday. She brings her son Atlas along for 5 p.m. and any kids are welcome to come out and join in.
“Whoever comes, great. Sometimes they don’t and sometimes they do,” she says. “I’m just trying to bring life to our little centre.”
It seems like yesterday, but it was not
On a bright sunny day in mid May of 1986 I landed at Calgary airport, ready to build a new life in the Great White North. I had a full head of hair, a heart full of dreams and a full set of teeth. The world lay at my feet.
A lot has happened in the intervening years, much of it varying degrees of awful. The hair has gone and so have a couple of the teeth, but I continue to plug away in pursuit of the Canadian Dream. Here’s the story of my four-decade Canadian Odyssey, conveniently broken down in number form because it’s easier to write that way and after 40 years I feel like I’m due a break.
40: Number of years I have lived in Canada. Depending on how you look at it, that’s 480 months, 2,080 weeks or a staggering 350,400 hours (plus a few extra because of leap years). No wonder I’m exhausted.
27: Number of those years spent in Drayton Valley.
<1: Number of years I anticipated spending in Drayton Valley when I first arrived. Every time I think I’m out they pull me back in.
618: Number of kilometres (round trip) I used to drive every second weekend to see my kids. That’s the equivalent of a little more than 3,072 furlongs if you’re interested in that sort of thing, which, now I come to think of it, you probably aren’t.
9: Number of provinces I have visited, assuming you count 30 minutes at a truck stop in Brandon as visiting Manitoba.
1: Number of provinces I have not visited. As far as I can tell Newfoundlanders are somehow managing to cope with the disappointment.
4: Number of times a Canadian team has won the Stanley Cup since I arrived.
36: Number of years since the last of those wins.
12: Number of times per year, on average, someone tells me they love my accent and asks what part of Ireland I’m from. I’m Scottish.
6.25 Hourly wage at my first Canadian job; picking up garbage at Foothills Stadium, which was then home to the Calgary Cannons of the Pacific Coast League. The Cannons were a great organization and the job was actually a lot of fun. Hauling bags of empty beer cups, sweeping up peanut shells and occasionally scraping nacho cheese off the bleachers for a Triple A ball team was also the closest I ever came to sporting achievement of any kind.
10, 3: Time in years and months I spent working at the Drayton Valley Western Review, making me the longest serving editor in the history of that publication.
6, 7: No, it’s not what you think. It’s the time I’ve spent in years and months working at the Drayton Valley and District Free Press, making me the longest serving editor in the history of this publication. What can I tell you? I don’t like change.
0: Number of times I have been voted Employee of the Month. Baffling.
12: What it used to cost, in dollars, to fill the tank of a 1977 Mercury Comet.
**!!%&!!: What that same tankful of gas costs today.
Upgraded van gives Beehive extra options
After fundraising for a year, the Beehive has been able to purchase a new van, which will help them to better accommodate their clients.
“It took a while,” says Lisa Dusterhoft, the executive director of the organization. “We kicked off the campaign in October of 2024. We were able to raise enough funds by November 2025.”
Because the van is a special order, once the Beehive received it, they also had to get it customized for their organization.
“It took six months for the vehicle to be ordered, delivered, and all the accessibility equipment to be installed,” she says.
The majority of the vehicle cost was covered by local businesses and organizations, says Dusterhoft. Along with the sponsorships, the Beehive was able to use money from the endowment fund they have with the Drayton Valley Community Foundation. They also plan to sell one of their existing fleet vehicles to cover the remainder of the costs.
Initially, the Beehive had a budget of $100,000 for the van. However, when they heard from MoveMobility, they were given an option for a ProMaster 3 van.
This new van came with a higher price tag of $155,000, but Dusterhoft says it was worth the extra money.
“[It] gives us a lot more flexibility,” she says. “This van actually can hold up to three wheelchairs at a time.”
Until recently, the Beehive wasn’t able to take in any more adults with disabilities who relied on wheelchairs because they didn’t have a vehicle that could accommodate them. With this new van, Dusterhoft says they will be able to expand on the number of wheelchair users they can work with.
The seats can also all be removed, making it easy for staff to adapt the van for whoever needs a ride.
Dusterhoft says getting a new van means more than transportation for their clients. It also means stability.
“It means that adults with disabilities in our organization are able to age in place,” she says.
In the past, clients with mobility issues have had to move to larger centres that had more accessible vehicles.
Currently, the Beehive has 37 clients. Dusterhoft says most of them don’t have mobility issues, and they’ve only had a couple of people who relied solely on wheelchairs in the past. However, they are at a point where many of their clients are relying on walkers and sometimes a wheelchair, so right now is the perfect time for a more accessible vehicle.
The Beehive owns three 24-hour group homes, as well as a supported independent living program. In the group homes, there is staff with them throughout the day. In independent living, the clients live on their own, and the staff come in to help them with different tasks as needed.
Dusterhoft says that while Drayton Valley is a small town, it’s not easily walkable for some individuals. Having a means of transportation for all the clients is a huge benefit.
The Beehive is hosting an open house on May 21 from 11:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. to showcase the new van to its donors, board, clients and members of the community.
A large part of the turnaround is attributed to a public relations program spearheaded by Sanderson and fellow toastmaster Don Stuike. At the time Stuike was the group’s vice-president of education. He has since taken on the role of president.
The pair’s public relations achievements include recruiting and inducting new members, promoting the club within the community and conducting a number of outreach activities.
“These two model what it takes to promote a Toastmasters Club,” says Pors.
Drayton Valley’s Derrick Toastmasters meets regularly every second and fourth Wednesday at 6:45 pm to 9:15 pm using the Zoom platform. Sanderson says new members don’t need any particular skill set. Club members learn by attending free training, taking on roles within the club. There are also a number of free resources offering information, training and guidance.
Early May is a special time of year. The snow has gone. The birds are back. There’s finally a touch of summer in the air, but still no sign of wasps or mosquitoes.
Early May is also that quiet little interlude between the deadline to complete your federal tax return and the arrival of your municipal property tax bill, which usually lands on your doorstep with a thud some time around the middle of the month.
Now I’m not here to complain about taxes. I’m sure you’re quite capable of doing that yourself, without any prompting from me. Personally I’m not especially keen on forking over large wads of cash to our various levels of government, or to anybody else for that matter. Just ask my wife. But taxes matter if you place any value on things like roads and bridges. Or if you appreciate the services of the police, or nurses or firefighters. Nobody gets excited about having a functioning sewer, but try doing without one for a while and see how far that gets you.
Someone has to foot the bill for those things and those someones, dear reader, are me and you. Taxes are the price we pay for living in a world that, for the time being at least, isn’t a complete and utter crapfest. And for the most part it’s a price worth paying.
But it does feel like there’s something cruel about the timing. You finally get around to filing your federal taxes in April. You’re getting a refund! Hallelujah!! That refund arrives!!! You cry out with joy!!!! You’re about to invest in that bust of Elvis, handcrafted from a single piece of macaroni, that you’re had your eye on for so long!!!!! And then, just as you’re heading out the door clutching a wad of crumpled bills in your sweaty palm, your municipal tax bill arrives and you’re right back where you started.
One hand giveth and the other hand taketh away. Or, to put it another way, poop.
I suppose there are worse things in life than breaking even. There’s failing to break even, for one example. So if the federal refund and the municipal bill more or less cancel each other out, at least you’re no worse off than you were before the entire process began.
However, it’s undeniably a bit of a downer, and not a great way to start the nicest part of the year.
But it is what it is, and you didn’t get where you are today by complaining about things you can’t change. So you buckle down and write a cheque to the municipality of your choice. It’s OK if you swear a little, as long as you do it under your breath.
After that, you put macaroni Elvis on layaway and hope for better days ahead. If you have time, you can look for spare change under the couch cushions.
And then you wait until next year when you do it all over again.
Organizers for the Drayton Valley Pro Rodeo are happy to say this year was a success.
Gus Pietsch says tickets were sold out for Saturday, with both Friday and Sunday also close to capacity.
In total, they had about 3,600 spectators for the rodeo.
The Horses and Hooch dance, hosted by the Drayton Valley Lions Club, was also a hit, says Pietsch. Tickets for that event were also sold out.
“It was sensational,” says Pietsch. “It was good to see the rodeo celebrated the whole week. It really felt like the event was growing more than just the rodeo, which is good.”
There were events held all over the community, including barbecues, a parade, and a chilli cook-off.
He says the feedback from residents was positive, especially regarding the parade. Pietsch says there are already people who are eager to sign up for the parade next year.
This year the rodeo gave out $90,144.12 in winnings to the cowgirls and cowboys who participated. There were eight categories this year, each with its own winner.
The winner for bareback riding was Ty Taypotat who took first place with 89 points on Duffy Rodeo’s 901 Miss Demeanor. Chase Tkach earned the win for steer wrestling with a time of 3.5 seconds. In team roping, Tate Schmidt and Kagen Schmidt took first place with a time of 3.6 seconds. Kole Ashbacher scored 87 points on Duffy Rodeo’s 37 Mojo Nixon in saddle bronc riding, earning himself first place. For tie-down roping, Jason Smith held first place with 8.4 seconds. Taylor-Jane Gardner won in the ladies barrel racing with a time of 13.34 seconds. Shaya Biever earned top spot for her time of two seconds in breakaway roping.
In the age where there’s a constant drive for more and more content, coming up with ideas of how to promote your business can become a full time job on its own and although that platform is free your time isn’t.
I mean – you signed up to be a business owner right? Not a videographer, copywriter, or graphic designer. The good news is newspaper advertising works differently from the social platforms that have you constantly chasing the next batch of likes and shares.
Grow Your Marketing Team
Print advertising with the Drayton Valley and District Free Press gets you off the hamster wheel and connects you with a copywriter, graphic designer, and an ad planner who are actually interested in learning the ins and outs of your business.
This person or people will work with you to generate creative ideas within your marketing budget. With their help you can get your creative juices flowing again and find ways to not just push content but to craft mindful creative content that will be seen and prompts action.
By advertising with your local newspaper you don’t just get an ad, you expand your marketing team exponentially. You get access to our professionals and we help you to figure out the direction you are looking to go with your business.
Stop The Disruption
Print ads are consumed like fine wine. Readers look at print ads longer and deeper than they do the disruptive advertising found on other media platforms. Tell me in the last time that you’ve binge scrolled your social media feeds – How many ads do you actually remember seeing? I am betting, not many.
Print ads are non-disruptive content for newspaper readers and therefore get the attention they truly deserve. They have a longer lasting impact for readers due to their longer shelf life, and after all, deepening the relationship with customers is really what you are looking to do.
So here are some ways you can position your local business with rural newspaper advertising:
- Thought leadership: Be a thought leader in the regional landscape of your industry. Use an ad space for how-to content, data presentation on regional trends. Newspaper readers are readers and so are more likely to read long form advertisements with interesting information. You can reuse this information on your website blogs, social platforms, podcasts and the like.
- Be action oriented: Ads are there to move the needle forward. A call to action can be as simple as moving an interested person from the print ad to “click to redeem in store coupon” – print to digital is easy to do in both the print and e-edition formats of your local newspaper. Using click through options and QR codes to specific URLs makes the cross over from print to digital platforms seamless.
- Event marketing: Discovering local events in the community newspaper is one of the top interest points for local readers. But don’t just churn out a generic “Come to our event”. Remember our readers enjoy spending time with the paper. Capitalize on that. When you advertise an event in the newspaper you have an opportunity to make an intimate connection so don’t treat it like a fly by night ad. Make it engaging, personal, and relevant. Call out the reader specifically “Calling all Free Press newspaper readers.” You can niche the demographic based on the action you assume they are doing when they are reading your ad.
- Coupons and promotions: If you are a retailer or a restaurant that has deals and promotions, newspaper readers take notice! Not only does the use of coupons help you track the effectiveness of your ad it also gets people in the door. Your business isn’t an online hop on and hop off bus ride, you need foot traffic and this is one way to do it.
- Minimize or maximize. When people book a print ad they tend to want to throw everything into it. This creates a cluttered, hard to read ad. Instead take the space to promote your one product or service that tends to get people in the door, then cross promote once you are in contact with your prospective customer. Alternatively you can also use the space to create an organized product catalogue, or flier page that showcases a number of products but in an organized and thematic fashion.
I said it before and it’s worth mentioning again. Forming a relationship with your local rural newspaper helps you expand your marketing team, and frees you to do what you actually set out to do – run a business set on building real relationships with your customers.
Drayton Valley/Brazeau County Fire Services spent 12 hours fighting a fire at the Drayton Valley landfill on Monday.
Crews responded to the fire at 2:10 a.m. Monday morning and were able to extinguish the flames by 2:30 p.m. The fire resulted in the closure of the landfill for part of the day on Monday. By 3 p.m., the public drop-off area was open. However, larger loads that would be offloaded into the landfill were still not permitted as of the Free Press publication deadline.
Jennifer Stone, the interim CAO for Drayton Valley, says they weren’t sure of the cause of the fire.
“We have not been able to determine the cause of the fire; it’s inconclusive,” says Stone. “It was in the middle of the night; nobody saw anything.”
She says the garbage fire was located on one of the landfill cells at the top end of the landfill site. There are a number of things in a dump site that can cause fire. One of the more common issues is lithium batteries that get thrown into household garbage.
“It could have been batteries,” says Stone. “It could have been anything.”
A dozer was brought in to build a firebreak, and the crews were able to successfully contain the fire. As of end-of-day Monday, there was still heavy equipment out at the site addressing hot spots.
“We will have an overnight crew there just to monitor for hotspots and to ensure the flames don’t reignite or anything like that,” Stone says.
Here’s an important question. Will you have enough money to live comfortably when it’s time to retire? Actually, scratch that. Here’s an even more important question. Will I have enough money to live comfortably when it’s time to retire?
It’s a question that’s worth asking, especially if, like me, you are haplessly stumbling toward your mid-sixties with no clear goals and no plan for the future whatsoever other than the half-formed notion that you’d like to make it to the pub on Friday if possible. And oh yeah, wouldn’t it be nice if you didn’t have to spend the rest of your life collecting carts at the grocery store?
Retiring is expensive. You need money. Quite a lot of money. The gravity of the situation was brought home to me last week while I was slogging my way through my 2025 tax return (oh, the memories!) It turns out I have enough unused contribution room on my RRSP to fund the purchase of a mid-sized airline. But sadly I have so little money that I can’t even, well, I can’t even afford to pay someone else to do my tax return.
There’s always the Canada Pension Plan. I’m a big fan of the CPP, but even there I have a problem. What you get out is determined by what you put in. I didn’t start making contributions until I was 24 on the not unreasonable grounds that I didn’t live in Canada. There’s another gap in my contribution history from the five years I spent at university while I was in my thirties. Hey, it was a tough course and I didn’t want to rush things. Anyway, after that I got a job as a junior reporter with wages so low that my CPP contributions were virtually zero anyway … I think the thrill of getting my photograph in the paper every week was supposed to be reward enough for my efforts. After all that … you get the picture, and as pictures go, it ain’t particularly pretty.
So, what’s a boy to do?
It’s not that I don’t like working. OK, well maybe it is a bit. But it’s more that I’m starting to feel, if not actually old, then rather less young than I used to. I’ve still got some working years left in me, but I can see a time when I’ll be ready to spend my days sitting on the deck composing long and frequently incoherent letters to my Member of Parliament on a variety of issues, none of which I fully understand, before hiking my pants up somewhere in the direction of my armpits and heading off for my evening meal at 4 p.m.
So how do I get there? How do I put away sufficient dosh over the next couple of years to be able to keep myself and the current Mrs. Long in the necessities of life (Preparation H, gin and Maalox as I understand it) through our declining years? It is, as I said earlier, a question worth asking. And, if I had to do things over again, it’s a question I would probably have asked myself before things went quite this far.
There is a little bit of a stereotype around newspapers. Some people think that the only people who read them are seniors. Our data shows otherwise. Typically as soon as you own property or enter the family phase of life you get more involved in the community. And that includes reading the newspaper. So our range of avid readers tends to be 34 plus, not 65 plus. But, regardless, many business owners will decline to advertise in the paper because, “It’s only read by seniors.”
Even if that was the case, I am writing today to say; don’t write off seniors.
Seniors make up about 17.5 percent of the Drayton Valley population according to the 2021 census. Census data states that in 2021 our community has a population of 6,970, and 1,040 of that is 65+. So why is this important information to know?
Boomers’ spending power is stuff of legend. In September 2025, McLean’s Magazine featured a long form article titled “The Jackpot Generation.” The article explored the wealth transfer of $1 trillion from boomer parents to their children or grandchildren that is expected over the next 10-15 years.
Drayton Valley has typically been considered a young community with the bulk of our population being well under 65. However, as community founders, and boomers who moved here in the early days of the oil boom age in this community we are lucky to have a portion of our population who have strong community ties, some disposable income, and still favour the traditional ways of doing commerce – face to face.
While this population is on the rise in our community, I am not so sure our businesses have grown to include this demographic in their marketing mix.
Last Wednesday at 2:30 pm I went grocery shopping, and I was amazed at how packed the parking lot was. It was seniors’ discount day, and so on top of your regular shoppers you are now seeing an influx of seniors who are discount savvy and are looking to experience the community while doing so. This got me thinking. Why didn’t other retail locations piggy back on the success of the grocery store with a Wednesday seniors’ discount day? Or where are the early bird dinner specials to fill up the slow 2:00 pm – 5:00 pm time slots in the restaurants?
Seniors in 2026, are not shut-ins. They are active in the community, and in life. They have disposable income, and they still believe in traditional business transactions. If you think the newspaper is “only read by seniors,” you’re wrong. But even if it was, then choosing not to advertise because of this fact may mean that you are not reaching a critical demographic in this community and you are leaving money on the table.
“What I find most rewarding about this organization is that it delivers. Toastmasters tagline is Where Leaders are Made. This past year has brought home to me that if one does the work and overcomes perceived and actual obstacles you definitely become a confident, communicative leader,” she says.
It seems like yesterday, but it was not
On a bright sunny day in mid May of 1986 I landed at Calgary airport, ready to build a new life in the Great White North. I had a full head of hair, a heart full of dreams and a full set of teeth. The world lay at my feet.
Upgraded van gives Beehive extra options
After fundraising for a year, the Beehive has been able to purchase a new van, which will help them to better accommodate their clients.
Talking taxation blues
Early May is a special time of year. The snow has gone. The birds are back. There’s finally a touch of summer in the air, but still no sign of wasps or mosquitoes.
Rodeo weekend “sensational”
Organizers for the Drayton Valley Pro Rodeo are happy to say this year was a success.
Gus Pietsch says tickets were sold out for Saturday, with both Friday and Sunday also close to capacity.
