Goose Lake High (GLH) is getting some much needed upgrades to make the school more accessible for people with disabilities and mobility restrictions.

The renovations include the installation of a grooming room, staff washroom upgrade, janitor room upgrade and wheelchair lift installation.

Want to know more? Check out this week’s Review.

The Legion Ladies Auxiliary has generously donated $300 each to four local Girl Guides who have registered for the first interprovincial camp of their girl guide careers. The weeklong Crocus camp will be held in Dauphin and is an elective option for girls in Guides, Pathfinders, or Rangers.
The camp will assist the girls in developing leadership skills, fostering independence, gaining confidence, sharing in the sisterhood of guiding and learning an appreciation for the outdoors and respect for the environment.

With the beautiful summer weather comes plenty of outdoor activities, including market season. This year the Cranberry Portage Artisan Market is preparing their annual market in the community.
“The Cranberry Portage Artisan Market began in 2019, just in time to be shut down the following year due to COVID-19,” said Cranberry Portage Artisan Market Organizer Barb Bragg. “So last year, 2022, was our second market, out of four years. The Market takes place on the Canadian Heritage Museum Grounds, just off Portage Ave W, technically at 105 Railway Avenue, beside the railway tracks.
“The museum once was a functioning railway station and remains a stop for The Pas/Pukatawagan run. The museum showcases the incredible history of Cranberry Portage - originally referred to as the Cranberry Carrying Place.”

Last week the Province announced a new group to help with the fight against and protection from aquatic invasive species (AIS). The Aquatic Invasive Species Advisory Forum was established to ensure a regionally diverse range of input was considered in terms of the testing and public education of AIS.
Local group, Citizens for Protecting Our Northern Waterways (CPONW), has become a part of this newly formed advisory forum.
“We've been advocating for such a group to be established for quite some time, both with the minister responsible for AIS and with the staff responsible for administering the program,” said CPONW President Chris Smith. “We were aware that this was in the works.
“The current provincial AIS program has largely been developed and implemented with a provincial scope, with limited input from local communities or community groups.

The Town of The Pas held a council meeting last Monday started off with a presentation by Turning Leaf Services, which is an organization that is trying to set up in The Pas. The organization recently held an open house in the community and put a call out for people to apply for employment.
The 2022 audit was thoroughly presented by Dion Bird from Baker Tilly HMA LLP.
The Citizens Period had a few delegations and presentation to council. Jenn Cook from the Northern Manitoba Trappers’ Festival presented and expressed concerns about the Trappers’ sign and location for the future.
“Our vision is to have a permanent fort in Devon Park,” said Cook. “At last town council meeting there was mention of Trapper’s sign and the world’s largest dogsled with regards to ownership and creating a permanent location for them. This spurred our board into reviving a vision that’s been lingering in the back of Trappers’ Festival Board Members’ minds, past and present, for a number of years, which is the idea of a permanent fort in Devon Park. The conversation around the council table regarding the two significant items, the sign and dogsled, reignited the conversation for the board, of a permanent fort in Devon Park.

The Kindergarten to Grade 6 classes at ESRSS headed outside on Monday afternoon for their Carnival, with students playing games around the yard in order to win tickets they can use to purchase prizes or experiences, such as dropping Mrs. Allan-Fuchs in the dunk tank, or getting decorated with a nifty design.

Not only did the Swan Valley celebrate the anniversary of Canada last weekend (July 1), but also the anniversary of Minitonas and the early settlement of the Swan Valley with events recognizing the Minitonas Homecoming taking place from Friday to Sunday (June 30 to July 2).

Even while the 2022-23 season was ongoing, the Dauphin Kings were looking to the future, signing some prospects for the upcoming season.

The signings started with Brandon product Skylar Ramsey, who scored 15 goals and added 12 assists for 27 points in 43 games with the Brandon Wheat Kings of the Manitoba U18 AAA Hockey League, last season.

The Kings then signed goaltender Austin Seibel, who compiled a 16-10-1 record with a 2.95 GAA and .926 save percentage with the North Okanagan Knights of the Kootenay International Junior Hockey League, last season.

Seibel was not the only goalie the Kings signed as they also inked Luke Swanson, who played high school hockey at Bloomington Jefferson High School, last season, where he put together a 3-22-1 record, a 4.17 GAA and .890 save percentage.

The Kings signed another high school player out of Minnesota, defenceman Karson Raymond, who played for St. Michael-Albertville High School. He scored three times and added seven assists for 10 points in 24 games.

Markus Olson was the third high school player from Minnesota to sign with Dauphin after he put up 38 goals, 48 assists for 86 points in just 27 games with Bagley-Fosston High School.

Gavin Nemis from the Rink Hockey Academy’s U18 team based in Winnipeg was signed by the Kings after scoring seven goals and adding 19 assists for 26 points in 32 games.

Forward Rylan Gage signed with the Kings after tallying 21 goals and 38 assists for 59 points in 44 games with the Yellowhead Chiefs of the Manitoba U18 AAA Hockey League, last season.

Morden’s Rhett Perrin signed the Dauphin after a season with the Moose Jaw Warriors in the Saskatchewan U18 AAA Hockey League, where the forward scored eight goals and added 18 assists for 26 points in 43 games.

Trey Gnetz had two goals and seven assists in 30 games with Cretin-Durham Hall, a high school in Minnesota, before he signed with the Kings.

Recently, Dauphin signed Gabriel Bugeaud, a forward from the Notre Dame Hounds of the Saskatchewan U18 AAA Hockey League, where he had 11 goals, 22 assists for 33 points in 40 games.

The latest Kings signing is forward Elias Eisenbarth, who played last season with the South Alberta Hockey Academy U18 Prep team. In 31 games, Eisenbarth scored seven goals and added 13 assist for 20 points in 31 games.

Four players from last year’s Kings squad will move on to play college hockey next season.

Captain Owen Wareham will attend the University of Manitoba, where he will suit up for the Bisons. Last season, Wareham was fourth on the Kings in scoring, with eight goals, 29 assists for 37 points and he was the only player to play in all 58 games for Dauphin.

Forward Mason Smith will take his talent to the Liberty University Flames of the American Collegiate Hockey Association (ACHA), a Division 1 school.

Smith was second in team scoring with Dauphin, last year, notching 17 goals and assisting on 26 others for 43 points in 54 games.

Dauphin’s leading scorer, Matthew Gough, will suit up next season for the Adrian College Bulldogs of the ACHA Division 3.

Gough topped the Kings with 27 goals and 29 assists for 56 points in 55 games. He was Dauphin’s only player with more than 20 goals.

Deepkaran Hans, who joined Dauphin early in the season, has committed to play next season for the Marian University Sabres of the ACHA Division 3.

Hans played 41 games with Dauphin last season, scoring 13 goals and 12 assists for 25 points.

This year’s edition of Dauphin’s Countryfest may not have sold out, but given the heat of the three-day festival, organizers feel it was a tremendous success.

Prior to Sunday’s evening main stage entertainment, Countryfest president Duane McMasters was pleased with how everything went this year.

“We had some pretty fantastic weather. We had a couple sprinkles of rain here and there. The heat has been pretty intense. So far no problems with that,” he said, adding the crowds were great all weekend. “I’m hearing nothing but good things about our entertainment. Haven’t really had any security incidents. In all honesty, it’s one of those things where you spend so much time trying to get here and then you get here and you’re amazed when it goes well.”

That just proves when you having a good team and doing a lot of hard work ahead of time makes things happen when the event finally does roll around, he added.

This year, organizers focused on bringing in more Indigenous artists, the result of a partnership with Indigenous Music Manitoba to develop an Indigenous artist showcase.

“We’ve got a lot of great musical artists like Mitchell Makoons, Nelson Little, Desiree Dorion obviously is a local name. (Sunday) we had the Ivan Flett Memorial Dancers, the Throat Singers, which I’ve never seen before and I thought it was really awesome. It was pretty cool,” McMaster said, adding he hopes to continue in the future.

“We definitely did deliberately do that. We just wanted to showcase our Manitoba talent. We wanted to showcase the Indigenous talent. Just to show what we’ve got here in Manitoba.”

McMaster hopes to continue that showcase next year.

“I think it would be fantastic. I loved having them on the main stage here and everybody was really thrilled to actually be appearing on the main stage at Dauphin’s Countryfest. It’s a little bit of a prestigious thing. We’ve been around long enough that that’s sort of a pretty exciting place to be,” he said.

Although the final numbers won’t be known for a while, McMaster was pleased with the weekend’s attendance.

“The stands have looked good. Our numbers are good this year. We’ve had great attendance at the shows, up top has looked good. We’ve had a lot of people coming through the gates. Overall, I think things are looking really good,” he said.

Because this is his first year as president, McMaster is just happy everything went well.

“Whether it was real or imagined, I felt like there was a bit of pressure on me, because I’ve never done this before in this position. So I’m just happy that things are actually flowing smoothly,” he said, adding he only got to watch one act, catching half of Snake Oil’s show, Saturday night.
Relieving some of the pressure is the work of the board to make things run as smoothly as it did this weekend.

“We have such a fantastic team here. I’m one of 13 directors on our volunteer board and all of them just do a ton of work. Then we’ve got our office staff, we’ve got out summer students, we’ve got our site crew. No one person can take credit for anything out here. It’s a team effort for everything,” he said. “And it always blows my mind that, at the end of the day, we’ve got maybe a dozen paid employees at our peak and our 13 board members and we make this happen with a whole bunch of volunteer support from our community. I’m so proud to be part of the group that makes this happen.”

Even though this year’s festival was still going on, discussions for next year’s lineups had already begun.

You have to start looking at entertainers a year out, McMaster said, so organizers have already had some preliminary discussions with some entertainers.

McMaster appreciates the support the festival has received year after year.

“Our volunteers who come out and support us. All of the people that come back year after year and buy tickets and come see us,” he said, adding he saw some people from Texas in Vermillion Park, last week, who came to Dauphin for Countryfest. “It’s unbelievable that people would come that far to our little event out here in Dauphin. So thanks to everybody,” he said.

With record setting gates, packed grandstands and long lines at attractions, success is the only word which can be used to describe the Dauphin Agricultural Society’s 130th Fair and Exhibition, June 29 to July 2.

“It’s been a great turnout here so far. We’ve had some pretty record days at the gates and it’s great to see the grounds packed with lots of people,” ag society president Teren Stykalo said. “You know we have the national stock dog show here and that brings lots of people in from all over western Canada. So it’s been great to see all the action here this weekend.”

Other attractions included numerous 4-H events, workshops, competitions and sales, along with multiple heavy and light horse classes, the small animal display, Kids Play Zone, Home Living Section, All About Science Show, Kids Pedal Tractor Pull, Extreme Dog Stunt Show, numerous vendors and, of course, the Select Shows midway.

“It’s just a good old-fashioned Fair people want to come out they want to do stuff around the community,” Stykalo said, adding it is about more than just the attractions which keep people coming back year after year. “They want the camaraderie. They want to see some stuff, some new stuff here and, of course, the midway is always a big draw. But we have lots of support from around the community, whether it’s businesses or people. Putting on big volunteer events and people want to be a part of that and they like to support it. So it makes a big difference when you have a big crew of volunteers. Everybody knows somebody who wants to come and support them and all of a sudden it’s a big draw to our fair.”

Despite the success of the fair year after year, Stykalo said ag society directors are always looking for way to improve.

“I think there’s always a forward Vision at some point. Of course it’s kind of hard to see in the blur of these three days, but we’re always looking at what’s going to be the next thing that people want to come back and see,” he said, adding he can’t thank the public, sponsors and the volunteers enough for their support.

“Because ultimately, at the end of the day, we want people to come back to the fair. We want them to have fun. We want them to look forward to next year even though it’s a whole year away. We want people to be excited to come back for next year.”

And so there will always be a next year, Stykalo encourages anyone with ideas or suggestions to get involved.

“We’re always looking for people to just come and show support and even if you’re willing and you want to volunteer, we’re always looking for volunteers,” Stykalo said. “And that’s probably the best way. If you have a good idea, come on the board and let’s talk about it and we’ll put some sort of plan to action.”