Users of the Northgate Trail system will notice an addition to the site, courtesy of a Dauphin student.

Anya Jackson attends university in Saskatoon, where she has seen a lot of free libraries, cubicles in which books are stored for anyone to take and read.

“I’ve been wanting to do this for a long time and I haven’t seen any in Dauphin,” she said. “I just thought it would be a nice addition to Dauphin and the community.”

Jackson spoke with some members of the Rotary Club about helping to restock the mini-library.

“Because the first bunch of books are some of my old books, because I’m a big reader. But I thought that once I’m away at school, I can’t always make sure there’s enough books in it. So they’re going to help me restock it with all of the extra books they have,” she said.

Everyone is invited to take a book and return it once they have read it, or take a book and leave one in its place.

“We thought up here at Northgate would be perfect, because a lot of families that come up. There’s people who stay at the cabins. Now with all this space out here with the picnic tables and the fire, we thought that people could take a book, read it, bring it back. Or, if they want to take it home because they’re not done, that’s the point. That’s the purpose,” she said.

Jackson’s father Terry built the mini-library, while Anya designed and painted the outside.

Now that is it up and filled with books, Jackson is excited to see her idea come to fruition.

“It looks great. I’m really excited for people to see it. I think it’s an exciting thing for people to walk by and see something new is here. Hopefully, they’re as excited as I am. So I’m very excited about it,” she said.

Part of the purpose, Jackson said, is to get more people reading.

“I love reading and I know that lots of people do. But it’s nice to bring light to reading. Now we have so much technology, but it’s nice to bring people back to physical books and hopefully this will bring awareness back to reading,” she said.

The City of Dauphin celebrated the anniversary of Ukrainian Independence, Thursday, with a gathering at city hall.

The evening included the singing of Ukraine’s national anthem, speeches from local dignitaries and poetry recitations by Ukrainian children displaced by the war.

Following the event at city hall, everyone was invited to a special feast at Vermillion Park, featuring traditional Ukrainian dishes.

Canada’s National Ukrainian Festival celebrated the 32nd anniversary of Ukraine’s Independence with a fund-raising barbecue, Thursday.

Offering kubaburgers, hotdogs, chips and drinks, proceeds from the event will go to CNUF for next year’s festival.

The Dauphin Lake Golf Club hosted its annual senior men’s and ladies open golf tournament, Thursday.

Pearl Maksymetz won the ladies tournament ahead of runner-up Shelly Love. Laurie Williams was third and Chris Carefoot was fourth.

Bertha Davis won the first flight, with Irmgard Juce in second place, Sue Leney in third and Jean Sedor in fourth.

Margo Elliott won the second flight, beating out runner-up Leanna Compton, while Pennie Karlson was third and Jackie Thompson was fourth.

On the men’s side, Ron Love captured the men’s title, beating out Dennis McKay, who placed second. Brad Carefoot was third and Ken Benson placed fourth.

Bill Allbutt won the first flight, with Jim Cruise in second place, Dick Kirkpatrick in third and Bruce Hannibal in fourth.

In the second flight, first place went to John Kalechyn, with George Lobert in second, Ron Forgeron in third and Gerry Musey in fourth.

Fred Todoruk won the third flight, beating Garth Turner, who was second. Third place went to Wayne Catcheway and Kent Wiebe was fourth.

John Lesychen won the fourth flight, while Jim Mulligan was second, Tom Cyr placed third and Bill Speers was fourth.

The age category winners were Cathy Cyr and Ted Rea in the 50-59 age group, Shelly Love and Ron Love in the 60-69 age group and Maksymetz and Brad Carefoot in the 70-and-over age group.

The Manitoba Junior Hockey League season is around the corner and teams will be hitting the ice as training camps get underway.

Prior to training camp, the Kings will host their annual skills and development camp for U9 and up age groups.

Kings head coach and general manager Doug Hedley said they have 68 players registered for the skills camp this year, which will include two on-ice sessions per day and new athletic therapist, strength coach and equipment manager Haley Choma will be in charge of the dryland training.

Assistant coach Brad Dupasquier will be in charge of the personal development, which will consist of a 45-minute session.

“We’re here for basically, most of the day. It should be a fun week,” Hedley said.

The Kings will hit the ice for camp beginning, Friday, with the JoFo Cup intrasquad game slated for Sept. 3, at 1 p.m.

Close to 50 players will be in camp vying for a spot on the final roster.

The 50 players will be divided into three teams, with each team going through a skill session and three games.

Hedley feels there is a good group of young forwards coming in that has some speed and skill, as well as compete level.

“We’re looking at a very competitive camp,” Hedley said.

Defenceman Nicholas Hatton and forward Alex Senf were both drafted by teams in the North American Hockey League and will try their luck south of the border.

To replace the loss of Hatton, the Kings on Friday acquired 19-year-old defenceman Naaman Hofer from the Winnipeg Freeze in exchange for second and sixth round draft picks in 2024.

“We think Hofer is a real good fit to replace Hats, to fill that gap,” Hedley said. “We just think we have real good depth on the back end with (Anthony) Bax, (Aidan) Brook and (Nolan) Wickham coming back. And we’ve added a couple of American kids. Aidan Murray was real good in the prospects camp. So we’re really looking forward to our back end with Sam Boldt coming back. So we’ve got a good backend core to start.”

Cole Sheffield will return in goal and there are several prospects who will be battling for the back up position. Veteran Marko Belak will not return.

“Our goaltending is going to be solid. Our backend is really solid to start. Obviously, we’re happy with our forwards, but they’re going to be a little bit of a younger group that we feel can get better and better. They’re starting with some great speed and skill,” Hedley said.

Much like the past couple of seasons, the offence will be scoring by committee, led by the defence.

But Hedley feels with the players back from last season, the Kings will have a good mix of vets and prospects coming in to complement the vets.

Hedley is looking forward to getting back on the ice.

“Summer never seems long enough, but once you get guys starting to roll back into town, you get the excitement going and the adrenaline running,” he said.

Hedley added to his staff with the hiring of Rick Freese as an assistant coach. Hedley said Freese approached him with a desire to learn.

“And we’re happy to have him aboard. He can basically be used with us in practices during the week. He can make an hour every day. So he’s going to there to help, not only me up front with the forwards, but also Chad (Facey) back on the backend,” he said. “Right now, Brad has got a full-time job in Ebb and Flow. So he’ll be teaching in Ebb and Flow, but he’ll be here two days a week for practices and video. So it will be good having Rick on the ice with us and giving us a hand along with Dan Keeping. The staff is all back and we’re looking forward to having Rick and bringing some energy.”

The Kings open the preseason, Sept. 5, when they host Neepawa at 7:30 p.m.

With August drawing to a close, high school sports are beginning to ramp up for another season.

The Dauphin Clippers football team began practicing, Aug. 9, with an average of between 25 and 30 players.

Incoming manager Jeff Micasew, who is taking over from the retired Cam Bennet, said it is always tough when it comes to the number of players in practice in the summer, because of family vacations and other commitments.

“We’re not going to tell kids, don’t go on vacation because you’ve got practice. But the young kids we’ve got, some rookies, have made a bunch of practices. The coaches have done a really good job of focusing our practices to getting conditioning and learning plays and positional aspects of the game. So it’s worked out really well that way,” he said.

Those rookies, Micasew said, seem to be catching on to what the coaches are trying to teach them. But it’s not just the coaching staff doing the teaching.

“We’ve got some vets that are really showing some maturity and helping these young kids along. I know back in the day, the rookies were kind of just off on the side. Our vets have done a really good job of taking these young kids under their wing and saying, ‘look, this is what you need to do.’ Just being more of a hand up instead of being a nuisance and you’re trying to take my spot type of thing,” he said. “It’s really good to see. From a teacher, educator standpoint. It’s good to see that type of thing.”

The schedule has been reduced to six games per team with the additions of the Falcons Football Club and St. Vital Mustangs, both from Winnipeg.

The Clippers will kick off the season on the road against the Falcons, Sept. 10, at 2 p.m.

The first home game isn’t until, Sept. 22 when the Clippers host the Interlake Thunder at 5 p.m.

Micasew expects the Clippers to be competitive this season.

“Just from what I’ve seen in practice, we’ve got some dogs with some bite in them. So I think we’ll be competitive. And that’s all you can ask for,” he said. “You always go into a season gunning for a championship.”

As much fun as it is to watch the players at practice, Micasew is looking forward to getting the season underway.

“The real fun is standing on the sidelines and watching everyone play and seeing the excitement in the kids’ eyes when they make a good play. It’s always good to see,” he said, adding the coaching staff continues to step up and put the work in to get the team ready. “Hats off to the coaches. As anyone who coaches knows, they put in a ton of work that probably never gets recognized. In June we had conditioning camps and guys were talking about getting plays ready and slotting in who do we think we have here and who we have there. They’re thinking about this long before August. So it’s always a good thing. So hats off to those guys.”

Scott Lynxleg, hitting from the fairway on no. 1, aims for the green on no. 18 during the Ebb and Flow Treaty Days Golf Tournament, Friday.

The tournament was part of Ebb and Flow Treaty Days celebration, Aug. 13 to 20.

The week-long event included pancake breakfasts, a drag queen contest, pool tournaments, arrow shoots, volleyball, ball hockey, beach volleyball, a hotdog eating contest, lawnmower races, bingo, a scavenger hunt, youth basketball, a fishing contest, talent show, fastball, horseshoe tournament, arm wrestling, a fashion show, a hardball tournament, a slo-pitch tournament and powwows, Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

About 85 golfers hit the links at the Dauphin Lake Golf Club, Saturday evening, for the annual Night Light Golf Tournament.

The event is a fund-raiser for the multi-use park at Dauphin Beach.

Organizers said the cement was poured about a month ago and the fencing has arrived.

The courts are expected to be open and ready for use by the fall for tennis, pickleball and basketball.

It was also announced the facility will be known as the Maggie Scott Memorial Multi-court, named after committee member Maggie Scott, who died last year.

Kevin Thompson and Justin Huddle keep an eye on Amy Thompson’s putt on no. 11 during a charity golf tournament at the Gilbert Plains Country Club, Saturday.

The fund-raiser was in support of Isaac McCrimmon, a 2-1/2-year-old who was diagnosed with a form of leukemia.

The family moved to Saskatoon where Isaac will be treated for his leukemia. Scott McCallum and Greg Clemenson won the tournament and returned their prize money to the family.

All closest-to-the-hole winners and the 50-50 winner also donated their winnings to the family.

The tournament raised $8,500, which will help cover expenses.