The Parkland Crisis Centre and Women’s Shelter and The Hub Dauphin hosted renowned Canadian psychologist Dr. Jody Carrington, May 16, at the Ukrainian Orthodox Auditorium.

The sold out crowd received a free copy of Dr. Carrington’s book, Feeling Seen, followed by a 90-minute keynote address where she focused much of her talk around reconnection, which is the key to healthy relationships and productive teams.

Eight-year-old Cohen Campbell takes aim at the target during a round of disc golf with his uncle Craig, Sunday afternoon.

The 18-hole disc golf course can be found in Vermillion Park.

It’s been a tough season for the Dauphin Clippers baseball team.

The Clippers entered a doubleheader on their home field on Sunday looking for their first win of the season, but instead, came away with a pair of lopsided losses, dropping their record to 0-5.

After Wednesday’s game in Ste. Rose was postponed due to a thunderstorm that made its way through the Parkland, Dauphin hit the diamond against Russell’s Major Pratt Trojans in game one of the twinbill, falling 23-4.

It didn’t get any better in the nightcap against the Birtle Falcons as the Clippers dropped a 25-3 decision to the visitors.

One area where the Clippers is lacking, said coach Don Sheldon, is resiliency.

“We’re booting the ball a fair amount. When we’re facing adversity, we’re not doing a great job of pushing through it,” he said. “Every baseball team is going to face some adversity at some point in their season or during a game. The good teams, the teams that succeed push through that adversity. We’re not there, yet. We’re working our way there. These are a couple of good teams that we played today. They hit the ball well and they had some good pitching.”

The Clippers did hit the ball well at times, Sheldon said, noting Nathan Klippenstein in particular was impressive going four-for-six in the two games with three singles and a double.

“We were on the bats a little bit better than we have in previous games. We had some, hard-hit balls,” he said.

After practicing on Monday, the Clippers will host the Hamiota Huskies on Wednesday at 5:30 p.m., before heading east to Ste. Rose for a makeup game with the Celtics.

Prior to the start of the season, Sheldon said the league play was just reps for zone playoffs, as well as provincials.

“I’m hoping that some of those reps, even the ones where we struggled, are going to lead to some positive results at zones,” he said.

Brittney Stratuliak and Payton Dudar played badminton together for the first time in Grade 6 at Ethelbert School.

Due to the pandemic, they did not get the chance to play together again until Grade 9. They worked hard to hone their skills and keep each other positive when they went up against difficult teams.

Last year, their hard work paid off and Stratuliak and Dudar were given the opportunity to travel to Winnipeg for the provincial championships, where they battled hard and ended up securing a fourth place finish.

This year, Stratuliak and Dudar set an even higher goal, top two. They challenged themselves throughout the competitive season in various competitions where they played up in the senior category. When they qualified for provincials, they were excited that they were given the opportunity to reach their goal. They were on their way back to Winnipeg, May 4 to 6, and they knew they were going to be up against some tough teams. Being an A school, at times it was daunting being matched up against AA, AAA and AAAA teams, but they kept their heads held high, finishing second in their pool after the round-robin.

Entering playoffs, Stratuliak and Dudar were determined to try their best and enjoy the experience.

The final game against Reston was a true battle for first. Losing the first set, Stratuliak and Dudar were determined to give them a tough game and worked hard to win the second set. By the third set, both teams could see that first-place finish.

The girls from Ethelbert played hard and secured silver, the first provincial finalists for Ethelbert badminton since 1978.

Patrick Paul, an Ojibwe artist of the woodland style, discusses his art which will be on display outside the Dauphin Public Library, May 9.

The artwork is expected to go up in mid-June.

Following Paul’s presentation, the Rotary Club of Dauphin presented a literacy grant in the amount of $1,670 to the library to advance Truth and Reconciliation for the community.

The proceeds are from the club’s bi-annual book sale.

The Dauphin and District Community Foundation (DDCF) announced 13 grant recipients at the State of the City address, hosted by the Parkland Chamber of Commerce, May 9.

DDCF’s spring intake allowed them to hand out $73,738 in grants to 13 groups and organizations.

Here is a list of the grant recipients.

• Almost New Store - $15,000 for front door repair, including replacing cement footing;
• City of Dauphin -$2,500 for a digital kiosk to provide customers with accessible and low barrier tools;
• Dauphin and District Handivan - $7,500 to assist with the conversion costs of a van to accommodate a ramp allowing larger wheelchairs;
• Dauphin Church of Christ - $6,687 for the Whitmore School food program for the weeks before and after the Food for Thought program is running;
• Dauphin junior recreation hockey - $2,116 for goalie equipment;
• Dauphin Neighbourhood Renewal - $10,000 toward the repair of the DNRC auditorium roof;
• Dauphin Pickle Ball Club - $1,500 toward the purchase of nets, equipment and school rental;
• Dauphin Pottery and Ceramics Club - $4,083 to replace two 50-year-old potter’s wheels;
• Loray Manor (Parkland assisted living) - $7,000 for security panel repair;
• Mackenzie Middle School - $4,352 to replace disposable dishes and cutlery with sustainable products;
• Mountain View School Division - $3,000 toward rent for the alternative education program;
• Maamawii Park - $5,000 part of DDCF’s $30,000 commitment over three years; and
• South Parkland Healthy Child Coalition - $5,000 to establish an indoor playground and family room at Parkland Crossing for child programs, family resources and parent education.

For more info, check this week's Herald!

Jason McCoy and Chris Byrne, sing one of McCoy’s hit songs at the Backroads to Countryfest show, Saturday, at the Watson Arts Centre.

The show was part of a tour, which included stops in Virden, Swan River and Minnedosa and also featured performers Nelson Little and Emma Peterson of Winnipegosis.

All three performers will be appearing at this year’s Dauphin’s Countryfest.

Dauphin Mayor David Bosiak spoke to a capacity crowd at the State of the City address, May 14, in the Aspen Lodge at the Dauphin Recreation Complex.

Bosiak spoke on six key items he feels are important to the future of the city - community and innovation, climate action and leadership, housing and neighborhoods, truth and reconciliation, public health and wellbeing, and local tourism.

Hosted by the Parkland Chamber of Commerce, other speakers included Marisa Philippe of Fusion Credit Union, Chuck Davidson, president and CEO of Manitoba Chamber of Commerce and Darren Eddie of the Dauphin and District Community Foundation.

The Dauphin Clippers rugby teams are off to dominating starts in the Westman High School Rugby.

The Clippers girls started the season with a 55-0 win over the Swan Valley Tigers, May 2, before hammering the Vincent Massey Vikings, 77-0, last Thursday.

Felicity Sahulka led the Clippers with two tries against Swan Valley, while Tanya Devos, Brooke Miner, Emma Fox, Chloe Fletcher, Bree Walker, Rhoda Evans and Ruth Evan added singles. Miner added five converts.

On Thursday against the Vikings, Fox, Fletcher, Victoria Carter, Jana Manzano each had two tries, with Allee Hrechka, Miner, Mai Maguet, Evans and Saje Marohn adding singles. Miner also chipped in with six converts.

“You can see they’ve been putting the work in at practice,” said Clippers coach Shawn Sarkonak. “And especially the ones that had the opportunity to travel to Ireland. You can really tell that experienced paid off and we’re rolling in the season right now.”

As well as the girls played, there are areas of the game Sarkonak would like to see improved upon.

“You want to improve every game and every practice. Our key themes that we’re really focusing on is playing an expansive game, going sideline to sideline, playing with flow. Which means moving the ball and not getting tunnell vision and playing as individuals,” he said. “I’ve been preaching to the girls all year that the higher level coaches, they don’t really key in and focus on who is scoring the tries or kicking the converts. They’re looking at what led to the try being scored. The commitment of the defender, drawing and passing, skipping a pass or essentially, just creating space and putting the ball in the space.”

The girls were in Brandon, Monday for a game against Crocus Plains, followed by a date with the Rivers Rams on Thursday.

Sarkonak hopes to see the girls continue their momentum.

“I’ve been talking to the coaches around the league and keeping an eye on the standings and we’re looking forward to this,” he said, adding Crocus Plains won their first game over Souris, while Rivers will be Dauphin’s toughest test as the league champion for the last few years. “We’ve had that one circled all year and we’re really looking forward to it,” he said.

While dominating wins are great, Sarkonak also pointed out they can lead to bad habits forming.

“Or individuals wanting to pad the stats a little bit. The coaching staff is staying on them just to keep the team-game mindset and just to move the ball and work together and good things will happen,” he said.

The Clippers boys also swept their two games, beating the Crocus Plains Plainsmen, 47-5, on Tuesday and Vincent Massey, 42-5, on Thursday.

Guzman Garcia had two tries to lead the Clippers against the Plainsmen. Scott Gower, Lars Gudbjartson, William Miner, Landyn Garton and Louis Prevot added singles and Prevot also recorded six tries.

Against the Vikings, Miner had two tries, while singles were added by Garcia, Joseph Lopez, Julien Lopez and Alex Thompson. Garcia added three converts and Prevot had one.

Clippers coach Aaron Miner said the Clippers are already in midseason stride after they started practicing in early January.

“We’re where we expected to be,” he said.

Miner has seen an improvement in the play of those players who were part of the trip to Ireland. Those who weren’t, he added, are working hard to catch up.

“They’re putting in a lot of extra time and effort at the gym and running at the track. It’s just been amazing to see them catch to the 15 that did go to Ireland,” Miner said.

The team’s experience, Miner said, was a key to the two victories to open the season.

“We’re playing against some strong teams that have great athletes, as well. But with our two exchange students having ample experience, it just put us over the edge,” he said. “They’re doing things that other teams don’t expect Canadian teams to be able to do at this age.”
The ability shown by those students - Prevot and Garcia - is showing other teams how good they can be if they work hard enough.

Most of the Clippers players were in Brandon for a U17 rugby camp, with coaches from Team Canada and Team Manitoba, featuring three days of practices.

“Those players got an extreme amount of practice and good coaching. Those that are in Grade 12 know we haven’t had a lot of chances to practice. We are playing so frequently now, that we’re not getting a chance to get some practice time in,” Miner said.

The Clippers boys joined the girls team in Brandon for a rematch with the Plainsmen on Monday.

The Northwest Métis Council and the Dauphin Friendship Centre held a Red Dress Walk in honour of murdered and missing Indigenous women.

Participants were encouraged to wear red for the walk, which began near the courthouse and ended at the council office on Main Street.