There’s a young Internet sensation hailing from Opaskwayak Cree Nation (OCN) and he’s getting quite famous for his take on science. Simon Monteith, better known as Simon the Scientist, is only nine years old, has been creating experiments and tutorials on video, and uploading them on to social media to help reach other Indigenous youth and kids in an effort to get them to understand and appreciate the world of science. “I’m going into grade 5 at Lakewood Elementary School,” said Simon. “There isn’t any really specific thing that I love about science, I just have interest in all types of science. I started Simon the Scientist when I was seven years old, just as the pandemic started. It was a slow start at first, but then it grew.

When a RCMP officer meets with tragedy on the job, they leave behind family, friends and colleagues who mourn their loss. A newly formed foundation has created an annual fundraiser called Move to Remember Challenge, to help provide support to those RCMP members’ families who have lost a loved one serving in the line of duty.
“The National Police Federation Benevolent Foundation (NPFBF) is an organization’s sole purpose is to support the families of fallen RCMP officers,” said NPFBF Chair Kevin Halwa. “It was recently designated by Royal Canadian Mounted Police Federation as the sole charitable foundation that collects donations for the families of fallen RCMP officers.
“When one of our members is tragically killed in the line of duty, it’s not just devastating to the community, their colleagues and the force, but it’s unbelievably overwhelming to the family. We’re there to provide immediate financial and other support for the member’s family as needed.
“We also provide some post-secondary funding for bursaries for students across the country,” said Halwa. “Those bursaries are open to all students that are going into any kind of public safety field for post-secondary learning.
“The Move to Remember Challenge is for the month of September. Members register and collect pledges for any kind of physical activity that allows them to reach a goal of 246 km. The reason for 246 plus km is to represent the number of fallen officers in the line of duty, as well as those members whose work-related injuries led to suicide. Those circumstances are incredibly tragic and this is a way we can keep those colleagues and their loved ones in our hearts and minds.”
Swan River RCMP Detachment Constable Briana Blencowe is more than taking the cause to heart; she’s stepping up to the challenge.
“I personally did the Move to Remember Challenge on my own last year, but because of my involvement with Ride for Refuge, I didn’t seek community support,” said Constable Blencowe. “The NPFBF raises money to help support those families in different ways. This challenge helps us as RCMP to also remember and honour those members who we have served with that are no longer with us as a result of a tragedy on the job.”
The cause is personal for Blencowe for she feels the potential that tragedy could befall any of her previous or current co-workers on the job. For Blencowe, those co-workers are a form of family.
“I’ve been in Swan River for four years and in that time, I’ve worked with so many amazing members and got to know the community,” said Constable Blencowe. “Most, if not all of us, have come from across Canada to serve in Swan River and to become members. We have left our extended families and close friends to become part of a new community.
“I don’t know if the general public realizes how much a member sacrifices personally when it comes to that. Because we leave our extended families, we develop a bond with our co-workers and their families and it means that much more if something were to happen to them. Just knowing that the Benevolent Fund is there to help take care of those families, should a tragedy befall their loved one on the line of duty, means a lot to me.”
Although Blencowe has participated in Move to Remember before, this time she’s enlisting a team consisting of members from the Swan River Detachment and has set a fundraising goal along with a personal physical activity goal to raise funds.
“I’m hoping to get our full detachment together to do the Move to Remember Challenge,” said Blencowe. “There’s going to be a couple of ways people can donate to our team’s involvement for the Move to Remember Challenge. Next week there will be donation sheets at some of the local businesses. We also have a QR code that will connect directly to our online donation page for our team. I’m hoping we can raise $3,000.
“The Move to Remember Challenge goes from Sept. 1 to 30, and the idea is to get as many kilometres as possible over the 30 days with a minimum being 247 km, which represents the 246 plus fallen members. Personally, the goal for myself is to swim 247 laps, bike for 247 minutes and aqua run 247 loops. My hope is as a team we can surpass my combined distance of 680 km from last year or at least get to 247 km as a total.”

This year’s Opaskwayak Indigenous Days (OID) Princess was one who had both talent and a message to deliver.

16-year-old Juliana Bignell was crowned OID Princess and she is ready to represent OCN to the best of her capabilities. 

“I feel really proud to be crowned OID Princess,” said Bignell. “I also feel honoured to be this year’s OID Princess, so I can represent the community as best as I can. “I will speak up for those that can't be active and advocate during bully awareness week. Also, I’ll be available to anyone if they need a friend, for I personally know how the impacts of bullying can affect a person and I never want anyone to experience that."

Get the full story in this week's Opasquia Times!

This week features the follow-up to last week’s story on the former Swan River band called The Group.
As The Group kept playing more gigs, Hornbeck and his band members began earning some money, from what started out as just a hobby. Hornbeck recalls the first big ticket item he purchased with his money earned from playing in The Group.
“We had a strict policy that each band member was responsible for looking after replacing and maintaining their musical instrument,” said Hornbeck. “After each gig, we would pool the money together and divide it equally. We all bought our own stuff with the money we earned over the years and we were quite proud of ourselves. Each time we bought better and better equipment. As I look through the array of photographs over that time span, we had some pretty decent-looking equipment towards the end of it.
“I ordered myself a British set of Premier drums from Scalif’s, just like the ones Charlie Watts of The Rolling Stones had.
“I can also recall, one day I had accumulated $52 dollars in my bank account, so I went over to Emerson Barnard’s Jewelry store on Main Street, and I asked what they had for rings,” said Hornbeck. “I wanted to buy a ring and he showed me some. I picked one out, had it sized and paid $50. I’ve still got the ring and wear it. It’s gold with a red round ruby like stone in the center of it and is my Group ring forever.”
It wasn’t long before The Group decided to do some recording locally in the area. They caught the attention of a well-known DJ in the area, and he helped them to record some songs in studio at a radio station in Dauphin.
“There was a radio company in Dauphin that had a DJ named Ron Waddell, The Ugly Duckling,” said Hornbeck “He was quite popular with the music he played. Waddell invited us to do come down and do a recording at the studio. We travelled to Dauphin and recorded some songs. That was quite the experience for us.”
Hornbeck has quite the elaborate collection of The Group memorabilia to this date. He has the performances documented through a series of videos and photographs.
“I have the name of the band, The Group, on the bass drumhead, still today,” said Hornbeck. “It’s one of the main artifacts I’ve kept over the years. I printed it myself onto the drumhead. From then on we were The Group. I have hundreds of photographs from our time together and several framed in my home in chronological order. The entire story of the Group is documented within those photos.
“I still have my wooden block for the drum kit, the cowbell and a handful of drumsticks from our days together. I used to go through a lot of drumsticks back then from banging on the drums so hard. I would throw my broken drumstick into the crowd and people would be scrambling to pick it up as a souvenir, I guess. I always had an instant grab for replacement sticks at hand. Garry Pederson of the Guess Who, taught me that.
“I was so fortunate that I got all the band members to sign the drumhead before some of them passed on,” said Hornbeck.
Even fans of The Group hung on to some time-honoured memorabilia from the band’s glory days.
“Dennis and Maureen Bowles were always in the front of the stage during our performances,” said Hornbeck. “I even have them on the home movies. Dennis went on to buy my parents’ home. One day he told me to come by the house and he had something he wanted to show me. I hadn’t been back to the house after my parents had passed away. So I went over and there in the rumpus room, where The Group played and practiced, on the door, perfectly intact with black friction tape was our band name still glued to the door, along with the artifacts on the floor. Dennis said he couldn’t bare to take it off.”
Hornbeck recalls The Group getting together for a reunion and doing one last performance together.
“Our very last performance was in 2003, here in Swan River at the Legion Hall,” said Hornbeck. “The High School Reunion Committee asked us to get together for their program. At first, the guys weren’t interested in getting together, but eventually we did. We all met the night before at Glenn’s basement, where his band called Kind of Country, would practice. We only played about two or three songs and got caught up musing about the past. The guys were having a good time reminiscing.
“The night of the big concert where The Group was to entertain over 300 people, we played three songs and then Jimmy asked, out of the blue, if anyone remembered a certain song. Then all of a sudden it all came back and we were playing music we hadn’t played together for 45 years. The dinner became a dance floor again and it felt magical.
“We have all of that performance, the crowd and interviews with members from The Group all filmed and I have it on DVD thanks to Jim Makichuk,” said Hornbeck.
The Group band members all went their separate ways after 1967 and their band is listed as one on the Manitoba Music Museum’s webpage with photographs going back to that time.
“Jimmy Hooper became a solo performer,” said Hornbeck. “He would play his acoustic guitar and sing, despite not singing in The Group. He has since passed on and the funeral was held in Hudson Bay, SK. An old friend, Jim Webster and I made the trip out for his funeral. There were artifacts of his life all across the stage and wall-to-wall music tributes.
We were ushered in and seated amongst his family at the front.”
Aaron Burnett went on to become an elementary school teacher and then realized his musical calling was still prevalent. He started playing rhythm guitar and doing lead vocals for Salvek Hanzlik’s bluegrass band in Winnipeg. The band parted ways and Barnett formed another bluegrass band called Ain’t No Mountain Boys that toured around Manitoba and northwestern Ontario. From there he moved on to join the Keystone Bluegrass Quartet, which became a popular band.
Burnett decided to record an album in 2002 and received a Juno nomination. He released a second bluegrass album with the musical backing of the Dry River Boys. He now plays traditional bluegrass music in a band called Prairie Grass.
Glenn Kerestes went on to marry Marilyn Shaver of Swan River, raised a family and became a loans officer at the Swan Valley Credit Union. He kept his love of playing bass guitar by playing in the band Kind of Country. Kerestes passed away last year on Nov.18, 2021 at the age of 74.
Raymond Fulford entered the medical profession and went stateside for a while. He now resides in Winnipeg, designing amputee prosthetics.
Gord Hornbeck is 74 now and winding up business in the Valley. He and his companion, Dale, are happy with growing old together and keeping busy.

During Opaskwayak Indigenous Days (OID), a display was set up in the Otineka Mall with all 50 beaded crowns from OID’s 50th Anniversary. Mother and son duo, Tracy Desjarlais and Cory Constant, beaded the crowns for the anniversary celebration. Desjarlais’ beading talent was recognized locally, after she had designed and beaded a crown for a contestant in one of the pageants.

“I was asked by a friend from Opaskwayak Cree Nation (OCN) to make her little girl a crown because she was in the Angel Princess pageant,” said Desjarlais. “She knew I did bead work and she wanted a crown and moccasins for her daughter who was running as Little Miss Big Eddy. I beaded a crown and moccasins for her, and it wound up being the very first crown I had ever made. I had to figure out a design and how I was going to actually make it.

“From her wearing it around the community that weekend and her mom running the Angel Princess and Little Miss Sweetheart pageants for a while, I was asked to make the crowns for those categories and it went on from there. I believe I started in 2012 when I made my first crown for the Angel Princess, the next year was for the Little Sweetheart Princess, and then I wound up making them for all the pageant categories.”

Get the full story in this week's paper!

If you’re looking for bargains on some really good books to read, then The Pas Regional Library’s second annual book sale is the place to check out. Right now the library is accepting donations of used books and other materials for their sale.

“The library is accepting donations of books for the book sale right up until the day before the event,” said The Pas Regional Library Administrator Caitlin Henderson.

“For the sale we accept any subjects and genres of books, any magazines, DVDs, and even CDs, if people are trying to find somewhere to donate them. The only limitation is any items donated need to be in relatively good condition."

Read all the details in this week's Opasquia Times!

It was official last week with the crowning of the OID Princess, Junior Princess, Little Miss Sweetheart and Angel Princess for 2022. Each and every contestant that ran in this year’s pageants were outstanding in their own ways and possessed qualities that made them all princesses.

Miss Otineka Mall Julia Bignell was crowned OID Princess for 2022. Miss KB Coffee Gigi Blacksmith was crowned OID Junior Princess 2022. Miss Missinnipi Airways Deshawna Whyte Personius was crowned OID Little Miss Sweetheart 2022. Miss Jordan’s Principle Cherish Halcrow Personius was crowned OID Angel Princess.

OID Junior Princess Gigi Blacksmith seized the opportunity to reaffirm why she was the chosen candidate this year by announcing she and her family will be funding an award every year for an OID Princess and Junior Princess candidates, as part of raising awareness for MMIWG2S.

The awards are in memory of Kendara Ballantyne and will be presented by KB Coffee and the Blacksmith family.

Full details in this week's paper!

Two significant murals in The Pas are getting restored with the help of a couple of community organizations. When The Pas Rotary Club President Jim Scott learned that the original artist who painted the murals would be in the community for the summer, he knew the opportunity had perfect timing.

“These murals, especially the two Little John is working on, have become very iconic in the community and a lot of people have had their pictures taken beside or in front of them,” said Scott. “Over time, the weather has taken its toll and the murals have seen better days. It came up that Little John was going to potentially be in The Pas this summer visiting family. I negotiated a price with him to touch up his murals and then our group went about raising the money for it.

“We approached The Pas Destination Marketing Committee and the Rotary Club, and between the two organizations, we were able to come up with the money need to have Little John touch up the murals. These are being restored and repaired for there was a tremendous amount of behind the scenes damage to the one on Edwards Avenue, due to the elements.”

Read the full story in this week's paper!

There’s another new permanent addition to The Pas Fire Department that was announced at the beginning of this week.

Matthew Pecar has officially accepted his position as The Pas Fire Department’s Fire Prevention Officer. Pecar has spent over a decade with the department and worked his way up the ladder to securing his new position.

“I was born and raised in Winnipeg, then moved to The Pas when I turned 18 years old,” said Pecar. “I went to UCN to study Natural Resources and found that it wasn’t quite what I was looking for in terms of a career."

More details can be found in this week's Opasquia Times!