A locally Indigenous owned business and entrepreneur is in the semi-finals for the national Pow Wow Pitch competition.

Sipie’s Mobile Wash started up five years ago with a unique concept to the Parkland area and has been going strong ever since.

Read the rest of the story in this week’s Review.

As part of the Manitoba government’s ongoing effort to help families make ends meet, Premier Heather Stefanson on Wednesday unveiled an $87-
million Family Affordability Package to immediately provide families with children, seniors living on a fixed income, and Manitobans who are hurting the most, with benefits to help ease the burden of rising costs and high inflation.

“We know that many Manitobans are hurting right now and having a hard time making ends meet,” said Stefanson in announcing the help.

More in this issue.

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.

The Swan Valley Museum held their Harvest Festival on Sunday (Aug. 28) with a packed crowd taking part in the games and activities.

The council of Russell Binscarth met on Aug 25th in council chambers in Russell for their second regular meeting of the month.

This meeting drew 29 spectators to the chambers and the lobby of the buildng.

While Councillor Baseley brought a number of questions to the floor the highlight - which will be dealt with later in this acticle, were the delgegation to council brought forward by Mrs. Jamie Bradshaw, as printed on page 2.

Councillor Cadieux also fulfilled a promise made at the last meeting after Len Derkach brought an issue to floor with a delegation pertaining to a resolution brought forward by Councillor Cadieux that banned Mr. Len Derkach and Mr. Nick Foisy from running in the upcoming election. (See coverage of this meeting and Derkach’s delegation in Aug. 16th issue of The Russell Banner.)

Read more details in this week's Russell Banner!

The Russell Ag Society unveiled their new ground’s sign in preparation for the celebration of 141 years.

Russell Ag Society is very excited to see the arena grounds being utilized more as the next generation of parents and youth are growing and becoming more involved.

Membership continues to grow, as the Ag Society actively has around 40 members or 17 different families. The Ag Society is coming alive again.

They were very excited for the weekend of festivities planned and all the excitement that comes with full grounds. The arena remains to be used by many Ag Members for practice as well as the many events that are starting to come back to the Ag Arena. With the growing interest and the revival of rodeo in our community also comes many benefits and opportunities.

The Ag Society grounds extend from the north side of Russell Swimming Pool and encompass the ball diamonds all the way to the back alley of Mather Street.

Get the full story in this week's Russell Banner!

The Dauphin Kings took the first step towards defending their Manitoba Junior Hockey League (MJHL) championship when the reigning Turnbull Cup titlists hosted a rookie camp, this past weekend.

About 50 players hit the ice at Credit Union Place, hoping to impress the coaching staff enough to earn and invitation to this weekend’s main camp.

According to Kings head coach and general manager Doug Hedley, the team limited the number of players at the camp to include their list players and draft picks, as well as mostly local players.

Hedley like what he saw on the ice.

“I liked the work ethic, I liked the compete, I liked the speed. They’re working hard,” he said, adding Carter Zalischuk had a great camp and some of the local players such as Cohen Smigelsky and Sam Swanton also had good camps. “We’ve got a good cycle of good talent coming up through the ranks in the Parkland and we’re hoping these guys can end up wearing our crest sooner or later,” Hedley said.

About 16 players will join the team’s main camp, which will be held, Sept. 2 to 4, culminating with the JoFo Cup intrasquad game. Hedley said there will be similar numbers at the main camp, enough for three teams.

“It should be some great competition and should make for some great speed and some good entertainment next weekend,” he added.

Some players, such as local products Kyan Grouette and Zalischuk, will be notably absent from the main camp because they will be attending Western Hockey League camps.

“It’s going to be interesting, because main camp could be totally different two or three weeks down the road depending on who returns and who doesn’t,” Hedley said. “But I know we have some good talent coming in. Some good imports coming in and some good kids from Manitoba, so it should make for some good entertainment next weekend.”

A lot of focus will be on the Kings as defending MJHL champions. With the bar set at a high level, Hedley wants it to stay there.

“People look around and say we’re going to be in tough this year. But at the same time, we thought that last year. We lost some real good players the year before with (Grady) Hobbs and (Kolby) Morrisseau. And our top six guys were all gone,” he pointed out. “And the guys came in and filled in and did a great job.”

Hedley feels the defence will be a strength like it was last year, led by Owen Wareham, who turns 20 in October. After the experience of playing at last season’s Centennial Cup, Dauphin’s coaching staff saw what it takes to compete at that level.

“Speed is your key ingredient. You have to be able to skate, you have to move the puck. Playing fast. So we want that in our main camp,” Hedley said. “We’re going to talk to our guys before we start. The compete level and the speed and just the ability to move the puck as fast as you can and to get to hard places as fast as you can is going to be key. And that’s what we’re going to focus on in main camp.”

The Kings will play four preseason games this year, the first coming, Sept. 6, in Swan River against the Stampeders at 7 p.m., followed by a game, Sept. 7, when the Kings host the Superior International Junior Hockey League’s Wisconsin Lumberjacks at 7:30 p.m.

Dauphin will then travel west to face the Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League’s Melville Millionaires, Sept. 10, and the Yorkton Terriers, Sept. 11, with both games in Melville.

Inter-Mountain Watershed District (IMWD) has developed new Memorial Park and held a ceremony honouring its first two inductees, Ernie Bayduza and Wes Bernat.

IMWD’s new Memorial Park is located in the yardsite of its office near Ethelbert and is intended to honour the volunteers instrumental in founding and building the district into what it is today.

According to IMWD general manager Jeff Thiele, tremendous growth has been accomplished during Bernat’s and Bayduza’s time with the district, and their work constitutes important building blocks for the next generation which will be working and volunteering in conservation.

Bayduza was a long-time councillor, reeve and farmer in the RM of Dauphin. His conservation ethic led him to become a subdistrict member with the Turtle River Watershed Conservation District 1986, and he was integral in the formation of Intermountain Conservation District (IMCD) in 1997. With the new district, Bayduza became chair of the Wilson River subdistrict and served as chair of IMCD between 1999 and 2004. Bayduza remained an active member of the main board of directors until he stepped down in 2011. He continued on as chair of the Wilson River subdistrict until his death in 2019.

During his time on the board, Bayduza also served as chair of the Manitoba Conservation District Association’s board from 2001-03. He received the Conservation Builder Award in 2004 and Bayduza and his wife Alvina were the district’s Conservation Award winners in 2008.

Bayduza also played an important role with the Dauphin Lake Advisory Board and Dauphin Lake Integrated Watershed Management Plan.

“We would like to acknowledge Ernie’s many years of commitment to the district by recognizing him today as a founder and builder of IMWD,” Thiele said.

Bernat grew up and farmed in the RM of Dauphin and also had a long-time career with the City of Dauphin. He was first employed by the City as the Engineering clerk and went on to become the personnel director. Bernat was later elected as a city councillor. He was a member of the IMCD since its establishment in 1997, when he was appointed as the City’s representative on the Vermillion River sub-district.

Bernat was appointed as Chair of the Vermillion River sub district in 2013 and remained an active member of the main board of directors until his passing in 2016.

Bernat participated in many district events such as the annual water festival, conservation district conferences and meetings and was instrumental in the creation of the district’s water retention strategy as well as the implementation and expansion of conservation programming.

Bernat was chair of the Personnel Committee and was instrumental in developing the district’s human resource policies and procedures.

“We would like to acknowledge Wes and his wife Stephanie’s many years of commitment to the district by recognizing him today as a builder of IMWD,” said current chair of IMWD, Jack Bremner. “Both Wes and Ernie were very passionate about conservation and the health of our watershed. It is important for us to recognize their contributions in our new Memorial Park”.

IMWD is in a partnership with the Province of Manitoba and the fmunicipalities of Alonsa, Dauphin (City); Dauphin (R.M), Ethelbert, Gilbert Plains, Grandview, Lakeshore, McCreary, Mossey River, Mountain South, Riding Mountain West, Roblin, Rosedale and Ste. Rose.

These partnerships enable IMWD to deliver a variety of soil, water and educational programs in the area.

IMWD was recently created after the amalgamation of Turtle River Watershed Conservation District and Intermountain Conservation District. Check out its website at imwd.ca for more information.

History was on display at the unveiling of the Airport Memorial 80, honouring the men and women who trained locally as part of the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan.

Two five-foot-by-three-foot pieces of granite provides a history of the air training plan, as well as the history of the two air training schools which operated in the area, while the names of those who died during training are displayed on the back of each piece.

The day began with a morning ceremony at Riverside Cemetery, where 15 of the 49 airmen killed in training are buried, and continued with the dedication ceremony at the Lt. Col W.G. (Billy) Barker, VC Airport in the afternoon.

Also on display were three vintage military aircraft used as part of the Plan, a Harvard, a Tiger Moth and a Cornell.

Those interested were able to purchase flights over the community in the historic aircraft.

The memorial was conceptualized and realized through the efforts of local historian Al Gray.

Back in the day, the Valley has its own array of musical talent that originated right within the area. This is part one about a group of talented local musicians, who fostered their love of music by developing a band, which led to them playing all over the Valley and eventually creating a record to put in local jukeboxes.
The Group started up about 1965 and originally consisted of Gordon Hornbeck on the drums; Jim Hooper on lead guitar; Aaron Burnett on rhythm guitar; Glen Kerestes on bass guitar and Raymond Fulford on keyboards. In 1966, the band underwent some band member changes with Hooper and Kerestes leaving and Doug Scales joining in.
“I recall being in Grade 10 and Mrs. Clara Stirling was my biology teacher at the time,” said Hornbeck. “One day we assembled at her class to find her sitting on the edge of the desk and she asked if any of us had seen the Ed Sullivan Show the previous evening. The whole class erupted because it was the Beatles who appeared on the show. Everyone got very talkative in class about the phenomena of popular music.
“After that discussion, I went home that night and talked to my parents about it. It was a short time after that, I found a friend in high school, Jimmy Hooper, who had an electric guitar and I told him I had an acoustic guitar. He invited me over to his house.
“I met Jimmy’s parents and while we were talking, his mom kept playing the piano,” said Hornbeck. “She was crazy on the piano and played everything you could think of. She kept asking if there was anything we wanted to hear. She played by ear and all these songs with such enthusiasm. Looking back, I kind of associated her with Jerry Lee Lewis, because she had that same enthusiasm for music.
“A few weeks later I had Jimmy over to my house to see what I had set up to play my guitar in the basement. I had a quiet section in the basement all to myself. Jimmy picked out the song with chords and flat-picking; it was Wildwood Flower. It’s a famous old song that talks about the effects of smoking cannabis. Jimmy played the song so perfectly; you’d think you were listening to a recording.
“I suggested we meet more often so he spent a lot of time at my house and we spun 45 records from Scalf’s Music Store,” said Hornbeck. “That was a source for studying music. Jimmy could listen to that song off the portable record player and identify each chord by listening to it. Without any formal music training or education, Jimmy had the same talent as his mother and could play by ear. He really had the inside track to listening and copying music. We were so drawn to his musical talent.
“Aaron Burnett was another friend from school who heard about our enthusiasm for listening and playing music. Aaron wanted to join us and bring his guitar. He came over and we plugged his guitar into Jimmy’s amp and started making some real noise. That was the beginning of the band.
“Another friend of mine from school, Glen Kerestes, was working as a furniture deliveryman,” said Hornbeck. “He got his older brother’s guitar, took the top two strings off and tuned down the bottom bass strings. Once he had it to where he wanted it, he said he would join in playing bass.”
The newly formed band began to experiment with their sound during rehearsals and soon found themselves upgrading musical instruments and equipment.
“By then this little amplifier of Jimmy’s that had a speaker the size of a butter plate was really overloaded,” said Hornbeck. “Jimmy set out to get an amplifier in the Sears catalogue. He found a Sears Silvertone amplifier that had two 12-inch speakers and a separate power head on top with about five or six inputs. For the first year, which would have been 1965-1966, we played everything through that one big amplifier.
“One day we went outside and set it up to play in the backyard. The next day at school, a couple of classmates told me that their parents heard us playing music in the backyard from about three miles away. We must have been playing pretty loud, but when you’re playing rock n’ roll music, you don’t always know how loud the volume really is.
“Eventually Glen purchased a Fender Mr. Bassman amplifier and a Fender Jazz bass guitar,” said Hornbeck. “Then Aaron went out and bought a Fender Mustang and his own large amp. Now we were really rocking.”
It wasn’t long after before the band was asked to do their first live stage performance in town. Luckily Hornbeck’s father captured all those early moments on stage by filming it.
“We were soon asked to play live music for the Canadian Girls In Training (CGIT) dance behind the United Church in Swan River,” said Hornbeck. “It was our first gig and my dad had this small 8 mm movie camera came out and started filming the band and the crowd. I still have those 8 mm movies and transferred them to DVD, which allows me to watch it anytime I want. It’s amazing to be able to watch that live stuff from the past.
“We all decided that if we were going to perform as a band, we were going to have to be presentable. So for that first performance, we wore white T-shirts with red cardigan sweaters, white pants and white tennis shoes. I have lots of photos of us dressed like that. There was no money involved and the greatest joy was to be asked to come and perform.”
After their first performance, they realized they needed a name for the band if they were going to continue on taking bookings and performing.
“Once the dance was over, we all sat down and realized we had a golden opportunity to form a band, but we had no name,” said Hornbeck. “We went through a brainstorming session in my parents basement and were throwing out names. We knew the names of all the popular bands at the time. Glenn was very quick and came up with some names. We couldn’t come up with a name that we could all agree on, so we decided on the name called The Group.”
Hornbeck has many classic memories of The Group and some of the adventures they had as a band. This was the beginning for many of the band members to develop a long-time love for music and the start of their musical careers.
“I have the original stamp we used for the dances at the Legion and community halls we would rent on a Friday or Saturday night to play a dance,” said Hornbeck. “We had a guy sitting with the stamp and a cash box at the door. The admission price was one dollar and he would stamp their hand to show they had paid.
“We travelled and played in community halls numerous times. At that time, it became popular to have a light show travelling with the band. Bands would perform and this different array of lights would come on. So I got some coloured lighting from my parents Christmas floodlights and I wired them all up through a board at my feet so my high hat foot could punch these switches on and off. It also allowed me to rotate the lights, which allowed me to put on a light show. Looking back it was pretty psychedelic for our time.
“There was this one time we were set up to play in Bowsman,” said Hornbeck. “We had the stage all set up and I wired up the lights.
We figured we were going to have a real good show that night. Well to my surprise, I had wired up the perfect short circuit, so about the third song into the first set, I start punching the lights and my foot goes down and there’s an explosion under my foot and fire going across the stage.
Bang! All the lights and cords were melted, the entire Bowman Hall breakers went at once and it was pitch black, so everyone turned on their cigarette lighters to see. The amplifiers have tubes and they don’t die instantly, they make a strange sound cooling off. I will never forget our amplifiers making that sound. It was definitely a night I will not forget.”
The story of The Group will continue in next week’s Star and Times.