Dauphin residents should start sprucing up properties in preparation for a visit from the Communities in Bloom (CIB) judges at the end of the month.

CIB judges Susan Ellis from Pembroke, Ont., and Alex Pearl from Centreville, Ohio, will evaluate the city, July 27 to 29.

This year marks the 28th edition of CIB and the city of Dauphin is participating in the International Challenge Small category, along with Sussex, NB, Ingria, Italy, Glaslough, Ireland, Lewisburg, WV, and Velika Polana, Slovenia.

The communities will be rated from 1 to 5 Blooms, based on the scoring obtained. Also, they will aim to obtain Bronze, Silver or Gold levels in their 5-Bloom rating.

The national and international results will be announced in Victoria, B.C., between Oct. 20 and 23, as part of the National Symposium on Parks and Grounds and the National and International Awards celebrating “Year of the Garden.”

The event will be the first in-person Symposium for CIB since 2019, following two years of virtual awards ceremonies, virtual judging consultations and virtual webinars.

Communities in Bloom is a Canadian non-profit volunteer and partnership-driven organization that uses a multi-tiered competitive evaluation process to foster community strength, involvement, and continuous improvement. This is accomplished by nurturing environmental sustainability, enhancements of green spaces, and heritage conservation in cultural and natural environments encompassing municipal, residential, commercial, and institutional spaces.

The vision is to inspire all communities to enhance their quality of life and environment through people and plants to create community pride.

Visitors to the local Tim Horton’s last Wednesday had the opportunity to help send some youths from underserved communities to a Tims Camp.

On that day 100 per cent of proceeds from the sale of hot and iced coffee supported the initiative.

As well, the public had and opportunity to support Tim Hortons Foundation Camps by purchasing a Camp Day bracelet for $2 or a pair of red and white camp-themed socks for $5.

The local restaurant also maximized its fund-raising efforts by selling raffle tickets and offering to wash the windshields of vehicles in the drive-through lane.

Camp Day has raised over $225 million in its 30-year history and has helped Tim Hortons Foundation Camps support more than 300,000 youth between the ages of 12 to 16 through a multi-year camp-based program.

 A total of $7,000 in proceeds were raised from the Swan Valley Credit Union Beef-on-a-Bun fundraiser, held on Friday (July 8). The proceeds were evenly split between the Swan Valley Health Centre for a CT Scanner and the CMHA Enhanced Community Mobilization Program/Meet off Main. Kate Church and Lance Jacobson accepted the $3,500 donation on behalf of the Swan Valley Health Facilities Foundation. Stacy Grindleand Barb Lewis accepted the $3,500 donation on behalf of the Canadian Mental Health Association and Enhanced Community Mobilization Program’s Meet Off Main project.

The Gilmour House held a very successful open house over the weekend, showcasing all the hard work of the RAHAC board members in restoring the oldest home in Russell.

More details can be found in the July 19th edition of The Russell Banner!

If you’re thinking of heading to lake this weekend you might want to wait until Saturday afternoon to leave.
The Roblin District Chamber of Commerce’s Summer Street Fair & Sidewalk Sale is coming up this Saturday, July 23, and is promising to be a fantastic event.

There’s nothing like a really good cup of coffee to start your day off, but a local barista is hoping to offer more that just that. KB Coffee has been hosting pop-ups all over the community and providing specialty coffee as well as creating awareness for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, Girls and Two-Spirited people (MMIWG2S).
“I’m originally from The Pas and have lived here most of my life,” said Gloria Ballantyne-Packo. “After I went to school, I moved to Calgary, AB, and lived there for awhile. I came back home after everything that happened with my sister, Kendara Ballantyne, to be with my family. I stayed home for a couple of years, before heading back to Calgary.
“When I moved back, I got a job with Monogram Coffee and this is where my love of specialty coffee grew. I trained with some truly talented baristas and a few of them have gone on to win the Canadian Barista Championship. One of the women I worked with was the first female ever to win the championship, and that happened just last year. Some of them have gone on to compete in the World Barista Championship.

With school out for the summer, it can be a challenge to engage kids in any kind of summer learning or reading activity. The Pas Regional Library is putting out some excellent literacy programming for both youth and adults to engage in.
“All of our programs are based on accessibility and opportunity,” said The Pas Regional Library Activities Programmer Rebecca Johnson. “We acknowledge that the families here in the tri-community tend to be bigger in numbers, so we make sure our programs are free. Being in the north, we realize that the cost of things can be so much more expensive and harder to do, so we make it free for everyone to enjoy.”
Once again The Pas Regional Library is hosting another Story Walk in the community and this one has a theme of Indigenous spirit animals and connects participants to nature.
“Our Story Walks consist of taking apart a book and displaying each of the pages either in the windows of the businesses or along the trail, which is what we’ve done for the Story Walk on Rosie Mayne Trail,” said Johnson. “At the beginning of the trail is the first page of the book and as you walk along, there will be other pages, which allows you to read the entire book. This is a program that was made in 2007, and I heard about it last year. We started it then and it’s been going over really well ever since.

By now I’m sure we at the Opasquia Times have thrown some of our readers and people we interview for a real loop. Not since Bill Bannock’s column have we had so much confusion as to who is who in the newsroom. Many of you may have picked up on the difference in last names that appear at the end of the columns; rest assured, we haven’t made another Jennifer up.
There are two Jennifers now at the Opasquia Times. Jenn Cook remains the General Manager and Jennifer Laviolette is the new Editor. We just felt that two Jennifers are better than one.
Jennifer Laviolette will be working as our new editor remotely from her home in Grandview, Manitoba. She also writes for our sister papers, the Swan Valley Star and Times and the Roblin Review. Laviolette has 15 years experience working in the media in both the newspaper and radio industry.

At this year’s Manitoba Community Newspaper Awards (MCNA) a well-known former newspaper owner and columnist was recognized for his 44 years of being in the industry. Co-founder and columnist for the Opasquia Times, Murray Harvey, was nominated and received the MCNA Silver Quill Award for his 25 plus years in the newspaper industry.
“I definitely spent a lot of time working in the newspaper business over the years, but I was just shy of being nominated for the Gold Quill Award for 50 years in the business, so the next option was the Silver Quill Award, recognizing 25 or more years,” said Harvey.
“I started the Opasquia Times with my partner Dennis, back in 1978, which was a result of a series of unrelated events. At the time I was working in a department looked after by the provincial government and when it changed, they decided to close it down. I knew it was time to try my hand at something else, but I didn’t know exactly what I was going to do. I knew I wanted to go into the consulting business, but everyone who was leaving the government at that time had that idea and I figured everyone would starve to death at that point.

The Swan Valley Credit Union (SVCU) capped off last week with their annual Beef on a Bun fundraiser on Friday (July 8). Patrons could choose to drive through, walk up or sit down to enjoy their meal with a record setting 700 meals served - including 168 free meals to Prairie Mountain Health employees as thanks for their efforts toward our community’s health. Proceeds of $7,000 were split evenly between the Swan Valley Health Centre for a CT Scanner and the CMHA Enhanced Community Mobilization Program/Meet off Main.