There’s a new way for northern artisans to promote their work and sell it without the hassle of trying to create something on their own. Uptown Emporium 54 is a sub-organization of the Flin Flon Arts Council that offers an online platform and a storefront in Flin Flon, that showcases handcrafted items by northern artisans.
“We first opened up our shop in December of 2020,” said Uptown Emporium 54 Project Manager Sophia Charuk. “It has started because our 40th annual Arts and Crafts Sale, which is usually put on by the Flin Flon Arts Council in November, had to undergo some changes because of the pandemic. With the public health restrictions in place, there was no way it could be set up for artisans to sell their arts and crafts in a traditional way.

The grade nine art class this semester created some wonderful marionette puppets using wire, paper and paste. The project, used old newspapers from the Opasquia Times, and showed the creativity of the students.
“It was wonderful to see the students collaborating, to develop thematic ideas and help each other,” Visual Arts Specialist Pegi McGillivray commented on the student’s work.
The students not only created the marionettes, but also work to create displays for them. The work was completed prior to the June band concert held at MBCI.
“Students created backdrops in the theme of their puppets, Thank you to my students for showing so much enthusiasm and dedication,’ McGillivray commented, adding, “I had a great time working with you. Happy summer and see you in September.”

On one of the first fabulous weather days in June, the Christ Church held a Teddy Bears Picnic. The picnic welcomed teddy bears, as well as a variety of other stuffies, and their owners of all ages to joing them in games, face painting, food as well a visit from The Pas Animal Shelter puppies. Also on-site was The Pas Community Choir and Andrew Legeny and Kathy McKay, playing fiddle music.
While kids and adults alike played games and enjoyed each others company, Teddy Bears needed medical assistance for rips, tears, missing eyes or just a simple band aid on a boo boo, where welcomed at the picnic’s First Aid Station.

The Major Pratt School graduation class of 2022

Activities in the area included pancake breakfasts in Minitonas and Benito, baseball and slo-pitch, live music, a car show, a picnic-in-the-park at Swan River Legion Park, fireworks and plenty more fun for all.

The Swan Valley celebrated Canada Day on Friday (July 1), marking Canada`s 155th anniversary of Confederation.

Tyler Carefoot will return behind the bench of the Manitoba U18 AAA Hockey League’s Parkland Rangers next season.

Carefoot guided the Rangers to an 18-17-2-3 record, good for fifth place in the league last season. The Rangers advanced to the semifinals after winning their first playoff series since the 2005-06 season.

Carefoot met with the team’s board of directors at the end of the season and during the discussion he expressed his feeling that he owed it to the program to continue coaching.

Having coached several Rangers players in minor hockey, Carefoot felt he had some unfinished business with them.

“I want to help them continue to develop. I’m excited for next season and beyond,” he said.

Get the full story in this week's Dauphin Herald!

Cole DeLaMare won four awards at the Dauphin Clippers hockey team’s awards banquet, June 27.

DeLaMare took home the Top Scorer Award, Top Defenceman Award and the Playoff MVP and MVP awards.

Other awards winners included Jake Kuzmiak as Most Improved Player, Landon Brown for the Player’s Choice, Oliver Dandeneau for the Top Defensive Player, William Miner for the Clipper Commitment Award, Bradyn Paskaruk, who won the Coach’s Choice Award, Liam Chartrand for Rookie of the Year, Austyn Roos as Hardest Working Player, Owen Chubka as Top Goaltender and Logan Chapman for Top Forward.

Thanks to the generosity of local supporters, 42 students were recognized with over 100 scholarships totaling over $90,000 at the DRCSS graduation last week.

Winners included Katherine Kowalchuk, she took home the Dauphin Herald's Scholarship!

Check out page seven and eight in this week's Dauphin Herald for all the winners. 

Organizers of the Dauphin Agricultural Society’s (DAS) Fair and Exhibition could not have asked for a better return after a two-year hiatus caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

DAS president Teren Stykalo said it was a fantastic weekend with a lot of people hitting the fair grounds to check out everything the fair had to offer.

“We just finished up our demo derby. We had a great success with that. The fireworks on Friday night were amazing. The midway has been great to work with. The people walking through there have been unbelievable. The kids zone in Credit Union Place, home living, everything has been littered with people. It’s great to see it back in the community,” he said.

DAS could not be happier with the crowds that attended the three-day event. The midway was packed full of people on Friday with lineups 20 deep or more. Stykalo hopes that bodes well for future fairs.

“We hope that continues in the next fairs. But we can’t thank everybody in the community enough for making this one of the most successful fairs we’ve had yet,” he said. “I talked to the midway owners on Friday night and they said it’s been a long time coming since they’ve seen lines like that at their rides. So everybody involved was pretty happy.”

One tradition that did not take place this year, one that organizers and patrons alike are thankful for, is rain. It seems like it usually rains at least one of the three days of the fair every year, but that wasn’t the case this year, which played a large part of the fair’s success.

“We were joking around the other night and we were saying that no president in history has probably had a three-day non-rain event. So this might go down in history as one of the best ones we’ve had yet. So I couldn’t be happier for it to come in my time as president,” Stykalo said.

Organizers will look at hosting more events at the grandstand in the future.

“Those facilities are amazing. The amount of people that they always draw in is fantastic and we need to try and utilize those. So we’re looking at doing a couple more shows there potentially and bring some different entertainment in, as well to just kind of make it an all-around great weekend once again,” Stykalo said.

The success of the fair’s return would not be possible without the support of the many sponsors and volunteers who stepped up as they always do every year.

“Without those people, we would not be able to have any of this. Once again, thank you to all of our sponsors and all of our volunteers,” he said. “The amount of volunteers that we had come forward has been just unbelievable. We can’t thank them enough. We just hope everybody is able to come back and support us again next year.”

Stykalo also wishes to thank the local media for their coverage and support of this year’s fair.