Sharing circles are very powerful healing tools that can help provide support and allow people to express how they feel about something, in a safe and healthy manner. By expressing and sharing lived experiences and challenges, participants in a sharing circle often find the hope and strength they need to continue on.
A sharing circle has been established for parents who have children with exceptional needs and are looking for a safe place to get support.
“The Northern Learning & Support Centre (NLSC) hosts a Sharing Circle for parents and caregivers, whose children are in K-12 schools and are neurodiverse, have mental health needs, and or exhibit challenging behaviours,” said NLSC Resource Facilitator Tania Catalano. “The Sharing Circle is a safe place for parents and caregivers to share their experiences, trials, and successes regarding their journey with their kids.

When we think of Christmas, most people think about the joy of seeing a child’s face light up when they receive a present under the tree. Sadly, not every child has a present waiting under the tree for them on Christmas Day and The Pas Friendship Centre has had their annual Toy Drive in effect for almost a month now, collecting donations of new toys and money to help make sure every child has something for Christmas.
“Our annual Toy Drive has been collecting donations of new toys since the middle of November and the deadline to donate a new toy is December 15,” said The Pas Friendship Centre Executive Director Doug Bartlett. “We will be giving the toys to children between December 18 to 22.

Not very often that a community in the Valley becomes part of a book series or setting for a novel, but Minitonas has become the centre of a new book series written by Sandra V. Konechny.
Konechny was a former resident of the Valley, who has since moved away but has reconnected with her time living here, through her new book series.
“My family moved to Swan River when I was six years old, to help my grandmother with her farm responsibilities as a widow and to overcome her acute grief,” said Konechny.
“We lived at 530 River Park Drive, where I claim to have had the best childhood ever, with a triangular playground park in front of the house and the river behind to play in as part of my backyard. I went to Taylor School and Duncan School back then.”
Konechny considered herself to be a little girl with a vast imagination, one that led her to be interested in writing.
“I had a penchant for dialogue when I was small playing with paper dolls, which I played with for hours, giving my dolls lines to say to each other,” said Konechny. “Similarly, when playing games like house, I’d give all my playmates their lines to say as we acted out a spontaneous story.
“My first attempt at writing a book came in Grade 5 when the teacher assigned the class to write a short story. My story morphed into a book with several chapters. I still remember it was about a gang of thieves who were using an abandoned house on my grandmother’s farm as their hideout. I recall the teacher being very encouraging. I wish that scribbler had been saved, but it was thrown out at the end of the school year along with all other used school supplies.
“I’ve been an avid reader all my life, and also enjoyed words all my life,” said Konechny. “My first writings were short stories, which occurred during my 20s to 40s. Often, they reflected a spiritual theme and I had invitations to read or recite them at special occasions such as a Christmas banquet or other event. In those days, I was also raising a family of two boys and two girls with my husband. Those were busy days, and if and when I wrote something, it was to get rid of the bee in my bonnet.”
Konechny soon embarked on the journey of writing her first book as an adult after being inspired by her faith and the Bible.
“We moved as a family to Dalmeny, Sask. on July 1, 1999, and I got involved in a Saskatoon-wide BSF class,” said Konechny. “I noticed during the years Old Testament books were studied that God asked very profound questions of people. I would tell my friends that if I ever wrote a book, it would be about the questions God asks in the Bible because they are fascinating.
“One day in Spring 2006, a friend came to me and said she’d found a book writing contest on the Internet. She wanted me to write that book and submit it to the contest. I thought about it for a moment and then agreed to. I didn’t win the contest, but I did make the shortlist and in 2007, my first book, When God Asks You, was published.
This sparked a level of excitement in writing for Konechny, however, it took a backburner to life and other hobbies. She found herself looking for a new challenge and was drawn back into the world of writing.
“I was pumped to continue writing after that, but the busyness of life and my interest in crafting quilts intercepted,” said Konechny. “About 2017, I was tired of everything I had put my hand to thus far, and I mean everything. I wanted to do something completely new. I ruled out things like woodworking, motor vehicle mechanics, bungee jumping, and sky diving and eventually challenged myself to write a novel.
“It took me around a year. I submitted it to another contest. This time I did not make the shortlist, but the judge gave me very encouraging feedback. I didn’t pursue going forward with it then, but kept writing.
“I hadn’t resolved all the mysteries I had set up in book one, so kept writing until they were, which resulted in three volumes, hence a series,” said Konechny. “I was going to end the story as a trilogy and write out an epilogue, as to the general futures of the most prominent characters.
“That’s when I realized I had inadvertently set the groundwork for another story that would bring a pair of minor characters into the spotlight, so now I’m on the home stretch with Book 4 of The Minitonas Diaries. It’s been the most fun to write so far.
“I’ve also written a children’s novel,” said Konechny. “It is an upcoming project with my publisher and my talented son-in-law has drawn an illustration for each of the twelve chapters. Its working title is An Improbable Adventure at Grandma’s House. So far, I’ve written six books and might write some more.”
The inspiration for the series The Minitonas Diaries was a combination of Konechny’s memories and a cliffhanger ending from an old movie.
“I didn’t start out planning to write a series,” said Konechny. “I had one main idea, the telling of it stretched into three volumes, now four and perhaps more. My project manager with the publisher suggested I come up with a series name too, not merely titles for each book. Eventually, I thought of The Minitonas Diaries as the title to link the volumes together.
“As for the story, it had to happen somewhere. In the summer of 2017, I had talked my husband into making a visit to Swan River and Minitonas, so I could satisfy my craving for a little nostalgia down memory lane. As we drove around the streets and country roads, reviewing the places where my family and relatives lived, I thought of the novel I was planning to write and decided this could be the setting. I was well enough acquainted with the lay of the land from personal memory as well as current-day realism to make it work.
“When I was approximately ten years old, I watched a black and white movie where a particular image stuck in my memory,” said Konechny. “A man had returned to his home roots, which was now the scene of derelict buildings, to make a new start with his life. The memory often returned to me and I would wonder what his new start would look like. Rock Bottom is the story that came to my mind and heart for a guy who had come home after a long break to make a fresh start in his life.
“Other than that, story fodder comes from my lifetime experiences, people and places I have known, things I’ve read about or have been shared with me.”
Just like any other endeavour, there are parts that are enjoyable and others that are challenging. Writing a book posed both for Konechny.
“I enjoyed writing the funny parts,” said Konechny. “When I know for sure what happens in the scene, it’s fairly easy to write it out. I strive, with each book, I write to evoke the reader to laugh, cry and be provoked to personal reflection over the issues that get raised.
“Some of the readers of Rock Bottom have already reached out to me with their feedback. They tell me how much the story has resonated with them and their own personal histories. This makes me feel fulfilled as a writer.
“I find that writing a novel isn’t terribly hard, if I know the starting point and the end point,” said Konechny. “However, I don’t always know what the middle steps are, that’s when I stop trying to force the issue. Instead, I stop, hang over a jigsaw puzzle, and listen to what my characters are saying or trying to say. Eventually, insight comes and I can carry on.
“Another challenge is getting the words exactly right so they accurately evoke and convey the intended emotions or message.”
If you missed Konechny’s book signing last weekend, you can get your copy of The Minitonas Diaries Book 1 Rock Bottom in bookstores and online.
“It can be ordered from any bookstore such as McNally Robinson, Indigo, Chapters, including any Christian bookstores, as well as Amazon,” said Konechny. “It is also available as an e-book. Word Alive Press, has an online bookstore where it can be ordered directly from the publisher.”
Konechny is working on the next book in The Minitonas Diaries series as well as possibly some other books.
“I’m still working on Book 4 titled No Turning Back, and barring unforeseen circumstances, should be completed by the end of December,” said Konechny. “I guesstimate its turn for publishing will be in early 2025. Currently, Book 2 titled And Then There’s Life, is in the editing process and will likely be available as of Spring 2024.
“After that, Book 3 with the working title Love and Life are Winding Trails,” said Konechny.
“Will there be a Book 5? Perhaps. I have an idea of which characters could take center stage, but so far, I don’t know what the drama in their lives would be.
“My grandkids are begging me to tell another Improbable Adventure story about them,” said Konechny. “As soon as I can figure out what kind of problem they could solve, I’ll get right on that.”

While Santa was busy with other engagements, Mrs. Claus paid a visit to the NorthWest Regional Library in Swan River on Saturday (Dec. 9). Along with refreshments, visitors could get their photo taken with the Mrs., participate in a colouring contest, write their letters to Santa and sing some carols.

The Dauphin Kings are showing signs of coming out of their slump, but they are not getting the results.

The Kings lost two of three games, last week, including a pair of home ice losses to the division-leading Virden Oil Capitals.

Virden scored a 2-1 win, Dec. 5, and a 4-3 triumph, Sunday.

In between was a 4-1 Kings victory over the Winnipeg Blues, Saturday.

In their last 11 games, Dauphin has a 3-7-1-0 record and have scored just 24 times in that span, while allowing 32 goals against.

With a 16-9-1-0 overall record, the Kings now sit in third place, one point behind the OCN Blizzard and they now trail Virden by nine points. Dauphin has two games in hand on both teams.

Kings head coach and general manager Doug Hedley, who is serving a 10-game suspension for a gross misconduct assessed in a 5-1 loss to Steinbach, Nov. 24, said the Kings have gone through a stretch where the work ethic wasn’t good.

“And prior to that, we were winning games, but finding ways to win. We got away from our what our strengths were and doing little things well. It finally caught up to us in certain games where we lost one-goal games,” he said. “We got away from being patient. We got away from playing on the right side of pucks and managing pucks. Basically, right now, we’re finding ways to give games away instead of finding ways to win.”

Sunday was an example of that.

After Virden built a 3-0 first-period lead, the Kings slowly chipped away and tied it in the second.

But the Oil Capitals took advantage of some sloppy play on the first shift of the third period and scored what proved to be the winning goal.

“It starts from goaltending out. You have to have goaltending. You have to have guys buying in and getting into shooting lanes and making smart plays and reading off teammates,” Hedley said. “The last two weeks there’s been some individual play rather than team play. We’ve just got to figure it out and get better.”

Among the positives the team can take from Sunday’s loss is the comeback from that early 3-0 deficit.

“There’s a lot of little things we can get better at. We know we’ve got a good hockey club. It’s just a matter of staying on course and thinking about the process it’s going to take,” Hedley said. “The league is getting better and we’ve got to get better.”

The Kings have relied on balanced scoring all season, with Jordan Bax, Logan Walker and Blake Boudreau leading the way.

But they got offensive contributions from Gavin Nemis and Madden Murray on Sunday, and Rylan Gibbs and Alex Senf on Saturday.

“We knew coming in that the back end was going to run (things) and help us win games. But right now we’re at a point where the forwards have to start contributing regularly,” Hedley said. “We have done a lot of experimenting, moving guys in and out and different line combinations. And the last few games, we’ve been creating opportunities. For a while there we weren’t.”

The great start the Kings had at the beginning of the season, Hedley said, allows the team to go through some adversity.

“But we’ve got to find our way here, soon,” he added.

The Kings have two games left before the Christmas break.

They are in Selkirk, Friday, before visiting the Flyers in Winkler on Sunday.

Both games will be tough.

“Selkirk is playing really well. They’re beating some good teams lately. And they always play us tough at home,” Hedley said. “We’ve got to get hungry on the road. It’s the Christmas break, guys have other things on their mind. But at the same time, it sure would be a good way to finish with two road wins.”

Don Tarrant of Reit-Syd Equipment draws the $100,000 winner of the Dauphin Kings annual tractor lotto, Sunday.

Normand Gagner of Winnipeg was this year’s grand prize winner, while Chastity Ek won $10,000 and Tim Lendvoy and Alice Prestayko each won $5,000.

Bob Mazer and Kevin Boyachuk each took home $2,500 and winning $1,000 each were Derek Yanke, Paul Pachkowski, Doug Westhouse, Stephen Durston, Debby Gusnoski, David Fulham, Mark Dewar, Libby Moroz, Bob Mazer and Nick Chudobiak.

Roger Lungal, Paul Van Dekerckhove and Phil Fafard each won a lawn tractor, while Lee Stirling of Grandview won the 50/50 prize of $30,940.

Dauphin city councillors are back from the fall Association of Manitoba Municipalities convention in Brandon and, as always, the event was well worth the hotel bill, mayor David Bosiak said.

In particular, the Cities Caucus meeting gave Bosiak some perspective on how stable things are in Dauphin compared to some municipalities, which are struggling to fund proper infrastructure and services resulting from rapid growth and skyrocketing costs.

As an example, Bosiak pointed to Winkler, where a new sewage treatment facility is critical and comes with a price tag of $51 million. Or Steinbach, he said, where a new community centre and arena is being developed at a cost exceeding $71 million.

“That’s 10 times what we paid for our rec complex,” he said. “If we had to replace Credit Union Place, are you kidding me? We’d never be able to do it.”

The lesson is that Dauphin’s problems and concerns are all relative and the community can handle them.

“I have to give past councils and administration credit for building up our reserves so that now we are debenturing two big projects - the sewage lagoon and the South Main drainage, but we have an ability to do so because we have no debt and we have reserves,” Bosiak said. “We can talk about comparatives all over the place, but we’re in relatively decent shape.”

The convention also provided an opportunity for councillors to meet with officials from the provincial level and have a productive meeting RCMP D Division commanders.

“They indicated to us that we are one of the only municipalities that talked to them that didn’t complain to them about needing more police,” Bosiak said. “We’d love to have some more, like a full compliment, but we understand, as a community, that the challenges we face aren’t going to be solved just by policing. The RCMP said what we’re doing in the community has been very positive and they’re glad to be working with us. And glad that we indicated that we’d love them to be a full compliment, but we didn’t point our finger at them and blame them for it.”

That meeting meshed well with a meeting involving deputy minister from Manitoba Housing, Mental Health and Addictions about an internally-driven Manitoba Housing project under way in Dauphin, which is looking at provided a higher level of tiered support services for those needing them, at Parkview Lodge.

“That was a positive meeting,” Bosiak said. “We’re very hopeful that there’ll be some support from the Province for the proposal that’s been presented to Manitoba Housing.”

A meeting was also held with Sport, Culture and Heritage minister Glen Simard about potential provincial support for next year’s Manitoba Summer Games.

When taken as whole, Bosiak said the convention was a worthwhile endeavour.

“We had very positive meetings with all of the ministers and offices that we were engaged with, had good conversations with other communities and basically, in a very subtle way, compared ourselves to everyone else,” he said. “And you know, putting it all on the table, the strength of our council, the capacity of our administration, the fact that our taxes are reasonable . . . generally speaking, really we’re in pretty good shape.”

In an effort to not get caught without an umbrella, the City of Dauphin is approaching the Public Utilities Board about a possible increase in its water and sewer rates.

Mayor David Bosiak said the city has been receiving hints from provincial agencies such as the Manitoba Water Services Board.

“And there was a presentation at the last AMM convention again saying don’t get behind. If you ever get behind, you’ll never catch up in the sense that if your rates don’t match your operational costs and provide some funding for the future, just to make sure that your reserve has funds so that when you have to fix pipes or anything else, you have the ability to do so,” Bosiak said.

The City, Bosiak added, has been reluctant to ask for an increase because it is still experiencing a 30 per cent loss of treated water somewhere within its system.

“Because they’ll likely say ‘well you have a 30 per cent water loss still in your system. Fix that, or address that and then we’ll talk about potential rate increase’,” he said.

While the City does not have the problem of some southern municipalities, which are experiencing explosive growth, its issues stem from aging infrastructure.

“We’ve been working to reduce the amount of water loss in the system. Now as you can imagine, half the town has got nearly 100-year-old pipes,” Bosiak said, adding while the underground system is aging the rest of the water distribution organization is extremely efficient. “The guys at the water treatment plant, they do it very well and it’s modern, but our problem is our distribution system.”

It is kind of a Catch 22 situation, Bosiak said, as senior administration is promoting the need to spend money to improve the system, but the costs of doing so are exceeding the City’s ability to pay for the improvements.

“All that income and expense has to be in the water utility side, not on the general revenue side,” Bosiak said, adding he appreciates the efforts of senior administration in providing a heads up for council. “So these are just sort of warning shots, saying it takes time to have a rate increase approved. There’s usually conditions applied to it and then those funds need to match your operations. So all we’re doing is being prepared.”

In its application, the City is seeking an 11.7 per cent increase in 2024, 4.2 per cent in 2025 and 2.3 per cent in 2026.

Also waiting in the wings is the long-awaited expansion of the City’s lagoon system, the cost of which is expected to increase significantly from its original $10 million to $12 million as a result of inflationary pressures.

“So again we will be debenturing to pay for that, but we also have to have enough revenue in our water utility reserve to make sure that other stuff doesn’t kick us in the teeth,” Bosiak said, adding in conversations with other municipalities he is hearing some are struggling to make ends meet.

“What we’re trying to do is to be in front of it. Our rates are generally middle of the pack or maybe to the lower end in terms of municipalities of our size and other jurisdictions. So we believe this is sort of a somewhat modest increase.”

Russell’s “Take a Year Off’ lottery committee drew its winning tickets recently and a local woman won the top prize of $1,000 a week for a year.

The grand prize of $52,000 went to Cathy Yellowaga with Jennifer Zimmer of Russell winning $27,720 on the 50/50 draw.

Check out the other winners in this issue.

With the Christmas season vastly approaching, now is a good time to think of those who may not have someone to spend the holidays with. The Pas Community Renewal Corporation’s (TPCRC) Be a Santa to a Senior Program is now collecting donations for the program.
“Be a Santa to a Senior is a program that works with community partners to provide a holiday gift to Seniors in our community who are isolated, often homebound, and possibly alone during the holiday season,” said TPCRC Community Engagement Coordinator Holly LaJambe. “Our hope is to let them know someone is thinking of them and cares.
“This program has been a holiday tradition for TPCRC since 2016, so this is our eighth year hosting it, and we look forward to it each and every year.”