Will Miner, left, accepted the Norris Aitken Memorial Award from Cam Bennet at the Dauphin Clippers football team’s awards banquet, Nov. 15.

Miner also won the Offensive Most Outstanding Player Award. Riley Lobert took home the Defensive Most Outstanding Player Award, as well as sharing the Playoff Most Outstanding Player Award with Sully Fox.

Owen Tyschinski also won two awards, taking home the Offensive Line Most Outstanding Player Award and the Wellbourne Most Dedicated Award.

Declan Waggoner won the Most Improved Player from Last Season Award, while Blake Thacker won the Most Improved Player In-Season Award.

Lars Gudbjartson was the Defensive Line Most Outstanding Player Award winner and Chayne Paziuk was this year’s Rookie of the Year.

The Best New Player in Grades 11 or 12 was Ahren Lautt. Gail Henton won the Ron Rockets Family Award.

The Coach’s Choice Award went to Alexander Tomkins and the Special Teams Most Outstanding Player Award went to Cody Zurba.

The Hunter Brothers brought the Burning Down the Barn tour to Dauphin, Nov. 18, much to the delight of a large and enthusiastic audience at Credit Union Place.

Sponsored by Dauphin’s Countryfest, the evening saw siblings J.J., Brock, Ty, Dusty and Luke Hunter fill their energetic and entertaining live show with all of the hits that made them the third most played group on country radio in Canada.

The evening kicked off with special guests Jake Vaadeland and The Sturgeon River Boys and their special blend of bluegrass and ‘50s rockabilly.

With Dauphin hosting the Manitoba High School Athletic Association AAA volleyball provincials at the end of the month, the Clippers senior girls and boys had a chance to earn their way into the tournament at the interzone tournaments, this past weekend.

The girls were in Brandon, where five teams were looking to book their trip to Dauphin for provincials.

The Clippers earned an automatic spot in the semifinals, where they bested the Virden Golden Bears, 25-19, 25-21 and 25-22.

In the final, Dauphin faced the host Neelin Spartans, falling in the best-of-five set match, 18-25, 25-19, 15-25 and 17-25.

The Clippers boys team was in Neepawa, looking to earn a berth to provincials.

Like the girls, they also began the tournament in the semifinals, where they beat the host Neepawa Tigers, 25-20, 25-19, 21-25 and 25-20.

Like the girls, the boys also faced Neelin in the final, losing 19-25, 20-25 and 15-25.

Provincials will be held at Credit Union Place, Nov. 30 to Dec. 2.

The Dauphin Kings played just one game last week, dropping a 5-3 decision to the Portage Terriers, at Credit Union Place, Friday.

Matthew Biros staked the visitors to a 1-0 lead after the first period and former King Slade Stanick increased it to 2-0 after 40 minutes.

Evan Lachimea, Parker Korman and Alyandro De Leon padded the lead to 5-0 by the 10:52 mark, before the Kings offence came alive to score three times in the final 10 minutes on goals from Logan Walker, Alex Senf and Aidan Brook.

Jayden Catellier earned the win with 36 saves. Cole Sheffield took the loss after stopping 28 shots.

The Kings have a busier week ahead of them this week, starting tonight when they are on the road to play the Waywayseecappo Wolverines at 7:30 p.m.

On Friday, Dauphin travels south to play the Steinbach Pistons in La Broquerie at 7:30 p.m., and they play the Niverville Nighthawks, Saturday at 7:30 p.m.

Council has passed a new bylaw to regulate and control animals in the urban and rural areas of the municipality.

The bylaw replaces legislation passed in 2015 and identifies and lists a number of restricted animals which are not permitted anywhere in the municipality.

Find out more in this week’s issue.

Private James “Jimmy” Moar was born in Crane River in 1915, and was one of fifteen children. He moved to Swan River after completing grade five, to work, and then back to Crane River.
In 1941, James and his brother, John, walked over 160 kilometers to Swan River to enlist in the Canadian Army. The brothers walked for a week, stopping at farms to work for food and sleeping outdoors along the way.
Once the brothers were enlisted, they joined the Royal Rifles and did their basic training out of Portage la Prairie. John was assigned to serve in England, where he trained and fought on Juno Beach in Normandy, France.

Tim Hortons will be making the holidays a little brighter by introducing their first ever Holiday Smile Cookie Campaign this month. The original Tim Hortons Smile Cookie Campaign has been running for over 25 years and raised over $111 million. The most recent Smile Cookie Campaign raised $19 million that went to over 600 local charities and community groups.
The Pas Tim Hortons franchise is gearing up for this fun and festive holiday treat campaign.
“This is the first time Tim Hortons is hosting a Holiday Smile Cookie Campaign,” said The Pas Tim Hortons Franchise Co-Owner Kathryn Sanderson.

The Pas Kinettes pride themselves on having fun while making The Pas a better place to live, work and play. Kinettes enjoy planning and participating in local fundraising, that often showcases their work skills and talents. It also gives them an opportunity to network with like-minded people.
“We do have executive members and anyone can fill an executive position,” said The Pas Kinette Member Kristal Gluska. “The first Wednesday of every month is our general meeting, where we have supper together. The following week, we host the executive meeting.”

The Brick Ltd. started its story as The Brick Warehouse LP in Edmonton, Alta., in 1971, eventually growing into the national retailer of furniture, mattresses, appliances and home electronics that it is today.
With a reputation for having large retail spaces in urban centres, Lance Jacobson didn’t expect that it was even an option to open up a Brick franchise in Swan River, which has had its footprint and iconic Vermillion Red logo in Swan River for 10 years now.
Jacobson was the manager of the Sears store that existed in the same location at 619 Main Street East, before it abruptly closed amongst the company-wide shuttering of retail locations across the country in the last decade leading up to the company’s bankruptcy.
“With Sears, of course it was a whole different business that focused more on catalog sales,” he said. “We had a mix of major appliances, some beds and some lawn and garden. It really was limited to what we could have and sell inside that store.”
When the local Sears store closed, Jacobson asked around amongst his Sears colleagues and he discovered that the manager in Humboldt had opened up a Brick franchise instead.
“I called up my friend in Humboldt and he said that if we don’t have a Sears anymore, that I’d be interested in this,” said Jacobson.
“It’s completely night and day as far as operations go. In the Sears stores, you didn’t own them and were more of a dealer. You didn’t have much flexibility or opportunity to grow. Here (at The Brick), you own it and it opened up a lot of different avenues for us to explore and to grow.
“When we went through the process of applying for a franchise, back in those days it was a little simpler than it is today,” Jacobson continued. “We were very lucky and we had a chance to meet with the Senior Vice President. He came here twice to Swan River: once when he assessed the building and who we were, and then he came for the grand opening as well.”
The Brick operates both corporate-owned and franchised locations. The Brick in Swan River represents one of about 20 franchise locations out of the more than 200 retail stores that The Brick operates across Canada.
Jacobson sees owning a Brick franchise as a natural progression in his career.
“Before managing the Sears dealer store with Neil Scales for almost 13 years, I worked at the Co-op furniture department for 13 years,” he said.
“Those early days working at the Co-op were the learning days – learning about the business, product and customers. Then the Sears days were about learning a management role and building a customer base. And, now owning The Brick is about being franchise owners.
“Of course, we’re not just franchise owners,” Jacobson continued. “We do the accounting, sell merchandise and take care of the customer from start to finish. We even do most of the deliveries.”
Jacobson added that he enjoys doing many of those jobs from start to finish because he is invested in making sure the customer experience goes the way it should, or can make things right when something doesn’t go the way it should.
“In smaller towns, we focus more on customer service because everybody knows you,” said Jacobson, who is a business owner with even more local visibility due to his role as an elected figure in Swan River. “If people have issues, you deal with them the best that you possibly can.”
The furniture and home furnishings industry has also gone through some major changes, not just in the time since Jacobson started selling furniture at the Swan Valley Consumers Co-op in 1988, but also even just in the last few years.
“When I started, everything was pretty much manual as far as inventory systems and POS and payment,” he said. “Eventually, Internet was a big part of everyone’s life and way to communicate.
“In time, Internet expanded, companies had websites and then had the option to buy online and so much more. This definitely has had the largest impact of consumer shopping and spending today.”
In Jacobson’s early retail days, cheque and cash was the norm, whereas today, most transactions are done through debit, credit or even e-transfer. And, through using the in-store Flexiti credit card, so many purchases can be financed now as well.
“Now, we pretty much can’t do business without Internet, including POS and inventory control,” he said.
“But no matter how one will shop, online or in person in our store, we continue to make our personal connection and the experience the best it can be.”
One other thing that has changed in just the last few years is where product is manufactured. Jacobson said that much of the industry had shifted towards imported products from overseas versus the domestic manufacturing the way it used to be more than 30 years ago.
Then the COVID-19 pandemic exposed how vulnerable the supply chain is with the shutdown of foreign manufacturing and logistics, which made companies realize that a shift towards more domestic products might be a good move, which also resulted in more expensive price tags as cost of inputs and labour went up.
While Jacobson said he’s not the kind of guy to often toot his own horn, he did share some praise and positive comments that he has received during the last 10 years a Brick franchisee.
“In the first few years, we had people in Flin Flon who would stop our truck and ask if there was a Brick store in Swan River,” said Jacobson, adding that people were very excited to stop by.
Jacobson has also received compliments and praise from other people from The Brick family in other locations.
“Overall, I appreciate the customers that support us,” said Jacobson. “We have a lot of different partners that we’ve grown a lot of different relationships with and we appreciate every single one of them. And, we also value the employees that we have.”
Jacobson has run The Brick with his wife, Coralie, for the entire 10 years, and one of his employees, Ashley Eggie, has also worked alongside the two of them for the entire 10 years, as well as the other valued employees and friendly faces that people interact with at The Brick, whether it’s people on the sales floor or people helping deliver purchases.
“I appreciate all the people that support us and I welcome those that have not yet walked in our door,” Jacobson concluded. “We will treat you as good as we possibly can with the best prices that we can.”

Darker nights and clearer skies in this season allows for nature’s late-night light shows to present themselves. On Sunday night (Nov. 12), a show of aurora borealis – or northern lights – danced in the sky as seen on Hwy. 10 north of Cowan...