The Swan River Kinsmen Club brought back their ever-popular Lobsterfest after a two-year hiatus, with a sold-out crowd packing the hall of the Swan Valley Historical Museum on Saturday (June 11) enjoying a great surf ‘n’ turf meal, followed by the charity auction and live band.

The baseball field at Minitonas School was busy on Monday evening (June 6) as the children and families of Minitonas Minor Ball kept the bats swinging and the balls flying. Children aged four to nine were welcome, split into two age-appropriate sessions.

The SVRSS can celebrate one more silver medallist among their student body, as Grade 12 student Ben Riehl finished in second place in Electronics (Secondary), during the 24th annual Skills Manitoba Competition, which took place for the secondary school competition virtually on April 12, with results posted late last month.
“I had to reverse engineer a circuit, provided to us,” said Riehl. “You get a kit provided from Skills and you had to place it in this thing called a breadboard. Then, you have to assemble a circuit with all the components. I did an LED volume metre.”
After signing up for the competition, Skills Manitoba sent out all materials, a project list and description as well as a workbook with electronics theory questions for students to complete.
Riehl learned many of the skills required of the requested tasks from the electrical program at the SVRSS as well as his own hobbies and self-guided learning.
“I was expecting at minimum a bronze medal, but I’m quite surprised and pleased that I got silver,” Riehl added.
While Riehl was the only reported representation from the SVRSS this year, recent SVRSS graduate Hailey Burghart received gold in the Electrical Installation (Post-Secondary) category, representing Assiniboine Community College.

When community members see a need and work together, it’s amazing what can be accomplished.
About two years is what it took for the Baseball Legacy Committee (BLC) to put together a pitch for a new concession stand in Swan River Legion before they will be able to put it in to action.
“We’re hoping to have everything like a normal concession would have,” said BLC member Tracy Boychuk, noting usual favourites like hamburgers, hot dogs, french fries, taco in a bag, possibly some pulled pork sandwiches, slushies and more.
“It should be open for some of the first games we have down there. The interior is basically ready to go. We just have to buy a few odds and ends to be able to run it so people don’t have to bring down their roasters and all that anymore.”
Boychuk added that she expects that the regular baseball games may not have full menu service, depending on what volunteers can be lined up, but she does anticipate the full potential on event days like Canada Day (July 1) or National Indigenous Peoples Day (June 21), which is intended to be the day for the official grand opening of the new public facility.
The installation should be a great benefit for those that use the shared space.
“Before, we just had that side garage that was outfitted with a utility tub that drained into a bucket,” said Boychuk. “Now, we have a state of the art facility with stainless steel countertops, cabinetry, garden door fridge, convection oven, over the range microwave, slushie machine, and we’re moving the freezer from the old concession space so the Town can use that for their storage.”
From the time they broke ground at about this time last year, the main part of the project is complete. What remains is Phase 2, which consists of memorial benches for the area nearby the concession, in honour of Joel and Amara Campbell, a brother and sister from Minitonas who both passed away tragically and separately during their teen years in 2020.
“We’re going to be securing some quotes on stamped concrete so that once that is done, there is no maintenance required and it will look nice all season long,” said Boychuk. “Eggies’ Greenhouse have also donated some ornamental trees and shrubs that they are putting together for us.
“It will be really nice once this is done and people will be pleasantly surprised. And, this comes at basically zero expense to the taxpayer, funded and done by a volunteer group. It would be nice to do another project in the future.”
Proceeds from the sales during National Indigenous Peoples’ Day will go towards the finalization of the project, with any excess from sales or additional donations possibly going towards further improvements to the area, such as updated benches along Jack Brown Diamond.
All donors will also be displayed on a donor board to be installed in the near future.
“Hopefully the community will enjoy it and appreciate the time, energy and thought that went into it to make it as good for the community as we could,” Boychuk concluded.

The Swan River Fire Department attended to a fire at the Swan River Landfill on May 4 and 5, in which a pile of collected waste and a chip pile was ignited.

SVRSS Tigers teams got in some practice time this week, prior to Mother Nature dumping one last blizzard on the area and forcing the closure of schools and
some businesses on Thursday (April 14). Here, Samantha Melnechuk (right) can’t escape the tackle of Sammy Jo Moshenko. (INSET) The Boys’ Rugby team practices forming a
scrum.

A snow bison now greets travellers coming into Swan River from Hwy. No. 83, at least until spring arrives.

Local artist Derryl May was commissioned by the Town of Swan River council to produce

one of his creations out of the abundance of snow that has fallen this winter.

The choice of carving a bison was done to show pride in Manitoba.

Costs were covered by The Brick, of which the local franchise store is owned by Mayor Lance Jacobson.

The sculpture is available to view at the corner of Centennial Drive and First Street South.

The years have flown by for Cook Bros. Cartage Ltd., celebrating 75 years of business well into their 76th year. Owned and operated by Blair and Cameron Cook today, Cook Bros. Cartage Ltd. was started by their father Ralph and his brother Les in 1945, beginning the sand and gravel business with a hand shovel and a small truck.