Carillon Sports Second Shots: March 19th edition

Featuring game three of the Price Division finals in the Winnipeg High School Hockey League between Lorette and West Kildonan March 12, Springfield vs Mitchell in the HTJHL semi-finals, action from the Canadian College Athletic Association women's championship in Niverville March 11 and 14 and a CRJHL quarterfinal game between St Malo and La Broquerie March 13.La Broquerie and St Malo are battling in the CRJHL semi-finals. (Cassidy Dankochik The Carillon)

Support for Minneapolis shown in Melt the ICE fundraiser

A small group gathered on Sunday to raise funds and honour the victims of ICE in Minneapolis.

OPEN: Organization for Peace, Justice and Non-Violence partnered with Creative Uncommons: Artist Cooperative to put on the event which raised funds for the Immigrant Defense Network and SupportMinnesota.com.

T. Sheppard Luangkhot, director of OPEN said the event which featured music, speeches and art, went well.

“It was just great to see people come together and share stories of Minnesota as well as stories of how we’re trying to support as Canadians, as Manitobans,” they said. “We know what it’s like to try to help each other in a small community.”

SRSS Sabres Bueckert, Froese, named to Free Press top 10

A pair of Steinbach Regional players were recognized by a Winnipeg Free Press coaches poll as two of the province’s top high school hockey players.

Forward Jager Bueckert and defenseman Peyton Froese were placed seventh and ninth on the top 10 list, published March 13th just after the start of the AAAA hockey provincial championships.

“(Bueckert) emerged as a top talent with great speed, puck control and a deadly shot,” his profile reads.

“A tough, high-skilled, two-way forward, he is smart, consistent and well-rounded on both ends of the ice.”

Providence lays off staff, cuts programming due to international student drop

Providence University College and Theological Seminary will be laying off 10 percent of its workforce and slashing programming, citing falling international student permit numbers.

Kenton Anderson, president of the Otterburne-based college, said the 2026-2027 budget will be the first time the full financial impact from the federal government’s international student policies will be felt. The college has lost more than 90 percent of its international students and saw a nearly 50 percent drop in annual revenue, falling from $26 million to $13 million.

“The effect is now hitting us. Even though these (federal) announcements started to come down two years ago, it took two years for us to actually experience the full impact, which is now where we’re at,” he told The Carillon.

Staff and faculty are among the cut jobs, with other employees having their workloads and hours reduced, Anderson said. The college’s communications and media program was discontinued, and its Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) initiative was placed on hiatus as administration “tightens the belt.”

Gault signs pro deal with ECHL team in South Carolina

Oakbank’s Caiden Gault kicked off his professional career this week, signing with the Greenville Swamp Rabbits of the ECHL.

Gault played three seasons at Ferris State University before transferring to Northern Michigan for his final year of NCAA hockey, where he served as assistant captain and compiled a career high in goals.

The Swamp Rabbits serve as the affiliate for the American Hockey League’s Ontario Reign and NHL’s Los Angeles Kings.

Gault played his U15 AAA hockey in the Eastman Selects system before moving to Rink Hockey Academy. He played a single full season with the Selkirk Steelers before moving to the Alberta Junior Hockey League, scoring 73 points in 58 games in the 2021/2022 season.

1946 – 2026 Watching Steinbach grow: Nothing was ever halfway for Carload Frank Reimer

People who used to drive their horses and buggies around the little village of Giroux paid little attention to one little barefooted boy who used to tote groceries around for the general store there.

Peter B. Reimer, after all had seven boys, all just as barefooted as Frank and all busy carrying groceries, feeding chickens, carrying water or hauling wood. Barefooted boys like Frank Reimer were as common as wagon-wheels those days and few youngsters wore shoes in the summer time, except to church on Sunday.

Had people realized that young Frank would be a millionaire 40 years later, perhaps they would have paid more attention to the way he carried those groceries.

By 1959, “Carload Frank” Reimer no longer went unnoticed. Government people in Ottawa and leaders of industry in both Eastern and Western Canada listened respectfully to his opinions across the conference-room table.

Providence makes history in final year of American basketball play

The Providence Pilots made sure to exit American basketball play in style.

The program’s women’s team earned their first-ever berth to the National Christian Colleges Athletic Association division two national championships, getting selected as an at large wildcard after getting defeated in the North Region semi-finals.

The Pilots will only be playing a Canadian regular season schedule next season, leaving the Northern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference and NCCAA. The addition of Red River to the basketball ranks in the MCAC means the Pilots can compete for Canadian College championships.

In their final year of American play they not only earned their first NCCAA championship berth but also picked up a victory, defeating Manhattan Christian College 81-58 in a placement game. Head coach Kendall Perpall was named the NCCAA’s coach of the year for the North Region.

COLUMN: Village News – The Russlaender migration

Mennonite Heritage Village Auxiliary is hosting a film night on March 26 at 7 p.m., showing the new film, The Russlaender Migration: From Revolution to Reflection. This is a documentary about the 1920’s migration of Mennonites who left the Soviet Union to come to Canada. Several years ago, Mennonite Historical Society of Canada created a cross-Canada train tour to commemorate this event in various Canadian provinces. This film uses the train tour and the accompanying events in each province to tell the story of the thousands of Mennonites who had experienced the First World War, the Russian Revolution and Civil War, and a state of anarchy, before moving to Canada to start a new life.

I have a personal connection to this story, since both sets of my grandparents came from the Soviet Union in the 1920’s to settle in Canada. As a child, I heard stories at family gatherings, of life before the Russian Revolution, as experienced by my relatives. I also heard stories of starting a new life in Canada, including the hardships of starting over in a new country. As a young person, the stories held a sense of adventure, but later on, I began to wonder about the difficult experiences that my grandparents held inside and did not talk about: the family members who died by violence, or those who were taken away, never to be seen or heard from again.

This film is not only for people with direct family connections to the Russlaender story. In our growing and diverse community, we all know someone in our neighbourhood, in our church, or at our workplace who has been uprooted from an established life in another country. They have had to start over in Canada. Remembering the 1920s experience of the Russlaender Mennonites will help us to understand our neighbours and friends who are creating a new home in our community. Although newcomers are assisted by communities and individuals, starting over continues to have many challenges.

Please join us on Thursday, March 26, to watch this relevant and interesting film. Admission is free but donations are gratefully accepted. The MHV Auxiliary will serve fresh coffee and dainties, so enjoy an evening of listening, learning and conversations.

enVision celebrates 70 years of working in the community

For 70 years, enVision Community Living has been building connections in the Southeast by serving individuals with intellectual disabilities.

“It’s quite an achievement for the organization. I think it’s exciting…But I think that’s the nice thing about anniversaries, it gives you that chance to reflect and be proud of the things that have been achieved,” said executive director Jeannette DeLong, noting the responsiveness of the organization to what was needed by the people it serves was something that stands out in her mind as she looked back on the history of enVision.

The non-profit started as a small group of families who felt that their children should be allowed to enter the public school system, something that wasn’t allowed for people with intellectual disabilities in 1956, and for the next 10 years, the organization functioned as a school.

In 1973, the first residence was established in Steinbach, Kindale Manor. The young adults who lived there were either returning to the community from an institution or were leaving their parents’ home.

Lakeland Rustlers crowned national champions in Niverville

The 2026 Canadian College Athletic Association women’s national volleyball championships came down to one key set.

Alberta’s Lakeland Rustlers, locked 1-1 with the Lynx d’Édouard-Montpetit, trailed in the third set of the final 20-13, but managed to battle back to win 28-26, carrying the momentum into the fourth for a championship win over their Quebec-based opponents.

Lakeland head coach Austin Dyer said that third set was the turning point of his team’s whole championship run.

“If we control the ball, we’re really hard to stop,” Dyer said after the final March 15, noting the Rustlers roster had the experience to weather any pressure the Lynx could put on them.