Action Movie Mad Libs makes its mark on Fringe

In what is billed as a hilarious action comedy starring Dufresne born and raised brothers Alex and Tim Coates as well as childhood friend Sara Guindon, Action Movie Mad Libs promises to be a great deal of fun for the audience.

That’s because they play a role in shaping the story that will unfold at the Kings Head Pub in Winnipeg over 10 shows from July 16 to 27 as part of the Winnipeg Fringe Theatre Festival.

Alex Coates explained that every show will begin by collecting answers from the crowd to various prompts that will be inserted into the show in real time.

Different visits will also have different experiences because their theatre group, called Sensible Chuckle Theatre, has prepared a trio of endings.

Junior Sultans ready for semis after first round bye

Editor's note: This story was written to be published in the July 17 edition of The Carillon

The Carillon Sultans didn’t know who their opponents will be in the league semi-finals, but the Manitoba Junior Baseball League’s pennant-winners are ready to defend last year’s championship.

The Sultans earned the top spot in the standings and a first-round playoff bye in less than dramatic fashion last week. Needing a win on the final day of the regular season to clinch top spot, the Interlake Blue Jays didn’t bring enough players to field a team July 9, forfeiting the final game of the regular season and giving the Sultans the one win they needed to finish ahead of the Elmwood Giants in the standings.

“We had to win, and we expected to win that game anyway,” manager Rick Penner said.

More than a marathon a day for mental health

Diane Wing is running across Manitoba for mental health awareness and for her late husband Kelly.

She will be running 50 kilometres every day for 10 days from July 9 to 18.

Wing began running in 2014 after the loss of her husband Kelly in 2012, who died by suicide.

“It was out of the blue,” said Wing.

Carillon Sports Second Shots

Featuring photos from a Hanover Soccer Club Division 3 Manitoba Major Soccer League match July 2, a Division 2 match July 3, Winnipeg Jets development camp July 4 and the Old Tom Backyard Ultramarathon July 5.

Russlander story comes to Fringe Festival

The story of the Russlanders has been told in Mennonite circles and towns for a 100 years. It’s the story of a people who left oppression in Ukraine to find a better life in Canada. Now, for the first time, the story of the Russlanders is being told at the Winnipeg Fringe Festival.

“My grandma and grandpa settled in Grunthal and they worked so very hard to make a great life for their children and my mom did the same. She raised five really successful kids and the play is her coming to terms with the trauma of the immigration,” said writer and director Monica Reis.

Wherever You May Be centers around Hildie as she recounts to her children when at the age of six her family joined the last migration of the Ukrainian Mennonites to Canada. Known as Russlanders, between 1923 and 1930 more than 24,000 Mennonites fled the Soviet Union having survived years of war, violence, hardship, and trauma.

“The Mennonites who lived in the Ukraine were forced off their land and sent to a displaced person’s camp in Germany until they were eventually accepted into Canada or Paraguay,” said Reis. “Long story short, my mom’s family was one of two in the displaced persons camp that was accepted into Canada and the rest went to Paraguay…We were lucky to make it to Canada.”

Beauchemin heading to Thunder Bay university

Brody Beauchemin will be continuing his hockey career at the USports level.

The Ile des Chenes forward announced his commitment to Lakehead University in Thunder Bay recently. Beauchemin had a sparkling junior A career, suiting up for the Winkler Flyers for 200 games over four seasons.

Beauchemin had been weighing plenty of different Canadian university landing spots throughout the season, but ended up settling on Lakehead.

“I know a couple guys on the team, it’s close-ish to home, only seven-and-a-half hours away, it seems like a great program,” Beauchemin said when asked why he picked Lakehead.

Public transit gets thumbs up in survey

The idea of public transit received plenty of local support in a survey hosted by the South East Equity Coalition at a booth at Summer in the City.

Val Hiebert, author of the survey and results and member of the Public Transit Working Group, said they wanted to give people a chance to express their views.

Over 1,250 people did just that, filling out a two-question survey with 99 percent in support of public transit.

While a 2023 survey targeted to people who use human services in Steinbach demonstrated a clear need, Hiebert said this one was different.

COLUMN: Village News – Did you know?

Most of us focus our attention on our daily routines and on the people who are close to us, our neighbours, our friends and our family. It’s not uncommon to be familiar with places in our city, knowing where they are located, but not ever stopping to visit. Until I joined the staff at Mennonite Heritage Village (MHV), the museum was a place like that for me. I had visited the museum with my parents as a child. I had been there once or twice as a young adult during Pioneer Days. But mainly, I drove by on the highway hundreds and possibly thousands of times over the decades, without any idea of the sites on the grounds or the activities occurring throughout the various seasons. What was I missing?

Did you know that several dedicated volunteers maintain our working windmill with regular maintenance and cleaning of the many moving gears, shafts and sails? This allows it to continue to function as a flour mill. During event days, the sails are engaged, and the entire windmill becomes a very big machine, harnessing power from the wind and making it possible to use the grindstones on the second level, to turn wheat into flour. Several times a year, this flour is sifted and bagged for use in our famous stoneground whole wheat bread recipe at the Livery Barn Restaurant. It is also packaged for sale in our gift shop.

Did you know that the General Store on our village Main Street is an actual, operating store open seven days a week from May 1 to Sept. 30? The store carries local artisan handmade items for sale and is staffed by the same artisans on a rotating basis. You can stop by any day during museum hours to shop and speak with the artisan on site that day. No admission is required. Step back in time to the early 1900’s as you hear the creak of the wooden floor, shop for that special handmade gift, and imagine your great grandparents making their monthly trip to town to pick up supplies for their home.

Did you know that the Steinbach and Area Garden Club looks after the museum orchard and gardens? Each spring they prepare the soil and plant traditional vegetables like our grandparents did. We have three garden plots dedicated to growing rhubarb for the tasty plautz dessert in the Livery Barn Restaurant. And many of the vegetables find their way into our restaurant-made soup recipes. When you eat at the restaurant with family and friends, you are enjoying home grown goodness.

Lorette prospect Laliberte nabs NHL invite

Lorette’s Avery Laliberte continues to level up his stock as a hockey player.

From Mantioba Junior Hockey League standout with the Niverville Nighthawks, to NCAA commit, to USHL draft pick and now NHL prospect, the star defenseman has had a strong year on the ice.

Laliberte was invited to the Winnipeg Jets development camp as a free agent, competing against high profile future professionals like Brayden Yager and first round pick Sascha Boumedienne.

“My advisor thought there was a chance, and when (Jets director of player development) Jimmy (Roy) called me I was pretty ecstatic,” Laliberte said following the final practice of the camp July 4.

COLUMN: Before and after the Mess

For three glorious seconds after I open my eyes, I am soft, malleable clay. I am blissfully tender. I am living in “The Before”.

I feel confident that my mom, Lori, is at home wearing her trademark plaid shirt, hunched over her computer finishing a story that was due the night before. She’s sipping coffee that’s gone cold, and later today she’s going to fill my messages with photos without context. A selfie with a llama. A squinty-eyed smile next to the mayor. An old picture she uncovered during a late-night scroll featuring a lost loved one wrapped in her arms.

For three seconds life feels simple. Everyone I love is within reach. I am fearless because I am clothed in the armour she made for me. If I fall, I know that her net stretches far and wide beneath my feet.

I begin making a list in my head of the groceries I need to buy, the dishes I need to wash, and the mess I need to tidy, because the responsibilities of an ordinary life are the worst of my sorrows.

COLUMN: Tales from the Gravel Ridge – The boundless significance of nature

A brochure, perhaps better described as a booklet, entitled “Nature Writing Festival” caught my attention not long ago. The details inside the brochure were all in German, beginning with the heading Die Natur und Wir (Nature and Us). As details regarding the festival indicate, the topic is very broad. The back cover of the booklet enumerates four related sub-topics, namely, writing about wind, water, woods, and wilderness, concluding with the words Saetze wie Sand, namely the concept that sentences on the subject are as plentiful as sand. That being the case, the organizers nevertheless must have concluded that there was always more that could be said about nature and our place in it.

While I had no expectation of attending the festival being held in Hamburg, Germany, I nevertheless continue to be intrigued by the wide range of subjects that were covered during the five-day event in June, 2025. How could that range of subjects on writing about nature possibly fail to remind me of the wonders of nature I saw and experienced during the years our family lived in Rosengard.

The mention of the wind being one of the broad topics for the festival, brought to my mind the poem by Christina Rossetti, Who Has Seen the Wind? The poet makes the observation that the trembling of the leaves is an indication of the wind passing through. She then goes on to say that the trees bow down their heads when the wind is passing by. Perhaps, by her choice of words, the poet is reverently acknowledging that all nature reflects the glory of God. The woodland on our farm had plenty of trees, and without a doubt the trembling of the leaves added to the sense of calmness and beauty that surrounded us. Sometimes it was those well-rooted trees that kept the wind at bay on stormy winter nights, and on hot, sunny summer days the same trees provided shelter for all those creatures that also made their homes in that wonderful woodland of my childhood.

Water, another theme of that writing festival, had its place in our community. We had a creek flowing through some Rosengard farms, although not through our property. However, we had a well, and during much of the year it was adequate for our needs. In winter that became a little more challenging, but fortunately the Wiens farm across the ridge from our place had an adequate supply. We were able, if we were short of water, to get some from their well. I have vivid memories of that long-handled pump. In the alternative, of course, if we had significant amounts of snowfall, the youngsters of our family would simply bring the snow indoors, to fill a large round boiler placed on top of our wood-burning kitchen stove. This was important for at least two reasons, one of which was to ensure an adequate supply of water for laundry purposes. The other significant factor was the simple reality that such water was wonderfully soft, making for a good water source on laundry day. It was for that latter reason, that we also collected all the rainwater that came off the roof of our summer kitchen. Our well water was very hard, evidenced by the mineral accumulations in our water kettle. Rainwater provided an easy solution.