Carillon Sports Second Shots: Oct. 15th edition

Featuring SRSS hockey at the Morris tournament, SRSS volleyball matches Oct. 7, the Zone 13 soccer championships Oct. 8, an SRSS football game Oct. 9.

Steinbach appoints task force to help senior citizens stay in city

Mayor Earl Funk announced a task force will be established to help aging senior citizens, who need long-term medical care and want to stay in Steinbach rather than going to far away communities, during a city council meeting on Oct.6.

Funk said he will be appointing Abe Bergen, Carolyn Peters, Audrey Harder, and Tannis Nickel to the board.

“I think we have picked a real winning team,” Funk said. Each one of them has worked in healthcare or with seniors and has done a great job.”

Coun. Susan Penner, who will be the task force chair, said the task force will understand the duration, the frequency and where the residents are being transferred out of the community, and its impact.

COLUMN: Village News – Setting things right: Mennonite bonesetters and community healing

For generations, Mennonite communities relied on local healers known as trajcht’moakes, a Low German term meaning “those who set things right.” Long before doctors and hospitals were readily available in rural Manitoba, these bonesetters provided essential health care for families facing injuries, accidents, and illness. They treated broken bones, dislocations, strained muscles, and painful joints, often traveling great distances to reach those in need. Their knowledge and skills were learned through observation, experience, and years of practical work, with skills often passed from one generation to the next.

In isolated farming communities, bonesetters occupied a place of deep respect and trust. A successful treatment could restore a farmer’s ability to work, help a child walk again, or bring relief to someone suffering chronic pain. Their reputation spread from neighbour to neighbour, and patients often returned repeatedly because of the confidence they placed in these healers’ hands.

One of the most remarkable of these community healers was Gertrude Klassen (1892–1986), widely known as Tante Trutje or Klosis Trutje. Although respected as a chiropractor and bonesetter, her legacy extends far beyond physical healing. Klassen devoted her life to caring for vulnerable children, combining practical medical skills with extraordinary compassion. Over a span of more than forty years, she welcomed fifty-three children into her home. Some were newborns, others were seriously ill, and many came from difficult family circumstances.

Her first long-term patient was a nephew disabled by polio. Through dedicated care and treatment, she helped restore his mobility. As the years passed, her home became a refuge where children found stability, care, and opportunity. For many families, Gertrude Klassen provided not only healing hands but also a loving home when they needed it most.

1946 – 2026 Watching Steinbach Grow: STEINBACH’S CHURCHES; A CENTENNIAL SERIES – Church of God in Christ Steinbach

MARCH 13, 1974—The Church of God in Christ was Steinbach’s second church. It is also sometimes known as the Holderman church, after its founder, John Holderman.

The church came about as a result of a series of meetings conducted by Holderman in the fall of 1881 and the renewal which followed. Records state that one-third of the Kleine gemeinde members were involved in the formation of this new group.

The village schoolhouse, in which the EMC was worshipping, became the home of the new group, meeting on alternate Sundays.

The first church building of the Church of God in Christ was built in 1911 and was situated on Main Street North.

Hanover Teachers’ Association sends out candidate questionnaire, wants people to vote

The Hanover Teachers’ Association sent out a questionnaire to trustee candidates a couple of weeks ago to gauge their views on issues that are important to teachers.

“Our goal in doing this is to try and best educate our own teaching members, who are voting members,…we wanted to give them the opportunity to take a look at how trustees or candidates would be responding, if they were going to be a trustee, to things that were more focused on education, instead of some of the rhetoric that’s out there on social media,” said association president Kevin Martens.

In regards to social media, Martens was asked about current trustee Brad Unger’s questionnaire to candidates asking them about their personal beliefs and values with their responses then posted on Facebook for voters to read. The questions revolved around issues of gender identity and sex, which flags should be raised in the classroom, race, the role of teachers, and how students should be treated.

“I think it’s unfortunate that there would be questionnaires like that that would circulate. It doesn’t speak directly to what their role under (the) Public Schools Act would be in governing a school and the role that they would play in being, really, educational partners,” said Martens.

COLUMN: Carillon Flashback May 31, 1995 – Artist adds name to mural at St Pierre-Jolys school

As parents and students cheered, Real Berard picked up a paint brush to put the finishing touches to a huge wall mural at the school, which bears his name in St Pierre-Jolys.

Politicians praised the community’s efforts to further French education for their children, students presented skits, and the school choir and band performed, as the well-known Manitoba artist joined dignitaries for the official opening of Ecole Communautaire Real Berard.

The new elementary school at St Pierre-Jolys presented its new name, a new motto, and a new coat-of-arms and colours during outdoor ceremonies under sunny skies, the last week in May, to mark the first year of Manitoba’s French school division, Division Scolaire Franco-Manitobaine.

MLA Frank Pitura, representing Education Minister Linda McIntosh, said he was pleased to participate in the ceremony marking the beginning of a new period in French language education in St Pierre-Jolys.

1946 – 2026 Watching Steinbach Grow: STEINBACH CHURCHES: A CENTENNIAL SERIES – Mennonite Brethren Church

APRIL 2, 1974—The Mennonite Brethren Church was organized in Russia in 1860. The life of the Steinbach congregation goes back to about the year 1923, after a new wave of immigration from Russia had taken place after the First World War.

Mennonite Brethren, when they first came to Steinbach, worshipped with the Evangelical Mennonite Brethren. But it was only a matter of time until they organized their own church.

The organizational meeting on Jan. 3, 1927 was attended by 38 brethren and seven sisters. The first leader was Mr. Gerhard Unruh. Another of the early noted ministers was Jacob W. Reimer, also remembered as a Bible teacher.

The first Mennonite Brethren church stood on the site where Grace Church now stands. The present church was built in 1947, remodelled in 1957 and an extensive education annex was added in 1970. It is located at the corner of Second Street and Lumber Ave.

Junior Sultans Lagasse, Meilleur, pick up Baseball Manitoba awards

The accolades continue to pour into the Carillon Sultans junior program.

The team’s star player and coach were recognized by Baseball Manitoba for their outstanding seasons, with Cedric Lagasse and Don Meilleur picking up junior player of the year and volunteer of the year awards. The team was also named the high performance team of the year.

The Sultans won their third consecutive Manitoba Junior Baseball League championship this season and placed second at the 22U national championships in Windsor.

Lagasse moved his record in MJBL finals to a perfect 6-0 in games as a starting pitcher, and was named by the league as the top pitcher and regular season most valuable player and playoff most valuble player.

1946 – 2026 Watching Steinbach Grow: Everyone is always welcome at Steinbach’s many churches

A century and a half of growth and prosperity has been built on a foundation of faith by 18 families of settlers, who came to Steinbach in 1874 in search of a home where they could live in peace and enjoy freedom to practice their Mennonite religion.

The diversity of the many churches built in the community since then is reflected in the growth of Steinbach in the areas of commerce, industry and education as well. As the number of churches grew, so did a diverse population where religious holidays were important days on the family calendar.

The first congregation to conduct church services formally, dated back to 1874, when the families of the Kleine Gemeinde (little church), today known as the Evangelical Mennonite Church, came to Manitoba from Ukraine. The establishment of the Church of God in Christ (Mennonite) and other Evangelical Mennonite churches followed shortly.

By 1946, when Steinbach changed from being a village in the RM of Hanover to a town on its own, there were seven congregations, all of Mennonite denomination.

1946 -2026 Watching Steinbach Grow: STEINBACH’S CHURCHES: A CENTENNIAL SERIES – Emmanuel Evangelical Free Church

APRIL 24, 1974—The Emmanuel Evangelical Free Church in Steinbach had its beginning in 1943, with some 70 members. Since its inception it has more popularly been known as The Emmanuel Mission, which was also the original name of the church.

This church is also well known for its extensive yearly mission conference and its giving for the cause of missions worldwide.

They are now occupying their second building. Their first house of worship was the church later occupied by the Grace Mennonite Church on First Street, to which they did some extensive remodelling in later years.

They affiliated with the Evangelical Free Church of America in the early 1950’s and changed their name to what it is at present.

1946 – 2026 Watching Steinbach Grow: STEINBACH’S CHURCHES: A CENTENNIAL SERIES – The Evangelical Mennonite Church

MARCH 6, 1974—This year marks the centennial of the founding of the Village of Steinbach. It also marks the 100th year of Steinbach’s first Mennonite church, the Evangelical Mennonite Church (EMC), now on Main Street.

All 18 families who originally settled here belonged to this one church, then known as Kleine gemeinde (Small church).

The names of these original families are all still household words: Friesen, Fast, Warkentin, Brandt, Barkman, Goossen, Toews, Reimer, Giesbrecht, Wiebe, and Kroeker.

There was no imposing structure as today and the first services were conducted in homes and even in barns. The village schoolhouse, built in 1880, doubled as the first church.

Mark Peters runs for HSD trustee, values transparency, traditional family values

Steinbach resident Mark Peters is running for Hanover school trustee with the goal of creating transparency of the board; rebuilding trust between teachers, parents and the board; and promoting traditional family values.

Peters, who is running for Ward 3 Steinbach, was raised in Kleefeld and now lives in Steinbach. He has been working as a mechanical engineering technician for New Flyer Industries for 10 years. He has three children, one of whom goes to school in Hanover and the other two are homeschooled due to ADHD and behavioural issues.

He ran for school trustee in the last election and has decided to run again because he feels that there isn’t enough support in schools for children like his who have ADHD and behavioural issues.

“It’s, I think, things that have been with the division for a while. And that’s not to say that the people who have been working for the division aren’t trying. That’s just to say that there are rather opportunities for improvement. It’s very unlikely that we’ll ever be in a situation where nothing can be better. So, I saw some things that I thought that I had ideas that might work to address and the best way to do that is to put my hat in the ring, as I did four years ago,” he said.

1946 – 2026 Watching Steinbach Grow: EMC fire tests new waterworks system

MARCH 1, 1960—On Monday afternoon, a Steinbach landmark, the old South End Evangelical Mennonite Church, went up in flames. The building had served its congregation for more than 40 years and the loss, in itself, was not a tragic one.

The attention of the entire town and community consequently was not so much centered on the flaming building as it was on the new $130,000 church edifice still not completed, standing only a few feet from the blazing inferno.

It was by this dramatic illustration that Steinbach citizens were given to realize another value of their recently installed waterworks system. It was the first major fire in town since the waterworks system was installed in 1956, and the result of the church fire left no doubt that the water system was living up to expectations.

The Steinbach fire brigade, good as it is, would have been helpless to save the new church building had it not been for the endless amount of water available.

Steinbach rejects rezoning proposal as residents voice concerns

Steinbach City Council unanimously rejected a proposal to rezone 330 McKenzie Ave. from residential low density (RLD) to residential medium density (RMD), which prevented a 20-unit residential building from being built, on Oct. 6.

Councillors said the proposal was not the right fit for the neighbourhood because of its design, the neighbourhood’s single-family character, and the site not being in a transitional zone.

The proposed property is bordered by the Emmanuel Evangelical Free Church on the east and south, and a residence on the west. The city received 62 objections to the proposal. Many residents attended the public hearing, and 12 spoke up against the proposal.

Resident Ariana Neufeld, who is a direct neighbour, said the city should plan for such development in the areas already rezoned as RMD instead of old and well-established neighbourhoods.