COLUMN: Village News – A summer gathering place

Summer is a wonderful time to connect with friends and family and it’s a great time to plan an organized trip to Mennonite Heritage Village. Public and private schools book field trips to the museum in spring and in fall, while daycares often book an outing to the museum in July and August. Homeschool families also join with other families to plan educational outings as a group. Our education department welcomes all these groups and schools through a booking process, preparing a program and schedule, to facilitate a day of experiential learning and discovery.

But, what about the rest of us who are not connected to a school or daycare but would like to plan a group outing? Mennonite Heritage Village has an adult tour coordinator to assist you with these plans. We gladly plan a “day at the museum” for groups of all sizes, including a guided tour of the museum’s heritage buildings and monuments. As well, we coordinate with the Livery Barn Restaurant to serve a traditional Russian Mennonite meal, including perogies and farmer sausage, cabbage borscht with stoneground whole wheat bread, and fresh rhubarb plautz with coffee or tea. If there is time, guests are welcome to visit the indoor galleries and browse in the general store and the Village Books and Gifts store for a favourite book or souvenir.

If this sounds like an interesting day to you, encourage your group to connect with our tour coordinator. If your church care group is looking for a way to enjoy a beautiful Manitoba summer day together, our museum tour of the outdoor heritage village and a delicious homestyle meal at the Livery Barn Restaurant will encourage good conversations and create lasting memories. If your senior living community is planning an outing, we would be happy to organize your visit to MHV. If your extended family is coming to town for a family celebration or event and you want to offer an activity for all ages, MHV would be honoured to be included in your time of reconnecting with relatives.

Mennonite Heritage Village tells the story of the early Mennonite settlers to southern Manitoba. We have thousands of artifacts that recount the life and daily activities of previous generations. We have restored heritage buildings that depict the development of new communities on the Manitoba prairies. And our park-like grounds provide a peaceful setting for reflection and good conversations with friends, family, and neighbours.

1946 – 2026 Watching Steinbach Grow – Bible college student from India changing the face of Main Street

A young man, who came from India to study at Steinbach Bible College in 1973, has spent the next five decades becoming very much a household name as one of the real movers and shakers in residential, commercial and industrial development in the Steinbach area.

Solomon Budala and his wife Joanna celebrated their 50th anniversary in January of 2026 and their close-knit family joined them at the dinner table after church as usual. Budala was a Bible college student when he met his wife, Joanna, who was attending high school at the Steinbach school and they were married in 1976.

Looking back at his successes over the years, Budala recalls a less than auspicious introduction to the retail world of Steinbach, when he began working for Joe Penner at Penner Electric. He recalls he did everything from stocking shelves with electrical items to filling in as a part-time sales clerk in the furniture department.

Jack Kehler, who went on to become Steinbach’s city manager, was Solomon’s boss, as Joe Penner was holidaying in California at the time. One day, when the rest of the staff had gone out for lunch and he was alone in the store, Budala sold $6,000 worth of furniture. It was at that point he was made a full-time sales person.

Carillon Sports Second Shots: May 28th Edition

Featuring an SRSS rugby match, SRSS spring football games and the Zone 13 softball championships.

1946 – 2026 Watching Steinbach Grow: Budala buys downtown mall

JULY 2, 2015—The former Extra Foods location in downtown Steinbach will become home to a different business come this fall, but it won’t be a new grocery store, which has often been touted since the grocery store closed its doors in February, 2013.

After 30 years in business – 25 years at its current location alone – Solomon’s Furniture is making a big move.

The time has come for a change, but he is going to miss his current location across the street from The Carillon, Solomon Budala says.

Over the years, the business has expanded to acquire much of the nearby property.

RM of Stuartburn hosts province, donors for tour of Sundown Ridge, Caliento project area

The RM of Stuartburn hosted government officials and donors to tour the future locations of the Sundown Ridge and Caliento Bog projects.

“We had a tour last week (May 14). We had ministers out. We had the Co-operative out,” said Reeve Michelle Gawronsky. “They were able to see all the area. We were out in the Sundown area with everybody, including the engineer and his company.”

Minister of Environment and Climate Change Mike Moyes, Minister of Transportation and Infrastructure Lisa Naylor and representatives from EcoWest, the Nature Conservancy of Canada, Co-operators Insurance, and Strategic Engineering looked at the locations for the two water projects and overall drainage in the RM.

“They’re very impressed that (drainage and the Sundown Ridge project) are being looked at as an RM as a whole, not just piecemeal. They’re impressed (with) the grant funding that we got without having to just put a handout to government to say, ’Hey, either give us the money or you fix it,’” said Gawronsky.

Doctors Manitoba supports social media ban for children, teachers oppose the measure

Doctors Manitoba announced on Tuesday that it is in support of the provincial government’s move to ban social media for children 16 and under, saying it’s more important than issues such as substance use and inadequate nutrition.

“Physicians are looking at social media and excess screen time similar to smoking, substance use, and alcohol (in regards to children who are already addicted). The fact that these restrictions need to be put in place is kind of the first step (with legislation) and then the next steps are trying to deal with what’s happening (afterwards),” said Doctors Manitoba president Dr. Alon Altman during an online news conference.

In April, Premier Wab Kinew announced banning social media and AI chat for children 16 and under, the first province to do so in Canada. The government has yet to draft legislation, but Kinew did tell media at the time that fines could be in the billions for social media companies that fail to block children from using their platforms.

Manitoba is not the first government to ban social media and chat platforms for children. Australia was the first country to implement such a ban and in the three months since it launched, Australians have seen mixed results.

Classic cars and a good cause

Over 70 volunteers came together in Woodridge on May 24 to host the fifth annual Car Show on the Ridge.

The event, moved to Sunday because of Saturday’s rain, attracted 150 entries ranging from classic vehicles to projects, motorcycles, tractors and more.

Organizers say the event, which raises funds for the Woodridge Community Club and the Woodridge Fire Department, begins coming together in January.

They described it as a profitable community event, though the final tally was not available as of press time.

1946 – 2026 Watching Steinbach Grow – Downtown mall sold to Westfair Foods

OCTOBER 13, 1997—After 33 years of working overtime in the grocery business, Wally Penner will be taking some extra time off, a few days before his youngest daughter gets married.

The wedding just happens to be planned for the week Westfair Foods will take over as new owners of Economy Supermarket and Shoppers Plaza, Oct. 23.

Penner, who came to Steinbach from Winkler as a meat cutter at age 18, said he has no immediate plans for his retirement. He and his wife, Sylvia, will be staying in Steinbach where they have raised their family, the community they have called home for the past 33 years.

The store, which now occupies 18,000 square feet of a 32,000 sq. ft. mall, has gone through many changes over the years, Penner said.

DSFM schools duke it out for Zone 13 softball championship

Throughout the Zone 13 Softball championships, Collège Régional Gabrielle-Roy and École Saint-Joachim schools had a competitive advantage. They were able to shout instructions to their players in French to keep their cards close to their chest.

That wasn’t the case in the final, as St Joachim defeated Gab-Roy 10-6 to claim the Zone 13 softball championships. Four Division scolaire franco-manitobaine schools were represented in the final, with Les Roys teaming up to field a co-op team with Pointe-des-Chênes and the Braves playing alongside Réal-Bérard.

“It’s the first time in probably 20 years two DSFM teams were in the finals in Zone 13,” St Joachim head coach Pat Tetreault said after the game.

“Hats off to their team, and I’m proud of my bunch for stepping up. Two little schools competing against some pretty big schools and we’re not done.”

LGBTQ+ survey the first of its kind in the province looks at state of queer community

Two recently released surveys found the majority of polled Manitobans are largely supportive of the LGBTQ+ community, but findings show there is still more to do to bring about inclusion and acceptance.

Rainbow Resource Centre’s landmark, The State of LGBTQ+ Communities in Manitoba, surveys are the first of their kind in the province to look at how queer people experience community, safety, inclusion, and allyship.

Wanting to see how many queer and queer-adjacent (people who are very close to someone who is part of the queer community) people there are in the province, Rainbow polled Manitobans and found the population to be sitting at about 250,000, yet only about 5,000 were being serviced by Rainbow annually.

“We thought, ‘Wow, where’s the rest of them? What is it that we need to offer to ensure that the queer community is thriving and not just surviving?’ And so that kind of got us thinking about how do we ask that question and all of the other questions we want to know about. So, the seed of this survey was to really figure out what do queer folks need to thrive instead of just survive,” said Rainbow executive director Noreen Mian.