Carillon Sports Second Shots: May 1/7 edition

Featuring photos from the Niverville Nighthawks and Steinbach Pistons spring camp, games inside the Southeast Event Centre and High School Baseball games in Mitchell May 1.

Ripple Effect benefits education abroad

The South Eastman Rotary Club has long known the difference they’re making through The Ripple Effect, a program that involves building or renewing school infrastructure, providing furniture, supplies, computers and playgrounds for primary grades in Guatemala.

With the local donation of $5,000 annually, the club has been involved in four schools.

But a tour in November 2024 gave Rotary Club members Leonard Klassen and George Penner assurance that every penny is well spent.

The pair joined other Rotary delegates on tours of many of the schools, including three of the four the local club helped build.

La Bikequerie pedals into cycling season

It was sunny cycling weather for La Bikequerie’s season opening barbeque May 3 at its public shop on the east edge of Steinbach on Highway 52.

The kickoff was a chance to get the bikes out of storage and get free a tune-up and tutorial from a volunteer so cyclists can make their own minor repairs ahead of the first family bike jam group ride on May 18.

“We usually meet at the Jake Epp Library and go for an hour or two,” explained La Bikequerie founder and director Wade Wiebe.

There will be a family bike jam coordinated with Strong Towns Steinbach for anyone to join every third Sunday of the month. This is the third year the group rides are running.

Longtime Hanover CAO fired

RM of Hanover longtime CAO Luc Lahaie has been fired from his position with the municipality.

“We let him go. Council had lost confidence in the CAO and that (led to) us (deciding) to let him go and we will be searching for another CAO going forward,” said Reeve Jim Funk, noting it was a unanimous decision by council.

Lahaie had been the CAO in Hanover for 13 years.

“I don’t want to go into particulars at this point. Luc is a very knowledgeable CAO and we wish him the absolute best going forward,” said Funk.

MJHL teams tweak spring camp structures

The junior hockey landscape has changed massively this season.

If the elimination of the Manitoba Junior Hockey League draft or rule changes related to NCAA college eligibility aren’t convincing on their own, fans only need to look at how the local teams are running their spring camps to see a difference.

Both the Steinbach Pistons and Niverville Nighthawks held their camps in the past two weeks, with both teams general managers tweaking how they run the annual event.

For Niverville general manager Mike McAulay, just crafting the 144-player camp roster was different for the Nighthawks this season.

Taché CAO on leave

The RM of Tache is without its CAO as construction is set to start this week on its new arena and community centre in Lorette, and the annual budget is presented to the public May 13.

Mayor Armand Poirier said top administrator Ken Allen is on medical leave. Medical information is private, and the mayor said he did not know why Allen left or when he might be back on the job.

Assistant CAO Jeanette Laramee has taken over Allen’s responsibilities, which include being in charge of all RM staff. Laramee has experience filling in, as she was temporarily in charge after former CAO Christine Hutlet left at the end of 2023 to become CAO for Beausejour.

Allen was hired in December 2023, attending his first council meeting on Feb. 13, 2024. Allen said then that he moved to the municipality about three years ago while still working as communications officer for the City of Winnipeg public works department.

Steinbach Regional DB to play at high-profile prospects event

Juddah Wohlgemuth will get a chance to impress on one of the biggest stages a Canadian football prospect can play in.

The Steinbach Regional Secondary School defensive back was named to the CanadaFootballChat.com’s fifth annual prospect game.

TSN analysts Davis Sanchez and Milt Stegall are set to return as coaches for the event, which is broadcast on the network. The game is moving from Ottawa to Hamilton this season.

To be selected, players were invited to one of eight “professional combine settings,” with events like the 40-yard dash, shuttle, vertical and broad jump.

Dreamtime Theatre returns with a twist

The Southeast’s only real time storytelling event is returning after a successful debut in December.

Dreamtime Theatre’s ability to relay a story in a compelling manner to audiences proved successful last year with an audience who came to hear the tale of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. Now, in the theatre’s new season of tales, narrator Scot Moir is returning, but his tales will have a twist in that the audience will decide what stories he will tell with the help of a map of Europe and a dart.

“Wherever they stick their dart then we’re going to try to tell a story from that part of the world. It’s going to be a real work out for the imagination for me and for the audience also. Hopefully, that generates something really exciting that we’re all sort of together, we’re part of the big imagining together,” said Moir.

“I’m fairly confident that I can get most places. There’s a couple that I’m hoping that the darts won’t go and if they do go we’ll have to see what we can pull out from the deep recesses. There’s a pretty good library stashed away just over years of hearing things and working on memorizing them. I think it will be really exciting to see.”

Green Valley School teachers win Excellence in Teaching Award

Three Green Valley School teachers have been awarded the Excellence in Education Award for Outstanding Team Collaboration for their work in looping.

Grade 5 and 6 teachers Katelyn Hart, Kelly Mikkelson, and Rachel Novak received their award during a ceremony at the legislature in late April.

“We’re very honoured and humbled for sure. We truly feel like we’re just doing our job and enjoying what we do and it was really humbling to be recognized and to be nominated by our principal and vice-principal – Angela Burtnack-Schinkel and Dean Hardern – had nominated us and it’s really humbling that they value our work and see what we’re doing day in and day out,” said Hart, who has been a teacher for eight years.

The three collaborated on how best to meet the needs of their students, how to support the looping model, and how to support their lives at home with their children and to help each other to make home life more manageable.

Steinbach celebrates legacy at arts gala

The legacy of 45 years of the SAC (Steinbach Arts Council) was celebrated at Bentwood Hall on May 2, highlighting local support and asking for more support for future endeavors.

Local businesses had a hand in much of the evening with even the dinner having a local connection. The meal was prepared by SAC culinary instructor Cassandra Kornelsen.

Executive Director David Klassen explained that although SAC has existed for 45 years thanks to the pioneering efforts of Norma Barkman and those that followed, his first exposure was closer to three decades ago.

“I walked through the doors and was immediately inspired, challenged to work hard, to collaborate, to push my limits, to strive for something greater,” he said.