The Dauphin Agricultural Society (DAS) visited its own history in presenting the annual Ron Brook Memorial Award at its Farm Outlook 2024, Mar 14. For 40 years DAS has been presenting continuing education opportunities for producers, first through the Challenges of Production seminar and in recent years, through the Farm Outlook programming.

To mark that milestone this year’s award was presented to the organizing committee of the first seminar.  That first committee consisted of DAS members Rod Fisher, George Richardson, Bev Prestayko, Brian Damsgaard and Reg Tarrant, who worked in conjunction with Lyle McNichol and Peter Kiez from Manitoba Agriculture and with the help of the local Bank of Nova Scotia branch. In presenting the award, Farm Outlook co-chair Jim Kaleta said in the early days Dauphin hosted one of the very few farm seminars in the province and the program took place over two days, drawing hundreds of producers from the Parkland and beyond to learn from a full slate of agricultural industry professionals. Banquets were regularly standing room only and always offered important keynote speakers - in one instance the federal Minister of Agriculture Eugene Whelan.

The Ron Brook Memorial Award was established in 1990 to honour the long-time DAS director who died during a fair in the late 1980s. It is presented annually to a deserving individual or organization which provides notable contributions to DAS and the agriculture industry. As an added bonus this year, on behalf of award recipients, DAS will offer a one-time only $2,000 scholarship to a student entering a post-secondary agriculture related program.

Pictured above are Reg Tarrant, George Richardson, DAS president Teren Stykalo, Rod Fisher, Farm Outlook co-chair Jim Kaleta and Brian Damsgaard.

Ratepayers living within the boundaries of Mountain View School Division (MVSD) are preparing for an increase in the education portion of their property taxes.

At the division’s 2024-25 public budget forum, Mar. 7, secretary-treasurer Lori Slepicka indicated the mill rate for the special levy will rise to 13.87 in the coming school year, an increase of one mill from the previous year.

Read all about it in this week’s Review.

The weather turned out to be nearly perfect – everyone got plenty of Vitamin D – for the San Clara/Boggy Creek Métis Local’s annual Langan Lake fishing derby held March 9.

The event drew about 150 anglers

Find out who won the top prize in this week’s issue.

Members of the Roblin Skating Club took to the ice at the Centennial Arena Sunday, March 10 to present their season-ending showcase “Under The Sea”.

The show featured a guest performance by Blades Unlimited, a regional synchro team.

Check out some action shots in this week’s Review.

Prairie Mountain Health is taking additional steps to encourage community members to protect their kidneys.

March is kidney awareness month, and PMH encourages everyone to learn more about protecting their ‘beans.’

Check out this week’s issue for some timely information

Last week the world celebrated International Women’s Day on March 8, which is a time to celebrate, acknowledge and showcase the remarkable contributions, efforts and achievements of women. Two women in the tri-community are stepping up to a higher level of community service by being a part of The Pas Fire Department (TPFD).
Brooklyn Mayer is the newest female recruit to join TPFD and has found her place as one of the members.
“What first made me join, was seeing the advertisements for a calling to TPFD in the local newspaper,” said Brooklyn Mayer. “I joined last year in 2023.
“Since I started, there was only one other woman in the department.”

The Northern Manitoba Skills Competition always brings out the best of the best when it comes to high school students demonstrating a certain skill set. Once again, the hairstyling portion of the competition was held in The Pas and showcased many talented students taking hairdressing at Mary Duncan School
“I taught hairstyling part-time between 2017 and 2023, while I went to school to complete my education degree,” said Mary Duncan School Hairstyling Instructor Becki Crozier. “I graduated this past June and am now teaching hairstyling full time at Mary Duncan School.

Cree Nation Tribal Health (CNTH) is presenting their first gathering, known as Weesahkayjak Comes Home, for Indigenous 2SLGBTQIA+ individuals in the tri-community. The event will be held for two days at The Pas Legion.
“This is our first time hosting the event,” said Connie Merasty. “I’m the 2SLGBTQIA+ Program Manager at Cree Nation Tribal Health and this position came up last year, so it’s fairly new. With the funding we were allotted, I decided to try and hold a gathering for 2SLGBTQIA+ people in the north. From that concept, we had an opportunity to host a small gathering here in The Pas.

The Pas Guest List has contracted an artist, this time from northern Manitoba, to do the second mural as part of their Walking Path Mural Project, which brings new life and art to the community. There were no specifications given to the artist on what to paint for this second mural, so it was like a blank canvass waiting to be brought to life.
“For the second mural it was really important to feature a local northern Manitoban Artist,” said The Pas Guest List Treasurer and Co-founder Gabrielle Swan. “Mike Spencer is so active in the arts community and his style is unlike anything we have in the other murals in The Pas; it was an obvious choice for us to commission him to create the second mural.

Winter almost came and went without Swan River sculptor Derryl May crafting another creation in his front yard, with last week’s precipitation providing a medium to erect a representation of an osprey catching a fish, which melted down somewhat and re-envisioned into a chickadee. Here, the final result before the above-freezing temperatures melted it further.