Seven-year funder comes to fruition at Mother T
Meet me at the playground.
That was the theme of a seven-year fundraising campaign that recently came to fruition at Mother Teresa Early Childhood Education Centre in the form of a new playground.
Through the school’s east-facing windows, students watched crews assemble their new play structure last Thursday and Friday, which comes equipped with slides, climbing structures, and six swings, something Paula Scott, board chair of the Lloydminster Catholic School Division (LCSD), says students are stoked for.
“This is a great day. This has been about seven years of fundraising, so a lot of the kids that started this fundraiser aren’t here anymore, but they’ll still be able to come by and see it,” said Scott last Thursday afternoon.
“The kids and their families have been so supportive of Mother Teresa and getting this project going. Work started yesterday and they’re hoping to be done by Friday, which is fantastic, and then the kids will have a brand-new playground, with six swings, which is apparently awesome; the Grade 1’s are very excited about that.”
Play it Forward charity game generates big bucks
Ask any of the 50 skaters who laced them up for Border City Connects’ third annual Play it Forward 12-hour charity hockey game and they’ll tell you it was a blast, but the real winners were the residents who utilize the services they provide.
The game took place at the Servus Sports Centre on April 19, and having met the $75,000 fundraising goal, Border City Connects’ executive director, Glenn Fagnan, couldn’t be happier.
“It’s amazing to think we raised $75,000 through 12 hours of hockey,” he said.
“The attitude of our players and how truly amazing they are to step up and assist our community members is truly incredible and I can’t thank those players enough.”
Fagnan also thanked the countless businesses and community sponsors for their support over the years.
“We wouldn’t be able to do this without their support,” he said, noting the game was the brainchild of Aaron Buckingham and has brought in over $200K over three years.
Seniors re-imagine Jubilee Home
If building long-term care beds in Lloydminster were a hockey score, it would be 214 for the Alberta side of the city and 50 in
Saskatchewan.
The Lloydminster Concerned Citizens for Seniors Care Society has prepared a draft proposal to level the playing field and replace Jubilee Home with 180 new spaces.
“The proposal is to get a replacement of the Jubilee Home,” said Seniors Care Society president, Graham Brown at the group’s meeting on April 23.
“We have to get 50 beds there to replace the ones that are now there, but we also need to add dramatically to the long-term care beds in Lloydminster.”
The numbers include the replacement of Jubilee’s existing 50 LTC spaces plus 20 specialty, 20 palliative, 20 respite, 20 transition spaces and 50 new LTC spaces.
The Alberta side of the city has 60 LTC spaces at Lloydminster Continuing Care Centre, 50 at Dr. Cooke Extended Care, 60 at Points West Living and 44 at Pioneer Hours for a total of 214.
Brown says Saskatchewan has not added any long-term care beds in Lloydminster for many years so it’s their turn.
“So hopefully, they’ll look at this project favourably and we can get moving on replacing that as soon as possible,” he said.
The elephants in the room are competing for new projects in Saskatchewan and the completion of a new Integrated Health Services and Facility Infrastructure Needs Assessment.
Local golfer makes 6 million to one shot, twice
In golf, an albatross, also known as a double eagle, occurs when a player finishes a hole three under par.
The odds of shooting one albatross are roughly six million to one, and to the amazement of everyone at the Lloydminster Golf and Curling Centre (LGCC), local golfer Jim Born Jr. recently sank two albatrosses within 15 days of each other.
“When I got the first one I was golfing with Ryan Rivett. The ball kind of disappeared and I asked him ‘is that an albatross?’ He got out his range finder and couldn’t see the ball, so at that point, we knew it was in,” said Born.
“It caught me off guard, so no one really cheered or celebrated, so when I got the second one I went a little overboard; everyone got a hug and a high-five,” he said with a laugh.
Born’s first albatross came on May 11 with his second hitting the bottom of the cup on May 26.
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