They are the unsung heroes – volunteers no less – raising funds for new surgical equipment, critical care items, furniture, beds, and even programs offered at the High River Hospital!

This year the High River Hospital Auxiliary is celebrating its 40 Year Anniversary, a tremendous milestone marking a stupendous feat: nearly $450,000 raised and donated for hospital equipment and projects.

Founded in 1971, a group of 25 High River women started having coffee parties (25 cents a cup) and collecting the funds to apply to much-needed hospital purchases. Today one active founding member remains, Elma Wambeke, who is admired for her ongoing volunteerism at High River Hospital and their philanthropic legacy blazes on, with a steadfast group of volunteers dedicated to raising money for hospital equipment and projects.

How do they do it? They operate the hospital book cart and the gift shop (100 per cent volunteer-run) full of homemade items including baby blankets and quilts. They also have bake sales, fashion shows, raffles, calendar sales, casinos, and a variety of other fundraising events.

What have they funded?  

Here’s just a sampling:

Haematology Analyzer – $75,000

Fetal Monitor - $16,500

I.V. Scanners – $4,500 each

Women’s Clinic – $40,000 toward equipment

Medical Sheepskins – $5,000 each year

Transport Monitor – $14,600

Turnstall for connect care – $12,000

Birthing Bed – $26,000

Cancer Clinic Furniture – $5,600

Bladder Scanner – $15,000

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Locally, he needs no introduction. Mention just his first name in these parts and automatically people know you’re referring to the 20-year-old, bright-eyed, frosted-tipped, wunderkind guitarist, Calum Graham.

Nationally, he has broken ground already, sharing studios with Raine Maida of Our Lady Peace, Chantal Kreviazuk (the Chantal Kreviazuk) and – not too shabby either – the Toronto Symphony Orchestra. As he naturally branches into international territory, all that is familiar might be about ­to change.

He can play the guitar like few can on the planet. That’s not an overstatement. Of fans, now-legendary guitarist Don Ross counts himself one; a substantial endorsement considering Ross was Graham’s initial inspiration for learning to finger pick on the guitar.

“It blew my mind that one guitar could make so much sound,” said Graham.

With the admiration of such a big name artist and spades of recent accolades (such as, 2011 Song for Canada contest grand prize winner), there seems only room to grow for the newly budded artist in an understory of musical fame.

But putting it that way is too simple. Too nutshell. For one, it implies destiny. No self-respecting artist in the burgeoning part of his career wants to talk about something that negates tangible measures of hard work. It’s the teleological analogy of an acorn containing all the makings of an oak tree, though not necessarily destined to become one. For Graham, it’s a necessary denial at this stage.

“I think the terrifying parts help keep me in check,” Graham explains about the recent up-shoot in his musical career. An example: it dawned on him one day he was using the same master and mixer for recording his album that Led Zeppelin used. “It’s crazy,” he said, “just the momentum itself.”

Prior to breaking into the limelight, Graham was well tended to; nourished and supported by community, both that of High River and of fellow musicians. He can’t talk about his early guitar years without making two parental footnotes: recalling evenings as he sat at his father’s feet and listened to him strum chords, and crediting his artistic flair to his mother, who paints… with her feet.

Graham knew the guitar would take him far. “I wanted to see the world with a purpose,” he said. “It was always my incentive to play.” From his dad’s few chords, he quickly learned every song by Don Ross. (Tellingly, when Ross first heard Graham, he told the young guitarist: “That’s your ticket.”) And that ticket seems good. His time is now split between home in High River and recording studios in Los Angeles.

If you’ve heard Graham play the guitar, it’s likely you’ve only heard him play the guitar. Whereas – up to now – his guitar did enough singing for the both of them, this new studio album, with the working title, Indivisibility, will feature the artist’s lyrics and voice too. In this sense, the title takes on new meaning, implying his voice and the guitar’s are one and the same.

As he grows, Graham is still searching for that elusive idea of voice, like Zeppelin’s, he said, “you know it’s them.” And he is in good hands. He has a voice coach, Brian Farrell, and manager Neil McGonigle, who, incidentally, also managed Jann Arden. It was McGonigle who had just the right guy in mind in LA, and that guy turned out to be producer CJ Vanston whose tutelage produced Tina Turner and N’Sync.

Graham says that Vanston, acquainted with both the old, “dinosaur” way of music-making and today’s “ready, fire, aim” hyper-marketing method, wants to buck the modern convention of depriving the artist inside the celebrity. While there are plans for an iPhone app to accompany the release of Indivisible, Vanston and Graham both seek to preserve the album as a whole piece of art.

“What usually happens is artists go through a model – like the Britney Spears and Katy Perry stuff. And it works. It sells. But he’s all about the music,” said Graham about Vanston. “Let people come to us.”  

Back home in Alberta, equally passionate artists are chipping in, in one case, literally. Local luthier, Chuck Shifflett, is handcrafting Graham a guitar – a “monster,” Graham calls it – with a harp engrained into its woodwork; a truly unique bit of craftsmanship matched only by the young artist who will play it.

It’s obvious the beginning part is over. No longer bogged down by the torment artists face to get noticed or find their voice, Graham is bursting with ideas of new markets and major artists with which to grow alongside.

“I’m just going to go for it – not letting fear hold me back,”he said, reaffirming the total dedication to a living. “Years down the road I just want to be making music on a bigger scale.”

To wax philosophically one last time, an acorn’s end result might not be a tree. It could just as well be a guitar or dust or, who knows, a star. Graham gets this. It’s what drives him.

***

Graham was the 2011 Song for Canada contest grand prize winner; one of the 2010 Vancouver Olympics’ top artists of Alberta; and winner of the Canadian Youth Talent Competition. The previous winner of that competition was Micheal Bublé.

Watch a Video of CALUM

About getting the shot by Neville Palmer

Original painting by Erica Neumann

Once a vibrant United Church – now a celebrated arts venue, the Rotary Performing Arts Centre in Okotoks rises to a new occasion.

For almost a century, the stately brick church, located on the corner of Elma Street and Centre Avenue in Okotoks, served as a gathering place for the Okotoks community; a place of worship and inspiration where music routinely filled the rafters. Although it is no longer a church, the historic landmark continues to be a gathering place for celebration and inspiration in its new role as the Rotary Performing Arts Centre.

Purchased first by the arts council, the building was the subject of hours of planning, fundraising, and renovations, before the arts council donated it to the Town of Okotoks in April, 2005. Then, with further government funded structural work, the newly named Rotary Performing Arts Centre opened its doors to the public and the performing arts community in late fall, 2010.

While the Dewdney Players moved into their new home immediately with weekend performances of Sorry Wrong Chimney, the real grand opening of the Rotary Performing Arts Centre was a three-day celebration at the end of February. Foothill’s own Amos Garret, along with a multitude of local performers were on hand to bequeath the old church a grand new purpose.

Old Soul Roots

The church building’s history dates back to the early 1900′s. In 1905, the Methodist congregation in the area voted to build a church in Okotoks. A lot on Elma Street was purchased from John Lineham, who also donated two more. The church was completed in December of 1906 at a cost of $5,100 with an official opening in April, 1907.

While the Methodists were enjoying their new spacious church, a larger Presbyterian congregation was quickly outgrowing its small wooden church, St. Luke’s, located on McRae Street. Consequently, several years ahead of the nation-wide unification, the Okotoks Methodists and St. Luke’s Presbyterians united in 1917 to form the Okotoks United Church.

For decades the Okotoks United Church held regular services; performed baptisms, weddings, and funerals; and was perpetually filled with the music and celebration of a vibrant congregation. But as the Town of Okotoks grew, the congregation of the United Church eventually found itself in the same situation the St. Luke’s congregation experienced 100 years earlier – it had outgrown its space. In 2002, members of the Okotoks United Church made the difficult decision to put their beloved church up for sale.

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All concerts are sponsored by the Okotoks Arts Council. Tickets for any of these performances are available for purchase at the art gallery or by phoning 403.938.3204. For more information visit www.okotoksculture.ca

*Thank you Erica for finding this image and allowing us to use it in the magazine. See more of Erica’s work online at Neumann Gallery and Studio

Reposting from AMPA’s Blog…

“Nail-Biting Time: Award Finalists Announced!

Who doesn’t love a good awards presentation? The newly expanded Alberta Magazine Awards will be no exception. The full rundown of finalists was announced March 15, 2011 in MagaScene.

So who are this year’s contenders?

Well there’s the usual showing by Alberta biggies, Avenue (Calgary) and Alberta Venture, each with several nominations. No surprise there. techlife, a past winner at the Showcase awards, no doubt wishes to continue its winning streak as well.

A little guy making some big noise is Routes magazine with three nominations. Shout-out to Sandra Wiebe and her team, considering they only came on the scene less than three years ago, and have made major leaps and bounds in that time–a time that can be the most challenging as any publisher knows.”
I am very proud to be competing amongst Alberta’s biggest publishers. They may have more staff, and probably more money and resources…but I doubt they have more heart, dedication and drive for perfection than the routes team!  From our word smiths to our layout department – we are all committed to bringing you an inspiring and classy product.

We were nominated for:

best short feature, by Peter Worden: Right-in-the-folking-living-room

best cover:

And best illustration: Marvellous Music (view PDF)

Photos courtesy of Heartland

Some of you may have grown up in a home where your family sat and ate dinner together and each member had a chore of clearing, washing or drying the dishes, or taking out the garbage. I was fortunate to have a large family with my father working close to home and my mother at home packing our lunches, waiting for us after school, and insisting we play outside even when it was 30 below.

For those of you to whom this all feels like a Norman Rockwell painting, there is Heartland on CBC.

As children, my brothers and I would try to rush through our Sunday night dinner (we never dared ask if we could eat in front of the TV) – it was time for The Wonderful World of Disney. Through the years, Sunday evening was always home to family night television.

While on set interviewing a few of the cast members of the popular family drama, Heartland, I felt the ambiance of family resonating from my past memories of Sunday night family television.

“We really are a family, there are so many things the viewers can relate to,” said 24-year-old Amber Marshall, who plays the lead part of Amy Fleming.

Like most of the actors in the series, Marshall has been with the show since its beginning, four years ago. For the last two years she has been living in the Okotoks area, and last spring she purchased property where she now lives full time.

“When I go to the grocery story people stop me and say that it’s really great (that I live here). I think it makes people in the area feel like they have more of a connection to the show and to me,” said Marshall.

Marshall settled in the Okotoks area after spending the first few years filming for seven months of the year and then going home to Ontario to an uncertain job and to friends she hadn’t seen in a long time. She felt she was rebuilding her life every time she went home, and then having to put it on hold for filmg season. “I love Alberta and this area, so I thought why not just build my life here and not put anything on pause.”

Growing up, Marshall didn’t have any actors or politicians as role models; it was always those closest to her who had a direct influence on her life. “That’s why I enjoy meeting people and different fans because then I can have that same impact on them,” she said, adding, “It still takes me by surprise when anyone comes up to me and says ‘you do so amazing in Heartland, you’re my role model, or my daughters’ role model’.”

Heartland publicist Gordon Imlach referred to Amber Marshall as the real deal, a real horseperson. “She is the face of Heartland.”

Imlach said many people working on Heartland are ‘old hats’ in the industry and have never experienced such a rapid rise in a fan base before. Heartland’s Facebook fan page gains 250 new fans daily from around the world, ranging in age from 13 to 34. Eigty-eight per cent of those viewers are families. He says there is also a large senior viewership; he believes this could be due to the fact that there is little clean family stuff left on TV.

“To be on a show that is so popular and has such a fan base, you know you are working on something kind of special,” said Imlach, who went on to share the touching story of how the Arizona Make a Wish Foundation contacted him to fulfill a dying child’s wish to meet Amber.

Heartland airs on national networks in several countries, including France, Australia, Germany, Spain, Mexico, Norway and throughout South America and Africa. It has just received 94 per cent syndication in the United States where season one aired in October of 2010.

At the time of the interview, the cast and crew were wrapping up the finale for the fourth season. They were also on edge, waiting to hear if the show was going to continue for another season.

“I think if we get a fifth season we can say this is the most successful show ever shot in Alberta,” said Imlach. They have filmed 67 one-hour episodes and one 2-hour movie. Heartland is filmed mainly in High River, but also on the 100-Acre Ranch near Millarville, Millarville Race Track, the Dude Ranch near Millarville, and on the studio set located in southwest Calgary.

Imlach estimates that only 10 per cent of all series reach a fifth season, but just before Christmas, Heartland and its 26,000-plus Facebook fans, received the good news that there will be another season.

Neither Marshall nor Graham Wardle (as Ty Borden and love interest of Amy) grew up watching heart-warming family television. Wardle believes that, in the face of so much reality TV, people want to watch real people and they want to connect to something real.

“From the beginning I was proud to work on a show that wasn’t like anything else on TV. It was focusing on family values showing people growing up, learning lessons, and people being people and changing,” said Wardle.

“I think that they cast the show very well, and the people that are part of the show do believe in the values, do believe in the stories, do believe in the characters. We try to tell the truths of those relationships and of those moments. Working with everyone on the set, we are like a tight knit family and I think it shows on screen.”

A tight knit family is what actress Michelle Morgan (as Lou Fleming and on stage sister to Amy) was fortunate enough to have growing up. Now, when she’s not on set, she spends as much time as she can, giving back to the community through her work at women’s shelters. “It is a community’s responsibility to be the family to those who don’t have a family,” she said.

Morgan’s character is pregnant in the show’s fourth season, but she is also pregnant for real; she will deliver her first child this spring. “I know my family enjoys the show. It’s got great characters and a nice variety of drama, comedy, romance and action. It’s got something for everybody.”

Heartland has eight main characters with three others that are regulars, and of those, only two are from Alberta (Shaw Johnson and Doc Cardinal). “That is more of a comment to where you have to go to work as an actor, than the quality of actors in Calgary. They move to where the work is,” said Imlach.

But while they are working in High River, you may catch a glimpse of them filming at Maggie’s Diner, or maybe jamming with the locals at Gitter’s Pub on a Tuesday night, making themselves at home here in the Heartland of Alberta.

**

Heartland, based on a series of books written by Lauren Brooke, first aired on CBC in 2007. Set in the fictional town of Hudson, Alberta and partially filmed in High River, the producer, Michael Weinberg had originally approached the Town of High River to use its name as the town in the series.

By Pat Fream

Photos by Neville Palmer

Her name is Mabel, and she’s a big ol’ blue tick hound dog with a voracious appetite for shoes, spaghetti, and sofas made of supple Italian leather. She has no notable qualities except the ability to plant her 100 pound torso on any unoccupied lap, and clear a plate of edibles – midstride – with just a quick sweep of her fluid tongue. If the connection seems obscure, it is, yet somehow this incorrigible canine is the namesake for the Travelling Mabels; an all girls musical trio that is enthralling music lovers across the province.

“We all love Mabel, and we want to travel,” said Longview-based band member Eva Levesque. “Put the two together and the name just seemed to fit.”

The Travelling Mabels came together serendipitously in 2008, when all three women were in Winnipeg for the Canadian Country Music Awards (CCMA). Suzanne Levesque, on tour at the time performing bass and backup vocals for country music singer, Gord Bamford, was nominated for the CCMA Bass Player of the Year Award. Her mother, Eva, along with good friend and fellow singer/songwriter, Lana Floen, were on hand to provide support. At a party hosted by a record company there was an open mic session and the trio – Eva, Suzanne and Lana – got up and performed an impromptu (and unpracticed) a cappella version of the Eagles song – Seven Bridges Road.

The response, from a crowd of record executives, managers and other performers, was positive. The rest is history. The women named themselves after an unruly hound dog and have since written a variety of songs, produced two CDs, and played at numerous venues across Alberta. Eva and Lana play acoustic guitar; Suzanne (who has since left her gig with Gord Bamford to fully commit to the Mabels) plays bass guitar, and Eva adds harmonica to some numbers. Keith Floen, the band’s leader and manager, joins the trio playing keyboard on some occasions.

Asked to define the band’s genre, Levesque shook her head. “Since we all write music and we’re all so different, you can’t really narrow our style into one or two categories,” she says.

“We’re roots, we’re folk, some songs are pop, others come out sounding pure ass country.”

Eva, a self proclaimed ‘earth mother’, and the most seasoned of the group, has been writing songs and singing for decades. She likes to write songs that tell a story. “I get my inspirations from life. Just look around you – everything is an idea for a song,” she says.”Sometimes you have an idea and it takes months to turn it into a song. Other times you wake up at two in the morning and it’s all there – words and music.”

Suzanne adds kick to the band with her country flair and an ear for pop. Lana’s style is what Eva calls “elegant”; she writes heartfelt ballads and brings polish to the group. Together the women perform a broad spectrum of songs ranging from poignant ballads (Let Me In), to an uproarious tune about some unscrupulous endeavours south of the border (Della’s Gentleman’s Club).

Highlights thus far for the Mabels include being on stage with Ian Tyson (who wrote a song for the group to sing), opening for Prairie Oyster last July, and playing at the Big Valley Jamboree to a standing ovation. Last November the Mabels performed at the Blue Christmas Concert in Calgary put on by Rev Elvis and Friends. Along with their contribution of some crisp harmonic Christmas carols, the Mabels took to the stage and performed A Song for Spirit – with grade one and two students from Calgary Arts Academy.

“We didn’t know what to expect,” said Eva, “but oh my god, we fell in love with those kids.” She added that the Mabels felt proud to be on stage singing back-up to the youngsters, who wrote the song as a fundraiser to help care for Spirit – a blind golden eagle. “With the kids on stage, and the eagle, and the hoop dancer, I had to close my eyes – it was just so spiritual I was getting all choked up.”

With two years invested in the Mabels, and two CDs behind them, Eva said she is fully satisfied with the road she is on. “I know 150 per cent that this is what I’m meant to do. I get on stage and I just know this is where I’m supposed to be.”

As for measuring the success of the Mabels, Eva takes a humble approach. “To me success is not about the money or having a guitar-shaped swimming pool. If every show we do, big or small, the people go away happy, that’s it – that’s my success.”

Beginnings

Eva Levesque first started in the music scene in 1991 in small town British Columbia where she and her husband and their two teenagers, Robert and Suzanne, performed regularly at local venues and events. Five years later a recession hit BC, and Eva, along with her two adult children relocated to Alberta with a five-piece country ensemble named Wrangler. The band met with measurable success, and continued performing Top 40 country music at bars, clubs and parties across Southern Alberta, until 2005. At that point, Levesque cut her kids loose to pursue their own musical endeavours, while she took up with a new mate, got a class one driver’s license and together the pair tag-teamed long hauls for two and half years all over the North American continent. It was while trucking that Eva met and wrote a song about Mabel – the long-eared blue tick hound dog.

Eva Levesque resides in Longview, where for the past three years she has organized the Longview Music and Arts Festival (nicknamed Longstock). “God I love Longview! Three hundred and thirty people living there and when I went looking for volunteers for the festival, 29 people signed up!” she gushed. “We’re like one big family – living in this unbelievably friendly town that is peaceful and beautiful!”

The Travelling Mabels will host their 2nd CD release party at The Ironwood in Calgary on April 2 and 3, 2011

*** Special thanks to the staff at the Bar U Ranch who opened up the bunkhouse on a frosty winter’s day, swept out a heaping helping of dead flies, turned on the furnace and made us welcome. Great location for a photoshoot.

To honour the coming of Spring with Groundhog Day in the foothills is not just unreliable, it’s zoologically illogical.

By Peter Worden

Besides possessing no meteorological training, traditional Groundhog Day mascots Wiarton Willie (of Wiarton, Ontario), Spanish Joe (of Spanish, Ontario), and Shubenacadie Sam (of Shubenacadie, Nova Scotia) share another crucial omission – they live nowhere near the Alberta foothills.

These faraway fellows are the Canadian offshoots of folkloric progenitor Punxsutawney Phil of a Groundhog Day epicenter – some 3,386 kilometers away – in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania. If Phil sees his shadow on Feb 2, tradition has it he will return to his hole for six more weeks and so winter shall last.

Feb 2 is what’s called a cross-quarter day meaningthat it is halfway between two seasons – each season being a quarter of the year. It also marks the day when daylight makes significant progress against the night. Because winter officially lasts another six weeks past Feb 2 anyway, it’s been pointed out that if a groundhog sees his shadow, he is correct 100 per cent of the time.

As foothills residents, the nearest rodent on whom we can base our springtime predictions is the loftily self-acclaimed “Prairie Prognosticator” Balzac Billy (from Balzac naturally), who, upon further inspection, is about as accurate in his annual hunch as other famed groundhogs, which is to say, only about half of the time. (A study by Canada’s National Climate Data Centre reported that in 13 cities over the past 40 years, the success rate of groundhog predictions was about 37 per cent – in other words, about the same as if we merely guessed and surely no better than if we consulted any other member of the order rodentia; the gopher, or for that matter, guinea pig, squirrel or agouti).

For this experiment then, we go to expert animal folk – veterinarians, a petting zoo owner, an exterminator, a rancher and a professor of physics – to unearth an appropriate, adoptable alternative as a foothills tradition.

Not surprisingly, the displaced and otherwise not-much-loved Richardson’s ground squirrel received the most votes by virtue of it simply being the most regionally plentiful. Recommended unequivocally by the good people of the Fish Creek Animal Hospital, the gopher is not a bad choice considering two things. One, renaming February 2 is an easy adaptation other groundhog-less jurisdictions have made. (For instance, Alaska observes Marmot Day since the state has few groundhogs.) Two, male gophers emerge from hibernation weeks before females thus providing a bona fide pre-seasonal timeframe. A new tradition could be to monitor a gopher family. When Mr. G emerges, spring is nigh. When Mrs. G does, spring hath sprung.

Or, because gopher squeaks have been known to register ultrasonically, one could retrofit a power tower with the proper equipment, thus becoming a gopher-tuned Foothills Spring-O-Meter.

Calgary Corn Maze owner, Mark Muchka, says the petting zoo animals’ ahem, “spring fever” is as accurate a seasonal indicator as any. Muchka knows all the usual procreative proclivities of animals after a winter dormancy – rams butt heads, chickens lay eggs, etc. – but said the petting zoo turkey is especially known to puff up his feathers, change colour, gobble more and roam around as spring approaches.

Conrad Mueller from Absolute Pest Control said he knows when spring is near by the number of house calls he makes for mice infestations. (Though, that’s hardly a standard of measurement any of us actually want to use.)

Fun-loving rancher, cowpoke and auctioneer, Col. Lee Creech, says gauging springtime is best left to luck and an old-fashioned round of Cow Pie Bingo – an adaptation of a “craps” table, so to speak, whereby one spray paints a grid on pasture and awaits the cash cow to do its business on an according number. In fact, many ranchers already practice similar traditions. One family said they place a derelict car on a slough and when it falls through, it’s springtime.

There’s no shortage of ways to tell when it’s spring (the emergence of the hardy but cautious crocus that shows only when certain it can make it, or the unmistakable chickadee-dee-dee) yet not one of these spring bellwethers addresses a fundamental flaw – that is basing spring on rodents from far-flung communities all over the continent but here. And of course, obvious variables in light, and consequently, shadows.

Phil Langill, a professor of astronomy and physics at the University of Calgary, commented that because humidity, haze and pollution contain particles that scatter light before it hits the planet, the dry climate of Southern Alberta has historically been very good for clarity.

“Incoming light can pass directly through the atmosphere, straight through to the ground and there’s less interference,” he said.

For this experiment’s sake, the result: less interference equals more light which equals starker shadows which equals more terrified rodents which equals longer winters.

Conclusion: need groundhog alternative.

“A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step”

–Lao-tzu

Now that we’ve all made it through a long chilly winter, I suggest we get out and walk on fresh paths. Spring is such an exciting time of renewal, let routes lead and lift your spirits.

For me, spring is not only about delicate new blossoms and the return of sufficient natural Vitamin D, it’s about filling up my diminished reserves with stimulating endeavours - this year specifically in fitness and social events. For example, I am planning to participate in the Turner Valley Triathlon. If this sounds appealing to you, why not come out and join me? You can be a part of Team Routes by “attending” on the Routes Facebook page.

I am also excited to get my fill of the arts and entertainment scene by taking in some of the fabulous events taking place right here in the foothills. Getting out to the Leighton Art Centre sale is a must this May, and so is attending a play at the newly opened Rotary Performing Arts Centre in Okotoks.

If I can be so bold as to spur you on, I challenge you to make this the best spring ever! Start with one new piece to your wardrobe or a whole new look – check out the fashion pages for inspiration. Is there some kind of fitness activity you’ve been dreaming of doing? Why not get started? Or maybe it’s not about fitness for you, maybe you are being called to join a new club, take up scrapbooking, or reconnect with an old friend you’ve been missing. Whatever it is, I find that spring is a great time for that single step. And along the way, maybe eat a little ice cream and …don’t forget your routes.

Sandra

Photo by Neville Palmer

Terry Grant will be in attendance a the Ecole Joe Clark School for the dinner and silent auction to fund raise for a new playground.

Tickets $50

March 12, 5:30 pm start

Call 403-652 2020 for tickets and information.  Mantracker Poster Ecole Joe Clark

With over 600 business licenses registered in Turner Valley and Black Diamond, lots of services are available right here!  The Diamond Valley Chamber of Commerce hopes to create awareness of all the skilled tradesmen and professionals and businesses that are located in the Diamond Valley region.

Diamond Valley Business Expo – March 19 and 20.  Download and Read the News Release