April showers bring May flowers? And were you happy or surprised with the election results?
The 90th annual Unity Music Festival beings Monday, April 11 and runs to April 14. Vocal and musical numbers take place Monday through Thursday at Unity United Church. Piano performances will be Tuesday to Thursday at Unity Baptist Church. Morning sessions for both of these events begin at 9 a.m. with afternoon sessions at 1:30 p.m. and evening sessions at 7 p.m. The band performances will be at St. Peter鈥檚 School Monday at 9:15 a.m. while the school performances will run Tuesday at St. Peter鈥檚 School at 9:15 a.m. with Unity Public School hosting Wednesday at 9:15 a.m.聽 Final performances will take place at UCHS senior gym on Sunday, April 17 at 2 p.m.
I am so disappointed to say that even though we should be reporting and recognized for hockey season finishing off with some big wins instead Unity folks are dismayed at the mass media appeal of a brawl that broke out following a game five SWHL final between Wilkie Outlaws and Biggar Nationals. I know as a person who has served on multiple committees for events like Run for Riderville, CTV Hometown Tour, multiple Western Canadian fastpitch events have built up Unity鈥檚 reputation around the province. It only took minutes of pure foolishness to negate all many have worked so hard to build up. Shame on those involved in that ridiculous scrap after that game. And, I ask all of our readers, to please remember that it only takes a handful of troublemakers to create all of that chaos and try not painting our entire town with the same brush, as Unity鈥檚 name has been plastered on the majority of those media reports on this unfortunate incident.
Congratulations are offered to the Unity bantam provincial team who captured the Provincial B Bantam championship undefeated. As well, congratulations to our neighbors the Wilkie Outlaws, whom Unity adopted as their own this year. The Wilkie Outlaws captured both provincial and league titles. Unity is also cheering聽聽 Braden Lacoursiere, playing round three of playoffs with the North Battleford North Stars in their league championship. Alex Pernitsky, playing with the Lloydminster Bobcats, will be soon be competing in the RBC Telus Cup.
Unity Curling Club president Glen Heit has competed at Canadian National Senior Men鈥檚 curling in Digby N.S. Facebook and Twitter kept fans up to date on their results throughout the competition. Team Fell, which consisted of players Lloyd Fell, Curtis Bowker, Carla Hoffman and Alana Love, competed in provincial mixed curling championships in Martinsville. Thirty volunteers came for the work bee March 29 to clean out the ice, boards, logos and annual year-end maintenance at the curling rink.
While some communities struggle to keep their ice time filled, Unity鈥檚 arena was busy throughout the season both on the hockey and curling side. In her first year with the town of Unity Cora Fischer, Parks and Recreation director, reflects on the arena season.
This year鈥檚 rink season was unprecedented as it involved coming to the aid of, and adapting to, the influx of hockey and curlers from Wilkie, in addition to teams in all divisions of Unity Minor Hockey. The rink also hosted recreational hockey teams, the Unity Skating Club and public skating. The Montreal Canadien Alumni hockey tour was also hosted.
鈥淚 think overall it was a great season and I鈥檓 looking forward to next year鈥檚 season, so we can make it even better,鈥� Fisher said.
鈥淚ce scheduling is a 7 a.m. to 11 p.m. seven-days-a-week job. Sometimes you feel like there isn鈥檛 a day off. I am looking forward to my mini holiday after this season.鈥�
The TVs in the lobby as well as the online schedule were commended by many as convenient and accurate. A new Facebook page was set up to bring updates to those who rely on social media.
The curling club had record high numbers for their leagues, some due to the Wilkie fire. Including a number of bonspiels, the curling rink played host to the several junior curling playdowns. The Heidt foursome captured the Senior Men鈥檚 Provincial curling banner (curlers Brad Heidt, Unity curling club president Glen Heit, Mark Lang and Dan Ormsby). A unique Canadian Curling Association 鈥�8 ender鈥� award was presented to Team Schell for this past season.
Unity will be adding several championship banners to their rafters. The Unity Atoms captured both the A and B side of their league while the Bantam Black team earned the league title when they defeated the Bantam Red team for the Highway 14 League title. The Midget AA made it to semifinals of the Centre Four Hockey League. The bantam provincial team won their title.
It鈥檚 only a month away to the first official event at the ball diamonds and teams are anxious to be on top of their game before their season arrives. Congratulations to Morgan Huber who played in Surrey B.C. as part of the Softball Sask U16 winter training team.
The rink will be a 鈥渉opping鈥� place April 16 as it hosts the spring trade show on the curling rink side and the annual Delta Co-op Egg Hunt on the hockey rink side.
Unity Public School will recognize International Day of Pink, while April 22 they will be reminding kids about the Earth Day 鈥淟ights Out Canada鈥� event.
St. Peter鈥檚 School has the sacraments of First Holy Communion and Confirmation taking place on Saturday, April 23 at 7 p.m. in St. Peter鈥檚 Parish. To prepare for this journey Grade 2 student have been learning several prayers, Bible stories and about miracles performed by Jesus. Father Greg and Father Dan made this a wonderful experience for each student. Many Grade 2 students were part of the Good Friday service.
At UCHS, the drama students spent Tuesday and Wednesday of this week performing their production Greek Mythology Olmypiaganza for the public. Track students are practising indoors. Badminton is the only other school sport left for Warrior sports programs and players are practising, playing in league and tournaments and preparing for upcoming district playdowns. The deadline for the Activate contest has passed and students and their judges will be assessing entries.
The Grade 7 classes are participating in the speech arts category for the Unity and District Music Festival
The Unity Little Assembly Club,聽 through their annual Dance for the Health of It events, donated $5,000 to the hospital. This group has donated more than $70,000 in the past 18 years.
Unity Credit Union held their annual general meeting March 22, announcing another positive financial year. Unity Credit Union is the 13th largest credit union in Saskatchewan and the largest single branch credit union in Saskatchewan. Long-term service awards were presented. Among them were Glenn Colley, manager of lending, who has 30 years of credit union service and Cindy Young, who has spent her entire 35-year career with Unity Credit Union.
Unity museum president Pat Uzelman says it will cost at least $10,000 to repair the roof of the Swarthmore Church building. Once the roof is fixed the inside will need to be repaired from the damage that leaky rook has caused. You can support their fundraising efforts by taking in their weekly Sunday brunch. This is the main fundraiser for the museum and a weekly commitment by this group to offer a great, hot meal as well as plenty of opportunity for fellowship.
Coffee row, when I was a kid, was a time honoured tradition and a place you knew immediate response to a community crisis or family in need was born. Thankfully, in small-town Saskatchewan, this is still the case, although the Internet has superseded this crisis response somewhat. Still, no matter how residents learn of a crisis in their community the remarkable display of 鈥淪askatchewanism鈥� is evident as folks rush to gather, plan, organize and help wherever it was needed. It might be fixing a collapsed roof on a local building or jumping into equipment from their farm to go help another when they were experiencing an unfortunate life circumstance. These are some of the many reasons we appreciate our coffee row tradition. So you see we keep busy in Unity with activities and wisdom from our friends on coffee row. Until next time 鈥�
