Our community experienced great sadness last week. Long time, well-known perfect gentleman Ray Cummings passed away. Also, the sudden, shocking passing of Kathy Paggett, who operated KP Gardens, left a hole in all of our hearts. Both of these fine citizens will be sadly missed and fondly remembered. Our thoughts and prayers to these families.
The lengthy closure due to technology issues at the post office has finally been resolved. The lack of communication by Canada Post on this issue is what left people frustrated, however, the situation appears on the mend and normal service has returned.
The Unity Elks presented $3,000 each to the Courtesy Car and Parkview Place, showing that their efforts are intended to give back to the communities they serve.
The Celebrate Unity gala event held March 7 welcomed and recognized 12 new businesses. The event also paid tribute to three new managers and owners that included the new operators of Bluezon 2nd, the El-Halabis, as well as Carolyn Kopp, who takes over from Scott Gilbert on the Unity Housing Authority and Ron Rutley, who is now the pastor at the Unity Baptist Church.
Unity is thankful the following people have chosen to set up their businesses in our community: Amanda Lewis Massage, Hired Gun Building Solutions Jesse Lang, Javajee Construction Jennifer Belcher, Karen Nelson Massage, KB Photography owner Kelsey Belliveau, Lonestar Construction, owned by Logan, Ron and Shirley Claughton, Geoff Palm鈥檚 Handyman Service, Stephanie Shug with Reiter鈥檚 Esthetics, Joe and Tarayn Laley, who operate TJ鈥檚 Residential Contracting, Unity Lonestar Towing run by Daikota Tanner and Ashley Tanner as well as Victor Bellegard who runs VJB Concrete Inc and Justin Meredith who runs Seale Custom Wood products.
In other business news, Unity will no longer be able to enjoy the popular 鈥淔renchie鈥檚 pizza鈥� as Brian and Debbie will be retiring and closing up shop March 31. Thank you to them for having this movie rental, pizza place and pool hall for many to enjoy over the years.
Unity Public School enjoyed a PD day March 7 and an early dismissal day is coming up this month.
UPS had a nice surprise on leap day when Unity Credit Union came supplying cupcakes to a Grade 2 student who was celebrating her birthday.
The Division 2 bonspiel is coming up March 24.
A celebration of learning took place at UPS on Wednesday and Thursday in conjunction with the next set of report cards. Mrs. Carlton says, 鈥淭he kindergarteners are very excited to share with you what they have been learning. There will be a variety of activity-based centres set up in the classroom. They have also chosen a few writing pieces and special projects to show you.鈥�
鈥淕rade 1s will be sharing selected samples of writing from throughout the year. We will reflect on what good writers in Grade 1 can do and identify our own strengths as writers and areas to improve upon. As well, the children will be explaining some of the strategies we have been learning and using to decode new words,鈥� sat Ms. Z and Mrs. Pool.
Miss Miller reports, 鈥淕rade 3M have been exploring the use of technology in the classroom. We will share writing, our drama plays and projects created using our iPads.鈥澛犅犅犅犅犅犅犅犅犅�
聽鈥淭he staff and students of UPS have been working diligently towards the assessment as learning process.聽 Students have been learning to identify outcomes, assess as they learn, and move towards their learning target,鈥� says Mrs. Brown.
According to Ms. Koback, 鈥淭he Grade 2K students will be taking you through four stations. They will show you the growth they made in their writing, what they know about shapes, their animal diorama, and their portfolios.聽 You will also get a chance to see what they have done on seesaw for the first time!鈥澛犅�
Ms. Poppleton鈥檚 Grade 2P students 鈥渨ill share a portfolio that will include various forms of writing collected throughout the year. As well, the children will explain what level they are at in some of their most recent writing samples.鈥澛犅�
聽鈥淚n Grade 3S, the students will share with you the various writing projects the Grade 3S class has been working on,鈥� says Mrs. Soloski, 鈥淭here has been so much growth. Students will explain to you how the writing is assessed on the rubric. As well, the students each have two Book Creator projects to share with you on their learning in science, plus a video of their performance in The Three Little Pigs.鈥澛�
Mrs. Tyler says, 鈥淭he Grade 4 class will focus on math and writing. Students will choose one math outcome that we have worked on over the past few months. They will discuss their self-reflection for the outcome, demonstrate something they learned, and show their pre-test and post-test for the outcome they chose. Students will then present two pieces of writing (one from the beginning of the year and a recent piece), and then they will discuss their writing self-reflection identifying their strengths and goals for writing.聽 Please join us in celebrating your child鈥檚 learning.鈥�
Mrs. May says. 鈥淭he Grade 5 students will share their math and language arts portfolio. The students will use their math portfolio to explain Climbing Walls and how these walls guide them in achieving the outcomes. In language arts the students can discuss the Cafe of Reading Strategies and how they use them.聽 Writing composed this year will also be in their portfolios.鈥�
In a presentation led by teachers Mrs. Brown and Mr. Jedlicka, 鈥淭he Grade 6 students will be sharing their expository writing, reading goals, and the work they have been doing on SeeSaw. The Grade 6 students will also present projects from various subjects and you the parent get to be the teacher. Parents will give their child a mark based on their presentation and work.鈥�
St. Peter鈥檚 School participated in The Great Big Crunch March 10 wherein staff and students simultaneously crunched into an apple at exactly 1:30 p.m. along with thousands of other students across Saskatchewan as part of the nutrition awareness month.聽 Delta Co-op came with the apples and Cooper their mascot joined in the fun.
UCHS senior basketball teams are in regional playoffs this weekend hoping to earn a provincial berth. Badminton is in full swing and the Grade 7s held a mini tournament March 11. Indoor track practices have begun. The Warrior football program is once again underway with the popular Mom鈥檚 Pantry fundraiser on until April 5.
Here鈥檚 what I know about hockey season up to this point:
The atoms captured the league title on the road in dramatic fashion when they came from behind in a 7-5 game and sunk in two goals in the last two minutes to send the game to OT, scoring the winning goal a few minutes in.
The atom red team also captured the consolation side of the league in the same week.聽
The bantam teams are the last two standing in the Highway 14 League and will square off against each other for the league title. The bantam provincial team in the north final took game one on the road against Tisdale and were to play game two of the two-game total point series March 13 at home. Results were not available at press time.聽聽
The Unity arena has adopted the Wilkie Outlaws in their fire year and have enjoyed their exciting run for both a league and provincial B title.聽 The Outlaws are squaring off against the Biggar Nationals for the league banner while they continue to play Drake for the north final in their provincial run.
The Midget AA defeated the Saskatoon Screaming Eagles in a best out of three series and will now face off against the other Saskatoon AA team for the semifinal in their Centre 4 League championship run.
Unity Curling club played host to U18 Northwest Regional playdowns cheering on our own Team Powell. The club is also getting ready to send Team Heidt to Didby, N.S., for the national senior men鈥檚 championships as Team Saskatchewan. This weekend will be the Bramchice Farm ladies鈥� spiel.
Soccer registration forms are available at the town office. Completed forms along with payment can be returned to the town office no later than April 5 at 4 p.m. Children must be turning four before Dec. 31, 2016 to register. Registration will be held April 6 in the Unity rink lobby from 6 to 7:30 p.m.
Ball teams are ready to hit the arena once the ice is out and while the diamonds dry up. On the agenda for ball in Unity is minor ball day in May plus three other major events, including Western Canadian U21 ladies fastpitch championships. The UK Royals will play. They won this title in 2015, beating Vancouver in Surrey, B.C.
In other recreation news, folks noticed some big equipment removing that long standing pile of dirt from the new pool construction and putting it into the old pool site. This will make way for future recreational development in that area.
Don鈥檛 want to cook Sunday? Then head down to the famous museum Sunday brunches put on as a fundraiser for the museum.
Coffee row folks 鈥� today, younger people might turn to Facebook or Twitter for a quick answer to any question or concern they may have, but there is still a familiar place that can answer plenty of the 鈥渨hat if鈥檚, how to and how comes鈥� that we fondly refer to as coffee row. Advice may be limited to a handful of experts, or the Dean of 鈥渃offee college,鈥� however the wisdom presented and the variety of topics handled while enjoying fresh cup of hot coffee is an experience that I hope is not being taken over by the Internet.聽 This part of our community culture and tradition is far too enjoyable and pleasantly familiar for both the 鈥渞owers鈥� and those who get to hear the laughter or the debates.
So you see we keep busy in Unity with activities and wisdom from our friends on coffee row. Until next time 鈥�
