BARRHEAD - In 2023, Barrhead and area residents celebrated several successes. The Leader staff combed our issues and selected some of our favourite good or interesting news stories that did not make our top news stories of the year.
A graduating class of one
One of our favourite stories of 2023 and one we debated including in the Top 2023 News Stories of the Year due to the number of views it had on our Town & Country Today website was the story of Shailyn Callihoo, who was the lone graduate of Swan Hills School in 2023.
In an interview with the Leader, Callihoo noted that there had always been 10 to 15 students from the time she first started attending the school in preschool.
However, she noted that changed after her Grade 10 year when most of her class moved away.
Only three, besides Callihoo, remained in the fall of 2021 and the start of her Grade 11 year.
Then they moved away, leaving her as the sole remaining member of the Class of 2023.
"I had to do a lot of it on my own, taking a lot of Alberta Distance Learning Centre (ADLC) and Vista Virtual courses because they would not offer a teacher for one student," she said, adding that even though ADLC ceased operation in June 2021 after Alberta Education defunded the service, Swan Hills School still had access to much of the materials, including textbooks.
Callihoo also said she received a lot of help from the Swan Hills School teaching staff while not teaching her directly, as the school could not devote a teacher for just one student; the teachers were familiar with the material and provided a helping hand when needed.
As for her graduation, Callihoo said it was similar to the traditional.
Pembina Hills School Division Supt. Michael Borgfjord, principal Sheila Gardiner, associate principal Kara King, and town representatives spoke.
Helping communities in need
In the fall of 2022, New Line Skate Parks completed the concrete work in the Town of Barrhead's new all-wheel park, making the equipment at its old skate park irrelevant.
The Town of Barrhead bought the skateboard apparatuses in 2004 from another community used.
Rather than seeing the equipment deteriorate and be vandalized, the municipality made the equipment available to other communities and not-for-profit organizations at no charge.
One of the groups that took the town up on its offer was the Cousins Skateboard Community, which picked up a good portion of the equipment in mid-May. The other organization was the Neerlandia Sports Committee.
Cousins Skateboard Community, based out of Medicine Hat, is a not-for-profit organization that works with Indigenous communities to create skateboarding programs for youth.
Cousins executive director Stuart Young learned about the equipment through his mother, Lavena Thompson, who lives in the Lac La Nonne area.
He created the not-for-profit organization with his friend C.J. Cutter in 2020.
"We are both skateboard enthusiasts, and we wanted to give youth from Indigenous communities, like we were, the same chance to experience what the sport did for us," he said when the group came to collect the equipment.
Young explained that they make the mobile skateboard park available to the communities for the season, saying they hope that by supplying the equipment, they will see its benefit for their youth and then work towards building a permanent park. Their goal is to have every one of the five Indigenous communities in Treaty 7 in southern Alberta have permanent skateparks.
End of an era
In June, Long-time Neerlandia Public School teacher Howard Gelderman announced his retirement after 30 years at Neerlandia Public Christian School (NPCS).
Long-time NPCS staff member Debbie Fisher, who predates Gelderman at the school, noted she worked alongside him for his entire tenure in Neerlandia.
"Thirty years. It doesn't seem that long, but it makes sense when you think about all Mr. G has accomplished," she said.
Fisher referred to the numerous championship volleyball banners that adorn the gym walls.
"Mr. G had much to do with winning several of those banners," she said, adding his influence on his former players goes well beyond the sport. "He may have taught them how to serve a volleyball, but more importantly, he taught them, as he does for all his students and players, how to serve others," Fisher said. "And it goes beyond his students and players. Through his example, he has shown parents, staff, and alumni the true meaning of servitude."
Swinging for the Stollery
The organizers of the annual Jackpine Slow-pitch tournament are closing in on a prestigious milestone, raising $100,000 for the Stolery Children's Foundation.
The softball tournament on the Labour Day weekend has been an annual tradition in Fort Assiniboine since the 1980s. However, it has only been recently that the event has become a fundraiser for the Stollery. This year marked the sixth year the tournament was a fundraiser for the children's hospital, albeit not all in a row. Unfortunately, the 2020 tournament was cancelled due to COVID.
This year, the tournament raised $18,000, putting the total amount donated to the Stollery at just under the $100,000 mark. Darren Wood, who organizes the tournament with his wife Jennifer, said they decided to make the event a fundraiser for the Stollery because they wanted to do something good.
"As parents of a daughter with cerebral palsy, we have been to the Stollery a lot, and we know first-hand the good they do," he said.
Realizing a dream
In May, Raine's Clinic in Malawi, Africa, officially opened after three years of hard work by many people.
Unfortunately, Raine Kooger, a Barrhead registered nurse and the woman the clinic was named after, did not live to see it happen.
Raine tragically passed away on April 6, 2019. She was only 44.
"It was her dream," Jason Kooger, Raine's husband, told the Barrhead Leader.
On its official opening, May 3, the clinic served 108 patients. Since its launch, it continues to serve upwards of 100 patients a day, providing otherwise unavailable urgent medical care to the people of the Longwe region.
Malawi is a landlocked country in southeastern Africa, bordered by Zambia, Tanzania, and Mozambique. It is one of the least developed countries in the world, with a low life expectancy and high infant mortality rates.
"Raine was always interested in mission work," Kooger said, adding she made her first trip to the nation in 2011.
However, it wasn't until 2017, when Raine got involved with Blazing Faith Ministries in Edmonton, that she started her love affair with Africa and the people of Malawi.
"She always said if we ever got a lot of money, we should set up a clinic in Malawi, and that is what [with the help of the Cummers and Blazing Faith Ministries] we did it," Kooger said.
