Heavy EMS response to collision

Injuries resulting from a crash on Highway 12 at the intersection of Provincial Road 311 on Sept. 26 did not appear to be life threatening according to RCMP. The collision happened late in the afternoon when police say a vehicle turned north onto Highway 12 and was struck by a northbound Lexus. A heavy EMS presence was noted at the scene with four ambulances on site at one time. Police say the driver of the vehicle that turned on to the highway is facing a charge of proceeding before safe to do so.

Leather craftsman found Fibre Festival a great venue

It may be unusual to see a leather craftsman setting up his display among 75 or so exhibitors at the annual Fibre Festival which features everything wool, but Niverville’s Chuck Allen says he knew in advance that he would have fans in this group.

Allen is the leather craftsman at Earth and Hide in Niverville and time away from the General Store at any number of craft shows and markets.

He did not originally have the annual fibre festival the Red River Exhibition Place on his schedule for this year but a snapshot from a friend changed his mind. Allen says his friend at Wolseley Wool, sent a picture to his phone showing five of his bags hanging on hooks at one of her knitting sessions.

“You have fans”, the message said.

Pirates and sea shanties coming to the Steinbach stage

Pirates and sea shanties are coming to Steinbach as Looking Glass Theatre brings its production of Treasure Island to audiences.

“It’s the story of a young man named Jim Hawkins who finds himself suddenly in possession of a pirate’s treasure map. He has to decide if he will go on a big adventure and discover himself, find himself as a man, or maybe find himself as a pirate, we don’t know. It’s a big adventure, family friendly, filled with music extravaganza,” said lead actor Laura Kathleen Turner, who plays Hawkins, which she said was great fun to play a teenage boy.

Turner and her co-star Marc Moir, who plays Long John Silver, said the production is not unlike Pirates of the Caribbean in that there are pirates but what separates this show is what they refer to as rock n’ roll pirates.

“The rock and roll aspect – deep down inside I have no musical talent – but deep down inside I would have liked to be a part of some 2000s punk rock band and I kind of thought pirates are kind of the rock stars of their day: they’re flouting all the rules, they’re tricksters and bad boys. The legend arrived in port long before they ever did and it was a natural fit,” said playwright Scot Moir, who adapted the play from Robert Louis Stevenson’s book of the same name.

Springfield drops first WHSFL game of season

While the Steinbach Sabres are re-gaining their footing after a crazy start to the schedule, the Springfield Sabres are looking to hang tough in the North East Conference of the Winnipeg High School Football League.

Springfield dropped their first game of the season Sept. 28, when they hosted last year’s league finalists, the Grant Park Pirates.

The Sabres went toe-to-toe with the Pirates, until a quarterback keeper went over 50 yards to the end zone. While Springfield’s defense appeared on par with Grant Park’s offense at times, their offense couldn’t find any sustained success, as Grant Park came away with a 28-0 victory.

Steinbach fell to Grant Park 35-14 earlier this season after battling last year’s league finalists to a first half 14-14 tie.

COLUMN: Village News – East Reserve Villages in 1874: Kleefeld

The modern town of Kleefeld, the “Land of Milk and Honey,” has a storied past and holds the distinction of being the first Mennonite village established in Western Canada. After arriving in 1874 at the Red and Rat rivers, the Mennonite settlers arrived at the Shantz immigration sheds south of Niverville. The women and children stayed in the huts until surveyors could lay out the twenty-one villages that were established in 1874. Kleine Gemeinde immigrants travelled south and east before arriving at a spot just south of what is now Highway 52. The village of Grünfeld was established at a northwest-by-southeast angle and held 16 families, making it similar in size and layout to the village of Steinbach.

Originally, the community was named Grünfeld by Kleine Gemeinde delegate Cornelius Toews after his hometown in the Borosenko colony, north of modern-day Nikopol in south Ukraine. Toews was one of the twelve delegates representing the various colonies and gemeinde in Russia who toured the American Midwest and Canadian prairie in 1873 to find a new home for their communities. Delegate Toews being in the community brought prestige, as the ältester or head minister played a pivotal role in both the religious and secular life of the village. In 1876, delegate Toews commissioned the building of a windmill for Grünfeld, but despite this, growth stagnated and the community didn’t see the same expansion and industry as Steinbach. In 1881, a significant split occurred as several families joined the nascent Holdeman movement. The name Grünfeld held until a government Post Office was added in 1896 and the name bore too much similarity to an existing town. The new name of Kleefeld, which translates as “clover field” is apt considering many honey producers would eventually operate in the area.

Unlike some of the other Kleine Gemeinde communities who set up schools in homes within the first year, the village of Grünfeld operated its school out of a sarai until 1879. Sarai were long tipi-style buildings built from thatch that rested on the ground. These could be built more easily than semlin (sod houses), but were rarely built in Manitoba due to their inability to properly insulate against the cold winters. This lack of a permanent building must have led to several chilly years for the first students.

Like Blumenort and some other East Reserve villages, the dissolution of the original village plan in the early 1900s led to a complete shift in the village location. Modern-day Kleefeld is located roughly one and a half miles south of the original village of Grünfeld and is situated along a north-south grid. There is little evidence of the original village site remaining, although the original village orientation can still be seen in several properties just north of the Holeman Mennonite cemetery at the junction of Highway 216 and Road 35N or Gruenfeld Road.

Public appeal reunites horse-bike with owner

A public appeal has resulted in the owner of a horse themed bike being reunited.

Police issued a press release earlier this week, looking for someone who may have left the gate open or had their unique horse-bike rustled.

RCMP say on Sept. 28, they recovered the peddle powered equine themed bicycle on the corner of Loewen Boulevard and Home Street in Steinbach.

On Thursday morning, RCMP issued a second release to say the owner had been found.

Mennonite East and West Reserve bus tours announced

As the Manitoba Mennonite Historical Society continues to celebrate the milestone of the 150th anniversary of Mennonite settlement in the province, the organization with support from the Plett Foundation has announced they will host bus tours on both sides of the river.

Historians Conrad Stoesz and Ernie Braun will host an East Reserve bus tour on Oct. 10, while Stoesz while host the West Reserve tour on Oct. 22.

Stoesz, who is president of the MMHS and archivist at Canadian Mennonite University said the pair of tours give people the opportunity to tour some of the less travelled sites important to Manitoba Mennonite history.

While only single bus tours of each side of the river are planned for this year, Stoesz said they hope to do another pair of tours in 2025.

Eastman cousins continue to battle at NHL camps

While they came into their 20-year-old NHL training camps with different goals and expectations, former Eastman Selects Denton Mateychuk and Owen Pickering both appear to be thriving with their respective teams.

Dominion City’s Mateychuk appears on a mission to crack the Columbus Blue Jackets opening night roster. The defenseman scored two goals in his first two exhibition games this season.

“I feel like I’m playing good hockey, and I feel good out there,” Mateychuk said in a media scrum after a 3-2 loss to Washington.

“I’m going out there to play my game and whatever happens, happens.”

Breaking walls at Niverville Truth and Reconciliation concert

Thousands of people, including Prime Minister Jean Chretien fresh from a close call with the Quebec referendum on separation, had gathered in Ottawa for a Sacred Assembly in December 1995. Jonathan Maracle, then a young man who had struggled reconciling his Mohawk identity with his devout Christianity, was asked to sing Amazing Grace and use a traditional drum.

He told the Indigenous leaders that he did not think he could.

“You know the drum is heathen. You know if I do that, I’m turning my back on the principals of Christianity from what I was being taught,” Maracle told those gathered in Niverville Community Fellowship church Sept. 27, three days ahead of the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation.

Elijah Harper, the renowned Oji-Cree MP for Churchill and minister in the federal government, insisted. So did Wally McKay, former grand chief of the Nishnawbe Aski Nation (1981-83) and vice chief of the Assembly of First Nations (1982-84) who helped form one of the first Indigenous police services, and brought a legal case to London High Court in England to ensure treaty rights with the Crown. McKay was in Niverville to speak as well.

COLUMN: Tales from the Gravel Ridge – Taking freedom seriously

What do we mean when we speak of freedom? Perhaps it depends on who you ask, …or possibly for anyone of us at a given moment, what is it that we mean or hope for.

For many of us, freedom from hunger has never been an overriding concern, not even remotely. During my childhood and youth my family lived in Rosengard, situated on the gravel ridge stretching approximately 21 kilometres between Grunthal and Steinbach. Our community was chiefly made up of small, mixed farms. My parents worked hard to provide for us, as I am certain, did other members of our community. Since we lived a distance of 15 kilometres from Steinbach, our nearest large town, getting there in summer by means of a two-horse drawn wagon was time-consuming. Travelling that distance during winter weather was similarly time consuming, in addition to the possibility of adverse weather, causing potentially dangerous conditions to all involved.

It is truly remarkable that I am unable to recall ever being seriously hungry, except for the ravenous appetite of a growing child or young adult. This is so, in spite of the fact that there was no convenience store to which we could make a quick trip for a snack, for example. It speaks, of course, to the capacity of those in our community who were responsible for the well-being of their families, to plan wisely and carefully, keeping in mind seasonal changes in weather and travel conditions. It also required that foods be stored in ways that would prevent spoilage, given that prior to approximately 1950, none of us had access to electricity. The phenomenal advantages that electricity provided for families in our community were immeasurable, especially in the context of food preservation and storage.

There is, however, more to freedom than, for example, freedom from fear, or pain, or other distressing situations. We have freedom to make choices, for example, and are free to make all sorts of decisions. As well, we have freedoms specifically provided for in legislation, and in the constitution of our country.

Stung by romance scam, retiree forced to go back to work

Ernie Kiss acted out of love, but it came back to bite him.

The Steinbach man, who spent his career in aviation, has had his life savings of more than $185,000 swiped by a scammer.

Kiss, 62, said that instead of settling into retirement, he has go back to work full time.

“I’m going to be working until the day of my funeral,” he said Thursday. “I will work in the morning and take the afternoon off for my funeral. It is embarrassing. This bit hard, but I don’t want this to happen to anyone else which is why I’m talking about it.”

Carillon Sports Second Shots: Sept. 26th edition

Featuring photos from the Steinbach Regional Secondary School's varsity football game against Vincent Massey Sept. 19, the Niverville Nighthawks and Steinbach Pistons home openers Sept. 20 and 21, The Eastman Warriors championship victory Sept. 21, action from an Eastman Raiders crunchers game Sept. 22 and the Providence Pilots women's soccer team victory Sept. 22.