THURSDAY, august 1, 2019 Vol. a-75, No. 31
Serving Fort St. John, B.C. and Surrounding Communities
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More than 100 people turned out to the Fort St. John Sunrise Rotary Club’s third annual Colour Me Run, July 28, 2019. Participants took five and ten-kilometres loops around the city after hitting the ground running at Northern Lights College, and were all thoroughly blasted with bright fluorescent coloured powder along the way. By the end of the races, all runners returned crossing the finish line in their newly tie-dyed outfits and costumes. Steve Toews and his son Harvey (bottom left) were all smiles after they crossed the finish line well ahead of the pack and in first place in the 5K run. Lorena Daros placed first in the 10K run.
Project adds calming colour to Peace Villa matt preprost editor@ahnfsj.ca
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A student project is helping to spruce up the Peace Villa care home with art to calm patients living with dementia. Megan Clarance and her classmate Joely Percival held a concert at Evangel Chapel in June, raising around $1,100 for the Fort St. John Hospital Auxiliary. The funds are going to support the auxiliary’s ongoing work to wrap eight sets of double-wide doors to the patient wings with murals. Two sets are already completed, one with a waterfall vista, and the other with a bookcase. “That deters them from thinking, ‘That’s a door, I’m going home’,” said Rosemary Landry, president of the auxiliary. “It really works. All they want to do is go home. They’re always at the doors trying to get out.” Wrapping each door isn’t cheap — it costs around $2,000, and the donation received Friday, July 26, goes a long way to funding the next mural, Landry said. The hospital auxiliary was founded in 1932, and has raised tens of thousands of dollars for patient services and medical equipment and supplies since. Supporting the auxiliary was an easy choice for Clarance once she learned about its work and its project for dementia patients — her grandpa suffered
matt preprost photo
Megan Clarance (centre) with Rosemary Landry and Rosalie Brandl of the Fort St. John Hospital Auxiliary, July 26, 2019.
from Alzheimer’s and spent six months at Peace Villa. So, Clarance gathered her friends and family for a night of music, poetry, and a silent auction at Evangel on June 22 to raise awareness about the disease and the work of the hospital auxiliary. “It’s nice to be able to give back, especially all the people who helped out up here to make his stay more comfortable,” Clarance said. “It’s really hard to watch someone slip away. I never would have started playing guitar if it wasn’t for him. He gave me the guitar I have right now. He was always trying to get me to play (Loretta Lynn’s) Coal Miner’s Daughter, which I
haven’t learned yet but I’m going to get it.” Clarance and Percival organized the fundraiser as part of their community project as students at the Energetic Learning Campus. Clarance starts Grade 11 at North Peace in the fall, but she’s planning to finish her Grade 12 studies at the same time too, so she can work and save up money for post-secondary studies in health care. Right now, she sees a future in trauma surgery — a career that means 14 years of schooling. “It’s awesome to help people,” Clarance said. The auxiliary is always looking for support and volunteers. To learn more, call the hospital gift shop.
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Two teens wanted for three murders in Northern B.C. continue to elude a national manhunt led by RCMP and the Canadian military in Manitoba. After chasing nearly 300 tips, canvassing more than 500 homes, and searching hundreds of kilometres of northern Manitoba wilderness by foot and air, police are no closer to finding Kam McLeod and Bryer Schmegelsky. Mounties left York Landing, Manitoba, Tuesday morning after a feverish 24-hour search, and have returned their focus to the Gillam area. Manitoba RCMP say they continue to search “high probability areas” for signs of the fugitive teens, both on foot, and by air with the help of the Canadian air force. A checkstop leading into Gillam has been removed. “Investigators have now received over 260 tips in the past seven days. None have established that the suspects are outside of the Gillam area,” Cpl. Julie Courchaine said. “However, the RCMP continues to remind the public that it is possible the suspects inadvertently received assistance and are no longer in the area. We continue to investigate all possibilities.” Police have spent the last week searching for McLeod, 19, and Schmegelsky, 18. The two are wanted on Canada-wide arrest warrants for the murder of Leonard Dyck, a Vancouver university professor, near Dease Lake on July 19. They are also suspects in the fatal shootings of Lucas Fowler and Chynna Deese, both international tourists, near Liard Hot Springs on July 15. A community patrol believed it had spotted the teens at the York Landing garbage dump on Sunday afternoon, but RCMP couldn’t confirm the claim after a “thorough and exhaustive” search of the area. McLeod and Schmegelsky were last seen in Gillam on July 22, and where they torched and abandoned the vehicle they were last seen driving. Since then, police have canvassed more than 500 homes in the remote town, as well as the neighbouring Fox Lake Cree Nation. They’ve also searched cottages, cabins, abandoned buildings, rail lines, and waterways.
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