Winddancer demos braids

Twisting some pipe cleaners together to make a bracelet can teach young students an important lesson about Indigenous culture.

Winddancer Waskewitch, an Indigenous consultant with the Lloydminster Public School Division, best known by his first name, used the exercise to teach Grade 4 students at College Park

School the meaning of braiding hair.

“I’m so passionate about it. I found a lot more stories and lessons behind it,” said Winddancer who braids his own hair. He says braiding hair is a cultural connection to one’s parents and grandparents and the creator.

“Having long hair is a way of showing that commitment to being connected,” he said.

“I grew up seeing men that I wanted to be like with long hair. For me, a role model had long hair. My hair taught me how to be a father and a man.”

Teacher Raemi Wilchynski, says Winddancer visited her class twice last week to learn about how important braiding is to his culture and give kids the chance to practise braiding.

“It’s part of social studies program and infusing First Nations culture into our school,” said Wilchynski.

“Last year, he came and shared the importance of it and this year, we were able to braid and actually see how to do it and see the importance of it a little bit more. Kids learn best by doing.”

Students were given three different coloured strands to weave together to make bracelets or book marks with Indigenous braiding in mind.

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Justin uses his computer know-how to help Mike with marketing Spectrefest.

“We’ve always had an interest in computers and technology,” said Mike, adding Jason, “was a huge fan of all sorts of gaming.

“We’ve had a really strong presence in Lloydminster. A lot of folks still talk with me about times they’ve spent with Jason and how they knew him.”

Mike says when Jason moved to North Battleford in 2012, he and Justin would spend time online with him playing games and keeping in contact.

“It was almost like a daily occurrence,” he said.

Jason’s interest in gaming along with the need to raise funds for Crohn’s and colitis is expected to draw between 60 to 120 gamers from Lloydminster and North Battleford.

“We’ve got roots in North Battleford. That’s

“We are already shopping and looking for deals on items we put in the bags. We will start delivering to the schools hopefully in the second week of December,” said Gallant.

“We’ll be packing 2,000 bags.”

The club is also the title sponsor of the annual Kiwanis Lloydminster and District Music Festival.

“The $10,000 hopefully will be enough to cover those two projects,” said Gallant.

“This is the fourth year we have done this fundraising and every year we’ve been able to sell out.”

“The community is awesome. I pound the pavement. I go to a lot of businesses and everyone is very welcoming and very supportive.” where Cory’s from as well. We’re just trying to get the message out to get as many people to come and support the cause,” said Mike.

Gallant also took the opportunity to name UCG founder Paul Richer, who was absent, as a recipient of the club’s distinguished service award along with a gift card to Tim Hortons.

“He’s just very supportive of the Kiwanis Club,” said Gallant.

“The first year we did it, we had over 500 people stop in at some point in that 24 hours.”

Mike says the plan as usual is to play all sorts of games.

“We do a fair amount of the retro ones that we would have grown up with like the original Nintendo and Sega and stuff like that,” he said.

“Then we do some of the newer games out there as well. It’s kind of a mixed bag of everything.”

Mike says Spectrefest will also have a live chat for players to talk with him or Duchscher the whole time.

“We appreciate anyone who’s in the middle of the night to keep helping us to stay awake and going for it. It’s completely interactive,” he added.

“The more people we have in the stream helps get the channel spotted by other people who oth- erwise might not know that it’s happening.” Duchscher may have pitched it best in the inaugural 2021 promotional video with Mike that’s still available for a listen at Spectrefest Facebook page.

“To give to give back to a charity that there’s to help people who are in the same situation or similar situation to what Jason had been in just means a lot to me and of course to Mike as well,” he said.

“It’s going to be all around fun times.”

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He says with baby boomers moving into retirement in large numbers, retirement is a timely topic.

The annual event is a partnership between Lloydminster Family and Community Support Services (FCSS) and Lloydminster Learning Council Association.

“We are very fortunate to have Neil Harris here today, a local speaker, someone who knows the local community and someone who has experience with retirement,” said FCSS manager social programs and services, Patrick Lancaster.

“We want to make sure folks are well prepared for that transition and can be strong and resilient as they go through retirement.”

The event was also an opportunity to promote the city’s senior taxi program and the recreation access program for low income people of any age to get reduced access rates to use city facilities.

“The learning council is also sharing information targeted towards seniors,” said Lancaster.

The council also secured some funding from the federal New Horizons for Seniors Program.

“We were able to partly fund this project and organize this event,” said learning council executive director, Maria Sarcauga.

“This is an important event for seniors because we have identified a topic that would be of interest to them— the stages of retirement,” she said.

“This is ideal for them to see what stage they are in now and cope with the issues of aging and being a senior citizen.”

Many seniors also took in free city tours to the artifact warehouse and Lloydminster Museum and Archive Oct. 3-4.