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Helping others during their toughest times
MICHELLE HAMILTON PSYCHOLOGIST, WIFE, MOTHER, BUSINESS OWNER
Michelle Hamilton is a registered psychologist working out of her private practice, Beyond Balance, located at #101 3811
51 Ave. in Lloydminster, and has done everything she can to help others through her 25-plus-year career, seven of which have been through her private practice. Hamilton moved to the Border City when she was in Grade 10 and attended the Lloydminster Comprehensive High School. She explained how growing up, her family moved a lot and she attended 10 different schools in five years. She found the connections she developed with some teachers at Lloyd Comp really turned things around for her in a positive way
and that’s when she really got focused on school. “I graduated from Lloyd Comp, went to university, got my first degree in psychology and started working in group homes and within child and youth care,” she said. In 1992 Hamilton was hired as a school counsellor at Lloyd Comp, which for her, was when everything came full circle and she was back in the Border City working at the very high school that helped shape who she is today. “That was my first big job in my view and I loved it. I worked there for 18 years as a school counsellor so I gained a lot of experiences and worked with a lot of people in the community as they made their way through their teenage years at the Comp,” she said.
“When I finished registering as a psychologist and was still at the Comp it was time for a new learning curve and I needed to develop my skills working. I wanted to work more with adults and trauma, so I resigned from my position at the school and took a year doing another job at a treatment centre and then started my private practice in November 2012.” Hamilton now works with a lot of first responders and is trained and enjoys working with a modality of treatment called EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing), which she described as one option of treatment for PTSD and trauma-related disorders. HAMILTON CONTINUED ON PAGE 4
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Constantly learning to benefit others CONTINUED FROM PAGE 3
“Since I’ve had that training and have learned this way of working this way with trauma I’ve developed an interest in working with trauma and I enjoy working with people with work-related trauma, such as police and first responders, ambulance crews and firefighters,” she said. “I’ve seen a lot of people who have been affected by experiences in their line of work, but I do believe people can recover from trauma if they get the right help, but there’s all kinds of roadblocks that interfere with people getting the help they need.” Hamilton truly loves what she does, which is evident through the way she describes the career path she’s taken.
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I’ve worked with a lot of people over the years through the school, networking, and my private practice, which is meaningful and makes me proud of our community. MICHELLE HAMILTON
Being an active part of a community is also something she believes in, and she’s proud to call the Border City home. “I feel that I’ve got a lot of roots here now and have a lot of history with a lot of people in the community,” she said. “Whether I’ve been a helper to them or a colleague. I’ve worked with a lot of people over the years through the school, net-
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working, and my private practice, which is meaningful and makes me proud of our community. There’s a lot of great things about Lloydminster that makes it a good place to live and raise a family.” Hamilton described what she loves most about the work that she does is the results she sees in her patients. “What I love about my work,
especially working with EMDR, is it gives you a structure to work with, otherwise trauma is just so overwhelming because it’s tough to know where to start, but it provides a structure, and I typically see my clients get better quite quickly,” she said. “When you feel the rewards of people getting better and when they like working with me and feel they’re seeing results or getting better, that’s just energizing for me. “Even if someone tells me a dark story, overall if they’re responding well to treatment, that feels good to me and gives me good energy that keeps me coming back.” Hamilton and her husband have three adult children who have also all graduated from Lloyd Comp.
Raising the bar on realtor education
JENNIFER GILBERT ASSOCIATE BROKER/ PROPERTY MANAGER
Looking to purchase a home but don’t know where to start? Jennifer Gilbert has the answers to all of your questions. Gilbert got her real estate licence in 2008 and started as an associate with her residential, commercial and rural licensing. She was the top agent at Coldwell Banker from 2009 through to 2013. In 2013 she got her associate bro-
kers licence giving her the qualification to run her own brokerage if she chose to do so. She was also one of the top 10 agents in Canada for units sold in 2014, sitting at number three on that list. “I’ve done a couple of panel speaking engagements in 2015 for Coldwell Banker Canada and at that time I was also not he board of directors for the Realtor Association of Lloydminster and District,” she said. “From 2010 through 2015 I moved from director, secretary, treasurer, chair elect, chair, and then moved on to bigger things and into my role now with provincial real estate.” Since 2016 Gilbert has been on the board of directors on the Alberta Real Estate Association and is now an advocate for the 10,762 plus members of that association. “I started out in a director posi-
tion, and have always been very passionate about the education side of real estate and raising the bar in that respect, and trying to find more tools to benefits our realtors in Alberta,” she said. Over the last four years Gilbert has been the director of the real estate association in Alberta, was nominated as chair elect in 20182019, and is now the chair of the association. “It’s been a journey and I love every bit of it. I love being at the table. Our industry right now is in the midst of dynamic change, so really finding that value proposition for the realtor brand, one of the things I’m passionate about is education,” she said. Gilbert has also been involved with SAIT Polytechnic out of Calgary to help further Realtor education through the provincial real estate association. She has played a key role as a
subject matter expert building the Alberta Realtor Training Program. “I have been working with SAIT and building the course specific to the Real Estate Act and building some applicable information for our learners,” she said. She also explained one of the other things she really enjoys about working with SAIT and that course is adult learning and the dynamic of group learning and working with your peers. “People are coming into real estate from all different markets and walks of life, and ultimately we’re sole proprietors and we don’t have all the tools in our toolboxes,” she said. “We are our own business, and being able to give those tools back to the realtor at a cost-effective price point, is great.” GILBERT CONTINUED ON PAGE 9
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Service with a smile
MARIANNE STELMASCHUK WIFE, MOM, DENTIST
Born and raised in the Border City, Dr. Marianne Stelmaschuk is the passionate dentist behind the bright smiles of patients at Tooth Suite Family Dentistry. Over the last 25 years, Stelmaschuk has been mentored by keen minds who have afforded her to desire to strive for excellence in everything she does, including dentistry.
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“I b e lieve all dentists inherently want the general public to understand that oral health does affect overall health and it affects chronic disease,” she said. “The impact of gingivitis and periodontitis does not stop at the mouth and teeth. A growing body of evidence has linked oral health, particularly periodontal (gum) disease to several chronic diseases including diabetes, heart disease and stroke.” Stelmaschuk’s vision and mission in dentistry has been and continues to be providing her patients with a
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positive dental experience that will promote a lifelong relationship between patient and dentist. “I absolutely love what I do! Dentistry is a unique melding and balance between art and science,” she said. “Being a dentist requires a lifelong commitment to learning through continuing education. I have been blessed to be part of a study group in Edmonton for nearly 20 years mentored by Dr. Brian Kucey, a well-recognized prosthodontist.” Aside from her commitment to dentistry, Stelmaschuk enjoys spending time relaxing with her husband, Kevin, and their three active teens Ava, 17, Lara, 14 and Jake, 14. “We enjoy family time at Loon Lake and travelling to other communities taking in our teens’ numerous sports and activities,” she said. She explained how dental work must be aesthetic as well as functional as it has to look great and
withstand hundreds of pounds per square inch from bite forces. “The tremendous advancement of dental technology and materials in the last two decades is staggering,” she said. “Literature reviews of scientific papers and application of the fundamentals of dentistry with modified approaches with ever-changing technology continues to challenge and fascinate me. I feel fulfilled and fortunate that I have truly enjoyed my chosen profession and I have never had any desire to change my career path as a general dentist and I expect to work in this capacity until I reach my retirement.” She added that dentistry has afforded her a life-long opportunity to grow as a practitioner, applying artistry and scientific principles in her daily life, always remembering that there is a person attached to the tooth who deserves compassion and an opportunity for the better oral health.
Always being there, on and off the track
KIM CAREY
WIFE, MOM, PROFESSIONAL Whether they’re on your team or not, it’s all about family and helping others in need. Kim Carey is the support system that helps get her husband, BJ Carey, and his Canadian Professional Chuckwagon Association (CPCA chuckwagon team through the season. Carey, whose maiden name is Laboucane, grew up in the world of chuckwagons as her father, Brian, had a very extensive and successful 45-year racing career. Her brother, Jamie, is also currently racing, continuing the Laboucane legacy in the CPCA. “BJ and I started dating right as I
got out of high school and eventually we started to follow dad around a little bit and BJ started working for dad in the summers for a few years,” she said. “When Larry McEwen was selling out his kit BJ said to me ‘what do you think about buying some of Larry’s stuff and getting it going. That’s how it all started, and since it’s so expensive to get into it took us a few years to get going and have everything you need to go down the road and be successful.” Kim and BJ are going into their 14th season with the CPCA and don’t have any plans of stopping anytime soon. Carey decided to pursue post-secondary education for arts and sciences in Red Deer but by Christmas came to the conclusion it wasn’t for
her. “I ended up coming home at Christmas and going back to work on the farm in Paradise Hill,” she said. “Growing up in the sport I was very fortunate to have a dad that thought I could do everything the guys were doing, so I always helped out in the barns and loved wagons,” she said. Kim and BJ got married in 2001 and now have three children, Mitch-
ell, 17, Lynden, 15, Shay, who turns 13 in November. There’s a lot of behind the scenes work being done to keep the CPCA season going both inside and outside the barns. “There’s a lot of family members that get involved and it’s a hard sport to get into,” she said. “You need to have family and close connections to get into it and we all help each other out. CAREY CONTINUED ON PAGE 11
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Helping teach the next generation CONTINUED FROM PAGE 5
A driving force that got Gilbert interested in working with SAIT is the fact that someone interested in getting into real estate could go online and get scholarships to become a variety of different professions, but you couldn’t go online and figure out how to get scholarships or get polytechnic education to become a Realtor. “All of the education was through a regulator, so having the opportunity for polytechnic education and raising that bar, for our consumers to be able to say ‘my realtor has a certificate in leadership in real estate’ is great,” she said. Before she got into real estate she worked at Lloydminster Chiropractic for seven years and looked after all of their admin,
Working with the doctors got me thinking ‘what could I do to have the kind of freedom and flexibility they do in my life.’ That’s when I started working on my real estate licence. JENNIFER GILBERT
payroll, hiring front off staff, and anything else that needed to get done. “I worked for the City of Lloydminster when I got out of Reeves Business College and worked for Waste Management which at that point was Canadian Waste,” she said. “I dispatched pretty much all of northern Alberta, hired and trained all junior staff, but when
they became Waste Management a lot changed. I was basically 23 years old running a garbage company. It was very stressful.” Gilbert ended up leaving that job and took a maternity leave position at the chiropractic centre where she worked for seven years. “I loved working there and working with those people,” she said.
“Working with the doctors got me thinking ‘what could I do to have the kind of freedom and flexibility they do in my life.’ That’s when I started working on my real estate licence.” Once she had her real estate business going she decided to leave the chiropractic centre while still helping out as needed. “By 2012 I was full time into real estate, and I’m extremely passionate about it,” she said. “First-time buyers and seniors are my favourites to work with. A lot of time you have to go through a lot of junk before you find the diamond in the ruff, and one of the most important things for me is not helping a client find A home, it’s to find them THE home and making sure it’s right for them.”
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From a tent kid to THE tent guy chance you’ve worked w i t h P a m Becotte in some w a y shape or form. “My dad had been to an event in 1996 that had a tent at a kids’ function and thought ‘wouldn’t this be PAM BECOTTE great for grandma and grandpa’s MOTHER, WIFE, BUSINESS party,’ and he phoned around OWNER, ENTREPRENEUR looking to rent one and wasn’t able to find one to rent, even in If you’ve thrown a party in the Edmonton,” he said. Border City in the past couple “So he ended up having to buy of decades, there’s a really good
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one. He already had an automobile rental company so he was set up for it. The first tent was a 20X40 ft. tent and could fit 100 chairs and 12 tables underneath it, and now we have a tent that seats 700 people that’s used at cabarets and things like that.” Pam and her husband Landon bought the business two years ago and are excited to celebrate 25 years as “The Tent Guys” in a couple of summers. “We would show up places under a different rental company name and people would just say ‘Oh the tent guys are here,’ and the name just kind of stuck,” she said. Pam went off to school and once she returned with a totally different career path she realized
how much she missed the “event world.” “We have a big extended family so having large gatherings weren’t out of the ordinary and I missed being a part of that,” she said. “The second time I went to school to get my event certification, so I’m a certified planner, and it’s cool to see the rental business from the perspective of a planner.” Pam explained how The Tent Guys have reached out to other charitable organizations in the community if they are ever in need of extra supplies, which in turn helps bring in funds throughout the community. BECOTTE CONTINUED ON PAGE 11
Learning life lesson through wagon racing FROM PAGE 7
“The first year BJ and I raced we went down the road with Jamie. We park separate now but it’s great because my mom and dad are always there and I get to see family, my kids also get to be with family all of the time.” Carey described fellow chuckwagon families as her summer family. “In the winter you have your hockey family and in the summer you have
a baby and had a pretty successful career with that, but as the economy tanked I needed a source of income,” she said. Not long after working as the office manager, Carey found herself also doing all of the marketing and sponsorship work for the CPCA, a job that she eventually applied for and got. “Wagon racing is an all-year thing for me,” she said. “People think that because the season is over for now it stops, but our banquet was Oct. 19
your wagon family, and what’s unique about it is, you don’t see those people for six or nine months but when you see them again you just pick up where you left off.” Not only is Carey a woman of the wagons, but she is also the office manager and in charge of all marketing and sponsorships within the CPCA. “I first took on the office manager job with the CPCA four years ago, and before that, I was doing nails, which I took a course for when Lynden was
so I’ve been planning that and wrapping up from the previous season, but we’re also trying to get all of our contracts signed for 2020.” Keeping a wagon team going down the road is a team effort, and Carey is one of the many wives who help in the barns, cook, clean and look after the kids. “It’s comforting and nice to know other race teams are there to help you if you need it, and it’s a great lesson to teach the kids,” she said.
Being a contributor in a positive fashion in the Border City FROM PAGE 10
“It’s been so neat to watch staff here grow up who have worked here for a while because we see them out being positive members of the community, which is really nice for us,” she said. As an event planner, Pam is also the owner of the Weddings on the Border
talent we have in Lloydminster,” she said. “It’s also a great way to get people to network and build a client base in the wedding world.” The Family Expo came about after Pam had heard a number of people say there’s nothing to do in town and wanted to change that.
Bridal Show as well as the Lloydminster Family Expo. With these two events, Pam’s goal is to showcase what Lloydminster and the surrounding area have to offer customers as a way to try to keep business local and celebrating local companies. “My main focus for acquiring the wedding show was to showcase the
“There are so many different activities in town that a lot of people didn’t know about, and it was a great way to have a day out with the family,” she said. “We’re not just oil and gas, we’re not just farming, there’s no much more to Lloydminster and we wanted to showcase that.”
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The First Lady of Lloydminster wouldn’t trade her job for anything ald Aalbers, there’s a very good chance you’ve met his wife, Christine. Christine has worn many hats over the years, and looking back she never thought she’d have the privilege to be doing the kind of work she’s doing now, that being a steward to the community. Christine grew up in Denzil, Sask. She and Gerald have been married for 30 years and have three kids, CHRISTINE AALBERS Dale, 27, Kelly, 25, and Rebecca, 24. WIFE, MOTHER, ACTIVE Before he was the mayor of LloydCOMMUNITY MEMBER minster, Gerald also worked in Behind every strong man is a many different fields, including oil and gas and Ducks Unlimited. strong woman. If you’ve had the pleasure of run- Due to the nature of his work, the ning into Lloydminster Mayor Ger- couple and their kids moved around
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quite a bit and ended up moving eight times over 10 years. “When we moved here, nine months later they wanted us to move again and we decided to stay,” she said. “We’ve been here for 14 years and it’s being from Denzil, we didn’t come to Lloyd too often, but it’s not far from home, which is nice.” Now that their kids are grown up and living away from home Christine has more spare time then she used to and uses that time to fulfil her duties as Lloyd’s First Lady in every way shape and form. “When we were raising the kids we actually homeschooled them, so when they graduated and were done it was a huge chance because my days were full with them, but once they went off to post-secondary school I had a ton of free time,” she said. “But I worked part-time
with Wisdom Home Schooling out of Derwent and did website design and different things for them.” It’s very rare to spot the mayor at a public engagement or fundraiser without his wife by his side, something the couple has been doing since the beginning. “Once Gerald decided to get into politics I stopped what I was doing and decided I’d be his campaign manager. I took that on and we both realized that as a couple it was important that we are present to the community, and one of the things we noticed was, everywhere we went on the campaign most politicians are there by themselves, but we wanted people to see that marriage is good and we enjoy each other and being together. AALBERS CONTINUED ON PAGE 16
On the air and in the community
HEATHER KLAGES MORNING SHOW HOST – REAL COUNTRY 95.9
Some might not know what she looks like, but there’s a very likely chance you’d recognize her voice. Heather Klages is the morning voice of Real Country 95.9 in Lloydminster and has had her voice on Border City radio for the past 10 years. Heather grew up on a farm in rural Ontario, making her transition to the Lloydminster fairly easy. Going to an event at the Vic Juba Community Theatre? You might see Heather there volunteering. Going to the Here Comes Santa Claus Day event? You’re bound to run into
Heather. Being a member of the local media can definitely h a v e its perk if you like to be involved, a n d Heather has volunteered to host, emcee, judge, you name it, she’s probably done it. “I came out here to do evenings and weekends and then I moved up to afternoons,” she said. “Eventually I co-hosted the morning show with Kurt Price when he was doing mornings and then became the morning show host. “Mornings is the job you want in radio and a lot of people want mornings in major markets, but not me, I’m not a city person and I’ve always wanted to be a morning person, so this is the dream job for me.” Heather took journalism at Ryerson University in Toronto for a four-year program where students got to choose what they majored in. “I majored in broadcasting so I did TV and radio journalism,” she said. “I liked working on the TV side of things but I always knew that’s not
You meet really great people and get experiences you wouldn’t have any other way. There’s a lot of really cool things to be a part of if you’re up for a different experience. HEATHER KLAGES
where my passion was, I’ve always just loved radio.” When asked about her experiences being so involved in the community, Heather went on to explain how Lloydminster, in particular, is very open to having people in the media be a part of things. “You meet really great people and get experiences you wouldn’t have any other way,” she said. “There’s a lot of really cool things to be a part of if you’re up for a different experience.” A highlight of Heather’s time in the Prairies was the multiple times she’s met Keith Urban as she’s quite the fan, but she’s also been lucky enough to meet Dean Brody, Corb Lund, and the one time Chad Brownlee, Bobby Wills and Jess Moskaluke came to the Vic Juba and Heather got to play three-on-three hockey against with two local residents. “I really enjoy my job because you get opportunities that you might not be able to come across any other way,” she said. “It’s also fun because, with the ex-
ample of the hockey game, you get to give that away and see the excitement in the family who won it.” Heather is proud to call the Border City home and explained that a big part of what has kept her around for as long as she has all comes back to the people. “A lot of the people that I’ve been lucky enough to meet either live on a farm or a ranch so we have the same background,” she said. “I’ve found people here so welcoming, and I still find it funny that when I first moved here my brother came to visit and we wanted to find something to do, so as we would back home, we went to Agland and wouldn’t you know it, but Ken Kay was out there and he gave us a tour of the entire place. “I have friends now out here that I consider family and if I ever need something I can call them up, and on the same token I hope that if they ever need something that I’ll be able to help them out.” Tune in to Real Country 95.9 FM in the mornings to see what Heather is up to.
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Filling the canvas of life BRANDI HOFER MOM, WIFE, ARTIST
Take a walk through downtown Lloydminster and you’ll easily be able to familiarize yourself with her work. Brandi Hofer was born and raised in the Border City and studied at Red Deer College from 2004-2006 before transferring to the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design in Halifax. She would then complete her Bachelor of Fine Arts in 2008. Her most recent work can be be found on the south side of the Assure Occupational Testing building on 49 Ave. “It’s textured brick so everything’s taking a bit longer than I initially thought it would,” she said about the mural. “It’s really hard to grasp and wrap your head around the whole thing. It’s been a big learning curve.”
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“Every person that walks by comments and then I’ve had some people come out of their way to see it—people were taking pictures of it the first day I started,” she said. Brandi works with a wide variety of art mediums including drawing, printmaking, and painting, with oils, acrylics encaustic, mixed media and watercolours. A popular topic in her work has been female portraits exploring the themes of feminism, empowerment, the emotional self, and the female psyche. Her work has been shown on its own and in group exhibitions in France, London, New York, and all across Canada. In 2011, she attended residencies at Red Deer College, Toronto Island, the Marnay Art Centre outside of Paris France, and was part of artist Robin Lambert’s project in Montreal, Quebec. HOFER CONTINUED ON PAGE 20
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Helping a community whenever it’s needed CONTINUED FROM PAGE 12
“My favourite part about Gerald’s job is he loves it so much, so it makes our life together amazing. He’s been in many different jobs over the years and this is just a really nice fit,” she said. “I think we really feel that it’s both of us, and we’re ambassadors for the city, and I don’t think we every embraced the whole biprovincial nature of the city until just before the election and really realize that we aren’t just a typical city. We have a whole pile of diversity that other places just don’t have and it’s an incredible blessing that we get to work with two different provinces.” Christine explained how over the years of making connections with so many different people, if something came up and someone they know has a doctor ’s
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My favourite part about Gerald’s job is he loves it so much, so it makes our life together amazing. He’s been in many different jobs over the years and this is just a really nice fit. CHRISTINE AALBERS
appointment and is in need of someone to watch the kids, she is always more than happy to step in and help out. “I have that freedom to fit those things into my life,” she said. “Yesterday, for example, I looked after a friend’s kids because she was singing at a funeral, and it’s a real gift because I have the freedom of time. “We’ve gotten by the majority
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of our married lives together on one income and always made it work and not live out of our means,” she said. “Whatever we get involved in it’s sometimes a little overwhelming for the organization because we really jump in with both feet, so right now the big picture is the city and not one particular organization. “We don’t tend to do things on
a half-scale level.” Christine and Gerald are also quite active members at St. Anthony’s Catholic Church and hold their faith very close to their hearts. “It’s that guiding light and you just know what’s right and what’s wrong and make your choices because of that. The reality is, deep inside we’re all the same.”
Encouraging exercise and personal goals to better mental health two kids in 2005. She is a Registered Massage Therapist and owner of pureRevival – Massage Therapy and Body Wellness. On top of her massage therapy business, she also got Lloydminster ’s Couch to 5km in motion. “When we did our two Couch to 5km information nights we had the revival room CAREY MASE here in the studio jam-packed with people as I’m telling my story of REGISTERED MASSAGE what got me into running.” THERAPIST, WIFE, Carey lost her mother in a quadMOTHER, BUSINESS OWNER ding accident 15 years ago this May, Carey Mase was born and raised in and in that time she had two young Humboldt, Sask. and moved to the children while grieving and went Border City with her husband and into what she called a “slump.”
“Looking back I just pulled my socks up and tackled life the best that I could, and my daughter, who was six at the time, was also grieving. Not long after this happened my best friend who was a marathon runner and travelled the world doing marathons, challenged me to do a half marathon,” she said. “Through this running, I started to pull myself out of the grieving process and started hearing the birds again and smelling the air again, and it completely changed my mindset so much, and I didn’t really realize it until I did my first marathon in Saskatoon on the first anniversary of her death.” Carey explained that one of the big reasons why she believes the Couch to 5km events have been so popular and gained so much traction is because there are a lot of people out
there who have lost a loved one and have gone through tough times. She also noted that getting out and active in a group as opposed to on your own can be helpful to stick with it. “We had 68 people show up to our first information night and piles of people who said they couldn’t make it but wanted to have the information shared,” she said. “There’s even groups that started running on their own because they couldn’t make our Wednesday night runs, but still wanted to take part in some way.” PureRevivalRunning and the Lloydminster Runners can both be found on Facebook and anyone interested in taking part in the fun is encouraged to reach out. MASE CONTINUED ON PAGE 18
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Get out, run, or relax with a massage CONTINUED FROM PAGE 17
“It’s really nice to see, and this also linked me to a bunch of ultra-marathon runners and triathlon people in town. I used to think it was just me who ran in town but there’s a long group and Lloydminster is being represented in St. Paul for their annual 100-kilometre ultra marathon,” she said. Upon moving to the Border City to be closer to her dad after the passing of her mom, Carey saw opportunity to start her business. “I’ve been here for 14 years with Pure Massage and ended up adding a tanning business, but I ended up getting rid of it. With the tanning rooms gone, we ended up adding the Revival Room,” she said. “I have six massage rooms al-
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Massage therapy is just a base and you have all of these avenues you can go down as a massage therapist to expand what you can offer. CAREY MASE
ready in the building so the Revival Room is offered to people in the community who need a space to rent but don’t necessarily want to get into a lease so they could expose their products to clients.” Many of the community members Carey sees using the Revival Room are yoga instructors and quilters to name a couple. PureRevival also has a regis-
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tered dietician on staff. “I started out the massage business out of the old Servus Credit Union building downtown in the gym in a tanning room,” she said. “That room was so small I couldn’t even get around the massage table. Once they closed I rented a room over at Muscle Beach and after that, we moved to this space to make sure we
found a nice quiet space that was the right fit.” It offers registered massage and can provide direct billing for clients. Carey also offers myofascial cupping treatment, lymphatic drainage, rattan massage, hot stone massage, athletic strep therapy and more. “Massage therapy is just a base and you have all of these avenues you can go down as a massage therapist to expand what you can offer,” she said. Being a business owner, Carey explained she’s never really looked at herself as a boss because everyone on staff at PureRevival is one big team that works well together to help a client be the best they can be. “We work together to better clients, and it’s great to see a community get so vibrant together.”
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Turning everyday beauty into art
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Brandi is also no stranger to giving back to the community. In January 2017 she partnered up with Lloydminster Sexual Assault Services through her project “Cool Kids.” In support and to raise awareness of the victims and survivors in the
Border City and surrounding area, Hofer donated 100 per cent of the proceeds collected from the paper prints to the centre. Brandi married her husband Charles in 2012 and the two have three sons, Gus, 5, Finn, 2, and Theo, who is six-weeks-old. Brandi is currently working on a
project which is still untitled but will be a part of a show in 2021. “Right now I’m showing my PXP Contemporary – Faces & Figures gallery and I was just featured in Create Magazine, which is a huge North American based magazine,” she said. Brandi also explained how she loves how she can have the career she does and involve her
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three sons. “I’m definitely the happiest I’ve been in my whole life and feel so fulfilled as a mom,” she said. “You just don’t know until you have them that they’re something that’s been missing in your life and it gives your life more meaning and joy. There’s nothing like it. It’s hard at times but I’m so happy about it.”
Today’s Women 2019
You never know who you’ll run into!
Pam Becotte was spotted with Heather Klages and the Meridian Source’s own Deanna Wandler!
Thank you to everyone who was a part of Today’s Women’s 2019. From L-R- Jennifer Gilbert, Carey Mase, Brandi Hofer, Marianne Stelmaschuk, Kim Carey, Heather Klages, Christine Aalbers, Brena Yanota, Pam Becotte and Michelle Hamilton
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Giving back to a community goes a long way BRENDA YANOTA
Brenda is involved with Lloydminster ’s Avery School as a teacher but she also played a major roll in their breakfast and after-school tuBrenda Yanota’s resume on the toring programs to help students various volunteer roles she has get their Grade 12 diploma. played in the Border City over the years is extensive, and ask anyone who knows her, she’ll never ask for When it comes to friends anything in return. She is the current treasurer and and family, Brenda gives volunteers with Midwest Victim her whole heart and Services, is a member of the orgaall her extra energy. nizing committee for the RCMP Regimental Ball, and finds time to volunteer to hold and rock sick babies at the Lloydminster Hospital. Brenda is also an altar server at St. Many students even had Brenda’s Anthony’s Catholic Church and an cell number in case they ever got active member of the church. She into trouble and needed any sort of also volunteers at as many activi- help. ties as she can make it out to includ- She has volunteered with the Reing fall suppers, booths at the fair, lay For Life, been involved with the The Rite of Christian Initiation of annual Transplant Trot, and participated in the Alzheimer ’s Walk. Adults, to name a few. TEACHER, VOLUNTEER, MOTHER, GRANDMOTHER
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TODAY’S WOMAN 2019 I MERIDIAN SOURCE
Brenda loves to also give back to the youth in the community not only through education, but she’s also a lead organizer for two separate grad banquet committees. She gives back to local area seniors and bought prizes for and helped organize teatime at the nursing home. Brenda is also a substitute teacher for classes K-12 in both French and English at the Lloydminster public and Catholic school divisions. “When it comes to friends and family, Brenda gives her whole heart and all her extra energy,” a testimonial read. “Whether it’s stopping by to bring baking, looking after her grandchildren, cleaning houses while we are away, bringing over small gifts just because, gardening, cooking big meals so everyone can get together,
the list goes on. She enjoys family gatherings, gardening, time at the lake, coffee with her friends, and ultimately helping out in any way she can. She would never expect anything in return other than a thank you.”
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