Pam Fedack & Terry Klippenstein

The Winkler Community Foundation (WCF) held its annual general meeting on Monday (March 20th).

President Corey Hildebrand says the Foundation had a wonderful year.

"We had so many reasons to celebrate. We had a really great Pay-It-Forward May; we heard lots of really wonderful things from our Gordon Wiebe scholars; we had our first-ever cider and wine pairing event which was a huge success. And our community granting season - we granted a lot of dollars this year and that was very successful for us."

The Southern Emergency Response Committee (SERC) has watched over Morden, Winkler and the RM of Stanley for the past 15 years, establishing an agile response system. 

Since pandemic restrictions were lifted, members of SERC have resumed in-person meetings and training sessions.

Garden Valley School Division board of trustees has passed a notice of motion for an amendment to the division's School of Choice policy

Authorized by principals at individual schools, School of Choice is accessible to parents and students across the province.

Superintendent Dan Ward says it's not a significant change in terms of altering the policy.   

The food trailer operated by The Bunker youth ministry in Winkler is about to grow into a full-fledged brick-and-mortar restaurant. 

Executive Director Kevin Hildebrand says the dream was born over ten years ago, when they began using a food trailer to raise funds for the youth ministry. 

The Winkler Christmas Cheerboard is nearly three-quarters of the way to meeting its goal of $100,000 in donations for 2022. 

Crystal Rempel, a volunteer with the board for six years, says the contents of those hampers have changed over the years.

The Sharon Carstairs Caring Community Award is the first of its kind to recognize community-based efforts in palliative and end-of-life care with a $1,500 gift.

This year's recipient is Plum Coulee resident, Amanda Nickel, founder of the Raelyn Nickel Memorial Book program, a project inspired by her infant daughter.

$114,000 distributed among twenty local non-profit agencies and $7,500 in scholarships and bursaries to area graduates. That sums up what the United Way Pembina Valley (UWPV) accomplished in 2021.

The organization kicked off its 2022 campaign last week, gathering as a large group for the first time since the merger between the Morden and Winkler branches.

Board president Chris Willsey says they're looking forward to being out in the community.

"They've seen family members or friends at grad, and now it's their turn."

For director Todd Folkett, that's the biggest point of graduation day at Morden Adult Education (MAE).

With a class consisting of fourteen members, Folkett proudly defines this year's graduates as resilient and hard-working, especially in the light of the challenges created by the pandemic, and numerous weather events this past winter and spring.