FortSask

A Sherwood Park Olympic cyclist has been recognized by the province as one of Alberta's top athletes.

In late March, the province announced Kelsey Mitchell as the '21 and over Female Athlete of the Year' for the 2022 Alberta Sport Recognition Awards.

Mitchell was born in Sherwood Park and has always had a knack for sports, playing gymnastics, ringette, basketball, and soccer in her youth. She's notable for starting her cycling career at the age of 23, an age much older than her contemporaries.

It'll be a busy weekend for Morinville Community High School. 

The ASAA and ACA provincial cheer championships will be held at the school on Friday (Apr. 14) and Saturday (Apr. 15). 

"We have 13 teams competing in the high school event for the ASAA cheerleading champions," said Amanda Bulger, a teacher at the school and chair of the tournaments. "We have 23 elementary and junior high teams competing in the ACA cheerleading championships." 

It appears that a majority of Fort Saskatchewan residents leave the city to get their fill of recreation. 

This comes from the results of the city's recent indoor recreation survey that was released late last month. 

"59 per cent of those households that responded said they participate in indoor recreation and use facilities beyond Fort Saskatchewan," said Brad Babiak, the director of culture and recreation for the city. 

The Fort Saskatchewan Food Bank received quite a generous donation, 35 handmade blankets.

The blankets were donated from the St. George's TLC Group and made with Fortrel fabric, which makes them durable and warm. The group donated the blankets knowing that the food bank would provide them to those in need.

Kassandra Gartner, executive director of the food bank, met with the group in their crafting space to receive the blankets.

The food bank will be donating these blankets to those who are having trouble finding a permanent residence.

More details have been released about the new school coming to the town of Gibbons.

On Wednesday (Apr. 12) Sturgeon Public Schools formally announced the arrival of the new school, which should be coming to the town in the near future.

"This collaborative partnership is clearly an indicator that the two foundational organizations in Gibbons are moving forward in lock-step, recognizing that communities are all about the people and their families," said Gibbons mayor Dan Deck.

Canola is looking at what could be yet another good year, following a few external factors.

This included the same issue that had affected most of Canadian agriculture, the war in Ukraine.

Neil Townsend, Senior Market Analyst at FarmLink Marketing Solutions, details some of the good points before a reverse began.

It's time to dust off your golf clubs because a local golf course is gearing up to open this week. 

The Fort In View course is set to open up its course to golfers on Friday (Apr. 14). 

"We're open on 27 holes," said Gord Hayward, the general manager of the course. "The course weathered really well over the winter and it's looking good." 

This is a rather early opening day for the course as compared to previous years. In 2022, the course opened up on April 28. 

"The weather was really cooperative, and we didn't have a lot of snow coverage," said Hayward. 

At their AGM, the Western Grains Research Foundation named their new chair along with some other directors.

Laura Reiter of Radisson, Saskatchewan is stepping into the position, replacing outgoing chair Dr. Keith Degenhardt.

The WGRF is a farmer-funded and farmer-directed non-profit organization that invests in agricultural research.

Reiter says that she's excited to keep working with the group.

Sturgeon County is a great place to do business, according to the results of a recent business survey. 

The survey was sent out to over 100 businesses in the county back in February to help the county better understand business needs in the region. 

"By going the survey route, it allowed us to have a consultant do a random sampling and essentially reach more businesses than we are able to with our small team," said Leanne McBean, the county's business retention expansion lead. 

It wasn't the ending that the U17 AAA Rangers wanted at provincials last weekend. 

The club won three of their four round-robin games, with the other being a tie, to qualify for the gold medal on Easter Sunday (Apr. 9). 

Their opponent was the Okotoks Oilers, who the Rangers had beaten 10-5 during round-robin play.