Robyn Wiebe

Morden Chamber of Commerce and 500 Stephen Street Community Centre hosted a sold-out lunch for International Women's Day Friday afternoon. 

Chamber Executive Director Clare Agnew said it was an awesome event with women sharing their stories and inspiring and encouraging one another. 

Today is International Women’s Day (March 8th). According to the IWD website, this day is set aside to recognize and to celebrate women’s accomplishments and to educate and to raise awareness about equality for women and to call for positive change for women.

Do you know someone in Morden who has a long history of doing great work and who has volunteered in the community for years?  

Morden Area Foundation (MAF) Board Member Lenore Laverty said you should nominate them for the Citizen of Distinction Award. 

Not quite a year after starting up, Valley Motorsports Association (VMA) held the first annual general meeting with 43 members in attendance. It was a celebration of accomplishments and plans were made for the future.   

President Chris Unrau said it's exciting to be gaining a critical mass of people who are excited about motorsports in the region, proving there is an appetite for the sport locally.  

Ratepayers in Western School Division will see a tax increase, according to Board Chair Brian Fransen at Wednesday night's proposed budget presentation. The thirty and a half million-dollar budget will be invested in approximately 2350 students in the next school year with an estimated $115, 000 surplus. (This could change once the budget is finalized.)

Students from Minnewasta School and Maple Leaf Elementary in Morden eagerly engaged with guest author of books found in their school libraries, Christy Jordan-Fenton who currently lives in Fort St John BC.   

Fenton cowrote four books with her children's grandmother, Margaret Pokiak-Fenton.          

The Bangladeshi community is growing in the Pembina Valley. Morden's Abdur Rashid recalled when his family moved to Morden.  

"When I arrived here, I came through the Morden Immigration Initiative program in 2016 and at that time we are only three families at Morden, so there were no other Bangladeshis. Just me, Zafrul (Hasan) and Jahangir (Talukdar) with our three families here. And within two or three years, we became 4-5 families, now in the Pembina Valley area, we are 31 families."  

A gathering of Ukrainians and Ukrainian supporters took place in front of the Morden Civic Centre Saturday afternoon. Where people held, waved and were wrapped in the country's blue and yellow flag, as they somberly sang the national anthem with strength. People also held pictures of loved ones who had lost their lives in the war and those held in captivity. 

Last November, Boundary Trails Health Centre Foundation Palliative Care Coordinator Jerri-Ann Froese facilitated a grief session called "Hope, Healing, and Holidays" for people who were grieving the loss of a spouse. The timing was to provide support for people going into the Christmas season. 

Froese said from that session, there was a call to do something like it again, and she acknowledged the need in the Pembina Valley is huge. 

Before coming to work at South Central Cancer Resource Administrative Resource (SCCR) Coordinator Leora Hamm admitted she hadn't really thought of the financial aspect of having cancer and the pressures that come with treatment and going to various appointments regularly.