Noteworthy: Local generosity knows no bounds, it seems

By Bruce Penton on November 15, 2023.

Can’t recall a more heartwarming story than the one about Thomas Bories of Foremost leaving $446,000 in his estate for the Community Foundation of Southeastern Alberta.

The Foremost man’s generous gift serves as a bequest to the Rural Community Fund of Forty Mile. People can be assured any donation made to the CFSEA will be handled responsibly and will improve life in some of the priority areas detailed on the CFSEA’s website: Mental health; work and economy; vulnerable populations – food security; housing stability; and domestic violence.

– To where do you turn for noteworthy information on food oddities? Noteworthy, of course. Did you know KFC is extremely popular in Japan? It trails only the U.S. and China in number of franchise locations (more than 1,200), and it has become a Christmas tradition, with millions of Japanese eating there on Christmas Day every year.

– If I see somebody who should know better write ‘sneak peak’ instead of the correct ‘sneak peek’ one more time, I’ll scream. Thankfully, you won’t hear me because I’ll scream in private.

– Friends of the Medicine Hat Public Library Society book sale is being held this Friday and Saturday. My old work colleague at the News, Chris Brown, now in charge of marketing and community engagement at the library, says library officials would love to see “a mountain” of books for sale.

A table has been set up next to the theatre on the lower level of the library for donations during open hours (10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Monday, Friday and Saturday); 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday; and Sunday from 1-5 p.m.

If you have any gently used books lying around the house that you’ve read and likely won’t read again, they would be perfect candidates for book-mountain building. Also accepted would be DVDs and CDs. Sale dates are Friday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Saturday from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Money raised from the sale goes to the library, which uses it to purchase materials for the library or run library programs

– Message written on a T-shirt worn by my golf buddy Russ Golonowski that contains some truth (some may suggest it offers a lot of truth): “I don’t always listen to my wife, but when I do, things tend to work out better.”

– Heartwarming story from the world of pro golf: Camilo Villegas, whose career was rocked by the death of his 20-month-old daughter due to brain cancer in 2020, won for the first time in nine years at last week’s Butterfield Bermuda Championship.

His daughter’s loss led to the creation of Mia’s Miracles, which supports children and families in Florida and his home country of Colombia, who face unforeseen circumstances.

– Which leads me to another of my former News’ colleagues, Sean Rooney, and his wife Trish, who keep alive the memory of their son Dominic, who died in 2015 at the age of two from acute myeloid leukemia, with fundraising efforts for the Alberta Children’s Hospital. A recent gaming weekend by the #dominicstrong crowd raised more than $16,000 for the hospital. Well done, folks.

– There have been 100 Grey Cup games played through the years, but never has the annual Canadian football championship game featured Winnipeg and Montreal. Until this year, of course. The two teams will meet in Hamilton this Sunday and resident football expert Graham Kelly will have as much information as you need in the pages of the News this week.

– Canada plans to bring in up to 1.5 million immigrants in the next three years, aligning our country’s immigration policy with Canada’s labour market needs. A Global News report says those labour needs are primarily for caregivers, health-care workers, agri-food workers as well as the Rural and Northern Immigration Pilot and the Economic Mobility Pathways Project.

– ‘Help wanted’ and ‘Now hiring’ signs dot many storefront windows in Medicine Hat, and it’s likely the same, or a bigger problem, in larger centres. Canadian baby boomers aging out of the workforce has helped create the employment crisis in Canada.

– Circle Friday and Saturday on your calendar because it’s Midnight Madness in downtown Medicine Hat. The downtown core and its many merchants have a lot to offer, and the offers are always their best at this annual event.

– Advertising for someone to clean their ‘air ducks’ and ‘dryer ducks’ brought the response that it ‘quacked’ him up when he saw the spelling errors. Thanks, Facebook, you win again.