Noteworthy: Help our local skateboarders in their effort to end period poverty

By Bruce Penton on February 12, 2025.

Terence Kowalchuk of the ambitious Medicine Hat Skateboard Association sends along a note to say that his group, in partnership with the Root Cellar, is going on a final push in its ‘End Period Poverty’ campaign.

Last year, when a group of skateboarders went to Mexico to help in a girls’ home, they learned they were desperately in need of feminine products. So, the skateboarders raised a bunch of money to help out their Mexican friends, but they had $6,000 worth of products left over, so they gave it to the Root Cellar to to distribute.

“This year we were dismayed to learn that only lasted two months at the Root Cellar,” noted Kowalchuk. “So there is Period Poverty in our city of $36,000 per year.”

Endeavouring to alleviate that local need, the skateboarders are in the midst of a campaign to raise awareness about that shortage and to seek donations so the Root Cellar can meet the demand. “It’s a huge need in our city,” said Kowalchuk.

Twenty skateboard association members manned a booth at Save-on-Foods on Sunday, and “we were overwhelmed by the generosity” of Medicine Hat folks, he said, with more than $2,000 in cash and feminine products donated.

The campaign runs until next Monday and you can check out their Facebook page to see the various locations where donations or drops-offs can be made.

â€¢ It was just a simple night out at a local restaurant. The food was good, the service was excellent and the server was congenial. We enjoyed the meal, finished eating, paid the bill via a credit card terminal with an appropriate gratuity and headed for the door.

On the way out, I offered a casual ‘see ya later’ to the woman behind the reception desk. Her response: “I hope not.” It took me a couple of steps to realize what she had said, and all I could do was shake my head.

â€¢ We all know Toronto is the centre of the universe and there’s no more solid evidence that the sun rises and sets around the Big Smoke than the National Hockey League scheduling of games when the Maple Leafs are on their swing through Western Canada.

Instead of games being played in Vancouver at 7 p.m. Pacific Time, or games in Calgary and Edmonton starting at 7 p.m. Mountain time, the powers that be in the NHL set up games to start in those western precincts at 7 or 8 p.m. Ontario time, so the Leafs’ body clocks wouldn’t be upset. And the NHL schedule makers wouldn’t want to upset the Toronto fans by having them stay up late to watch their beloved Leafs.

When the Leafs were in Edmonton recently, and skated away with a 4-3 victory, Oilers’ captain Connor McDavid intimated in a post-game interview he was less than pleased to have to start a game at 5 p.m. on his body clock, while the Leafs were playing at their normal time, 7 p.m. Eastern.

â€¢ Music-wise, I’m so far out of touch I couldn’t reach today’s musical mainstream with 10 fully extended trombones. So when rapper Kendrick Lamar took the stage at the Super Bowl halftime show, I paid attention but tried without success to follow his lyrics.

The next day, in reading coverage of the event, I learned he performed 12 different songs (they all kind of sounded the same to me, and if somebody had told me it was just one long song, I wouldn’t have argued) and, according to Yahoo.com, he “trolled Drake heavily.” Now that was news to me.

(Canada’s Drake and Lamar, the two biggest rap performers of today, have had an ongoing public feud that has resulted in lawsuits, death threats and who knows what else.)

Oh, for the days of Simon and Garfunkel and Michael Jackson. Heck, in 1982, the halftime entertainment at the Super Bowl was Up with People.

â€¢ Short snappers: Almost got through a whole week’s worth of words without once mentioning … nope, not going to write his name. … Production of the penny is being halted in the U.S., while the nickel, which costs more than 13 cents to produce, won’t be affected by this penny-pinching move. Canada is getting by just fine without the penny. No surprise, we’re five or 10 years ahead of the U.S. in smart moves. … Brinks trucks, jewelry heists and expensive art works have long been targets of thieves, but last week in Pennsylvania, a thief made off with 100,000 eggs from a distribution trailer. At the escalating costs of eggs in the U.S., the theft was said to be valued at more than $40,000.