Noteworthy: As the snow melts, something left behind tarnishes the beauty

By Bruce Penton on February 26, 2025.

This week’s snow melt has been revealing: Many Hatters use the great outdoors as one big trashcan.

It’s – pick a word – annoying, depressing, sad, disappointing, ugly, to see a variety of garbage simply tossed on the ground, where it exists only to make our community look less attractive. Coffee cups, cigarette packages, sandwich wrappers, liquor bottles, scraps of food, egg cartons, soft drink or beer cans, store receipts, even banana peels – the list is almost endless.

Citizens with community pride – and they far outnumber the dolts who toss garbage onto our streets, sidewalks and trails – would never consider blighting our great outdoors with their trash. When they’ve had the last sip of coffee out of a takeout cup, they either drop it into an outdoor trash container, leave it in their car for future disposal, or take it into their house and save it for garbage day. It would be inconceivable for more than 95 per cent of Hatters to just toss it carelessly on the ground.

There are local groups which annually hold spring cleanup events, where they do the work of the dolts and rid the great outdoors of trash. In the meantime, c’mon people (the guilty ones), have pride in your community.

â€¢ Got some old yarn or quilting fabric taking up space in your house that could use a good home and go to a good cause?

Medicine Hat’s Grannies for Africa, which has been raising money in support of African grandmothers who care for and raise their grandchildren and great-grandchildren who have been orphaned due to the HIV/AID crisis, are planning for their annual fund-raiser at the end of March.

This is the first year the Hat grannies’ group has actively sought donations. Organizers of the 10th annual sale are seeking a variety of fabric, particularly quilting fabric, sewing notions like buttons, zippers, threads and patterns and even sewing machines, if you own one that you’re not using. The sale happens Saturday, March 29, at St. John’s Presbyterian Church, from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. (Half-price sale from noon until 2).

Since running this annual sale, the small group of dedicated Hatters has raised more than $80,000 and sent it to the Steven Lewis Foundation, whose Grandmothers to Grandmothers campaign provides stable, long-term funding to community-led organizations in sub-Saharan Africa. These community groups provide care and support to people living with HIV/AIDS, women and orphaned children, LGBTIQ individuals and people living with disabilities.

If you have something to donate, call either Kathy (403-928-2135) or Sheila (403-580-7715). Final sorting of all donated goods will be March 22. The grannies will happily pick up any donations you have to offer.

â€¢ It was more a feeling of relief, rather than hockey fan euphoria, when Connor McDavid’s overtime goal last Thursday gave Canada the Four Nations Face Off title with a 3-2 win over the U.S. Relief, because Canadians wouldn’t be subjected to more jeers and slurs and extreme smugness from the United States, which is currently sliding from a neighbourly friend to an enemy thanks to White House threats and constant put-downs.

It was a great hockey game, with two evenly matched teams playing at a pace one never sees in a regular-season National Hockey League contest. Only one minor penalty. Nothing like that stupidity in the first nine seconds of the round-robin game between the two teams. Those two teams could play a best-of-21 and it would almost certainly come down to the 21st game to crown a winner. Not counting that round-robin empty-net goal which gave the U.S. a 3-1 win over Canada, the two teams played 128 and 18 seconds of ultra high-paced hockey, each scoring four goals, with the U.S. outshooting Canada 56-53.

It’s too bad ugly politics got involved in the tournament, because from a strictly hockey standpoint, it was a terrific event. My tournament MVP? Canadian goalie Jordan Binnington, who saved the day for his team in the championship game. McDavid got the OT winner, yes, but without Binnington’s heroics, it could have been 5-2 or 6-2 for the Americans by the end of 60 minutes.

â€¢ Short snappers: Justin Trudeau’s 17-year-old son, Xavier, has released a hip-hop style single, Til the Night’s Done, The Globe & Mail calls it ‘hoodie music’. I’m sure it will be a big hit in conservative Canada. … Elizabeth McNally and her colleagues at Real Estate Collective – Real Broker, are helping to keep library cards free for Hatters. They donated $2,300, which means 460 adults get a free card. Kids’ cards are always free. … Does anyone but Mark Carney have a chance to win the federal Liberal Party leadership? Rumours swirl that he will be anointed as leader on March 9 and that he will immediately call an election.