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THURSDAY, OCTOBER 18, 2012
Saluting our carriers
Proudly serving Williams Lake and the Cariboo-Chilcotin since 1930
VOL. 82. No. 82
Students get into idle-free movement Monica Lamb-Yorski photo
Nesika Elementary School students Nathan Thomas, Ivy McKay, Delilah Brown and Nolan Lindsay show off one of the new signs that will be erected around the school to remind parents and visitors to turn their engines off while they are parked in the school’s parking lot. Several schools and Thompson Rivers University Williams Lake Campus are participating in the challenge promote being idle-free this week. See story on page A2.
The week of Oct. 13-20 is Black Press Carrier Appreciation Week, and papers in the chain across the country are showing their support. In recognition and appreciation for our Williams Lake newspaper carriers Tribune publisher Lisa Bowering will help deliver the Friday, Oct. 19 edition of the Tribune Weekend.
Inside the Tribune
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NEWS A2 Lakecity schools go idle-free.
Bracelets offered in youth’s memory
SPORTS Soccer teams see success.
Monica Lamb-Yorski Tribune Staff Writer
A10
COMMUNITY A15 Pregnancy outreach helping the community. Weather outlook: Cloudy today, tomorrow with showers.
PM 0040785583
A growing number of people are wearing plastic purple bracelets with a message that pertains to one of Williams Lake’s own. One one side of the bracelet is the name of Rayel MacDonald, the 20-year-old nursing student hit by a truck and killed last April in Williams Lake. The other side says, “I Promise Mom.” The bracelets are produced through Mothers Against Drunk Drivers (M.A.D.D.) and are a reminder not to drink and drive. MacDonald and a friend were hit by a pick-up truck at around 2 a.m. while crossing Carson Drive with a group of friends after attending the Indoor Rodeo Dance on April 22. Martin William Michael Gentles, 27, was charged with impaired driving causing death and impaired driving causing bodily harm. The charges were stayed in provincial court on June 27, for the
Photo submitted
Bracelets being produced by M.A.D.D. speak to Rayel MacDonald’s memory.
police to gather more expert reports to bring the case back for the Crown to look at again. Soon after the accident, a friend of MacDonald’s, Trina Snodgrass, saw the bracelets on the M.A.D.D. website. Snodgrass mentioned the bracelets to the MacDonald fam-
ily, they ordered 300 in July, and all were sold within three weeks. This time M.A.D.D. Williams Lake has ordered another 300. “Already we’re on a roll selling them out again,” MacDonald’s mother Andrea said, adding her daughter was often the designated driver for her friends. The ironic thing is that the week before she died, MacDonald tweeted “being a really good drunk driver is not something to brag about.” Six months after MacDonald’s death, her family continues to grapple with their loss, yet Andrea said everyone, even strangers, has been overwhelmingly supportive. At the 54th Annual Williams Lake & District 4H Show and Sale, Olivia, the youngest MacDonald daughter, showed and auctioned a pig. “Her uncle wanted to buy the pig, and then we were going to get the pig back and sell raffle tickets to raise money for the Memory Garden where the accident happened below Williams
Lake Secondary School,” Andrea said. Auctioneer Wilf Smith decided they should sell the pig again instead. “By this time, it’s the end of the week of 4H and we’re all exhausted. I’ve known Wilf along time and said ‘OK, that sounds like a good idea’,” Andrea recalled. Olivia sold the pig for $3,800, a sum her mom described as normally unheard of at the auction. Then Peterson Contracting, the purchasers, donated it back at the end of the evening. The place was packed, the crowd was geared up, the auctioneers were going crazy, and the pig sold again to PMT Chartered Accountants. “All the money is going to the memorial site near the community garden. We’re going to buy some benches, and there’s going to be a garden and a monument.,” Andrea said. See COMMUNITY Page A3