Red Deer 1913 — 2013 Create Celebrate Commemorate
NHL PLAYOFFS
DAMAGE More extreme weather hits the United States A6
Chicago takes 2-0 series lead B1
CENTRAL ALBERTA’S DAILY NEWSPAPER
BREAKING NEWS ONLINE AT WWW.REDDEERADVOCATE.COM
MONDAY, JUNE 3, 2013
MOTORCYCLE TRAGEDY
Crash claims driver MOTORCYCLE SKIPS CURB, THROWS DRIVER AND PASSENGER Photo by JEFF STOKOE/Advocate staff
BY LANA MICHELIN ADVOCATE STAFF Flower tributes and questions remain in the aftermath of a motorcycle crash in Red Deer that left a 37-year-old man from the Clive area dead and a woman injured on the weekend. A subdued crowd gathered on Sunday to view the scene of a single-vehicle collision that happened on Saturday afternoon at the corner of Overdown Drive and Ohio Close in Oriole Park. Some residents of the neighbourhood questioned how a motorcycle could have skipped the curb at a bend in the road, bounced across the grass, then thrown the driver as well as a female passenger onto another grassy boulevard across the entry road to the close. They also questioned why the deceased male was not wearing a helmet. One shaken resident wondered if the biker had been planning on going for only a short spin that somehow ended in a deadly crash. “It was a nice afternoon, he was taking (a) girl for a ride . . . it’s so sad. Everybody is choked up about it. It happened in our neighbourhood,” said the man, who like all the bystanders, did not want his name used. A 14-year-old boy who lives nearby was alerted by the impact noise and came running seconds after the collision happened on Saturday. “It was a loud boom. I thought something blew up. It sounded like a car rear-ending something real hard,” he said.
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Vivian Schlyter, 6, of Red Deer looks into the jaws of a cow skull held by Central Alberta Children’s Festival volunteer Robert Swainson at the Red Deer College Summer Science Camp table.
A regular fun time for kids YOUNGSTERS FIND LOTS TO DO AT CHILDREN’S FESTIVAL BY LANA MICHELIN ADVOCATE STAFF It’s still the simple things in life — some bubble wrap, cardboard boxes and pipe cleaners — that kept thousands of kids enthralled at the Central Alberta Children’s Festival this weekend. Despite all the electronic gadgets marketed to little kids, parents found youngsters were perfectly happy just painting a box, twirling a hula hoop or digging in a sandbox. It doesn’t take much, said chuckling Jill Lovegren, of Red Deer, who spent a half hour watching her grandson, Joshua Lopez from Calgary, complete the same obstacle course again and again at the festival that took place Friday
and Saturday at Recreation Park in Red Deer. “I think this is great. It offers just regular activities and kids are having fun doing them,” said Lovegren. Ava Hodgkinson, 7, of Red Deer, discovered the myriad of things that can be made from pipe cleaners — including hot-pink “glasses,” a spiffy crown, caterpillar, butterfly, bracelet and bow and arrow. “She’s very creative,” concluded her grandma Debbie Hodgkinson, who attended the seventhannual festival for the first time and was impressed. “There are lots of things for them to do.” Besides children’s singers The Kerplunks, Lee and Sandy
Paley, Hoja, and Peter and Mary, there were roving balloon animal makers, magicians and puppeteers. Kids painted cardboard boxes and then built forts with them. They ate snacks (which were free with admission of $6 a person or $20 a family), jumped on bubble wrap, went through a maze, and down an inflatable slide. They got their faces painted, created crafts, threw footballs through suspended tires and played disc golf. Chelsey and Aaron Hudkin’s 1-½-year-old son enjoyed making sand castles with pails in a sandbox created by Bettenson’s Sand and Gravel.
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Girl’s rare condition leaves few safe eating options SUFFERS FROM PKU, A RARE GENETIC CONDITION eventually leave her brain damaged. Amy, who organized the first PKU fundraising walkathon in Red Deer on Saturday, admitted the condition is Whenever classmates bring cup- becoming harder to deal with as Grace cakes into her Grade 2 classroom, grows older and becomes more aware Grace Christenson can only look long- of foods she’s missing out on. ingly at the treat — she can’t partake. “Absolutely she She also has complains,” said to stand by as her Amy. ‘GRACE WOULD REALLY friends eat other And the Red LIKE TO GO TO A goodies, such as Deer mom uni c e c r e a m a n d RESTAURANT AND BE ABLE d e r s t a n d s t h a t pizza. hard to stay TO EAT WHAT EVERYBODY it’s And the odd on a restrictive time when Grace’s ELSE EATS.’ diet when Grace family goes to a feels healthy, and — GRACE CHRISTENSON’S when regular food restaurant, she MOTHER, AMY wouldn’t necessarhas to order the same old thing — ily leave her feelplain salad and a ing sick in the short term. few french fries. But the phenylalanine would even“Grace would really like to go to tually build up in her body, harming a restaurant and be able to eat what her central nervous system and lowereverybody else eats,” said her mother, ing her intelligence. Amy Christenson. Unless an injectable medication is But that’s not possible. approved for those with PKU, as it was Grace suffers from PKU, a rare for diabetics, “she has to be on a very genetic condition that affects one in restricted diet for the rest of her life,” 12,000 children. said Amy. Since she doesn’t have an enzyme to Grace gets a daily supplement to digest an essential amino acid called make up for the meat and dairy prodphenylalanine, a regular diet would ucts she can’t eat. BY LANA MICHELIN ADVOCATE STAFF
PLEASE RECYCLE
WEATHER
INDEX
Showers. High 16, low 7.
Four sections Alberta . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . A3 Business. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . C3,C4 Canada . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . A5 Classified . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . D1-D3 Comics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . D5 Entertainment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . C5 Sports. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . B1-B6
FORECAST ON A2
Photo by JEFF STOKOE/Advocate staff
Grace Christenson gets a hug from her sister Claire as parents Ross and Amy with their son Tait look on. Grace has a rare metabolic disorder called Phenylketonuria making it necessary for her to eat a very low protein diet. “It contains all of the amino acids and vitamins and minerals that you would get in a regular diet,” said Amy, who also cooks meals for her daughter using certain vegetables and lowprotein versions of pasta, flour, peanut butter and cheese sauce mix. But everything has to be weighed to ensure no more than six grams of natural protein is consumed a day. And this includes fruit, which contains more protein than many people would assume. Amy added, “I’m used to it by now,
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CANADA
LOCAL
ANTI-BULLYING EFFORT TO BE REVEALED
SYLVAN TO CELEBRATE CENTENNIAL
Officials are set to announce a new national anti-bullying and anti-discrimination program today at a victim’s former school. A2
but it requires a lot of planning and organizing.” Her daughter’s condition was diagnosed through a blood test given to all Alberta infants just after birth, while they are still in hospital. Amy knows of about 150 Albertans with the same condition. Twenty-seven people turned out for the walkathon at Great Chief Park, which raised a higher than expected $2,700.
The Town for All Seasons is rolling out the welcome carpet as it gets ready to celebrate its centennial. A3