U.S. GIVES UP LEAD, BELGIUM ADVANCES, ALGERIA GETS FIRST VICTORY IN 32 YEARS
PAGE A11
PAGE B1
Red Deer Advocate MONDAY, JUNE 23, 2014
www.reddeeradvocate.com
Your trusted local news authority
Central Albertans take part in the Tie-Dye the Sky event Saturday morning while participating in Run or Dye at Canyon Ski Hill Resort. Participants were showered in eco-friendly, plantbased cornstarch dye as they ran through a five-kilometre course. The covering with dye was in celebration of friendship, fitness and fun. Photo by ASHLI BARRETT/Advocate staff
Chasing storms, answers
RIMBEY-ROCKY MOUNTAIN HOUSE-SUNDRE
ALBERTA STORM CHASERS SPREAD SAFETY MESSAGE
Wildrose incumbent challenged
BY BRENDA KOSSOWAN ADVOCATE STAFF OLDS — Wind buffets the walls of the portable tent where members of Alberta Storm Chasers are selling storm pictures and spreading the message about storm safety. It’s a cool blustery morning, but not the type of morning that heats up the blood of people who spend their free time tracking tornadoes, says member Chris Kiernan of Edmonton. Founded by Joe Vonesch, Alberta Storm Chasers is an umbrella organization whose membership includes a number of smaller groups, such as Twisted Chasers in Red Deer. Kiernan says he’s one of the very few storm chasers in Alberta who is not also a photographer. While fellow storm chasers work on getting stunning new images of storms, Kiernan’s dream is to answer the unanswered: What is the mysterious factor that makes the difference in whether a storm cloud will or will not produce tornadoes? With windspeeds measured at up to 450 km/h, tornadoes are scored on the Fujita scale, which rates them by intensity and the amount of damage they cause, he said. The Pine Lake tornado on July 14, 2000 was rated F3, while the Edmonton tornado on July 31, 1987, was an F4. The most dangerous tornadoes are the ones that are never seen, said Kiernan. Like Pine Lake, they are masked in heavy rains that make them invisible to the hu-
PERSONAL REQUESTS LED TO BID AGAINST ANGLIN BY PAUL COWLEY ADVOCATE STAFF
pictures in the auditorium of a Red Deer church. Funded largely by Citizenship and Immigration Canada, the Home Instruction for Parents of Preschool Youngsters program was written for immigrant families for whom English or French are second languages. The program acknowledges that the language barrier and other cultural differences will make it more difficult for those parents to help their children fit in at school.
Rimbey-Rocky Mountain House-Sundre Wildrose MLA Joe Anglin is facing a nomination challenge. Jason Nixon, 34, former constituency president for the riding, is taking on the party’s first-term MLA. Anglin has a reputation as a firebrand and a long-outspoken critic of the province’s electricity pol- Joe Anglin icies. Nixon is president of the student union at the online Athabasca University, where he is finishing his certified general accountant designation. He was formerly executive director of Mountain Aire Lodge in the West Country. The married father of three lives west of Sundre in the Bearberry area. He said he received “a lot of personal requests” to provide an alternative to Anglin. “Wildrose is the party that believes in us having an opportunity to say who the candidates are. So because I saw enough support for that, I agreed to put my name forward to be that alternative,” said Nixon.
Please see HIPPY on Page A2
Please see WILDROSE on Page A2
Photo by BRENDA KOSSOWAN/Advocate staff
Alberta storm chasers Tanisha Parker and Chris Kiernan offered weather advice and sold storm pictures at Oldstice in downtown Olds on Saturday. man eye and to Environment Canada’s weather radar. “It can be a monster tornado and you’ll never see it.” Helping people understand the risks and prepare themselves for the possibility of violent weather brought Kiernan and other member of his group to Main Street in Olds on Saturday, where local
merchants and groups had set up a trade show and other events to celebrate the first day of summer. Humid summer weather brings with it the ideal conditions for summer storms, with Olds being at the heart of Tornado Alley in Alberta, said Kiernan.
Please see STORMS on Page A2
Proud parents cheer tiny graduates BY BRENDA KOSSOWAN ADVOCATE STAFF
HIPPY PROGRAM
They take the stage one by one, grinning nervously and anxious to get out of the royal blue mortar boards on their heads and back to the serious business of playing with their equally nervous and anxious friends. There was a time that this entire party could have taken place at a picnic in Rotary Park, says Helen Andrew, president of the Central Alberta Immigrant Women’s Association.
HIPPY Canada, a hands-on program that helps immigrant families prepare their children for kindergarten and public school, graduated 28 preschoolers in its first year. Five years later, 105 tiny graduates were dressed in royal blue gowns and mortarboards for their graduation ceremony on Saturday, while proud parents from Eastern Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Asia and Central and South America cheered and snapped
WEATHER Sunny. High 25, low 12.
FORECAST ON A2
INDEX Two sections Alberta . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . A3 Business. . . . . . . . . . . . .A8, A9 Canada . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . A5 Classified . . . . . . . . . . .B8-B10 Comics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .A10 Entertainment . . . . . . . . . . .A11 Sports. . . . . . . . . .B1-B7,B11
Man turns metal into whimsy Lyle Keewatin Richards creatively repurposes bits and pieces of metal into ‘beasties.’ Story on PAGE A7
PLEASE
RECYCLE