Big Hero 6 makes big impression at box office
FASTH BACKSTOPS OILERS TO WIN OVER RANGERS
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Red Deer Advocate MONDAY, NOV. 10, 2014
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Agri-Trade reaches new heights
‘Wait until we get to England’ WWII VET RECOUNTS BEING WOUNDED ON THE BATTLEFIELD BY PAUL COWLEY ADVOCATE STAFF
Photo by JEFF STOKOE/Advocate staff
Thousands of people made their way through the doors of Westerner Park this past weekend attending the annual Agri-Trade Equipment Expo. BY PAUL COWLEY ADVOCATE STAFF Agri-Trade Equipment Expo packed them once again this year. One of the biggest events on the Alberta farming calendar. A record 425 exhibitors — up from 385 last year — set up temporary shop at Westerner Park, where 360,000 square feet of indoor and 75,000 square feet of outdoor space was available. “The show was fantastic,” said Agri-Trade manager Dianne Smirl. “We had great weather co-operation and exhibitors were very pleased with the turnout of interested buyers at the show.” Among newcomers to the show this year was Brandon, Man.-based Precision Land Solutions. Dan Aberhart, director of sales, said the event served as a “coming-out party” for the company, which is expanding west. “We’re in a relatively new business so there was a lot of curiosity about what we do and our products. That drew a lot of people into our tent.” Precision Land Solutions specializes in water management, from drainage to irrigation. It’s an addon to the company’s contracting business installing tile drainage for farm fields.
The new side of the business involves providing producers with the hardware and software to provide variable irrigation based on a detailed profile of the crop and land. “Water is the single best effecter of yield out there,” said Aberhart, whose technology can be used on a wide range of equipment. “There’s hardly a producer out there that doesn’t have some water management issues of one kind or another to be dealt with.” Inside the Prairie Pavilion, Lacombe-based FarmersEdge was showing off its own high-tech approach to giving producers a competitive advantage. The company uses sophisticated technology and soil sampling to create a precision harvest map customized to farm conditions. Farmers also receive onfarm and online support. Grant McCormick, FarmersEdge hub manager, said it’s been a good show this year. “We’ve made a ton of new contacts that we didn’t know before. So we’re very excited about what AgriTrade has brought to the table,” said McCormick. The company has been growing steadily since it started in 2007 and began exhibiting at Agri-Trade. “We’ve grown as a company so we need these kinds of platforms to be able to talk to and communicate with growers on a broad base. Trade shows like Agri-Trade really help us do that.” pcowley@reddeeradvocate.com
First time finalist wins Great Grocery Giveaway BY ADVOCATE STAFF The third time was a charm for the winner of this year’s Great Grocery Giveaway. The grand prize — $3,000 in Central Alberta Co-op gift cards — was a welcome surprise for first-time finalist Susannah Burnett. She had entered the annual contest, put on by Central Alberta Co-op and the Red Deer Advocate, for the last three years without success until Saturday morning when the draw was made. “It feels amazing, it feels great,” she said, all smiles and laughter following the draw at the Plaza Shopping Centre Co-op in Red Deer. “I’ve never won anything before.” The long-time Co-op member and newspaper subscriber added she’ll have to wait until next week, though, to start putting the gift cards to use, having shopped on Friday for the 10 for $10 Mix and Match sale. Burnett qualified during the second week of the contest, which ran from Sept. 22 until Nov. 1, using the entry forms published daily in the Advocate. Entrants originally entered to win a grand prize of $1,500, but were told it would double if they were Advocate home delivered subscribers, and all top three winners were, confirmed by publisher Fred Gorman. Second and third place prizes handed out were $1,500 and $500 respectively. A total of 12 finalists, all of which were required to attend the draw to be eligible for prizes, were given a re-usable bag filled with groceries as they were eliminated from grand prize contention. They had been previously awarded a $50 gift card — $100 if they were a newspaper subscriber — when they qualified. Central Alberta Co-op has been operating for over 50 years in eight different communities in Central
WEATHER A few flurries. High -16
FORECAST ON A2
INDEX Two sections Business. . . . . . . . . . . . . A8,A9 Canada . . . . . . . . . . . . . .A3, A5 Classified . . . . . . . . . . .B8-B10 Comics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .A10 Entertainment . . . . . . . . . . .A11 Sports. . . . . . . . . .B1-B7,B11
Photo by ASHLI BARRETT/Advocate staff
Susannah Burnett, grand prize winner of the Great Grocery Giveaway, shows off her winnings- $3000 worth of Co-op gift cards. Alberta. It has five food store locations, including one in Lacombe, Innisfail, Spruce View and two in Red Deer.
“You’re going to Canada.” Those were the medic’s first words to Joe Bill as he crouched over him tending his shattered ankle near Falaise in August 1944. Five weeks after landing in Europe on D-DayPlus-30, Bill’s fighting war was over. A Red Deer boy, Bill enlisted in the army in April 1942. He was in such a hurry to join up, he fudged his age by two years. As coincidence would have it, the doctor giving the physicals at the recruitment office in Camrose had delivered Bill when he was born in Vancouver. When Bill showed up he took one look at him and asked when he was born. With a mixture of bravado and malarkey, Bill bluffed his way through. “I said, ‘You should know. You delivered me in 1923 in Vancouver.’” The ploy worked, and the lad whose birth certificate read May 23, 1925, was in the army. After a few months of training in Camrose and Petawawa, Ont., Bill and the other recruits made their way to Nova Scotia and sailed to Scotland in January 1943. A train trip later, he was in England and posted to the Calgary Highlanders. Many months of training and exercises followed until the Allies were ready to launch their massive invasion of mainland Europe on D-Day, June 6, 1944. While huge efforts had been made to keep the invasion day and its forces secret, everyone knew something big was brewing then. But it wasn’t until the morning of June 6, that Bill and his fellow soldiers knew what had taken place just a few miles across the English Channel from their base in Folkestone . “We just woke up in the morning and they said they’ve landed in France.” All shared the same thought. “‘We’re next,’ we said.” His group of Calgary Highlanders would be sent over as reinforcements on July 6, and were immediately in the thick of it. While the invasion had been a big success, progress ashore had been much slower than anticipated. Key landmarks that were to have been seized within a day or two of landing were still in German hands weeks later. Being thrown into action was a test for the green soldiers. “It was sort of confusing,” Bill recalls. Much of the action could be boiled down to “follow the leader.” On the day he was wounded, Bill was part of a gun crew on a six-pounder anti-tank gun. He had been trained on the gun in Canada, but had later been converted to a rifleman. It was Aug. 13, near the Falaise Gap, when 19-yearold Bill and his crew spotted a German vehicle towing a multi-barrelled mortar. This nasty weapon was dubbed the Moaning Minnie by Allied troops because of the shrill howl of the rockets it launched. “We got close to it and he saw us coming and he left,” recalls Bill. “We took off and went into an orchard and set up our gun because we had seen him pull off.” The two gun crews exchanged fire twice, diving for cover after each salvo. In the second exchange, a piece of shrapnel tore into Bills’ ankle, exposing the bone and leaving his foot dangling by shreds. “I said, ‘I’ve been hit.” He didn’t feel much pain at the time, just numbness, he says. The medics took him a first aid station, where he was checked over and given a shot and transported to a hospital near the beach to await a hospital ship back to England. While there, he woke up to find two injured German soldiers in beds on either side of him. “I was scared,” recalls with a chuckle. “When I got there the doctors said they were going to operate. They said they didn’t know if they would amputate or wait until I got to England. “I said, ‘Wait until we get to England.’”
Please see VET on Page A2
World War II aviation authors visit RDC Three authors shared different perspectives with World War II aviation stories at Red Deer College on Friday. Story on PAGE A7
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