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TORCH BEARER P.2 EDITORIAL P. 6
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ROBBERY AT OVERWAITEA P. 3 HUNTERS PROTEST P. 5
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Wednesday, January 28, 2015
School bus slides off road, flips on side Rebecca Watson Omineca Express
Alison Desmarais, Gr 12 student at Nechako Valley Secondary School, will skate for Team BC at the winter games in February. Photo by Rebecca Watson
SPEED SKATER: Alison Desmarais 17, of Vanderhoof will skate in the 2015 winter games this February in Prince George.
Speedy Desmarais skates way to 2015 Canada Winter Games Rebecca Watson Omineca Express Alison Desmarais 17, of Vanderhoof has become a national speed-skate sensation. Her life-long dream will soon become a reality representing Team BC at the 2015 Canada Winter Games (CWG) in Prince George this February. “Her personal best in the 500 meters is 46 seconds. That’s spinning around the
hockey rink really really fast,” Keith Gordon of Fort St. James said, Alison’s winter games coach. “There is no hockey player in the north that could do that.” Alison placed second in short track during the CWG selection meet in Prince George Nov. 1-2, 2014, which won her a spot on the team. Her determination is clear being a Gr 12 student who has taken her first semester off to train. “I took courses last year so I would
be less stressed,” Alison said, who’s been speed skating since she was seven. “Everything now has just been leading up to [the winter games].” Alison trains six days a week at an olympic-sized facility in PG. It’s a safety issue to have someone her speed skate competitively in a regular sized rink. Three days on-ice training covers speed, endurance and strategy. Continued on page 2
Snow has a way of pulling things off the road, even school buses full of kids. On Thursday, Jan. 22 just after 8am, a Vanderhoof area school bus carrying 19 students along Sturgeon Point Road slid off the road and into the ditch. The bus driver had moved over slightly for a logging truck to pass and slowly got pulled into the shoulder snow. The bus began to go sideways, flipped on it’s side and inclined enough for the back wheel to come off. The driver followed evacuation procedure to get the kids off the bus, none of which were hurt during the incident. “All bus kids at some time during the year practise the procedure which was evident yesterday when they followed [it with precision],” Manu Madhok said, director of instruction. Another bus came and picked the kids up to take them to the hospital where they were checked for injury. The hospital initiated a code orange, a disaster evacuation protocol. There were doctors, nurses and a mental health teams available but all the kids were fine, said Mr. Madhok. All the parents were contacted. One parent took their two kids home and the rest of the parents allowed their kids to go back to school.
Picture courtesy of Facebook
PIC: A Vanderhoof area Bus flipped onto it’s side on Sturgeon Point Road Thursday, Jan. 22. No Kids were harmed in the incident.
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