Venture

Heights School Prepares for Spring Festival

Shanine Sealey, Martensville Messenger time that VHS hosted a drive-in movie as part of their Spring Festival. Due to the popularity, they will be hosting it once again on May 11th. (Submitted)

Venture Heights School (VHS) will be hosting their annual Spring Festival on Thursday, May 11th, and has a wide variety of events planned for the celebration, including a hot dog BBQ, bouncy castles, vehicle tours with the RCMP and the Martensville Fire Department, come-and-go bingo, 50/50 and a raffle, as well as a drivein movie.

“This is the second year that we are doing the drive-in movie and we are really excited about it because it was a big attraction last year. In the past, the spring festival used to be held indoors, but we wanted to rejuvenate this event in a new direction,” VHS Principal Ron Biberdorf said.

VHS staff is working alongside the SCC to plan the event, along with support from local service groups such as the Martensville & District Kinette Club, as well as the Martensville & District Lions Club. “Although it is the Spring Festival for Venture Heights, we want to invite anyone to come out and attend the drive-in. This is more so a community event,” Biberdorf added.

The drive-in movie will begin at 9:30pm and the cost to attend is $20/ vehicle. The movie playing will be ‘Puss in Boots: The Last Wish’, which was chosen following a parent/student survey.

All money raised through the Spring Festival will be used towards school and student events and activities.

Donations of prizes, as well as sponsorships are being accepted and can be made by contacting VHS at (306) 934-2185 or vhs@spiritsd.ca.

Application Process to Begin for New Arts Program at Venture Heights

Shanine Sealey, Martensville Messenger

The 2023/24 school year at Venture Heights School (VHS) will be the beginning of an exciting new opportunity for Grade 8 students with the new arts education program beginning. This program is the first of its kind within the Prairie Spirit School Division (PSSD), and VHS Principal Ron Biberdorf is looking forward to providing this option to students.

“It is an academy based program where kids get to immerse themselves in the four strands of arts education, including performing arts, dance, music and visual arts, throughout the whole year. The class will be a homeroom and will learn their curriculum through the arts. They will put on performances, visit other schools for workshops, have guest speakers, go on road trips to visit places like Shakespeare on the Saskatchewan and the Persephone Theatre and will just give kids a chance to really roll their sleeves up and dig in,” Biberdorf said.

Currently, VHS has received signed letters of intent from 25 families that want to participate in the program and now that staffing has been approved, the formal process of applications will begin.

The program was initiated following a parent survey that was done through PSSD to help the school division develop their strategic plan. According to the survey, one big comment that stood out was the parents desire to have more specialized programming.

“We have always felt like we do extracurricular very well at Venture Heights, so now we want to take those skills and those assets and put them into curricular for the kids. We were aware of other academy programs within Saskatoon, and when we took a look at our staff and how we are able to deliver arts through music, performing arts and more, we saw that we had the staff in place already to be able to provide something enriching like this for the students. When we got the word from the school division that they were looking for more specialized programming, we thought, this can be our time,” Biberdorf explained.

There has already been positive feedback received, as well as outside resources reaching out to be a part of this new opportunity.

Martensville Slo-Pitch League Hosts Another Successful Plastic Bat & Ball Weekend

Jocelyn Ottenbreit, Martensville Messenger

The Martensville Slo-Pitch league hosted their annual 24-team Plastic Bat & Ball tournament from April 20 – 22 at the Martensville Curling Rink.

Every year there is a waiting list to get into this much anticipated tournament that is played with plastic bats and kid gloves; however, since the COVID pandemic, gloves have no longer been used to help prevent the spreading of germs.

This year celebrated 26 years of hosting the tournament in Martensville which was originally started by the ‘Go-Getters’, a group of friends who played slo-pitch in the league for many years and worked effortlessly for seven years raising outstanding amounts of money to contribute back to the city before passing it on to the Martensville Slo-Pitch committee in 2003.

This fun tourney is a great fundraiser for the league that hosts 40 teams who play Sunday to Thursday evenings throughout their regular season. Funds raised through Plastic Bat & Ball over the years have been used towards upgrades at the slo-pitch diamonds by Kinsmen Park such as covered dugouts, deck, playground equipment, maintenance, as well as work done to the main building, bar building and everything inside; including the walk-in cooler, ice machine, etc.

Thanks to everyone who once again came out to support this event.

ABOVE: The Martensville Slo-Pitch Plastic Bat & Ball Executive. (Submitted)