RIVERS
BANNER
ersary v i n Celebrating our 109th An
Gazette-Reporter
Serving the Rivers, Rapid City and Oak River areas for 108 years
New owner for North American August 4, 2017
Volume 110, Issue 5
89¢ + tax
By Sheila Runions Banner Staff
N
early t wo mont hs ago R i ve rs B a nn e r reported that Rivers and District Chamber of Commerce honoured the local North American Lumber (NAL) branch with a bronze plaque to mark the longevity
of the franchise which had its start in Rivers. It was formed in 1906, is a fourth-generation family-run company headquartered in Winnipeg and at one time boasted 80 locations in the Prairie provinces and Ontario; today, there are 11 locations in
Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Ontario. Five weeks after this June 9 presentation, The Fastway Group, a subsidiary of Mill Street & Co., announced their purchase of NAL. Local manager Ken Tait supplied a July 17 press release to
this office on Aug. 1 and while the sale date is not announced in the release, he says “The purchase takes effect on Oct. 31, 2017. I think it is going to benefit the Rivers store as the new company is mainly associated with hardware, so we should see
a new line of hardware coming sometime in the fall or spring. We are currently having a massive inventory clearance sale, to clean up old stock and get ready for the new product. There are many great bargains to be had!” continued on page 2
Photo by Sheila Runions, inset by Heather Gray
Free food, just because Inset L/R: Jing Shun, Ivan, Jackie, Leo and Karen Chen, Peijiao Wu were pleased with the large number of people who attended their customer appreciation barbecue party.
By Sheila Runions Banner Staff
I
van and K aren Chen moved f rom Toronto to Rivers in late March 2016; on April 1 they opened Lee’s Restaurant, an establishment of the same name that had been run by Ivan’s cousin Wen (Wendy) for nearly 25 years. Ivan and Karen were open for approximately three months when they were forced to close and travel back to Toronto because of health problems with Ivan’s dad, Jing Shun. They
returned to Rivers, opened for a week and were gone again, for an extended period. It was for these reasons this reporter thought she could explain the free food supplied as perhaps a belated first anniversary but Karen refuted that suggestion. “We do it because Dad got better and for the nice weather and just to have a nice party. We love this community and we get everybody together to make a nice fun time for all to enjoy.
Hopefully we make this every year; we like this weather!” The 90 -minute barbecue on Monday, July 25 was supported by Ivan’s parents Jing and Peijia, who travelled from Toronto to help them on this day. They were also assisted by close friends John and Barb Hubbard and Karen’s cousin Maggie We from Minnedosa’s Sun Sun Chinese Restaurant. All these people replenished food trays, greeted customers or
cooked meat on the barbecue. “Ivan was making the burgers Sunday morning and we thought enough but we already talk of next year to make more,” she laughs. “We were gone out of macaroni and caesar salad very early. I send Maggie to Bigway right away, but they had no romaine so we couldn’t make more, and we had no more noodles cooked. We had many, many people, maybe 230? We also give away 250 wieners!”
The wieners/hot dogs were in addition to the 136 homemade burgers (which lasted 45 minutes), dry wings, dry ribs, coleslaw and a Shanghi rice noodle dish; an assortment of pop was provided for liquid refreshment. The Chen family refused to accept any donations and did this simply out of kindness and gratitude for their new community and the support it has given them; their gesture was very much appreciated.