SARCAN Spirit Fall 2015

The

SARCAN Spirit News for SARCAN employees

Fall/Winter 2015

t o p e D Tours

Regina Processing Progress

Employee Recognition Day 2015

New Faces at SARCAN

SARCAN

er SK! v o e k a T

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Meet the new faces of our ever-growing family!

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Depot Highlights · Telemiracle 2015 · A ”sign” of the times at Regina’s Vic East depot · Surviving the northern wildfires · A fine-feathered friend visits Rosthern

Table of Contents Page 6 Education SARCAN-style SARCAN’s new education program includes revamped depot tours and a toolkit for kids to learn about recycling.

Regulars 4

Kevin Acton Update The latest from the Director of Operations.

14 Regional Features Chantelle Diakuw and Cindy Ellacott share their favourite things about their regions.

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Supervisor Training

Northern Fires

SARCAN supervisors across the province came to Regina and Saskatoon this spring, in movie-themed costumes, to learn, share and take some photos!

This summer, La Ronge and other northern communities faced terrifying wild fires that came closer than ever to town sites. Scary stuff!

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18 Processing News The latest from Chris, Glenn and our pals from processing.

20 Depot News The Queen of Hearts at the Saskatoon East depot; a fine-feathered friend visits Rosthern.

30 Depot Highlights One depot from each region is chosen to share fun facts about their town and of course, their SARCAN depot! Read all about it.

Welcome to your new SARCAN Spirit!

Page 9 Telemiracle 2015 This year’s Telemiracle fundraiser was one of our best ones yet, with special guests from our Melfort depot operating the phones on-air at the show!

The SARCAN Spirit is celebrating 20 years of publications with a brand new design!

Our SARCAN network is pretty big. There’s over 600 employees spread out all over Saskatchewan. We don’t always get the opportunity to visit each other face to face or go to each other’s depots, but our “spirit” is still present all across the province.

The SARCAN Spirit, as well as our Facebook and Twitter pages, are meant to bridge the gap between SARCAN folks all over Saskatchewan.

If something happens at your depot that you want to share across the SARCAN network, never hesitate to send it in to us. It is an honour to share latest news, photos, statistics, funny stories and major milestones with the SARCAN network.

Page 12 Employee Recognition Day The 22nd Annual Employee Recognition Day took place on September 24th, 2015 in Regina.

It’s hard to believe that the SARCAN Spirit has been in production for 20 years - we can’t wait to see what the next 20 years bring. Keep up the great work, everyone! And thank you for keeping the SARCAN “Spirit” alive in our wonderful communities across Saskatchewan.

Sydney Smith SARCAN Communications

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Greetings from Kevin Acton

New Return Rate Record Set

Record-breaking return rates, eduction excitment, Drop n Go details, Processing progress , and an update on our Customer Service Training

Crushing cans, SARCAN-style in Prince Albert

Good Day Team SARCAN in Saskatchewan! I would officially declare summer over and it is exciting to see the depots and plants remain busy this fall.

I am very pleased to let you know that we set a new record for deposit beverage containers returned in the last fiscal year.

We received and recycled over 397 million deposit containers and when you add in beer bottles, we collected over 405 million containers. We set record returns in June, September, December, January and March last year. Last July was the second busiest month in our history with over 45 million containers recycled in one month. Thanks to all of you for your efforts across the system for a great year!

The trends have continued this summer and we are 2.4% above last year’s totals to the end 4 SARCAN Spirit

of September. We have set a new record in a number of months again this summer.

Salvage markets and prices remained high last year and, coupled with the exchange rate difference between Canada and the United States, this provided some additional revenue for SARCAN. Plastic prices did begin to fall with the price of oil dropping last September.

Aluminum or UBC prices began to drop over the winter and remain at about .56 cents per pound now. The additional revenue from salvage will help the sustainability of SARCAN. The Education program was rolled out to the depots in March. A big thanks to everyone for their help in the roll-out of the education program and hosting tours at your depots and plants last spring and this fall.

The Point of Sale and Drop N Go systems are

in the official roll out stage with installations underway in the bigger city depots. We hope to get most of the extra-large depots installed across the province this year and then rollout to the remaining depots in 2016, 2017 and 2018.

The largest capital project this year was the expansion of the Regina processing plant. We wish to thank all of you at the depots for your cooperation during the summer months as the project progressed. The plant is very close to completion and a big thank you to Chris and his processing crew in Regina for working through the project and not incurring any lost time injuries over the summer.

This November will feature Customer Relations Employee Wellness training across the province. Make sure you attend and spend the day with your colleagues. We look forward to providing some good new material and discussion points as part of the training to help benefit you at your workplace.

Thank you all for another great year as we continue to be part of the best recycling system in Canada and North America. Our return rate last year were 86.4% across Saskatchewan, and remains the highest in Canada.

Filming the new education video at Saskatoon processing - visit www.sarcan.ca to see the final product.

Have a great winter!

- Kevin Acton The Regina processing plant may just be complete by the time you read this.

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SARCAN Education

Province-wide Education Training Depot Supervisors gathered from across the province in Regina and Saskatoon in March to learn about giving great depot tours to students and community groups

All Dressed Up The theme for this year’s education curriculum training was “vacation” many of the attendees dressed like they were going on vacation!

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Educating Saskatchewan, SARCAN Style SARCAN staffers across the province are more ready than ever to host classes and groups in Saskatchewan to come tour the depot and learn about SARCAN Recycling In the spring, SARCAN hosted an Education Program Training event for all depot supervisors. It was a two day event, held in Regina on March 11th and Saskatoon on March 12th.

The training was vacation/travel themed, and supervisors were encouraged to wear their best vacation-inspired outfits. As you can see by the photos, we had some great participation, even though there was still snow on the ground!

Over the past year, SARCAN has been hard at work developing an Education Program for teachers, students, and depots. This program was created as a way to not only educate Saskatchewan

kids about the importance of recycling, but also to streamline the depot tour process across the SARCAN system.

At the training, each supervisor was presented with a tour guide booklet and tactile toolkit to keep at their depot. The guide outlines how to present the tour, and the toolkit, which contains samples of recycled materials, enables the students to have a “hands on” and interactive experience while at the depot or plant.

The samples of recycled material include an aluminum ingot, plastic flake, glass beads, and many other cool items!

For teachers, a comprehensive curriculum was developed by our education consultants, retired teachers Wendy Thomson and Shelley Loeffler. They created 14 lesson plans which integrate the theme of recycling into subjects such as Math, Science, Social Studies, and Art. These lesson plans are available on the SARCAN website.

Wendy and Shelly were also on hand for our training events.

Supervisors learned all about the program in the morning, and in the afternoon we travelled to a depot where the supervisors could do a tour “dress rehearsal” for the rest of the group.

It was great to see everyone’s fantastic tour guide skills on display!

Thank you to our amazing supervisors who always make our training events so much fun. Keep up those depot tours – and remember to send us photos and feedback!

- Laura Antymniuk

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Going Higher!

This hot air balloon made from Telemiracle Helping Hands was on display at the Rochdale Depot last winter.

Around Saskatchewan

Telemiracle

2015

Throughout January and February, our depots raised $46,328.53 for Telemiracle! 2015 is the 11th year that we’ve been fundraising for Telemiracle and, with this year’s total, we’ve raised over half a million dollars!

WAY TO GO SARCAN!!!

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his year, our depots did an amazing job (like always) at raising money for Telemiracle.

The fundraiser is unique to Saskatchewan, just like us! And it certainly has a special place in people’s hearts, just like us! It is a perfect fundraiser of choice for us, and it makes us so proud every year to be able to donate money to this important cause. Most of us have a friend, family member or neighbour that has been helped by Telemiracle

over the years, so it is really special in our hearts.

This year, SARCAN offered a special prize to the “depot choice” winner of our Christmas depot decorating contest: a trip to Saskatoon to experience Telemiracle live in person. The winners of the “depot choice” category was the Melfort depot, located about an hour north of Saskatoon. The depot got to pick three staff members to travel to Saskatoon on Sunday, March 8th, for the afternoon portion of

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Teddy Visits The Telemiracle Teddy was out and about during Telemiracle week. Here he is with the Saskatoon North depot!

Telemiracle. The depot chose to send John Barks, Linda Remonde and Carol Campbell.

When they arrived, they learned all about the behind-the-scenes part of the Telemiracle broadcast.

The day started with “phone school” where they learned how to answer phones and take donations. Then they were off to the stage where they answered phones during the afternoon’s live performances.

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Nice blue gloves, Telemiracle Teddy!

Looks like you’re ready to work at a SARCAN depot!

A big heart made out of Helping Hands from Humboldt!

After a fast-paced hour and a half of answering phones, the SARCAN crew was able to take a behind the scenes tour to see the moving parts that contribute to the success of Telemiracle.

TCU Place, the auditorium where Telemiracle is held in Saskatoon is full of Kinsmen volunteers who work tirelessly, night and day, to make the

Around Saskatchewan After a fast-paced hour and a half of answering phones, the SARCAN crew was able to take a bheind the scenes tour to see the moving parts that contribute to the success of Telemiracle.

Carol, Linda and John with Kevin Acton in the “green room” before the live apperance!

operation run smoothly.

Needless to say, it was an awe-inspiring experience to watch the magic happen.

This year, we had so many depots send in photos to share on Facebook of depot decorations. We have such talented and creative people at our depots. We had everything from a hot air balloon in Rochdale to a wheelchair and a heart in Humboldt.

Telemiracle and SARCAN have only officially been partnering for 11 years, but our efforts have gone on way longer than that. People that work at SARCAN often do fundraising and go be part of the audience when the show is happening live.

This year, SARCAN received an award from the Kinsmen

Foundation (the group that is responsible for Telemiracle) to say thanks for ten years of fundraising. We are already excited for 2016.

Saskatoon South’s Helping Hands decorations. Wow!

Where are we going?

Higher!!

Congratulations to everyone who participated!

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SARCAN Employee Re 5 Year Recipients Back row (standing) L-R: TJ Heibert, John Barks, Kent Athmer, Joyce Innes, Cassandra Laybourne, Robert Madsen, Lee Hicks, Ian Wilkins, Chris Willick, Joy McKinnon, Daniel Juby, Tenny Dirpaul.

Front row (sitting) L-R: Wayne Main, Nona Kirzinger, Shelly Sandherr, Amy Mintram, Sharon Jestin, Veronica Hilliar, Sydney Smith.

Not pictured: Kelly Gawel, Gareth Idler, Lisa May, Nettie Neufeld, Jay Sorensen, Marcy Wilkinson, Thomas Bouvier, Daryl Savage.

10 Year Recipients

Back row L-R: Pam Peters, Rick Fehr, Jeff Laurent, John Molnar, Russell Shepperd, Heather Fitzsimmons.

Front row L-R: Sharon Fayant, Shawn Zoller, Dorothy Shipley, Joanne Luck, Donna Pattison.

Not pictured: Chris Perrett, Tom Paul

15 Year Recipients Back row L-R: David Ferner, Grant Kitchen, Daniel Meier.

Front row L-R: Cindy Ellacott, William Hedlund, Vincent Hori.

Not pictured: Darryl Vilness, April Pavelich, Les Bell.

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ecognition Day 2015 September 24th, 2015 was our 22nd annual Employee Recognition Day in Regina. This year, a total of 65 employees were honoured for their hard work and outstanding contributions to SARCAN Recycling. The success we celebrated is a testament to the dedication demonstrated by SARCAN staff.

Here are the numbers….

26 – 5 year award recipients for a total of 130 years 14 – 10 year award recipients for a total of 140 years

20 Year Recipients Back row L-R: Carl Ens, Troy Monych.

Front row L-R: Wanda Cochrane, Irene Schwartz.

Not pictured: Richard Sorensen, Randy St. Germain.

9 – 15 year award recipients for a total of 135 years

25 Year Recipients

6 – 20 year award recipients for a total of 120 years 10 – 25 year award recipients for a total of 250 years

Back row L-R: Dan Cooke, Rick Mahussier, Murray Chambers, Hans Graupe.

…for a grand total of 775 years of service! When combined with the experience of our eight Retirees, we celebrated over 900 years of experience.

What an incredible achievement!

Front row L-R: Tim Kusisto, Sherri Thorhaug, Fay Cousins, Karen DeCorby.

This year we incorporated a new game for the afternoon portion. Award recipients and their guests traveled around to different game stations where they tested their knowledge of all things SARCAN, and their creativity! After fun and games, guests had the opportunity to tour our Regina Processing Plant.

The plant is still under construction, so recipients and their guests got a sneak peek! During the evening, we enjoyed a fantastic meal, a photo booth, and music. There was plenty of dancing going on – and the photo booth was very popular!

It was a great night.

Not pictured: Mike Siwy, Jenny Buyaki.

SARCAN owes its success to the many loyal employees who work hard to make our company great. Without you, we would not be where we are today – thank-you, and see you at Employee Recognition Day 2016!

-Laura Antymniuk

Not pictured: Errol Hildebrandt, David Ratzlaff

Retirees Back row L-R: Martin Fink, Sandra Marcia, Gail Chilman, Robert Fahlman.

Front row L-R: Adele Beaulieu, Calvin Donald.

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Architecture

Greetings From Beautiful

Northwest Saskatchewan Read all about the (largely food-based) world of SARCAN Regional Manager Chantelle Diakuw as she travels across North West Saskatchewan

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The Northwest Region

16 Reasons Why I Love the Northwest Warning: you may get hungry after reading this list!

1 - The Applewood Burger 2 - A movie theatre turned into a SARCAN depot 3 - Frenchie’s Fried Chicken 4 - The northern provincial forest in Fall 5 - A highway with no shoulders: feels like you are really alive!

6 - A giant turtle 7 - What is that lady from the Gateway Grill putting in those eggs?

8 - Is this an airport or a pasture?

9 - Mag’s Soup and Such; homemade bread served with breakfast (RIP) 10 - A supervisor who serenades you in the afternoon 11 - Crossroads sausage 12 - A little depot in a home of trees 13 - A rib-eye steak for $12.00 14 - A really big depot where the assistants give you home-made foods like soup and jam 15 - The Lana burger at the Peppertree 16 - Homemade soup, bread and dessert in a museum that’s a converted train station Fall 2015 15

That Beautiful Northern Sunset Cindy Ellacott, one of SARCAN’s five Regional Managers, travels all throughout the northeastern part of the province from La Ronge to Canora (with many stops in between) We are always busy in the North East. Most of our depots are in farming communities, so the Spring, Summer and Fall is busy with seeding, growing and harvesting. Everyone has done extremely well dealing with the customer rushes and backlog of containers.

A huge thank you to all the supervisors and their staff for all the work they do to get those last trailers 16 SARCAN Spirit

out and the inventories and paperwork done and sent in so quickly every year for year-end. Also a great big ‘Thank You’ to the Processing Plants for all the juggling they do every year to help us out!

We all love the new materials for the Education Tours. Melfort, Nipawin, Hudson Bay, and LaRonge are already having great results with the tours. Many

more have tours have been planned during this school year. Students and staff are amazed at the tours.

It was exciting to see the depots busy painting their glass and beer rails, and making sure the depots were ready for the Secret Shopper visits.

I love all the decorations and nice clean depots.

Customers do too!

The Northeast Region

Tidbits from the Northeast Medium Depot Status Congratulations to the Watson Depot on achieving Medium Depot status as of April 1, 2015.

WATSON

Shelley ven der Buhs (supervisor, left) and Anne Walker (assistant supervisor, right)have done amazing work and as a result the containers have increased 21% in the last three years. Congratulations, Watson, on your achievement!

Welcome Jennifer Finnson Welcome to our new supervisor in Wadena, Jennifer Finnson.

WADENA

Jennifer has been working hard for Mallard Industries, the agency that manages the SARCAN in Wadena and now is moving over to supervise the depot. She will fit in well with all the other awesome, hard-working SARCAN supervisors.

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Processing News

Construction Zone

The Regina Processing Plant renovation and expansion started in April, making the Spring, Summer and Fall a big construction site for everyone.

Good-day SARCAN Nation!!

The expansion of the Regina Processing Plant is well underway. The plant wrapped up a busy yearend – thanks everyone for all your efforts to help make year-end a success.

After year-end, we immediately began moving offices into ATCO rental trailers and moving furniture and supplies into storage trailers. A big thank you to Jerry, Gilbert, and crew for getting this task completed.

By April 17th, we were officially moved and construction crews moved in to start renovating/expanding the office. The offices were gutted and prep work began on the outside. A few days later, we started to redirect a few depots in the south to go to the Saskatoon Processing Plant. Thanks to everyone involved in this – it has helped reduce the workload on the staff as we work through the expansion.

Throughout the summer, the yard work was completed.

A paving crew came in to help move the outside loading.

When the outside loading dock was completed, moving the glass storage bunkers were next on the list. Once these two yard projects were completed, the work on the expansion of the plant itself began. I cannot express my gratitude enough as many people are pitching in to get a number of jobs completed.

As we progress on the expansion, we will continue to share photos. We are very excited at the plant about what is happening here and we can hardly wait to get into the new setup.

Stay tuned!!

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-Chris Marr, Regina Processing

Processing News

Bowling Fun Saskatoon Processing went to the bowling alley for food, fun and festivites - looks like they had a great time!

It’s business as usual for us and the Saskatoon Processing Plant. Things are starting to pick up after a couple quieter months.

We are helping Regina Processing during their renovation by taking over a few of their depots for a little while. So far it has gone smoothly.

We work hard but always find time for some fun out on the floor. We just went

bowling as a group and had a real good turn out. It was a long time since we went out as a group. It felt good and fun was had by all. Above are a couple pictures from the bowling to prove we had some fun.

Hope everyone had a great summer and took some time to enjoy the beautiful weather!

-Glenn Awrey, Saskatoon Processing

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Depot News Rosthern meets its newest customer, Martensville renovates and Saskatoon East becomes the home of the Queen of Hearts A fine-feathered recycler ROSTHERN

In June at the Rosthern depot, we had a customer bring in what appeared to be a domesticated Rough Rider fan named Kelly Vanryckeghem.

Both are involved with the Saskatoon Parrot Rescue organization.

- Tim Castle, Rosthern depot Photo by Kevin McCann

Records and Renovations

The Lovely Queen of Hearts

MARTENSVILLE

Well, it was another year of growth for us.

We reached the 5 million container mark for the first time (5,411,565)!

We have now taken over all 3 bays of our building.

Renovations occurred last fall, and we now have 4 counting trays instead of 2, and they run North/South instead of East/West. This has helped the flow in our depot.

The new section is now the customer area and the counting trays. The middle of the depot is our work area, and we finally have an actual lunch room and office! The last section of the depot is the crushing area, trailer loading area, and a separate Drop n Go room. We are thankful for the renovations. It has given us much more room, and more trays to serve customers on. It was a much needed improvement, as we continue to grow in numbers from year to year.

Hope everyone had a great summer!

- TJ Hiebert

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SASKATOON EAST

Our depot has been very busy with numerous back orders.

In April we were pleased to welcome Will Seltzer as the new assistant supervisor. Will was originally a third at the North Depot and temporarily an assistant supervisor. Hope his stay here is pleasant.

Our very own Jackie Chicoine was this year’s Queen of Hearts at the Saskatoon Ex kick-off parade!

- Donna Pattison

Depot News

Keeping Busy in Melfort The Melfort depot has been very busy, with over 100,000 more containers processed than last year. They send a big ”THANKS” to all of the SARCAN depots that voted for them in the ”depot choice” category for the 2014 recycled-materials Christmas depot decorating contest. Read all about their Telemiracle experience on page 8.

Depot Tours

Gorgeous Flowers

Last year, Melfort toured lots of kids through the depot and they have more kids coming through the doors this Fall.

A new cement pad for the depot meant a new place to show off these very beautiful flowers this past summer!

Congrats, Dorothy Shipley!

Congrats, John Barks!

At Employee Recognition Day, Dorothy Shipley celebrated her tenth year with SARCAN The staff celebrated at the depot with some good cake!

John Barks, the Melfort depot supervisor, received his five-year award as well this year. The staff got him a cake too! Seems to be a theme in Melfort!

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What the ... ?

The biggest SARCAN sign in the province was not the most secure, apparently! Luckily nobody got hurt! A new, properly reinforced, sign has since been put in its place!

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Do NOT try this at home...

Depot News The sign, when it was still behaving itself!

A busy summer at Regina’s Vic East depot includes new staff, a marriage, educated kids and a rogue, fallen sign.

H

ello, all you SARCANner’s out there!! Salutations from the Victoria East Depot! We hope that you had a great summer.

We have been busy, busy, BUSY! Our container numbers are soaring more and more all the time and we’ve hired a few awesome people to help us out with it! We’ve added Joelle Simon, Colton Walsh, Cara Ann Rathje, and Brett McNab to our team and they are fitting in nicely. We are lucky that we got them just in time for the vacation season, as many of our staff have been booking time off for family reunions, birthdays and weddings.

Some of that time was taken by our supervisor, Wanita Keil (or now, I guess it would be Wanita Carswell) for a very special reason!! On July 11th, 2015 Wanita Keil and Darcy Carswell joined together and tied the knot!! Congratulations to Wanita and Darcy on your special day, and may you enjoy

many, many years together!!

WOOOHOOO!!!

We’ve definitely been using that beautiful new tour kit that we got at the Education Supervisor Training, as well as doing a few of the tours here in the depot, we’ve had the chance to head out in the public and spread the SARCAN word.

One of our assistant supervisors, Nolan HubbardRichards, got the opportunity to go to the new Arcola Elementary School and got to work with their recycling crew to teach them all about how SARCAN works and help set up their own recycling system in their school to make it easier for them to be green! They are an amazing bunch of kids and it was super awesome to get to work with them.

Now, as much as it may seem, it isn’t always rainbows and smiles here at Vic East. On July 7th, our nice, big SARCAN sign decided that it needed a break, and tried to get away from the building. It got as far

as crashing down onto the sidewalk in front of the doors!! Fortunately, the wiring from the building held it in place and stopped it from getting too far away. A big shout out to the guys from Prairie Sign who came out in a jiffy and got us all fixed up without any trouble. We are just thankful that no one was injured.

When our signs aren’t falling off the building and we aren’t out setting up schools or getting hitched, we are right here at Vic East rippin’ it up, recycling style!

And this year we have a few people who have been loyally rippin’ it up for us for a while! This fall, recognition day saw the likes of Sharon Jestin and Wayne Main, both celebrating 5 years; Vincent Hori, boasting about 15 years; and Calvin Donald, who is hanging up is recycling gloves and retiring.

Without these 4, I’m not sure what this place will look like!

We are lucky to have such great people and this place will not be the same without Calvin around, who was a great employee and a kind friend to us all and will be missed.

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Fighting Fires Volunteers from all over Saskatchewan as well as the Canadian Armed Forces had their work cut out for them this past July.

Saskatchewan Wildfires

La Ronge and surrounding communities are finally back to normal after a harrowing summer

T

his summer, La Ronge and other communities up north were evacuated because wildfires were burning out of control, at a rapid

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rate. There were nearly 13,000 people from La Ronge and area that had to be evacuated to Saskatoon, Regina, Prince Albert and Cold Lake, Alberta. It was the biggest evacuation in Saskatchewan’s history.

As the fires continued to burn, over 1,000 Canadian Armed Forces and several hundred volunteer firefighters came to help fight the raging fires. They came from all over the province and the country to help out the fire-stricken area.

La Ronge Wild Fires There were nearly 13,000 people evacuated; the biggest evacuation in Saskatchewan’s history Cecil Lafevre, La Ronge Depot Supervisor, in the smoke.

The smoke was incredibly thick, and was noticeable all over Saskatchewan and even into the United States. Apparently the smoke traveled as far as Chicago, over 2,500kms away.

The fires took over most of Northern Saskatchewan.

The Canadian Armed Forces outside of the Co-op Marketplace in La Ronge on July 9, 2015.

Our own SARCAN depot in La Ronge closed down during this time, as the whole community was evacuated. The depot staff were relocated to different places in Saskatchewan.

Cindy Ellacott, SARCAN’s

Northeast Regional Manager hosted some staff at her house, while others were displaced all throughout the province.

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Back at the depot: the staff in La Ronge pose wtih Rob Bagg

Cecil Lefavre, the La Ronge depot supervisor, stayed dedicated to his staff throughout the province, checking in on them regularly.

In the end, everyone was allowed to go back home on July 17th, after being away for almost two weeks. The fires got pretty close to La Ronge; at their peak, they were burning only two kilometers away from the town of La Ronge.

Thomas, one of our depot staff, and his wife were expecting a baby just as the town got evacuated. They were brought to Saskatoon, and not long after they arrived, they gave birth to a beautiful baby boy, Thomas Junior. Luckily, the Red Cross assisted them with getting hotel

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In the end, everyone was allowed to go back home on July 17th.

Newborn baby, Thomas Junior, was born in Saskatoon during evacuations.

accomodations so they didn’t have to stay at the soccer centre (where others displaced people were) with a brand new baby.

Needless to say, it must

have been pretty exciting to finally bring little Thomas Jr. back home to La Ronge.

In true SARCAN Spirit, employees from all over

La Ronge Wild Fires

In true SARCAN Spirit, employees from all over the province helped out their friends in La Ronge.

the province helped their friends in La Ronge who were evacuated by making donations of food, money, clothing, toiletries and all kinds of other necessities.

Twyla Harris Twyla Harris, SARCAN’s at the Soccer Administrative Assistant, Centre in Saskatoon took supplies to the people who were camped out at the soccer centre in Saskatoon.

At the SARC/SARCAN head office, everyone helped out by bringing

in gently used clothing, games, books, activities and food for people to use while they were staying at the soccer centre in Saskatoon.

Everyone is back home,

safe and sound.

We hope that everyone who was affected by the fires is back safe and sound at home with their loved ones and friends.

Fall 2015 27

New Hires

Stephen

Regina Processing Plant

Derek

Regina Processing Plant

Braeden Assiniboia

Welcome to the SARCAN Family Here are the newest SARCAN staffers so you can put a face to the name, as our family continues to grow. Make sure to stop and say hello if you are visiting the area!

Brett

Regina Victoria East

Joelle

Regina Victoria East 28 SARCAN Spirit

Cara Ann

Colton

Regina Victoria East

Regina Victoria East

Chris

Bryson

Kindersley

La Ronge

SARCAN Training

Supervisor Training and Secret Shopper Awards SARCAN held its annual Supervisor Workshop in May, a two-day training event put on for all depot supervisors.

This year, the theme was “At the Movies” and we encouraged people to dress up accordingly. The costumes were awesome! Each table at the training was decorated according to a particular movie genre – Western, Sci-Fi, Kung-Fu and more. There was even a “50 Shades of Ray (Sass)” table!

When people arrived they were ushered onto the blue carpet and had their photos taken by the SARCAN paparazzi. Popcorn and candy were also supplied.

One day of the training was dedicated to a training on “Supervising and Working with People of All Abilities.” Lisa Malowany, SARC’s Manager of Program Support, developed a custom presentation for SARCAN. This was valuable for new and existing supervisors, who attended this workshop.

Thank you, Lisa!

The Secret Shopper/ Customer Service Awards were also presented. Each year, secret shoppers visit every SARCAN depot in Saskatchewan and determine the best depots in three categories: Depot Cleanliness, Customer Service, and Accuracy.

The winners were presented with a Golden Bottle and Winners from the North gave an acceptance L-R: Sean Collins; Aldonna Mogge,Nipawin; Rick Rebalkin, speech, similar to the Blaine Lake; Cecil LaFaver, La Ronge; Kelly Keith, Academy Awards.

Saskatoon West; Kevin Acton.

And the winners are: Customer Service Small – Ituna Med. – Indian Head Large – La Ronge XL – Saskatoon West Accuracy Small – Gull Lake Med. – Canora Large – Weyburn XL – Estevan Cleanliness Small – Grenfell Med. – Blaine Lake Large – Nipawin XL – Yorkton Congratulations!

Winners from the South L-R: Sean Collins; Kim Lasch, Ituna; Lisa Reihl, Indian head; Mary Carter, Gull Lake; Ashley Derkatch, Canora; Jeanifer Moreira, Yorkton; Cory Elmy, Weyburn; Darlene Trithart, Grenfell; Gregg Dornian, Estevan.

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Depot Highlights The Hub of West Central Saskatchewan

Kindersley SARCAN

Quick Facts Kindersley Population: 4,678 Containers returned last year: 4,927,641

The Kindersley depot is located in the heart of the ”Energy City”, at the bottom of the big hill, across the street from the railway tracks. This bright and sunny depot welcomes customers from Kindersley and surrounding area all year round!

Experience our Energy

Railway Town, Railway Name

Kindersley Klippers Hockey

Motherwell Resevoir Scenery

According to Kindersley’s website, the community offers a big city experience with country attitude. Their slogan is “experience our energy”.

The town is named after Sir Robert Kindersley, a pioneer, and major shareholder in the development of the Canadian Northern Railway.

The Kindersley Klippers, of the Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League, play at the newly renovated West Central Events Centre in town.

The scenic Kindersley Walking Trail at Motherwell Resevoir is home to a 2km walking trail, a pavillion and a picnic area to enjoy the beautiful scenery.

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The staff at the Kindesrley depot sure know how to pose for a picture. What a good lookin’ crew!

Another Busy Year in Kindersley A record-breaking year in containers, and the depot still has time to raise money for Telemiracle - community spirit at its finest!

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he Kindersley Depot has been busy this year. Our depot participated in fundraising for Telemiracle and happily raised $2580.00 to join the rest of the SARCAN depots across Saskatchewan in donating over $46,000 to Telemiracle.

As well as working hard to raise money for great causes and providing great customer service, this year has been a year of milestones for us. We are pleased to announce that we have processed the most containers in the past year than ever

before.

We also welcomed a new employee at the depot, Chris. He is the tallest gent in the picture above. He is currently working as our cashier. In his spare time he is a professional baseball umpire and a hockey official; he likes to volunteer his skills in the community.

Welcome Chris!

- Cindy Stanley

Fall 2015 31

Depot Highlights Home of the Giant Oat Stem

Ituna SARCAN

Quick Facts Ituna Population: 622 Containers returned last year: 979,060

The town of Ituna is a welcoming community, located in eastern Saskatchewan.

Ituna is home to beautiful natural surroundings and lots of wildlife, including deer, moose, elk, coyotes and all kinds of different birds.

The Giant Oat Stem

Ituna & District Regional Park

Rudyard Kipling Connection

Ukrainian Dancing

Ituna has paid homage to the history of the oat crop that has grown in the Ituna region for decades.

Oats are an important Saskatchewan export.

Just outside of Ituna, this park features swimming, golf, baseball and volleyball.

In the winter, there is cross-country skiing and tobogganing.

It is possible that Ituna got its name from a Rudyard Kipling story “Puck of Pook’s Hill”. It is a unique name - no other place in Canada shares the name Ituna.

Ituna is home to the Klenovee Lystky Ukrainian Dance Club.

Lessons are held every Friday from September to April at the Ituna School.

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The town sign in Ituna, commemorating the province and the town’s centennial celebrations.

Hi from the friendly Ituna Depot The Ituna SARCAN depot is located right on the main highway in town, welcoming people from the town and surrounding communities

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he Ituna SARCAN depot is one of the commuinity’s many local businesses.

People come to the depot from the Ituna area, which is located in east-central Saskatchewan. Ituna’s closest major community to the east is Yorkton.

It is located pretty much straight south of Foam Lake.

Highways 15 and 310 meet in Ituna, making it a busy intersection for travelers in Saskatchewan. The depot has been in operation since December of 1989 and has already recycled over 12 million containers

since then.

The depot is categorized as a small depot, since the population of Ituna is only 622 people. The depot may be small, but it is sure friendly!

At the 2015 Customer Service Awards this May, Ituna was voted by the secret shoppers as being the friendliest, winning the Customer Service Award.

Stop by and say hello!

-Ituna Depot Fall 2015 33

Depot Highlights Nature’s Gift (and home of Quilly Willy!)

Porcupine Plain

Quick Facts Porcupine Plain Population: 855 Containers returned last year: 1,216,066

Nestled in the heart of the Northeast Parkland, Porcupine Plain is one of the most scenic communities in Saskatchewan. The area surrounding Porcupine Plain is a gorgeous mix of rolling hills, natural prairie, lakes and forrest.

Greenwater Provincial Park

Porcupine Plain History

The One and Only Quilly Willy

Quilly Days Festival

This four season park has beautiful summer beaches and an 18 hole golf course. In the winter, cross-country skiing trails bring in visitors from all over.

The town was settled in 1926 by World War I veteran Olaf Quale. In 1967, Porcupine Plain was incorporated as a town, and is known for its high-quality grain.

Quilly Willy has been the town of Porcupine Plain’s mascot for decades. This beloved statue of Quilly Willy greets people on the way into town.

As part of Parks and Recreation Month, Quilly Days Sports Day takes place at the end of June every year and features chuckwagon and chariot racing,

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A postcard from Porcupine Plain featuring an aerial view of the town during the summer.

Hello from Porcupine SARCAN Michelle, Rick and Jocelyne are the faces of the Porcupine Plain SARCAN Depot - stop in and say hello if you’re ever in the area

W day.

e have been gearing up into a busy summer of recycling beverage containers with some summer days reaching 1,400 containers in one

He also took a two-week vacation to his parents house. While he was there, he helped his dad take down an old grain bin, as well as some other chores around the farm.

We are looking forward to having Jocelyne come in and help us out throughout our busy season.

Rick also helps us cut the grass and trim around our SARCAN building to help keep everything tidy and looking good.

Rick will be celebrating his 25th year as a SARCAN employee this year. This summer he went to camp at Marean Lake where he enjoyed fishing and playing volleyball.

We hope everyone enjoyed their summer!

- Michelle Irvine

Fall 2015 35

Depot Highlights At the end of Broadway Avenue

Saskatoon South

Quick Facts Saskatoon Population: 222,190 Containers returned last year: 25,408,168

The Saskatoon South depot is located in the Avalon Shopping Centre, at the south end of the well-known Saskatoon destination Broadway Avenue. This is the busiest depot in the province, returning over 25 million beverage containers a year!

Art Deco Style Theatre

Five Corners Intersection

The Historic Victoria School

Avalon Neighbourhood

The Broadway Theatre opened in 1946 and remains as Canada’s only community-owned repertory theatre. The theatre also hosts concerts and events.

Five corners, at the north end of Broadway Avenue, was laid out in 1883. It became a threeway intersection in the 1960s, but the name has stuck for generations.

The current Victoria School was built in 1929.

It’s predecessor, a oneroom schoolhouse that opened in 1883 is now permanently on display on the U of S campus.

Saskatoon’s Avalon neighbourhood was developed after World War II and into the 1950s. Its shopping centre is home to the South depot.

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Friendly new faces at the Saskatoon South depot, including Saskatchewan Roughrider Rob Bagg!

New Faces at Saskatoon South The Saskatoon South depot welcomed four new staff members to their very busy depot this spring/summer.

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he Saskatoon South depot has been a staple for residents of Saskatoon,especially for students who go tot he University of Saskatchewan, as lots of students live around the Broadway area in Saskatoon.

The depot has welcomed some new staff this year, pictured above with the one and only Rob Bagg. The new staff members are (from left to right), Dylan Sader, Jamie Sisk, Jeremy Wapass and Rob Strain. Welcome to everyone! Thanks for joining team SARCAN!

The Saskatoon South depot is passionate about fundraising for Telemiracle.

Every year, the depot creates a display with the Helping Hands they sell. It’s not uncommon to go to the depot in January and February and see beautiful garland displays made from Telemiracle Helping Hands. Thanks to everyone who participates in the fundraiser.

Hope you enjoyed the summer!

- Tammy Kardynal

Fall 2015 37

Depot Highlights Everything Under the Sun

The Battlefords

Quick Facts North Battleford Population: 13,888 Containers returned last year: 13,294,845

Arts, culture and picturesque landscapes make The Battlefords region a must-see destination in the north. The area is also a major junction in Saskatchewan. It is where highways 4, 26,29,40 and the Yellowhead (16) meet, making it very busy.

A New Future for Mental Health

WDM Heritage Farm and Village

Alpine Skiiing in Saskatchewan

Stay and Play (and hopefully win!)

Saskatchewan Hospital, was built in North Battleford in 1913. Last year, the construction of a new integrated mental health facility was announced.

The North Battleford location of the Western Development Museum is home to a wooden grain elevator, an outdoor heritage village and more.

Table Mountain offers the best downhill skiing in the province.

There is something for everyone from the bunny hill to black diamond runs!

The Gold Eagle Casino has been in North Battleford since 1996.

The casino regularly hosts big name concerts, and is home to Kihiw Restaurant.

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The iconic North Battleford water tower lights up at night and is visible from the highway.

Howdy from North Battleford The North Battleford depot’s employees have some pretty cool stuff going on - from new cars to country music singing competitions!

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ur year started out slow, but we sure made up for it as soon as it warmed up. It seems as soon as it warmed up, it was back to “we can’t keep up!” We got the new crusher it sure works like a charm, it cuts down on how many P.E.T. totes we ship. Our depot got brightened up this spring by getting new white board with silver edging. It all looks really good.

Now for some really exciting news: one of our employees, Shane Jobb, got his driver’s license and, within two weeks, he got a

really nice car which he named “Red”. We are all really proud of him! Irene Schwartz is going for her 20 years and Lee Hicks is going to his 5 year recognition awards.

One of our co-workers, June Schwartz, went to the Grand-ole-Opry. No, not the one in Nashville but the one in Cutknife!

She is a first class singer the Cutknife country hoe down is a great place to sing!

From everyone in North Battleford we hope you had a fantastic summer.

-Jeff Bogdon Fall 2015 39

Ten Reasons why it is better to have snow to play outside

By Hans Graupe 1. A hug from Olaf… best ever!

2. Making a snowman with mud is very messy.

3. You don’t get scratched making snow angels.

4. A snowball will fly further than a handful of water.

5. Where will you hide Grandma’s Christmas cake without snow?

6. A scarf on the lawn looks better around the snowman than the blade of the mower.

7. Making a smile for a snowman is a better way to push Grandma’s buttons.

8. In the summer sticks and stones do break bones, but for a snowman sticks make bones and stones makes clothes.

9. What do you do with leftover winter carrots in the summer?

10. Making eyes for a snowman is a good way to use the coal from your Christmas sock.

Have a wonderful winter, everyone!