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the Team Canada coaching staff. In Austria, McEwen and Poirier got a close-up view of the famed Hanenkahm downhill course, regarded as the most demanding race course on the World Cup circuit as it features highly technical, “fallaway” turns. “Overall the trip provided a great learning experience for her coach Remi, and a great competitive experience for Abby, which she plans to build on in the coming years,” said Lawrence. McEwen and Thompson were joined by Sarah Lepine from Whistler Mountain Ski Club in B.C. who placed 20th overall and India Sherret from Cranbrook, B.C., who placed first in the point-based standings of the ladies’ Nor-Am ski cross and eighth overall.
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St. Albert’s Abby McEwen finished 22nd at the World Junior Ski Cross Championships in Italy last month.
Carving out her place on the international slopes, St. Albert teen Abby McEwen competed in last month’s World Junior Ski Cross Championship in Valmalenco, Italy. After weeks of training in the Sunridge Ski Club’s Alpine/Ski Cross program, the 16-year-old skier tested her mettle against the world’s best as a member of Team Canada’s Junior Girls team and emerged in a “fantastic” 22nd place, said Sunridge program director Steve Lawrence. “This is a great result considering the track was quite difficult and the field was very experienced,” said Lawrence, noting fellow Canadian Marielle Thompson, 20, of
Whistler, B.C., took home the gold medal during the championships held March 26 to 31. McEwen earned her place on Team Canada with a second-place finish at a recent Ski Cross event in B.C. and has been working hard to make the jump to the international level, said Lawrence. Gaining momentum from the championship, McEwen improved at the Swiss National Championships in Hienzenburg with a 13th place finish. As the Czech Republic championships were cancelled due to heavy snow, McEwen and her coach Remi Poirier enjoyed a training day on the slopes in Kitzbuhel, Austria. Poirier, Sunridge’s under-18/under-16 coach, was also selected as part of
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A local organization is hoping to turn your smartphone’s camera into another eye on the community. The St. Albert Neighbourhood Watch Association is putting the finishing touches on Disorder Reporter, a new application for Android smartphones that they have developed to document and report everything from graffiti and vandalism to street light outages and potholes. Neighbourhood Watch volunteer Dale Fetterly, who did most of the development on the app, said the idea for the app was inspired by his work with Neighbourhood Watch and the RCMP. “I was working at the RCMP a couple of years ago, working on the graffiti file, and we were getting graffiti photos from the City, but we Photo: GLENN COOK, St. Albert Leader weren’t getting photos from the schools, from St. Albert Neighbourhood Watch volunteer Dale Fetterly holds up a phone with the app he developed transit or from the public. And in order to get an installed, which is called Disorder Reporter and allows users to report all kinds of problems. overall picture of the graffiti problem, we needed to get those other photos,” he said. “So I was photos,” Fetterly said. “One of the categories pass on the information to local RCMP, the City thinking how we could do this, and somebody is graffiti, and so a photo analyst can type in of St. Albert’s public works department or other else said, ‘Well, we’ve all got phones. Why don’t the tag that’s visible in the photo and we can authority to be dealt with. we upload photos from our phones?’” get a regional picture of where this graffiti is This is the first time Fetterly has developed The organization rolled happening, because the guys who are doing a smartphone app, and he out the app for the first time it don’t necessarily stay in St. Albert or in said it was a “steep learning earlier this month at the Edmonton.” curve.” St. Albert Lifestyle Expo and As the photos start to come in, though, “There are a lot of bugs to Sale at Servus Credit Union volunteers are needed to sift through them and work out,” he said, “but there Place. forward them on to the right authority. But is a lot of enthusiasm out The app is currently only there and people saying, ‘Hey, Fetterly said that would be a great opportunity Dale Fetterly available for Android phones, for people who are technologically inclined but great idea.’” Neighbourhood Watch but they hope to have an maybe can’t get out of the house much. While the app started with iPhone version out in a “If it’s in their area, then they’d get a a focus on just St. Albert, it month or so, and a BlackBerry app after that. notification on their phone, and in a reasonable can be used to report problems in communities It allows users to use their phone’s camera to period of time, they should look at it and review all over the greater Edmonton region, with the take a photo of something that needs attention it and forward it as quickly as possible,” he said. help of Edmonton Neighbourhood Watch. in the city, which can then be forwarded on The app will be available on the “It covers everything from Morinville down to Neighbourhood Watch volunteers with a Neighbourhood Watch website at to Leduc, from Sherwood Park to Stony Plain location and comments. Volunteers can then www.eyewatch.info. ... we’re trying to get the whole region to submit
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Thursday, April 18, 2013