Dance Impressions Showcase

Owner Ryan Wilson welcomed everyone and said, “All the dancers and teachers have worked so hard; they are truly amazing. Through their festival season several received special high marks, awards, scholarships and distinctions.”

Family and friends gathered to witness stunning performances of tap, jazz, ballet, contemporary, and hip-hip routines. With numbers ranging from solos to large groups, and the various ages and styles it provided stellar entertainment for the evening.

The emcee noted that there was one dancer graduating this year, Miss. Ryan’s daughter Phoenix Wilson. As such they closed the show by performing a tap duet together, followed by a special rose ceremony where Phoenix took her final bow.

Dawn Hames Columnist

We seemed to go from winter to the shortest spring ever, and then straight into heat wave summer this year. I love this beautiful weather but I am hoping and praying for rain. We need abundant rain to put out the wildfires, and for the crops to grow. We have finished seeding, so that is always a relief, but there is still lots of fieldwork to do, and it’s time to start putting in the garden.

Here is an easy pan of oatmeal squares, that can double as grab-andgo breakfast bars, or to take for school lunches or out on the tractor. They are

Helen Row Toews Columnist

Birthday Bash!

My stepdaughter, Nicci, recently celebrated a milestone birthday. I’m sure it was a day filled with mixed emotions, as all such events are. Since we live more than a province away, we couldn’t be there for the big day, but her father called, and I wrote several long messages. Of course, she knew what sort of wishes to expect from me on this pivotal day. Allow me to explain.

Many years earlier, twenty-something-year-old Nicci told me of her recent visit to an eating establishment run entirely by “old women.” She’d been shocked that such a restaurant, which professed to cater to a young, vibrant clientele, would actually hire these aging ladies.

“How could women of such advanced years keep up the pace,” she’d asked in wonderment? “Are the faces of these ‘old women’ representative of the depths to which this previously thriving business had sunk?” Nicci shook her head in disbelief.

I began to envision the scene as

Chocolate Banana Oatmeal Bake

sugar-free and use monk fruit sweetener, but if you prefer regular sugar, go ahead, and use it. I used old-fashioned oats for this recipe. I do not know if quick-cooking oats will work. Depending on your dietary restrictions, you can use coconut milk or dairy.

A touch of dark chocolate combined with the oatmeal for their healthy heart benefits. Bananas are an excellent source of potassium. More hearthealthy fats are found in the nuts (I used pecans) and seeds and a yummy drizzle of more dark chocolate. Nut choices could be peanuts, walnuts, slivered almonds, or pecans. Oats, grown on the Canadian prairies have a lot of important health benefits such as: inhibiting heart failure and inhibiting cardiovascular disease by slowing down the buildup of plaque inside the blood vessels. Oats contain a special fiber called beta-glucan, which has been proven to have the beneficial effect of removing cholesterol from the digestive track, before it can enter the bloodstream. Research has discovered that a compound in the oats called avenanthramides, which helps to protect the good LDL cholesterol from oxidation for over 2 hours after you have eaten oats.

Chocolate Banana Oatmeal Bake

1 1/3 cup oatmeal

1 cup milk of choice

4 tablespoons monk fruit sweetener

2 tablespoons cocoa powder

2 ripe bananas, (mashed)

1 teaspoon baking powder

2 eggs

Prairie Wool

and thick, brown foundation hose, scuffling painfully between tables with their arthritic hips.

A few pushed walkers in front of them, which made carrying trays of food tricky. Often they’d pause to sit a while on the little built-in seat before laboring to their feet with a groan and continuing on.

People loudly bellowed their orders at the old servers, who, leaning ever closer, cupped blue-veined hands behind their ears in an effort to hear correctly, then asked customers to repeat it three more times, anyway, just to be sure.

The staircase had been torn out, and an Acorn stair lift had been installed to allow ease of movement between the dining floor and the kitchen. However, the food was still cold when it reached the patrons due to the understandable limita -

Clandonald 4-H Multi Club Achievement Day Show

Saturday, May 20TH - 1:00pm

At the Clandonald Ag Grounds

Beef on a bun after show

Clandonald / Vermilion Interclub Show And Sale

Sunday, May 28 - Female and Cleaver Show - 5:00pm, Monday, May 29 - Steer Show - 9:00am, Steer Championship Class - 2:00pm, Steer Sale - 2:30pm

At the Vermilion Ag Grounds

Appreciation Supper

Wednesday, June 7, 6:30pm Clandonald Hall tions of rheumatism, bad circulation, and problematic knee-replacement surgeries.

All Sponsors, buyers and supporters are invited to join us.

All the chairs were crushed velvet and crowned with embroidered doilies, while plastic roses decorated the pale Formica tabletops. Along one side, a sizable mahogany record player stacked with Lawrence Welk LPs played softly. In the corner, several of the staff, on their break, played a slow game of shuffleboard.

The hostess loudly ordered people to “Mind they didn’t track in mud” at the door and then insisted they “Eat all their peas” as she rolled past later in her motorized wheelchair to seat new arrivals.

Cat fur lingered on everything, and a faint, musty smell of mothballs wafted throughout the room, despite the restaurant’s specialty dishes of pizza and pasta extraordinaire.

LET’S CELEBRATE THE LIFE OF Mike Nowosad

Sat. June 3, 2023

Rusylvia Ball Diamonds

Lunch @ noon

Bring your lawn chair. Come out and share stories and memories of Mike

Please RSVP to text by May 25 Cheryl @780 307 1079

Topping

A sprinkle of the following: salted pumpkin seeds sunflower seeds nuts

3 tablespoons semi-sweet chocolate chips

Combine the oatmeal, cocoa powder, sweetener, and milk and allow to set for 10 minutes. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Stir in the mashed bananas, baking powder, and eggs. Pour into a 9 x 9 buttered baking pan. Sprinkle on top with your choice of pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds and / or nuts. Bake for 30 minutes. In a microwave safe bowl melt the chocolate chips for approximately 25 seconds, and drizzle diagonally on top of the squares.

I could see it all in my mind’s eye and clucked disapprovingly with Nicci as we discussed how standards had been lowered in this once-youthful establishment.

“Incredible,” I observed in amazement. “How old do you suppose these old women were?”

“Oh, let’s see,” she said reflectively. “I’d say they were at least forty.” Nicci raised her horrified eyes to mine. “Can you believe it?”

“WHAT!” I cried with the sense of pure outrage only a woman in her forties could summon.

And so, dearest Nicci, it is with the deepest love and admiration for the gorgeous woman you are that I say to you, “Happy fortieth birthday! It really isn’t all that old.”

Find Helen at helentoews.com to read more or to order her newly released destination romance series.

Insurance Discount Certificate course: 10 hours of driving and 15 hours of classroom

Fee: $850 (GST included)

Live Classroom:

- Sunday May 28 from 9 am to 5 pm

- Sunday June 4 from 9 am to 5 pm

Venue: Super 8 Hotel meeting room in Vermilion, AB

For registration: 780-806-9289 (cell) stpauldrivingschool@gmail.com

Vermilion Voice

www.vermilionvoice.com

5006-50 Ave., Vermilion, AB T9X 1A2 Phone: 780-853-6305 Fax: 780-853-5426

Email: vermilionvoice@gmail.com

Your only local independent newspaper. Proudly serving Vermilion and area since 2004.

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Letters to the Editor may be edited for clarity. The opinions expressed in letters to the editor are not necessarily shared by the Vermilion Voice.

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Publisher: Susan Chikie

Editor: Lorna Hamilton

Photographer / Reporter: Lorna Hamilton, Angela Mouly

Graphic Design: Braxton Hoare

Sales: Susan Chikie, Lorna Hamilton of the Gove nment of Canada

Craig Baird Columnist

We are amid our latest election in Alberta, so throughout the election campaign I will be sharing stories from the past in the area regarding elections.

Alberta has gone through only a few changes in government. There was 2019 when the UCP replaced the NDP, 2015 when the NDP replaced the Progressive Conservatives, 1971 when the PCs replaced Social Credit and 1935 when Social Credit replaced the UFA.

There was one other change in government though, and it was the