February 5, 2014 - Westend Weekly

The Westend WeeklyBringing Communities Together

Box 66, 303 Fifth St., Rainy River, ON P0W 1L0 Ph. 807-852-3815, Fax. 807-852-1863, Email. westendweekly@tbaytel.net Vol. 21, No. 41 Wednesday, February 5, 2014Serving the Rainy River District for almost 22 years! Read us on line at www.westendweekly.ca

Photographers’ showcase

The planet Mercury is the bright star-like object to the left of the Moon. The bright thincrescent "bowl" is reflected light from the Sun, the ghostly glow of the rest of the Moon iscalled "Earthglow" and is caused by reflected light from the Earth.

Photo by Lauri Kangas, Fort Frances

Martin Dufresne275-8916852-4237

Are you paying too much for your insurance?Call Martin, Melissa or Robin for a free no obligation quote.

229 Scott Street, Fort Frances 1-800-289-9917Proudly Serving the Entire Rainy River District

Robin Payeur274-6688

Melissa Wiebe274-6688

Amanda CYR above is assistant to Nicki Blakney at BestStart Hub where parents and kids are welcomed and willenjoy planned activities together.

Chef de Cuisine Crystal Stamler prepares soft tacos fortoday’s lunch. The inset shows the Red River Cereal breadto accompany lunch, as it’s ready to come out of the ovensetting my nose hairs all aquiver.

Young lives are enriched at Rainy River Playschool Inc.

Staff members Heather Pater, left and Ashley Stamler withsome of the students working on a colouring project. Nevera dull moment!

Ava Brown creates a colour-ful velvet art masterpiece.

Tavian Ernst. What to do? Pink or purple?

Tailir Mosionier enjoys theactivities after school.

Staff member Brittany Bowman works with the toddlers.Laine Fairfield in the background takes over the toddlerclass reading everyone a story.

From left, Eva Brown, Lexi Wynne, Heather Pater, TaleahComegan, Tavian Ernst have just played tug of war with theconnected circles they use to stick together during walksthrough town. Bentley Warren completes the constructionof his latest engineering feat.

Staff member Leona King isfull of entertaining storiesfor the toddler group.

by Jacquie DufresneThe Rainy River Playschool

has been around since theearly 1980s but it has evolvedthrough the years in slowstages, moving from one loca-tion to another, to becomewhat it is today; a major li-censed daycare facility and agreat place for kids to learn,laugh, play and interact withothers.

There are several differentprograms going on for tod-dlers 18 to 30 months old andolder children 31 months to 5years. The before and afterschool programs are availablefor children 6 to 12. There isalso the Best Start Hub pro-gram going on in the buildingwhere families can go withtheir children to enjoy the toys,camaraderie, as well asplanned projects and activities.This week featured "Super

Scientist" and "Infant Mas-sage".

Supervisor Alicia Andersontook me on a tour of the facil-ity but my nose led me straightto the kitchen where the aromaof fresh baked bread waftedmerrily, tingling my tastebuds. The children are treatedto a wonderful menu filledwith very nutritional but kidfriendly foods.

The toddler room has lots ofactivities to keep little fingersbusy as well as cozy places fornapping. The older childrenhave a large area filled withtoys, games and staff who takecare of every need as well asproviding fun. In the summerthere are daily excursions foreveryone to enjoy and lots ofthings to learn about that onlya romp through nature canteach.

The teaching process contin-

ues at the playschool wherethe kids are prepared forkindergarten. They learnabout colours, counting andthe alphabet through play.They also learn about socializ-ing with other children andadults.

Chrissy Campbell is the re-source teacher. She is avail-able for children with specialneeds and her research and ed-ucation is invaluable whenchildren with special needs at-tend.

The pre and after school pro-grams are also well organized.Children are dropped off at theplayschool in the morning andare accompanied to Riverviewin time for classes to begin.After school the staff walksback to pick up their chargesthen everyone chats happilyabout their day as they returnto the play school or go off onan excursion somewhere. Thestaff members have lots ofimagination to spark their in-

terest. Nikki Blakney (who is also

with the Best Start Hub) and

Jacob Halverson coordinate aprogram to teach the kids abouthealthy eating and active play.They have a whale of a timedoing sports, homework assis-tance if they need it, and gener-ally learn about an active wayof life.

Children from Baudette aswell as Rainy River's neigh-bours to the north and east use

the facility as well as locals.There is a registration processwhich will begin soon for nextyear and although there are feeswhich vary for each group,there is always assistance avail-able for those who need it.Contact Administrator TammyArmstrong for more informa-tion.

A sweet mix and mingle this weekThe Fort Frances Chamber

of Commerce will be hostingan evening of wine and choco-late on Thursday evening,February 6th at the Super 8Motel from 7 to 9.

The Chamber will offer asample of wine to sip on ac-companied by some tantaliz-ing treats provided by Doubly

Delicious, Fifth Street Confec-tions and Shelley Wepruk.

Every guest will have thechance to win a romantic prizepackage including an eveningin the Jacuzzi Suite at Super 8,an amazing floral arrangementby Fort Floral and a romanticgift basket. The other sponsorof the romantic prize is Curvy

Chick so one can only imaginewhat surprises to expect in thegift basket.

Entertainment will be pro-vided by Entirely Mac so itwill be a great evening out.Tickets are available at theChamber, 601 Mowat Ave orcall them at 274-5773. Every-one is welcome.

By Jordan DessarreOn Friday February 7th,

Rainy River High School’sStudent Council will be hav-ing an Arts Festival and Auc-tion from 7:00-10:00 p.m. thatis open to the public. A can-teen will be open and light re-freshments will be available.

Art viewing will begin rightaway with artists present to ex-plain and display their work.Some of the art being dis-played is student artwork fromthis year and art from the col-lections of Rebecca Wood andJennifer Martin. Then at 7:45the live performances will start

in the gymnasium and this in-cludes the school’s dramagroup performing improv, thewriters group reciting poetry,the children’s dance group Justfor Kix, the musical Johnsonfamily, Jeff & Emily Fraserand Jacquie Dufresne with se-lections from Phantom of theOpera, and much more! Afterthe presentations, an auction-eer from James Auctions inBaudette will auction off cer-tain special pieces of art in-cluding a limited editionframed print.

Artisans are encouraged tobook an exhibition booth for

displaying and selling theirwares. The booths are free!Donations of artwork such assculptures, paintings, wood-work, leather crafts, bead-work, stained glass etc. wouldbe greatly appreciated.

Donations of money willalso be accepted and all moneyraised goes directly to StudentCouncil to make every stu-dent’s high school experiencemore enjoyable.

For more information or toobtain an exhibitor applicationform, please emailj d e s s e r r e 1 @ h o t m a i l . c olarmistead@mail.rrdsb.com.

Enjoy the arts & auction at RRHS