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This letter of recognition is for all you. It is hard to express in words the deep gratitude my family feels for the service you provide. But we cannot miss this opportunity to try to express our feelings on paper because I am sure a lot of the work you do might go unnoticed. Maybe not intentionally but just as a function of our hectic lives and the rapid change of circumstances you deal with. Hopefully…
Two HSAA members were among the people taking part in the recent Lethbridge Dragon Boat weekend on Henderson Lake. We were part of the Where’s The Finish?! team, made up of 22 women and one man – he was in charge of steering! HSAA’s Social Justice Committee donated $100 to each of us and that money was put toward the team registration fee, practices and uniform shirts. The Dragon Boat Festival was held June 16-18 and…
This article was published in the Summer 2017 edition of Public Interest Alberta’s newsletter, The Advocate. If you want proof that a lie can travel half way around the world while the truth is putting its shoes on, look no further than residential schools in Canada. For more than 130 years we’ve been hearing the lies about these infamous institutions – that they were created to integrate Indigenous Canadians into the mainstream society, that they were…
As I sit in front of my computer I find myself struggling to communicate the necessary words to describe my experience with residential schools. The only words I have are … I thought I understood. My uncle, my mother’s brother, was sent to a residential school so I thought I understood. His time at the residential school was never spoken of, so I thought I understood. My uncle, on my wife’s side of the family, taught…
What’s the recipe for a successful Local Unit event? Good food and generous friends would be some key ingredients. Add a bunch of hungry members and you’ve got a hit! Shauna Cruden, a diagnostic sonographer at the Edson Healthcare Centre and Local Unit chair in Edson, organized a BBQ recently and about 50 members turned out to meet fellow members. The use of a fantastic mobile BBQ was donated by her father, Ted Cruden, branch manager…
A hard-toed boot may not be as pretty as Cinderella’s glass slipper, but it sure is more useful for homeless people. That’s why EMS members of HSAA recently donated 71 pairs of used (but still useful) work boots to Homeless Connect Edmonton, which aims to help people experiencing or at risk of homelessness find paths out of their difficult situation. “EMS workers get boot chits so they can get new boots every year. It’s important for…
Photo (above): Brooklyn and Jeffrey Slingerland were among the walkers in Lethbridge who raised more than $12,000 for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation. On May 27, 2017, our family joined about 200 other walkers at Nicholas Sheran park in Lethbridge for the JDRF (Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation) Walk to Cure Diabetes. Our daughter Brooklyn was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes in November 2015, when she was eight years old. Since then we have been actively involved…
It’s great to get a few minutes to chat with you a bit about our work and my role in it. The weird thing about this new role that I have is that there is no real job description – sure the constitution mandates a few of the specific tasks – finances (which you’ll hear more about tomorrow), record keeping, and human resources for our Executive Director and Executive Liaison, but I soon realized that I…
Good morning, Well, it’s great to be with you all this morning. Are you all having a pretty good time so far? I think we’re going to have a great couple of days together. I can’t tell you the number of hours of work that goes into putting a convention like this together – mostly because I have no idea. All I know is that we’ve been thinking about this, planning it and putting it together…
Your home is destroyed by fire. You’re six months pregnant. You’re separated from your husband and two children as you flee the flames. Would you look back on that a year later and say it was a blessing? That’s how HSAA member Jennifer Oger and her husband David see what happened to them when the Beast of Fort Mac burned through their lives in May 2016. “The blessings during that time were incredible,” says David, one…
