Golf course meeting
Bonaparte Ridge Golf—formerly the Semlin Valley Golf Course—is holding a community meeting at 6 p.m. on Friday, April 6 to set the future of the golf course. All are welcome to come and learn more, ask questions, have their input, and find out about plans for Bonaparte Ridge, which is set to open on April 14. The meeting will take place at the course’s clubhouse, just off the Trans-Canada Highway east of Cache Creek.
Rotary Citizens of the Year dinner
Come out and honour the Rotary Club of Ashcroft and Cache Creek’s 2017 Citizens of the Year—Joyce Beddow-Buckland and Phyllis Rainey (Ashcroft and area); Sue Peters (Cache Creek and area); and Khiara Archibald (Youth)—at a dinner and celebration on Saturday, April 7 at the Cache Creek Community Hall.
Doors open at 5 p.m. and dinner—a full turkey dinner with all the trimmings or roast vegetable lasagna—starts at 6 p.m. Coffee and dessert are included in the cost of the dinner ($20 in advance or $25 at the door), and there will also be a no-host bar. The Sage Sound Singers Choir will be on hand to sing selections from their upcoming “Made in Canada: A Tribute to Canadian Music” concert, and it promises to be an evening of fellowship and fun as we honour those who went above and beyond in our communities.
Tickets can be purchased online at https:/rotarycitizen2017.eventbrite.ca, or at Interior Savings (Ashcroft) or the Royal Bank (Cache Creek).
Conversational Spanish
Have you ever wanted to learn enough simple and basic Spanish to enable you to converse with Spanish-speaking people in Spain and various Latin-American countries?
A new workshop starting on Thursday, April 12 at the Ashcroft HUB will teach participants simple structures and vocabulary, as well as an opportunity to learn and practice speaking Spanish, with additional Spanish immersion conversation classes available.
The course takes place on Thursdays over eight classes, with the first one from 6:30 to 8 p.m. on April 12, and no prior knowledge of Spanish is necessary. The cost is $90 per person, and pre-registration is required. Call (250) 453-9177 or email ashcrofthub@gmail.com for more information or to register.
Mama Soul returns to UniTea
Fresh off the heels of a successful concert in Ashcroft on January 27, Mama Soul from Kamloops is back by popular demand on Saturday, April 14 with their great selection of Funk, Soul, and Blues. Doors open at 6:30 p.m., and the concert starts at 7:30.
The concert is sure to sell out, so get your tickets ($15 each) early, either by dropping by UniTea at 210 Railway Avenue or calling (250) 457-1145.
Canadian Film Day
Be at the Cache Creek Community Hall on Tuesday, April 17 to celebrate the fifth annual Canadian Film Day with a free screening of the film Window Horses. Doors open at 6 p.m., and there will be a concession and door prizes.
Window Horses is an award-winning animated film that tells the story of a young Vancouver girl named Rosie who dreams of becoming a poet. Her journey includes a trip to a poetry festival in Iran, where she meets poets from around the world and gradually learns more about her own family and the father she was told abandoned her. The film is suitable for all ages.
TRU courses
Thompson Rivers University is offering two upcoming courses at the Ashcroft HUB: Occupational First Aid level one (Monday, April 16) and Transportation Endorsement (Tuesday, April 17). The courses cost $160 each, and both run from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
For more information, or to register, call (250) 256-4296, email mhohner@tru.ca, or go to http://bit.ly/2AbNUuf.
Enhancement programs benefit SD74
The Province’s School Enhancement Program supports facility and bus upgrades in districts around the province, to improve safety and efficiency and help make schools more comfortable for students. It ensures that facilities and building systems are well-maintained, and that transportation services are reliable and safe and new routes can be supported.
Under the School Enhancement Program, Desert Sands Community School (Ashcroft) and Lillooet Secondary School will be receiving a total of $1,896,000 for mechanical system upgrades at the two schools, while the District will be receiving $298,480 under the School Bus Replacement Program for two replacement busses.
Area authors nominated for BC Book Prize
The West Coast Book Prize Society recently announced the names of the finalists vying for recognition in seven categories at the 34th annual BC Book Prizes. Among the finalists are Marian Ignace and Ronald E. Ignace of Skeetchestn, whose book Secwépemc People, Land, and Laws: Yeri7 re Stsq’ey’s-kucw (McGill-Queen’s University Press) is one of five titles vying for the Roderick Haig-Brown Regional Prize. The prize recougnizes the author(s) of the book that contributes most to the enjoyment and understanding of British Columbia.
Poetry contest
The Kamloops Society for the Written Arts, the Council of Canadians, and Kamloops This Week are pleased to announce a poetry contest with the theme “Nature and the more-than-human-world” to celebrate April, which is National Poetry Month as well as Earth Month. Winners will be chosen through a blind process by a single judge.
The winning poems will be published during the week of April 23 in Kamloops This Week. In addition, all entrants will be invited to read their poem at the Open Mic event held at “Art We Are” on Wednesday, May 9.
Entrants can submit one original, not previously published poem of 20 lines or fewer. The contest is open to anyone who is 18 years or older and a resident of Kamloops or the surrounding area. For more information, go to http://www.kswa.ca/poetry-contest.html.
Learn screenwriting
Have you ever wanted to learn how to write a screenplay? The Thompson-Nicola Film Commission is offering a two-day screenwriting course led by playwright, screenwriter, and novelist Ian Weir on Saturday, April 21 (10:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.) and Sunday, April 22 (9:3.0 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.). The workshop will take place at Mastermind Studios, 954F Laval Crescent in Kamloops.
The fee is $200 per person, and pre-registration is necessary. RSVP by April 13 to Sherre Lapointe at tnfc@tnrd.ca or (250) 377-8673, ext. 2594. For more information call Mastermind Studios at (250) 434-8918.
Cariboo Cares tree planting campaign back by popular demand
Throughout the month of April, Pacific Western Brewing will dedicate an additional 25 cents from every six-pack of Cariboo product sold to help B.C. recover from last summer’s wildfire devastation.
A similar one-month campaign in September 2017 generated enough revenue to fund the planting of 18,640 seedlings this spring. The brewery has contracted with Smithers-based Summit Reforestation to plant trees funded from both campaigns, and plans to plant near 100 Mile House this spring and summer.
PWB owner Kazuko Komatsu says, “Please step up and, in a modest yet significant way, help replenish our precious forest land. I have always believed our brewery should invest where we live, and tree planting has been an important element of that giving since 2010. The reforestation program is one of my core commitments to B.C., and will endure for years to come.”
Thousands more MRIs coming
To give people faster access to the diagnoses and care they need, the Province has announced that 37,000 more magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) exams will be done throughout the province by the end of March 2019, compared to the previous year.
Under the B.C. Surgical and Diagnostic Strategy, 225,000 MRI exams will be completed in 2018-19, up from 188,000 in 2017-18. In the Interior Health region, it will mean going from an estimated 20,720 MRIs in 2017-18 to an estimated 26,000 MRIs in 2018-19; an increase of 26 per cent.
To meet these ambitious targets, $11 million is being made available in the public health-care system to add resources and capacity. Reaching MRI targets will be achieved by operating existing machines longer to accommodate additional exams; establishing centralized intake at a regional level that will reduce duplicate referrals and appointments, and prevent wasted operating time, while also offering patients the earliest appointment available in a region, as appropriate; installing already-planned MRI machines; and adding additional capacity to the public system.
In addition to increasing capacity, the Ministry of Health is working with health authorities to find ways to make sure referrals for MRI are the most appropriate diagnostic choice, and that the quality of exams is consistently high to ensure patient safety, and reduce the need to repeat the exams and take up more valuable time.
MRI is one of the tools used to diagnose a number of medical conditions, including abnormalities of the brain, as well as tumours, cysts, and soft-tissue injuries in other parts of the body. An early diagnosis can lead to early treatment, which can positively affect people’s quality of life and return them to being contributing members of their communities and the economy.
Right now, 50 per cent of B.C. patients scheduled for an MRI exam must wait an average of 41 days, while 10 per cent wait more than 199 days. B.C.’s per capita rate for public MRI exams is currently 37 per 1,000 British Columbians: a full third below the national average.
Hospital Employees’ Union secretary-business manager Jennifer Whiteside says the announcement of more investment in MRI is welcome news for patients, and for the health-care workers who deliver the care.
“Timely access to necessary health care services is the right of all British Columbians,” says Whiteside. “Citizens should not be forced to choose between waiting for months for a needed medical service, or paying privately.”
editorial@accjournal.ca
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