Three writers have spent the past 2 years getting the background story on Arnold and Gail Morberg the founders of Calm Air.

Gail Morberg says they bought their first plane not thinking anything like this would happen. She says they got married and moved to Stony Rapids in northern Saskatchewan at the east end of Lake Athabasca and they were in isolation so to get anywhere they bought an aircraft.

Gail and Arnold Morberg started Calm Air in 1962 and ended up selling it in 2009. The book Northern Lights is available online at heartlandbooks.ca. 

Flin Flon Parks and Recreation, Arts Council and School Division are holding Summer in the Parks from July 7^th to August 29^th. Supervisor Erin Hall says they’ll offer a variety of programs for five to nine year olds including field trips, entertainment and activities.  She says the new staff this year is a group of energetic fun loving people who are very eager to spend the summer outside with the kids.  She says this summer they are privileged to have a new home base for parents to drop off and pick up the campers. She adds the Elks Hall will be a place to do arts and crafts, play a lot of games and be protected from the rain if needed.  Hall adds they are grateful to have a larger place this year so the kids can enjoy themselves and burn of energy indoors as well.

Summer in the Parks will run Monday to Friday from 12 to 5.  For information and to register call Erin at the Recreation Office at 204-681-7542.

National Aboriginal Day is being celebrated at the Flin Flon Aboriginal Friendship Center Saturday afternoon.  The Center’s Events Coordinator Jeremiah Herrman says they will have food and entertainment.  He says they’re going to have an opening ceremony starting at 1 o’clock until about 1:15 followed by the Silver Star Evening Singers from the Community Resource Center, there’ll be a couple of local performers, the Hoop Troop from Creighton and the headliner this year will be Tracy Bone who will have a one hour performance.

Herrman adds there will also be a couple of raffles, a 50-50 draw, a toonie parade and other events.  It runs from 1 to 5:30 Saturday in the Friendship Center parking lot on Church Street.

A shoreline clean up organized by Danielle Yungworth on Saturday was a success with 19 volunteers joining her in the clean up.

They removed 1079 pounds of garbage from the Ross Lake shoreline along the Boardwalk along with 21 pounds of recyclables, 1000 pounds of wood, brush and rail ties, 3 bikes, garbage cans, fire extinguishers, bed railings, 8 tires and other items.

Plans are to hold the shoreline clean up again next year.

The Manitoba government has announced they will invest over 1.5 million dollars on several improvements to provincial road 391 from the vicinity of Thompson to Leaf Rapids over the next two years.  Flin Flon MLA Clarence Pettersen says its part of a 32 million dollar multi year highway capital program in this area.  He says this really affects Nelson House, Leaf Rapids, South Indian Lake and Lynn Lake and he thinks it recognizes the safety they want to be done on these roads but also recognizes that people in the north matter. He adds he knows Chief Moody is excited to get his 11 kilometers on the road up to the main highway.  Pettersen says it’s a good thing for his constituency so he’s really proud of it.

Infrastructure and Transportation Minister Steve Ashton adds this is part of their long term plan to invest in roads, bridges and infrastructure throughout Manitoba.

Twenty-five graduating students will receive their diplomas as Creighton Community School holds their graduation ceremony Friday night.  Principal Stacy Lair says they’ll have a full evening of celebration with their graduation banquet at 5 o’clock at the Sportex with tickets available at Creighton School and then at 6:30 people can line Main Street to see their grand march and the graduates and their escorts will do a march around the community.  She says at 7 p.m. in the Creighton School gym they have their ceremony and its usually a couple of hours long with a short meet and greet with the grads afterwards.

The students will also be holding their car parade through Creighton and Flin Flon at 2:30 tomorrow afternoon.

The TD Reading Club has just gotten underway at the Flin Flon Public Library and Administrator Cindy McLean says a well known guest will help kick it off.  She says Ronald McDonald is coming to the library to celebrate the FIFA World Cup and to kick off their TD Summer Reading Club.  She says he will be there at 11 o’clock Friday morning and he’ll be playing lots of games with the children, activities and trivia so bring the children out, have some snacks and play some soccer with Ronald McDonald.

The TD Reading Club runs until the end of August with information available at the library.

At their meeting last night Flin Flon City Council agreed to apply to the provinces Municipal Road Improvement Program for funding to complete two projects, Green Street from Phelan Avenue to Elm Avenue for sidewalk, curb and gutter repairs and associated landscaping and the Oak Avenue intersection to 301 Green Street road base, curb gutter, sidewalk repairs and replace asphalt.

In other business Greg East asked council when numbers will be available on what our community’s share will be of the 2.2 million dollars required from the area towards the 22 million dollar Emergency Room expansion at Flin Flon General Hospital.  Mayor George Fontaine says he and Councilor Pawlachuk sit on the committee and they are waiting for that final number to be confirmed and when it is all areas that use the hospital will have to share their part of it.

In what Councilor Pawlachuk called an unprecedented event Council received a thank you card signed by numerous people thanking them for the work they are doing to maintain the local bus service.  Council is continuing to make adjustments to the schedule as people express their concerns.

Just after 4 Saturday morning Flin Flon RCMP received a report of a stabbing at a residence on Hapnot Street.  Police investigation revealed a 20 year old man was stabbed by another man and suffered injuries to the upper body.  He was transported to local hospital and has since been released.

A 19 year old man has been arrested and charged for aggravated assault and failing to comply with an undertaking.  He remains in custody until a court appearance.

RCMP report the victim and the suspect were not known to each other.

The investigation continues.

A Creighton Community Appreciation Barbeque is being held tomorrow evening.  Recreation Director Channa Senyk invites the community out to celebrate June as Parks and Recreation Month.  She says they have Chad Pabianek entertaining as well as Imrie Anna Jones, they have barbequed hot dogs and hamburgers, salads and cake as well as kids games, Kids First North will be there with an obstacle course and they’ll have face painting.

The event is free and runs from 5:30 to 7:30 tomorrow evening at the Creighton Recreation office.

The Flin Flon Trout Festival is bringing in the Western Canadian Water Craft Association for this years festival. The committee’s Ken Pawlachuk says they’ll be on Ross Lake with jet skis June 28^th and 29^th and there’s races starting Saturday and all day Sunday with heats and they go up to a final race.  He says there’s a guy who brings his machine that he’s hopped up that does tricks like flips, summersaults and things like that on a jet ski with a 3 to 400 horse power motor on it.

Pawlachuk adds these will be held on the large part of the lake behind Stittco along with the canoe races so there’s a lot of room for spectators.  He adds they are looking for help those days as well as for businesses to sponsor the event. You can call him at 204-687-6247.

The Flin Flon Trout Festival is planning a Farmer’s Market for Main Street Days.  The Committee’s Rikki Petersen says anyone can be part of it.  She says they’ll have crafts tables, ceramics, fudge, popcorn, home businesses, anybody that has something they’d like to sell can set up a booth on Main Street and sell.  She adds you can book a spot on the street for 25 dollars or if you want under a giant tent for 50 dollars plus a table unless you bring your own table.

The Farmer’s Market will be held June 27^th and 28^th on Main Street from 11 to 5 both days.  To take part call Rikki at 204-271-3605.

Flin Flon City Council received numerous complaints from residents and organizations when their May 21^st bus schedule came out over the fact there were no buses in the mid-morning.  The bus left uptown at 8:32 and didn’t run again until 11:32.

A new schedule that was effective yesterday now includes buses leaving uptown at 10:15 and 10:54.

The new bus schedule can be found on the City of Flin Flon website by clicking on the link at www.flinflononline.com.

A man from Pelican Narrows Saskatchewan will appear in court today after three people were injured by gunfire over the weekend.

RCMP says they were called to a home in the community early Saturday about a complaint that 20 people were outside attempting to smash windows.  Police say a man stepped out with a .22 rifle and began randomly firing.  Three teens were treated in Flin Flon hospital and have since been released.  Two of the teens a 15 year old girl and a 14 year old boy were from Flin Flon and a 19 year old was from Pelican Narrows.

Travis Alphonse Sewap was arrested shortly after without incident.

Northland Ford in Flin Flon held their Drive One for Your School June 7^th to support the graduating class of Many Faces Education Center.  Sales Consultant Nikki McConnell says for each test drive Ford of Canada is donating 20 dollars.  She says things went great even though the weather didn’t co-operate as much as they would of liked but they still had a great turnout and a very successful event.  She reports they did about 105 test drives and raised about 21 hundred dollars for Many Faces.

Northland Ford is also planning a Drive One for Your Community on September 20^th to support the Habitat 53° Chapter of Habitat for Humanity.

The Flin Flon Public Library has started its TD Summer Reading Club.  Administrator Cindy McLean says it encourages children to spend some time with books.  She explains all registered children are awarded a free reading activity kit and a chance to win some great prizes.  She says they’re also doing special treat bags awarded for every completed notebook reading log.  She adds they will also be running a week long summer camp from August 11^th to 15^th so all children are welcome to come to the library, get their notebooks and start reading.

McLean says the reading club is underway now and runs until the end of August.

At their 16^th annual meeting the Women’s Resource Center’s Executive Director Colleen Arnold reported they have been very busy with education and awareness these last few years.  She says the many public events they run each year raise awareness of violence against women and if the community bands together, watches out for each other and says no to violence its going to end.  The Center would like to get more men and boys involved to work with them as allies to end violence against women and girls.

Events over the past year included support groups, counseling services, Domestic Violence Prevention Month, Candle Light Vigil, Take Back the Night, The Vagina Monologues, Walk a Mile in her Shoes, International Women’s Day and their lunch program.

Thanks were given to all volunteers, staff, board members and local organizations for their ongoing support.  They also welcomed their new Youth Counselor Darcie Snyder.

Hudbay has announced it has sold its almost 3.3 million common shares of Rockshield Capital Corporation at a price of 13 cents per share for gross proceeds of almost 424 thousand dollars.  The shares were sold over the Canadian Securities Exchange and represent approximately 10.7 percent of issued and outstanding Rockshield shares.  As a result of the sale Hudbay no longer owns or controls any Rockshield shares.

The Flin Flon Friendship Center and other community organizations are presenting a Friendship Playday tomorrow. The Center’s Director of the Aboriginal Headstart Program Katie Kawerski says they have nine stations planned including play dough, rock painting, beading, face painting, wood crafts, masks, games and the Recycling Center will have a type of craft there as well.  She says Playday is for families to connect with one another, its for parents and children and grandparents and children ages 2 to 12 and its also for families to connect with community services.

              Playday runs from 12 to 3 tomorrow at the Elks Hall.  For more information you can call Katie at 204-687-1311.

A shoreline cleanup will take place tomorrow afternoon along the Boardwalk on the shores of Ross Lake.  Organizer Danielle Yungwirth says they’re just going to have everybody meet at the Manitoba Avenue access to the Boardwalk at 1 o’clock on Saturday.  She says they’re going to assign sections as people show up and everybody can just go out and clean up some garbage and have some fun.  She adds they’re going to have some garbage bags and rubber gloves provided by Kleen-All and its basically to raise awareness about keeping trash out of our waterways.

Yungwirth adds garbage collected there will be added to the Twenty Minutes of Magic collection as part of the Northern Communities Cleanup Challenge.

The official launch of a CD by Chad Pabianek called The Arms That Surround Us takes place Saturday night.  Pabianek says he’ll perform the songs on the CD and there’s songs dating back to 2007 and all the way up to last summer so it’s a good mixture of about a dozen songs that he’s written over the last six years.  He says he mastered it, did the editing and recorded himself setting up in the basement to do the recording there.  He adds it wasn’t too hard to do but a lot of time was put into it.

The performance takes place at 8 Saturday night at Johnny’s Social Club on Green Street.

Admission is ten dollars.

On Saturday and Sunday Manitoba is waiving the need for a fishing licence and the provincial park entry fee will be waived as well. The summer family fishing weekend has been happening since 1992. Anglers fishing without a licence will be allowed to keep a conservation limit of fish. This varies by species. All other rules and regulations will still be in effect and these can be found in the Manitoba Angler’s Guide available where fishing licences are sold or at www.manitobafisheries.com. Manitoba Wildlife Federation will also be hosting a photo contest to promote fishing. Anglers can capture their big moments and submit their photographs to info@mwf.mb.ca by June 16.

The Creighton Branch of the Saskatchewan Wildlife Federation will be holding a 22 shoot and gun safety program Saturday afternoon.  The group’s Alex McGilvary explains it’s an opportunity for families to come out to the range and try their hand at shooting a 22 rifle.  He says its fun and it’s a great way to learn a little bit of gun safety so if they happen on a rifle in the house they know how to treat it with respect, to treat it safely and basically leave it alone.  He adds its great chance to seen the range, have some fun and meet some people from the Wildlife Federation.

There is no cost and it will run from 1 to 4 Saturday at the range west of Creighton on the Hanson Lake road.

Creighton Recreation is looking for individuals, groups and organizations who want to be part of the Canada Day celebrations at the Creighton ball diamond.  Assistant Recreation Director Crystal Banting says they are looking for any kind of booth.  She says it could be draws, raffles, a fundraiser, games for kids, food booths, anything like that.  She adds booths are going to be 15 dollars and you can call the Rec office at 306-688-3538 to register or for more information.

The deadline to register for a booth is June 23^rd.

As part of Recreation and Parks Month Denare Beach Recreation invites you to come out Sunday afternoon for a guided trail walk.  Recreation Board Chair Mary Wright says you can meet at 2 o’clock at New Horizons. She says this time its more on ecology so they will be identifying some plants and some of the native greenery around there.  She says they are giving it about two hours for the walk and that will be followed by a barbeque where they will have wild rice burgers as well as regular burgers, hot dogs and corn.

Wright says the barbeque will be at New Horizons adding they will have toys and activities for the kids as well.  If you need more information call the Recreation Office at 306-362-2050.