DELORAINE

The community of Deloraine came out in droves for the red carpet premiere of a short film made by a few of their own.

On July 23, “Whitetail” a film by Nick Dietrich and Laughlin McKinnon, made its debut at the Deloraine Theatre. The cast, crew and much of the town were out in full force to see a locally made movie. It was everything they were looking for, McKinnon said.

“It was awesome,” he stated. “We hoped to have a full house and we did. You couldn’t ask for more. That was the dream, to have a premiere of a movie in Deloraine, raise some money for the Ag Society, and we met those goals.”

The venture started when Dietrich, a Deloraine native who is a filmmaker in B.C., was on the cusp of a larger film project. He wanted a smaller one to practise putting all aspects of it together. He asked McKinnon if he would help with it, to write a short film.

“We were thinking maybe three to seven minutes. He has an impressive career in videography, but he was going to be looking after everything: editing, directing, cinematography. He wanted to try something short, low stress, before he moved on to something bigger.”

McKinnon said it caught him off guard, as he had not done anything like that. He got a skeleton of what Dietrich was looking for, and a story including a storm-stayed drug dealer, a deer hunter and more came into focus. There was an immediate desire to have a local feel with local place names used. There would be a hunting cabin, a gun, some tension and what McKinnon referred to as a “twisted re-telling of the Hansen Buck (world record typical whitetail shot) story.”

They recruited local actors — Sam Hall, Chris Manshreck, Kelsey Sunaert and Hannah McKinnon. McKinnon said they may have had the “element of surprise” when getting commitments as they too might not have expected the project to see the light of day. However, everyone was willing, and though not professional actors, did their parts well.

“Those guys and Hannah did an awesome job. They jumped in head first.”

He added he was amazed not only by the professionalism of Dietrich, but also of the results that it brought. They shot over about a week in the winter, and McKinnon saw how long it would take to get certain scenes, how much the positioning of the lighting mattered, how they were able to take a bit from here and a bit from there to make what might have seemed an imperfect performance into something fantastic.

“He did such a professional job filming, editing and everything, I became more excited to show it off,” McKinnon explained. “After I saw it, not following Nick’s career, my response was ‘this is a movie.’”

The packed house agreed, laughing and applauding their fine show. As McKinnon said, people like to see their own people on screen like they do on stage, telling a locally-based story. Those involved were thrilled to be able to entertain their community, while including them in a sense with the storyline.

The premiere was held as a fundraiser. With the $50-a-seat tickets and bar sales, they were able to raise over $10,000 for the Deloraine Agricultural Society.

» The Boissevain Recorder

NEEPAWA

Access to adult education is expanding in western Manitoba, as Assiniboine College has announced the establishment of new adult learning centres in Neepawa and Minnedosa.

The programs will begin this fall and allow residents to earn their high school diploma or prepare for postsecondary studies.

In a media release confirming the programs, Assiniboine College’s academic vice-president Deanna Rexe said the expansion into both communities is thanks to a $367,000 investment from the Manitoba Government.

“We are pleased to see the Manitoba government’s investment in adult learning and look forward to the strong partnerships that will see both of these sites provide opportunities for students in these areas,” Rexe said. “The college is committed to educational programming that supports training needs in rural Manitoba,”

The new Centre for Adult Learning in Neepawa will be located at the training centre on Mill Street, while Assiniboine will take over operations of the existing adult education site at Minnedosa Collegiate. Both locations are set to open in September and will offer daytime and evening classes, and online learning.

Adult learning centres help students earn their Grade 12 diploma, upgrade existing high school credits, or complete courses needed for post-secondary admission and employment opportunities.

» Neepawa Banner and Press

VIRDEN

With the ceremonial sod turning on July 29, the Town of Virden and Wallace District Fire Department marked the Virden firehall’s expansion and renovation project.

Virden’s deputy mayor Marc Savy welcomed the crowd saying, “I remember when I joined the fire department in 2006, they were getting excited, talking about a new hall. Here we are in 2026, just about to put shovels in the ground.”

The project is 50 per cent cost shared between the Town of Virden and Government of Manitoba through the Growth and Renewals Opportunities Grant.

Minister of Rural and Northern Affairs Glen Simard addressed the gathering: “Being a regional project, because this actually affects neighbouring communities, it was really important to make sure that the public is on board … that this is something that they want and that they’re ready for. And when you have a town like Virden with strong leadership, and a good capital plan, and a good public safety plan … it makes something like this easy to endorse.”

Mayor Tina Williams explained how Virden saved up for the work.

“To achieve this goal, the Town of Virden had allocated $150,000 a year through its annual budget for over eight years, and then when the province came in with its investment … we each contributed $1.5 million towards this project.”

» Virden Empire Advance

NEEPAWA

For the 19th straight year, the Manitoba Youth Beef Round-up came to Neepawa’s Stride Exhibition Grounds.

Competitors ranged in age from six to 15 years of age, providing a family-based atmosphere where youngsters learned from older youth, and in turn the older ones got an opportunity to learn and teach.

As in the past, this year’s Round-up featured many skills in addition to grooming and showing cattle. The juniors exhibited artwork, woodcrafts, photography and computer design projects. Thirty youngsters made speeches and 12 teams of mixed age prepared a steak barbecue for four teams of judges. Teams were judged on meal prep, flavour, presentation and overall appearance of the meal.

» Neepawa Banner and Press

CARTWRIGHT

For the third time in the last five years, the Cartwright Twins are the Border League Champions. They won the best of five championship series in four games over the Altona Bisons and took home the Gerry Coulthard Memorial Trophy. To recap, in the West Division finals, Cartwright advanced over Clearwater. In the East Division finals, Altona Bisons shut out the defending Border League champions, the Morden Mud Hens. That set up the Altona/Cartright championship series.

Altona won the first game 5-3 at Waldie Field in Cartwright. In Game 2, Cartwright beat the eastern team 11-7. On July 31 at Waldie Field during Ponderosa Days, the Twins took a commanding win and led with a 15-5 victory. Game 4 took place in Altona on Aug. 4, with the Twins winning 8-3 to seal the Border League Championship.

Coach/player Drew Haight said the team had to overcome some adversity with a Game 1 loss to Altona, but managed to “build on the positives of that game and play the best baseball of our season to get the three wins we needed.

“It’s a great feeling to keep our run of success in the Border League going.”

» The Hometown View

WESTERN MANITOBA

Canadian Foodgrains Rep for Manitoba and northwest Ontario, Dale Friesen, has been touring the multiple grow projects scattered across his region over the past month and checking in with community volunteers in each of these chapters.

Given the cooler start to spring, then the multiple storm systems that hit southwest Manitoba and the Interlake region hard with flooded fields, “It’s kind of a little bit all over the map right now,” he said.

“There has certainly been some crop loss due to too much rain, right?” Friesen said. “It’s weird after so many years that we didn’t have enough rain, but we certainly have had too much rain in some areas, like the Swan River area and the Stonewall area in particular.”

“Some of the people that I’ve talked to, though, have said that even though there is crop loss — and some significant — other parts of the field are actually looking pretty good. So, it’s going to be one of these things … you have to wait and see what’s it actually going to look like when it gets off the field,” he added.

Friesen covers the northwest area of Ontario and the entire province of Manitoba. His most recent trip to Emo, Ont. showed dry conditions, so he has seen the two extremes of drenched and dry in his territory.

“We pray for food producers all over the world, and as every farmer tells me, that’s farming,” Friesen said. “You have to look at it as a long-term thing. We can’t just look at one year individually, right? But trying to look over the long-term trends. And so, yeah, we’re still hopeful.”

Friesen said he doesn’t want to sound too optimistic but the crops right now range between good, fair and quite good. “It’s certainly not a wasted year or anything like that from what I’m hearing. So yeah, we’ll see how it goes. But it’s exciting stuff!”

» Discover Westman