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Dozens of young Red Deer students wrap up their BEST SUMMER EVER next week

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reading college

It’s hard to believe!

  • –  how fast the days have come and gone…and each one has been special and amazing
  • –  the significant progress and growth shown by our students …the increase in skills,motivation and interest have been incredible
  • –  that with summer holidays about to really begin for these kids,they are sad that Reading College is coming to an end…they truly are going to miss the ‘best summer ever!’
  • –  the response from parents on the impact Reading College has had on their children…we have received fantastic feedback on the value of the program
  • –  the incredible support from our supporters that makes it all possible…that commitment is as strong as ever and we are grateful

Backstage Tour

Did you know the RDCArts Centre was built to look like a grain elevator on the prairies? Have you ever wondered what happens behind the scenes during a production? We found out all sorts of cool things when Finn took us on a tour of the lighting and sound booth,the props and costume room,and the trap room.

Hogwarts Magic

All of the students received an invitation to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry! In the afternoon Miss Mawer created a fizzing potion that revealed a colour telling them which Hogwarts house they are in! Each student then created a mysterious juice and recorded how it looked, smelled and tasted.

Mindfulness

Miss Ortman read us a story titled I Am Peace by Susan Verde.  We learned a little bit about why it is important for us to take time to be present and mindful,as it helps us pay attention better, stay calmer, and feel happier.   We practiced mindfulness with our breathing buddies and participated in some mindful stretching to help us feel ready to take on our afternoons!  Then, we created I Am Peace collages using magazine images.   We chose images that make us feel happy and peaceful, and remind us to stay present.

Bethany Collegeside Gardens

Our Seuss groups had the opportunity to perform for the seniors on Wednesday or Friday. The students worked hard on their reading performances and were thrilled to have such an appreciative audience. Perhaps best of all was the time after the performances when our students got a chance to chat with the seniors. It was heartwarming to see the great conversations that went on!

A Foundation for All Learning

Radical Readers

Students are continuing to practice the strategies they learn in class from our CAFE. This week we focused on stretching out our words and fluency. Radical Readers do more than read the words on the page,they read the words using expression and they pay attention to punctuation. A fun thing to do one weekend with your library card is to go to the library and look at a series by an author.  (Fancy Nancy, Pete the Cat, Clifford, Biscuit, Arthur and Franklin are a few favourites.)  In Radical Readers our CAFE menu is growing and the students are really zeroing in on what strategies work for them to develop into a better reader.  We are loving the progress we are seeing and we are singing their praises to everyone! You are truly Radical Readers!

Awesome Authors

Students continue to write in their Morning Message booklets and look forward to the prompts that are displayed on the board, as they enter each morning.  It is amazing to see the progress that they have made in their printing, sentence structure and expansion of ideas. After reading parts of the book The Best Part of Me and discussing how each of us is unique, the students then wrote about their own best part. They also did a quick melon art project to complete this activity and wrote all about why they are one in a melon (really meaning, I’m One in a Million).  We have a few more writing projects to complete.  One will be centred around how to blow a bubble with bubblegum. After blowing a bubble, or attempting to, the students will write the steps involved in this process.  The students have been writing their observations, as their grass heads continue to grow!  We will be wrapping up their grass heads project, recording final measurements and even giving their grass heads stylish haircuts!!

Word Wizards

Each day we begin at the front of our classroom to read, create rhyming families, unscramble a sentence or sing-along while reading the lyrics of a popular song.  It’s just another way to motivate, while reinforcing our sight and sound vocabulary and improving reading fluency.  Learning those essential sight words and becoming more skilled at sounding out unknown words, also motivates students to read through our Dr. Seuss library.  Our  small group phonics lessons are designed to target the needs of each child, concentrating on mastery of all consonants, vowels and letter combinations to be able to tackle writing and reading at grade level.  This takes practice, exposure and more practice.  Daily reading and writing will help your child to recognize when their spelling just doesn’t look correct, as in toob / tube, kwit / quit, or mayk /make.   Sounding out words is much like eating a footlong sub.  It’s done in chunks, not all in one bite, as in the word trans-form-er.  It is important for your child to sound out words aloud, not silently.  Have your child read in everyday settings, like road signs and aisle markers at the store, or have them write the shopping list as you dictate. Words are everywhere, and if your child feels that they have the power to read and write anything, they’ll be on their way to success!

The Value Of Reading College

Like so many things, it’s hard place a value on Reading College.

Truth be told, if we had to charge for the program it would likely be in the neighbourhood of $2000 for each child. We know that’s not practical so we rely on the generous support of our community.

This program started eight years ago because of the incredible support of the Optimist Club of Red Deer.  This is one of their favourite projects and they are continue to be incredibly valuable partners.

Red Deer College provides all of their facilities at no cost. Not only do they make the space available, they expose our kids to future possibilities and hope they will become future students.

Prairie Bus Lines and Chartwells Food give us incredible deals so that we can get students to and from school and make sure they have great food.

Going into its fourth year, the local owners of Tim Hortons have made us their charity of choice for the SMILE Cookie campaign… be sure to buy those cookies in September.

INSPIRING KIDS TO READ

Both local community leaders, the Chapman and Turple families have a established endowments supporting Reading College.

TURPLE FAMILY FUND

As you can see, many other donors have stepped up to the plate and for each one of them, we are grateful.

ELIZABETH WILSON

ROSEMARY CONGDON

DON & CATHY GUKERT

PETER & KATHY LACEY

ARUN MISHRA

GERI THOMPSON

However, even more valuable, we are creating better futures for students.  Each one will have greater potential to graduate from high school. They go into grade three more confident in their abilities to read and write.  Let’s be honest, they’re having the best summer ever – we are creating great memories for each child!  Throughout the 21 days of Reading College when you see them try so hard and achieve success, it’s worth the smiles on their faces.  And best yet, come graduation day, when they throw those caps in the air celebrating their success and achievements with family and friends, you truly understand how valuable Reading College is.

For all those who make Reading College possible, we couldn’t be more grateful!

Bruce Buruma,

Executive Director
The Foundation for Red Deer Public Schools

After 15 years as a TV reporter with Global and CBC and as news director of RDTV in Red Deer, Duane set out on his own 2008 as a visual storyteller. During this period, he became fascinated with a burgeoning online world and how it could better serve local communities. This fascination led to Todayville, launched in 2016.

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Community

SPARC Red Deer – Caring Adult Nominations open now!

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Red Deer community let’s give a round of applause to the incredible adults shaping the future of our kids. Whether they’re a coach, neighbour, teacher, mentor, instructor, or someone special, we want to know about them!

Tell us the inspiring story of how your nominee is helping kids grow up great. We will honour the first 100 local nominees for their outstanding contributions to youth development. It’s time to highlight those who consistently go above and beyond!

To nominate, visit Events (sparcreddeer.ca)

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Addictions

‘Harm Reduction’ is killing B.C.’s addicts. There’s got to be a better way

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From the Frontier Centre for Public Policy

By Susan Martinuk 

B.C. recently decriminalized the possession of small amounts of illicit drugs. The resulting explosion of addicts using drugs in public spaces, including parks and playgrounds, recently led the province’s NDP government to attempt to backtrack on this policy

Since 2016, more than 40,000 Canadians have died from opioid drug overdoses — almost as many as died during the Second World War.
Governments, health care professionals and addiction experts all acknowledge that widespread use of opioids has created a public health crisis in Canada. Yet they agree on virtually nothing else about this crisis, including its causes, possible remedies and whether addicts should be regarded as passive victims or accountable moral agents.

Fuelled by the deadly manufactured opioid fentanyl, Canada’s national drug overdose rate stood at 19.3 people per 100,000 in 2022, a shockingly high number when compared to the European Union’s rate of just 1.8. But national statistics hide considerable geographic variation. British Columbia and Alberta together account for only a quarter of Canada’s population yet nearly half of all opioid deaths. B.C.’s 2022 death rate of 45.2/100,000 is more than double the national average, with Alberta close behind at 33.3/100,00.

In response to the drug crisis, Canada’s two western-most provinces have taken markedly divergent approaches, and in doing so have created a natural experiment with national implications.

B.C. has emphasized harm reduction, which seeks to eliminate the damaging effects of illicit drugs without actually removing them from the equation. The strategy focuses on creating access to clean drugs and includes such measures as “safe” injection sites, needle exchange programs, crack-pipe giveaways and even drug-dispensing vending machines. The approach goes so far as to distribute drugs like heroin and cocaine free of charge in the hope addicts will no longer be tempted by potentially tainted street drugs and may eventually seek help.

But safe-supply policies create many unexpected consequences. A National Post investigation found, for example, that government-supplied hydromorphone pills handed out to addicts in Vancouver are often re-sold on the street to other addicts. The sellers then use the money to purchase a street drug that provides a better high — namely, fentanyl.

Doubling down on safe supply, B.C. recently decriminalized the possession of small amounts of illicit drugs. The resulting explosion of addicts using drugs in public spaces, including parks and playgrounds, recently led the province’s NDP government to attempt to backtrack on this policy — though for now that effort has been stymied by the courts.

According to Vancouver city councillor Brian Montague, “The stats tell us that harm reduction isn’t working.” In an interview, he calls decriminalization “a disaster” and proposes a policy shift that recognizes the connection between mental illness and addiction. The province, he says, needs “massive numbers of beds in treatment facilities that deal with both addictions and long-term mental health problems (plus) access to free counselling and housing.”

In fact, Montague’s wish is coming true — one province east, in Alberta. Since the United Conservative Party was elected in 2019, Alberta has been transforming its drug addiction policy away from harm reduction and towards publicly-funded treatment and recovery efforts.

Instead of offering safe-injection sites and free drugs, Alberta is building a network of 10 therapeutic communities across the province where patients can stay for up to a year, receiving therapy and medical treatment and developing skills that will enable them to build a life outside the drug culture. All for free. The province’s first two new recovery centres opened last year in Lethbridge and Red Deer. There are currently over 29,000 addiction treatment spaces in the province.

This treatment-based strategy is in large part the work of Marshall Smith, current chief of staff to Alberta’s premier and a former addict himself, whose life story is a testament to the importance of treatment and recovery.

The sharply contrasting policies of B.C. and Alberta allow a comparison of what works and what doesn’t. A first, tentative report card on this natural experiment was produced last year in a study from Stanford University’s network on addiction policy (SNAP). Noting “a lack of policy innovation in B.C.,” where harm reduction has become the dominant policy approach, the report argues that in fact “Alberta is currently experiencing a reduction in key addiction-related harms.” But it concludes that “Canada overall, and B.C. in particular, is not yet showing the progress that the public and those impacted by drug addiction deserve.”

The report is admittedly an early analysis of these two contrasting approaches. Most of Alberta’s recovery homes are still under construction, and B.C.’s decriminalization policy is only a year old. And since the report was published, opioid death rates have inched higher in both provinces.

Still, the early returns do seem to favour Alberta’s approach. That should be regarded as good news. Society certainly has an obligation to try to help drug users. But that duty must involve more than offering addicts free drugs. Addicted people need treatment so they can kick their potentially deadly habit and go on to live healthy, meaningful lives. Dignity comes from a life of purpose and self-control, not a government-funded fix.

Susan Martinuk is a senior fellow at the Frontier Centre for Public Policy and author of the 2021 book Patients at Risk: Exposing Canada’s Health Care Crisis. A longer version of this article recently appeared at C2CJournal.ca.

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