Education
Red Deer Public launches community engagement

Over the past couple of years, Red Deer Public Schools has asked its community what makes the Division the best choice for families. This year, we want to engage with our community around our Division priorities and day to day experiences for students.
Red Deer Public Schools will launch its community engagement through to the beginning of February. The Board of Trustees will review what our community has said during the engagement process at the end of February at their two-day Board conference.
“The Division’s priorities currently include Literacy and Numeracy, Equity and Student Success and Completion. These have been Red Deer Public’s priorities since 2012,” said Nicole Buchanan, Board Chair. “There are strong links between these priority areas. These are not standalone priorities, each of these areas overlap in meeting the needs of all students. Our priorities are the foundation of all we do at Red Deer Public, but the highest priority for Red Deer Public is the success of every child in school.”
Red Deer Public’s Education Plan responds to local priorities and aspirations as well as those of Alberta Education.
“As we move into our community engagement we want to ensure our planning is focused on key priorities, and those key priorities may have changed,” said Buchanan. “We will continue to focus on these key areas, but we want to know if our community feels there are other priorities Red Deer Public should work towards.”
Red Deer Public’s Community Engagement dates are as follows:
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January 12 – Teacher Voice Committee
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January 16 – February 17 – Middle Schools, K-8, High School Engagement (lunch hour at each school)
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January 16 – February 3 – Online Engagement
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February 6 – Red Deer Public School Administrators
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February 7 – City-Wide School Council
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February 23 & 24 – Board of Trustees conference
For more information, visit rdpsd.ab.ca.
Red Deer
The Red Deer Polytechnic Alumni Association is inviting you to Palate: A Taste of Local

Palate: A Taste of Local is an elegant tasting experience, featuring 35 food and beverage vendors from across central Alberta. This award-winning event will take place on October 19. Do you have your tickets yet? Your ticket includes everything you need for a full tasting experience, with no hidden costs. Consider treating your team, your clients, or your friends and family to a night out while supporting our local business community, RDP Alumni Relations and RDP students at this year’s kick-off to Homecoming – Palate: A Taste of Local!
Get your tickets now! Please note, this event is 18+.
This signature event, presented by the Red Deer Polytechnic Alumni Association (RDPAA), provides an elevated tasting experience, with a focus on local food producers, craft breweries and distilleries and restaurateurs. At Palate, we celebrate the amazing vendors and alumni businesses that call Central Alberta home. If you’re interested in seeing your name on this event, sponsorship opportunities are still available, with more information here.
Check out everything happening Homecoming Weekend at RDP
Palate: A Taste of Local
Thursday, October 19, 2023
Cenovus Energy Learning Common | Red Deer Polytechnic
Palate: A Taste of Local is an elegant tasting event that builds on the well-established reputation of the Fine Wine and Food Tasting Festival. We’ve combined the elegant experience you have enjoyed in the past with new elements we know you are going to love. This redesigned special event recently received national recognition, earning a silver medal in the annual Canadian Council for the Advancement of Education Prix d’Excellence!
Your ticket is all-inclusive, providing access to all of the items available from every vendor attending the Palate. There are no extra costs – the only thing you have to worry about, is how you will be able to sample everything.
Begin your evening with a champagne toast as you enter the event space. Palate vendors will offer a variety of food items, including sweet, savoury and international dishes, as well as small batch spirits, craft beer and soda, hand-crafted cocktails and mocktails, and other beverages.
Guests will immerse themselves in central Alberta’s local food and beverage culture, meeting the makers, owners and mixologists that bring these flavours to life while networking with other alumni and guests.
2023 Vendors
Blindman Brewing
Bo’s Bar & Stage Caballo Blanco Café Millennium The Curvy Bottle Cilantro & Chive C Zone Coffee Dark Woods Brewing and Coffee Roasting Delidais Estate Winery (DNA Gardens) Field and Forge Gastro Pub Hash & Forno The Hideout |
Jumble Eats
May Cakes Memphis Blues Barbeque House Moxies Occam’s Razor One Eleven Grill Oodles of Chocolates Pampa Brazilian Steakhouse Pupuseria Cristy Red Deer Resort and Casino Red Deer Polytechnic Cook Apprentice Program |
Red Hart Brewing
Riverbend Golf & Recreation Sawback Brewing Share-a-tea Silver Devil Snake Lake Brewing Solarzano Spa Café & Wine Bar State & Main Sunterra Stems Flowers & Café Troubled Monk Wild Brewing |
Showcasing 30+ central Alberta Vendors
Are you interested in being a part of Palate?
Learn More
Sponsorship Opportunities
Showcase your business with a cash or gift-in-kind sponsorship, beginning at $500.
Learn More
RDP Alumni Association
Our signature fundraising event, Palate, empowers us to make a difference.
Learn More
Looking for Additional Information?
Are you ready? Palate: A Taste of Local is on October 19, 2023. Tickets are on sale now. Your ticket includes a champagne welcome and the opportunity to sample all of the food and beverages offered. Tickets are $75, including taxes and fees. Get yours.
We heard great feedback from guests of Palate last year, and we can’t wait to tell you what’s new for this year! Check out some of our favourite photos from last year’s event to relive the magic!
Palate: A Taste of Local is the signature event that kicks off Homecoming at Red Deer Polytechnic. Homecoming activities include many ways to connect with your alumni community, local leaders, RDP staff and faculty, and current students.
Thank you to our Palate: A Taste of Local 2023 Sponsors
Special Event Rentals |
Education
Generous donation from Alumni bolsters LTCHS Music Program with special “Roadhammers” guitar

Lindsay Thurber alumnus craft custom guitar for a good cause
A guitar with special meaning is coming home thanks to two Lindsay Thurber Comprehensive High School Music Program alumnus who are passionate about supporting youth and strive to make a meaningful difference in the community.
As part of their quest to help make a difference, this year Jennah Salls and Jazdn Moore decided to support the Clayton Bellamy Foundation for the Arts by building an electric guitar made from all local wood in Central Alberta. Proceeds from the event will help support the build of an arts centre in Lakeland.
“This guitar project sparked from a combination of everything we’re passionate about. Being such big fans of music and its impact, alongside our goal to give back to our community as much as possible, once we discovered the Clayton Bellamy Foundation, the vision all came together,” said Jennah. “We wanted to build this guitar to have the experience under our belt and since it had so much potential to be a part of something bigger, it was a no brainer to tie it into the Clayton Bellamy Foundation.”
Construction of the guitar began under the mentorship of local luthier David Gilmore with Gilmore Guitars. “We then decided to kick it up a notch by starting a fundraiser around our community with the hopes of raising as much money as possible for the Foundation’s cause,” said Jazdn.
The guitar was auctioned off at the Clayton Bellamy Foundation For The Arts event in Bonnyville earlier this month.
“This fundraiser also was designed to try and raise the winning bid to be able to bring the guitar back to Red Deer considering that the auction for the foundation takes place outside of our community,” said Jennah. “Our mission was to get it into the hands of other youth by donating it to the LTCHS music program as alumni. To further support Clayton’s amazing objective, we also decided to put in a custom made coffee station, coffee table and end table set as an auction item. It’s just been an incredible journey building this guitar and dreaming bigger and bigger as each day goes by and we simply want to make the biggest impact possible with this project!”
Thanks to the generous support of the community, Jennah and Jazdn were able to put a winning bid of $11,000 for the guitar. The custom furniture also went for $8,500.
As a result, the custom built guitar was given to Lindsay Thurber so that students in the music program can have an opportunity to play it and feel its impact.
“We are so grateful to benefit from Jennah and Jazdn’s commitment to the arts and their passion for supporting the community,” said Jennifer Mann, Music Director at Lindsay Thurber. “The story of the guitar and Jennah and Jazdn’s generosity will live on for years to come through our music program.”
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The Red Deer Polytechnic Alumni Association is inviting you to Palate: A Taste of Local