Life & Style

A cattle ranch in landlocked Alberta provides little opportunity for surf and sand, so David Copinthorne created his own opportunity for adventure.
The third-year bachelor of fine arts new media major at University of Lethbridge has been using his shutterbug skills to snap up trips to Rio de Janeiro and Miami, Fla., and now he’s focused on heading to Greece and Turkey.
“The last year and a half has blown up for me,” said the 21-year-old. “I've been taking photos and filming for eight years and finally getting some recognition through online competitions and word of mouth.”
Copinthorne, who grew up outside of Calgary with a “farmer dad who doesn’t like to beach vacation,” made his first trip to a coast once he started post-secondary studies. The moment his feet touched the sun-warmed sand, Copinthrone knew he’d been bit by the travel bug.
“Then, I knew it was something I’d have to keep doing,” he said. “I’m kind of like a big hippy; I just love beaches.”
Travelling serves as a way for Copinthrone to explore another love — photography.
“I’ve been playing with cameras for a long time. I was only 10 or 11 and playing around with an old Canon camera, taking photos cruising around on the farm on garden tractors.”
Today, he focuses on landscape and nature photography.
Last February, Copinthrone decided to pit his photos against the work of other photographers and submitted a photographs in a contest for a chance to a 30-day tour of Brazil organized by Beach Travellers, a travel company that specializes in small-group adventure travel for the 18-35 age demographic. He won, and departed in June 2011 for a trip that included touring the Amazon Rainforest and Rio de Janeiro, and fishing and surfing.
“I knew this was my chance to shine,” he said.
One of the photos he captured outside of Rio was of a young boy kite flying, a popular hobby in Brazil, against the backdrop of a favela, or shantytown.
“I was just walking by and spotted this boy flying his kite.”
He submitted the photo, which he titled “The Soul Kite,” into another travel-photographer contest, this time sponsored by Get Your Guide. The contest asked photographers to post their vote-worthy photos online, and the votes collected on the website by visitors helped decide the winners of the two main categories: best photo and best photographer. The photo with the highest amount of votes won the best photo category and a trip for two to Miami, including flights, accommodation and tours.
Copinthrone said he entered the competition and then “kinda forgot about it,” so he didn’t solicit votes from friends.
“Then I got an email in November saying I won. I got votes from people I didn’t even know.”
He departs on his Florida trip on Feb. 22.
The young traveller hopes to keep his good fortune going and is one of 24 photographers presently vying for a 40-day trip to Greece and Turkey. The travel photography competition is online and organized by a company called Free & Easy Traveller. The top eight photographer who gets the most online "likes" by Feb. 12 move on to the next round of competition. A winner will be declared Feb. 21. The competition is happening at www.freeandeasytraveler.com/.
The winner’s expenses will be paid, with the exception of food and drink, in exchange for Free & Easy Traveller using the photographer’s work in future promotions, said Copinthrone.
When he isn’t taking free trips or attending to his homework, Copinthrone spends the remainder of his free time working for a camera company in Calgary. He recently helped shoot a documentary about a South Sudan rapper who now makes his home in Calgary.
It’s a hectic schedule but he isn’t complaining.
“I want to get paid and travel for the rest of my life.”

Like most proud husbands and fathers, Randy Webb loves sharing stories about his family. To his wife’s chagrin sometimes, Webb shares many of those stories with a public audience as part of his comedy routine.
“Most times she’ll sit in the back and shake her head, and there are times I’ve seen the look on her face like, ‘I can’t believe he’s telling that story,’ ” Webb chuckles.
The 42-year-old Lethbridge man admits he’s always been one for telling stories and adding embellishments. A fan of standup comedy, Webb was a regular at the now-closed Blarney Stone’s Yuk Yuk’s weekly comedy nights — as a patron, not a performer. That is, until a friend gave him an unforgettable birthday gift. Webb received five minutes of stage time, which he says went “really well.”
“Then I got five minutes here and five minutes there and then they asked me to host.”
That was six years ago and Webb continues to hone his craft. He works full-time with adults and children with disabilities but travels to Calgary at least six times a year to practise his own standup routines at amateur nights. He’s participated in several comic competitions, including Yuk Yuk’s Great Canadian Laugh Off in Edmonton where some of Canada’s funniest people compete for cash and a chance at comic stardom. Webb didn’t advance but he considers the competition a career highlight because the headliner later encouraged him to continue pursuing comedy because he enjoyed the act.
In Lethbridge, he continues to appear on stage as a host, introducing comics every month at Average Joe’s during the Yuk Yuk’s show. On Feb. 18, he’ll host Mike Dambra, better known as Pickle, and friends at the downtown watering hole. The show starts at 9 p.m. and tickets are $15.
Todd Lachairte, Think Tank Events promoter, says Webb was an easy choice for host because he’s local and “very funny.”
Hosting requires a measure of skill, says Webb. A good host keeps the show running smoothly and adapts his mini bits to the performers’ comedic styles.
“At least as a host, you don’t have to be funny,” he jokes.
Family obligations prevent him from pursuing comedy as a career. However, that may change once his daughters age 14 and 16 leave home, he says. Until then, he is content pursuing his “part-time hobby” while drawing inspiration from his life as a full-time husband and father.
“My bits deal with my wife, my kids, my family,” he says, adding being a father is one of the most frightening and rewarding experiences — second to performing on stage.
“I’ve had those few times where I’ve put my bit in and had crickets in the background but going up there and telling a story and people burst out laughing — it’s the best feeling in the world.”

A waterslide? Wave pool? Walking track?
    Ashley Matthews doesn’t know what components will make up the city’s proposed leisure centre near the new library and school complex at The Crossings but the recreation and culture manager can firmly pinpoint the purpose of the facility.
“We have a competitive facility in the city already and we don’t want to compete with that,” he said. “The goal is recreation and leisure. We can see this facility really becoming the hub of the community, a place that has programming but is also for drop-in and spontaneous play. That’s really the concept.”
The city is holding two public open houses as part of its leisure centre study aimed at determining if there is a future need in the community for such a facility and to examine what components could be included. The open houses are scheduled for Jan. 31 at Nicholas Sheran School gymnasium and on Feb. 1 at City Hall. Both sessions run 7-9 p.m. and will offer an opportunity for questions, a chance to meet those involved and view artwork of the different components of the potential leisure centre.
For those unable to attend the open houses, information will be shared on the city’s website, www.lethbridge.ca, shortly after the open houses take place, and feedback and questions can be directed to Matthews at 403-320-3991.
The public consultation comes about nine months after city officials decided to delay work on a pair of ice arenas that were to have opened by September 2013.
Group2 Architecture of Red Deer, along with local firm Ferrari Westwood Babits Architects, were selected in the fall to work on a study into the possibility of an expanded project. Group2 has been involved in many well-known leisure centres built throughout the province such as Collicutt Centre in Red Deer and the Meadows Community Recreation Centre in Edmonton, plus members of the team worked on the University of Lethbridge’s 1st Choice Savings Centre for Health and Wellness.
The concept design will be presented at another set of public meetings in April, he said.
“We’ll know then what will make up the facility itself, how the project will look in the big picture and the construction costs.”
While this is only a study, the work done now will help guide the process should the city move forward in the future to build such a complex. The final report from the study is expected to be presented to city council in May.
Matthews said he’s visited eight different recreation-lesiure centres in the province and was surprised by the amount of activity inside and range of ages using those facilities.
“It’s exciting. It could be a huge opportunity for the community. I can see this being of benefit to the community for a long period of time.”

An initiative is looking to increase employment opportunities for youth with disabilities.
   And on Jan. 10 at the Lethbridge Lodge, the WorkAble Project Labour Market Study will host a job fair and conference to discuss government and community support for businesses to hire youth with disabilities, employers in southern Alberta who are successful in hiring youth with disabilities as well as youths with disabilities looking for employment and the opportunity to learn new skills.
“We found in the city that there are some employers that have done a wonderful job of hiring people with disabilities,” said Fred Nowicki, one of four project co-ordinators that also includes Velda Sjovold and Kimberly Schermers as well as president Verna Masuda. “On the other side of the coin, we also discovered there are number of employers who maybe haven’t thought of it or are unsure of doing that because they don’t know all the processes. What we’re trying to do is connect the employers with service providers in the city, of which there are about six, who support people who are looking for employment and have various kinds of disabilities.”
At the same time, WorkAble — funded in part by the Government of Canada’s Youth Awareness — strives to dispel such myths that employees with disabilities have a higher absentee rate, are not reliable and always need somebody to help them.
“There are people in the city who are visually impaired or hearing impaired or may suffer from epilepsy or be dyslexic who are highly skilled and capable of holding down certain jobs given the opportunity. We’re trying to bring that front and centre,” said Nowicki. “We’re also talking to the service agencies and saying to them ‘When you go and try find employment for an individual, what are some of your challenges and things you have to overcome?’”
The job fair will consist of a panel of two employers who have hired people with disabilities over a long period of time, said Nowicki.
“We’re going to have two representatives from the service providers that promote youth with disabilities for employment. We’re also going to have two individuals who have disabilities speak about their employment and the importance of their employment to them in terms of their well-being and their self esteem. We want to bring an orientation to this.”
The ultimate goal, said Nowicki, is to give Lethbridge and southern Alberta the reputation of being a place that is accommodating to employing those with disabilities.
“I would like to brand Lethbridge and southern Alberta as community that is welcoming and a community that is inclusive and a city of preference,” he said. “If I was a young adult with a disability I would want to live in this area because I would know that this community would allow my child or young adult to join the mainstream of society and be accepted by their colleagues and peers.
“It can’t be six service agencies or 10 service agencies and the WorkAble to do this. It really has to be the community at large, employers and citizens thinking ‘We have to start thinking about addressing the needs of these individuals along with solving some of our labour shortages.’”
There are plenty of potential employees with disabilities that can thrive in the work place, said Nowicki.
“We know of a young lady that is highly skilled and could probably work in the front end of an office. She’s physically disabled and can’t move as fast. We know of a young man who is highly capable in the technology field and has all of the certifications and hasn’t got a job. We know of a young man who has experiences with schizophrenia who has an engineering and drafting background and is not able to find employment. And yet, these people are highly skilled, capable individuals. We just have to broaden the thinking process of our community at large.”
Nowicki stressed the WorkAble program is not being judgemental toward local employers.
“We just want people to think about this at a higher level,” he said. “It’s not just convincing the employer. The employer also has to have their employees on their side. It goes beyond just the employers, it has to go to the employees, too.”
The community support of the Jan. 10 conference has been strong.
“We have a couple radio stations giving us a good deal on the promotion. We’ve been invited to speak to three different Rotary clubs in town,” said Nowicki. “We have been told there are some families that have actually cancelled or delayed their holidays to attend our conference. We have to really encourage employers to say this is worthwhile to give up a day of their time to hear what’s going on and see if they can become one of the employers in the city that will support and add to what we’re doing.”
The conference runs from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.
“From 4 p.m. to 5 p.m. there will be a walk-around period where people can talk to the agencies and get an understanding of what kind of service they can provide and how they can seek financial support from government to hire people with disabilities,” said Nowicki.
The conference will also feature “What’s In It For You?” with guest speaker Jeff Coffman.
Those wanting to reserve seats before Jan. 4 can call 403)-381-6320 or email This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .
The conference is free to attend, but there is a cost of $15 for those wanting the lunch.