Who says learning local history can’t be fun?
   On Sept. 1, 1910, then-prime minister of Canada Sir Wilfrid Laurier travelled to Lethbridge to official open the Galt Hospital building in Lethbridge. But there was one problem. No one could open the doors; someone misplaced the key to the building. After some scrambling to locate the misplaced key, Laurier opened the doors to the brick structure with the deserving fanfare.
In honour of the Galt Hospital’s 100th organizers are revisiting this historic humorous mishap during the combination Museum Community Day and Galt Hospital/Baby Birthday Party Sept. 26.
“As an event co-ordinator without a history background, I thought as a normal, Joe Public that this is a funny story. Can you imagine this huge celebration and scrambling and wondering where key is to get into the building?” said Lori Harasem, the Galt Museum & Archives’ special event and volunteer co-ordinator.

Galt Gardens Park is going to be alive with the sounds of music and the downtown core awash with the colours of a cornucopia of multi-faceted local artists Sept. 17-19 for Arts Days. So make sure you are part of this one-of-a-kind festival, which is taking place in Lethbridge due to the hard work of the Allied Arts Council, whose application got Lethbridge qualified to receive a provincial grant to put on a massive showcase of the arts.
One local artist, Maria Livingston, is excited about not only creating her unique artwork out of whitefish scales at Elusis Beads during ArtWalk, but also performing as a hoop dancer in Galt Gardens.

“It will be my first time (participating in ArtWalk, the free self-guided tours taking place Sept. 17 and 18). I’m looking forward to it because I just want to share my artwork with other people. When I paint, it makes me think of my heritage and it inspires me,” Livingston said, looking at a wall of her and her mother’s works in the Blackfoot Gallery in the Lethbridge Centre mall.

For some Lethbridge entrepreneurs, home is where the heart (and primary source of income) is

Do something you love. Make money. Work for yourself.
When Laura Bachmeier decided to go into business for herself about a year-and-a-half ago, she had the same motivations most do when they venture off on their own.
Aside from needing income while still being a stay-at-home mom, Bachmeier and her mother started Life’s a Scrapbook, a scrapbooking supply company in March 2009. They chose scrapbooking because they loved the hobby, they figured there was a local market for it and they liked the idea of being in charge of the whole operation.
Of course, while they began their business for the obvious cliché reasons, they also ran into the same struggles everyone else does when they turn to self-employment.
“I found it really hard to get my name out there,” says Bachmeier. “So I thought I would plan (a home business show) to see if others were in the same boat as me. And what I found was a ton of people with home businesses I had no idea were out there.”
In the late summer of 2009, Bachmeier put together the first Lethbridge Home Business Show, which they held at the Ramada Inn. Limited space allowed just 20 tables to be set up but she turned away a wait list of 40 — all within the Lethbridge region — which told her there were plenty of others struggling with the same issue of marketing.

This year on Sept. 11 at Exhibition Park, Bachmeier has organized the second-annual Home Business Show, which will be double the size of the show’s premiere. The doors open at 9 a.m., runs until 3:30 p.m. and will feature a vast variety of businesses many won’t know existed in their local area.
“We’re really hoping this event will grow and grow,” says Bachmeier. “Hopefully it can really help us all get our names out there and get more recognition.”
Bachmeier’s company has to directly compete with big-box stores such as Walmart, which only magnify their need for broad but cheap marketing. Kim and Mary Siever don’t fight the same local competition with their home business but establishing a name for themselves is no less important to their success.
As longtime home-schoolers themselves, the Sievers always had to outsource their supplies from Calgary, an inconvenience they have solved for all of Lethbridge by opening Southern Alberta Home Schooling Supplies in April. Like many others in recent years, they didn’t just choose self-employment; they were somewhat forced into it.
“This last year, my husband was laid off from work and we thought it was a good opportunity to just start our own business,” says Mary. “We thought this was a good one, since there aren’t any other suppliers in southern Alberta.”
The Sievers’ new business has already started to pick up some steam, which Mary admits many if not most new home businesses aren’t likely to do right off the bat. Traditional advertising is simply not an option for most home businesses, especially early on when the business’s debt far exceeds its revenues, so Kim and Mary have maximized free marketing.
“We know quite a number of home-schoolers and know of even more,” says Mary. “So passing the word and word of mouth has really helped. Facebook and Twitter, just getting the word out there.”
She also stressed the importance of having an actual market in which to market. As much as Mary agrees you must like what you do, she couldn’t stress more how necessary it is for others to like what you offer.
If you research your product or service correctly, the business will also find you.
That is the entire premise of the new home business Rhonda and Scott Norris have just opened, which is built around not only offering what people want but also giving them what they need.
The Tutor Doctor is an agency which will set you up with a teacher for pretty much anything you want to learn. They just opened their doors Aug. 2 and will already be attending their second display show, as they set up a booth at the recent Party in the Park at Galt Gardens.
Their field is so broad because their whole reason behind any type of business was to start one that helps others.
“We didn’t want to just make money; we wanted to make a difference,” says Rhonda. “It was a lot of hard work and a lot of 16-hour days just to get going but it’s been worth every penny and moment.”
The key for The Tutor Doctor, Rhonda says, has been keeping their expectations in check. They entered knowing it would start with debt, hard work and little reward.
But Rhonda also knows once they reach their goal of sustaining their very own successful business, their satisfaction will be guaranteed.

Scott Schmidt
For the Sun Times
It wasn’t very many years ago when skateboarders had to fight for their right just to exist as if their sport was somehow harmful to society.
Eventually, that zero tolerance turned around and cities began to realize skaters weren’t going away, so most major centres — including Lethbridge in 1999 — erected skate parks of some nature.
But even as avenues such as the X-Games were becoming legitimate opportunities for young athletes everywhere, skateboarding still wasn’t getting much attention as a real sport. And so, while hockey arenas, soccer pitches and all types of other sporting facilities were often receiving maintenance and attention, skate parks were sometimes built as a way to keep skaters out of the way, without taking much of what the skaters wanted into consideration.
And as for Lethbridge, regardless of the initial motives behind the northside skate park, the city now has a skate park that skateboarders won’t use. The good news for local skaters, however, is a recent presentation to city council by the Lethbridge Skateboarding Association in request for two new facilities was quite well received.

“City council passed a resolution directing administration to meet with our organization in terms of exploring potential locations for the parks, costs associated with the parks and also funding sources associated with the parks,” says Wade Galloway of the LSA.
Essentially that means the city has agreed to proceed with discussions in preparation for construction, should funding for such parks become available. What they also clearly stated, however, was that said money was not currently at their disposal.
Still, the feeling from the LSA is the presentation was a success and any step toward adequate facilities is a positive one. If the administration wants to discuss locations, the LSA already has its ideal choices ready.
On the westside, which has the highest population of any area in the city and no skateboarding facility, the association would like to see something built at Nicholas Sheran Park. On the east side of the river, the LSA hopes something can happen in a centralized location such as Galt Gardens or Henderson Lake parks.
“The problem with the existing park is really two-fold,” says Galloway. “One is location; if you drive by on any of the adjoining streets, you can’t see into the skateboard park and from inside the park, on a 360-degree view, you can’t really see into any of the surrounding neighbourhoods.
“It makes a terrific location for kids to party at but not a very good place to have a skateboard park. Families don’t feel safe there, young kids don’t feel safe there, because there are bonfires, graffiti and all those other issues associated with it.”
The other big issue for the LSA — and the 500 people who signed their petition in an eight-day period before their presentation — is the design of the park.
For starters, it’s aging much faster than expected, making it less safe in the eyes of the LSA, but more important to them than that even is the makeup of the park itself. The current skate park was designed by an engineering company and not by skaters, so it’s simply not suitable for what skateboarders are looking for. For Galloway, it would be like designing a golf course without the input of golfers.
“Just because you can plant sod, move trees and make bunkers doesn’t mean you’re a golf-course designer.”
For their presentation to council, the LSA acquired estimates from a few top skate park designers, which gave price quotes between about $40-$45 per square foot. So each park — if built between 15,000-20,000 square feet, as laid out in the LSA’s presentation — would cost between $1.2 and $1.8 million.
While those costs aren’t exactly chump change, the LSA noted in its presentation the fact the existing park ranked lowest in the city in a review of recreational facilities, while the sport continuously grows. The LSA also reminded council if there isn’t a decent skate park for the countless skaters, then the city itself becomes the park, and nobody wants that.
But even though they will take to the streets if left with no other choice, it doesn’t mean skateboarders are outlaws any more. Sure there are still hoards of teenagers getting into the sport, but the whole group of outcasts who fought for the sport 15-25 years ago, are now grownups.
And they still skate.
“The perception has absolutely changed,” says Galloway. “It’s a generational thing. There are still people in their 30s and 40s competitively skating. If you watch the X-Games, there are still old guys out there and these old guys are now having children of their own.
“It’s widespread. It’s grown from just a fringe activity, when it was underground and outcast. Now it’s mainstream.”
And the LSA would like facilities to reflect that.