Gator’s Waterfest ready to hit the lake

Jason Kerr
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Gator’s Waterfest ready to hit the lake

Local business owner Val Court didn’t anticipate hosting Gator’s Waterfest once, never mind twice, but she’s glad she did.

The owner and operator of Gator’s Grub Food Truck was simply looking for a way to celebrate her birthday when she came up with the idea for the event. A few years, and 15 waterfests, later, she’s happy it worked out that way.

“I turned 50 during COVID and couldn’t have a birthday party, but I did have a food boat and I had friends who sang and played guitar,” Court remembered. “We rented sound equipment for $99 and had it out on the boat—just a birthday party—and people started pulling up with their boats and listening.

“(They) then contacted me later and said ‘that was awesome,’ could you have more?’”

Since then, Gator’s Waterfest has become a regular tradition around north and central Saskatchewan. The next one is scheduled for Saturday, June 29 at Fisher Creek in Candle Lake Provincial Park.

Prince Albert band The Project will headline the event, with Mason Lewis, Nic Aiken, and Aiden Edwards also performing.

Court said she’s hoping for a good crowd, and good weather.

“We’re going to see some sunshine finally, right,” she said with a laugh. “No rain.”

The event is free to attend, but there is a fee to enter Candle Lake Provincial Park. Gator’s Grub Food Truck will also be on hand, although all sales are cash or e-transfer only.

Court said she couldn’t do this without volunteers and sponsors, and she’s grateful to all of them for making the event a success.

Gator’s Waterfest runs from 2-6 p.m. on Saturday, June 29 at Fisher Creek. Attendees can walk down to the beach on land, or listen from the water in their boats. This will also be the first Waterfest with a beer gardens.

–with files from Uko Akpanuko/Daily Herald

Celtic folk group The Residuals always happy to celebrate Canada

Jason Kerr
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Celtic folk group The Residuals always happy to celebrate Canada

The Residuals may draw their musical inspiration from Celtic nations, but they’re still proud of their Canadian roots.

The Saskatchewan folk band of Rick Kroener, Rob McInnis, Paul Runalls, and Jeremy A. Cook will be in Prince Albert on Canada Day to perform at the Canada Day Multicultural Celebration on the riverbank. Cook said the band always looks forward to the festivities.

“The Residuals are no stranger to Canada Day celebrations,” he said. “We’ve played in Saskatoon and Warman and I guess Prince Albert wants us, so off we come.”

Monday’s performance won’t be the first time they’ve played in Prince Albert. Previously, The Residuals hit the stage at the Rock Trout Café and Tapestrama.

On Canada Day, they’ll perform a mix of traditional Celtic tunes, plus some original music, including an ode to Canada Cook wrote called ‘The Maple Tree’.

“It’s celebrating everything I love about this country,” Cook said.

The group also likes to add some Celtic flair to popular favourites, something Cook calls the “Celtification” of music.

“We all have a great time playing with each other, just having fun on stage, trying to bring some fun to the audience as well, and giving everybody a good time,” Cook explained.

The Residuals began playing Celtic music in Saskatoon. Cook said the city has a strong tradition of Irish music, but at the time many of the best bands were away on the most important gig night of the year: St. Patrick’s Day.

“Demand was high,” Cook remembered. “We got together and said, ‘hey, we should play some music.’ We did that for a few years until 2006 when we said, ‘let’s do this regularly.’”

Since then, The Residuals have recorded three albums, the most recent of which ‘Looking Out for Better Weather’, came out a few months after COVID hit in 2020. Cook said the timing was unfortunate, and although the last few years haven’t been easy, the band continues to perform.

“We’re recovering at about the rate that everybody else is,” Cook said.

“We survived, we’re here, and we’re still playing music.”

The Residuals are one of six groups that will perform at the riverbank on Canada Day. Annette Campagne, Phil and Dallas Boyer, the Mariachi Latino Band, the Iron Eagle Drum and Dance Group, and Detour Country will also perform. The show starts at 5 p.m. on July 1.

And now, a plea from your local newsroom

Jason Kerr
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And now, a plea from your local newsroom

We here at the Daily Herald love the community groups, non-profits, schools, and businesses who organize the festivals, workshops, and family events that make Prince Albert summers fun, so I write this out of love, not hate … if you value your local newspaper editor’s sanity, please coordinate your schedules.

The news business is feast or famine, but that’s never been more true in Prince Albert than June 2024. Take Saturday, June 15 for example. On this day alone Prince Albert hosted the Downtown Street Fair, the Pop Up Poetry Walking Tour, a Summer Solstice cultural gathering organized by the Northern Prairie Indigenous Peoples Collective, and the Prince Albert Summit Run. Those are all great events that draw good crowds, and significant coverage on a normal weekend. This year, those events not only ran on the same day, but at the same time.

Normally, the Daily Herald would just suck it up and deal with it. We’ve been through election campaigns, playoff runs from local sports teams, and a variety of other events that take considerable time and energy to cover. Crammed schedules are part of the job, but this June it was unnecessary.

Why do I say that? Because exactly one week after June 15, the calendar was … empty. As we scrambled to find news for Tuesday’s paper, I wondered more than a few times how much easier it would be if one or two of the groups who hosted their events on June 15 instead held them a week later (or a week earlier, the calendar was almost as barren on June 8).

This issue isn’t just a problem in the arts, culture, and festival scene either. Prince Albert sports clubs also seem determined to run our newsroom ragged. On the Saturday, June 1 weekend, Prince Albert hosted the Ladies Northern Golf Tournament, the Shaye Amundson Memorial Softball Tournament, and the Lew Hobson Memorial Baseball Tournament. All three events ran for more than one day. Oh, and the Prince Albert Predators lacrosse team played games Friday night and Sunday afternoon.

I have some sympathy for sports teams. They don’t always have the luxury of picking their dates. The Predators, for example, had to coordinate their Friday game with the Queen City Kings, the Regina-based lacrosse team they’re challenging for Saskatchewan’s spot in the Founders Cup. I doubt the Kings were overly concerned with the intricacies of Prince Albert’s sports calendar.

Regardless, jamming all those events into a single weekend meant one of them—in this case, the Lew Hobson Memorial Baseball Tournament—did not receive any coverage at all. I don’t like having to do that. All four of those sporting events deserved good coverage. By holding them all on the same weekend, we were forced to pick and choose.

As with the June 15weekend, this was even more frustrating because one week later (June 8-9) there were just two events on the sports calendar: the Prince Albert Outlaws final home game and the Pine Needle Mountain Bike and Music Festival. Both events were one day only, and both were held on different days.

This isn’t a weekend problem either. On Wednesday, June 19, our reporters had four different events/announcements to cover, two of which generated more than one story. The same thing happened again on Thursday, June 20.

Once again, the busy schedule meant we were not able to give every event the attention it deserved. In this case, the odd group out was Saskatoon-based Sum Theatre, who gave three performances in Prince Albert as part of their popular Theatre in the Park series.

Again, what makes this frustrating is not the busy schedule (our newsroom likes being busy) but the fact so many other days on the calendar were empty (in this case, Tuesday June 18 and Friday, June 21).

I trust 99 per cent of you get my point, but for the one per cent who don’t, I’ll spell it out as plainly as I can. It’s no fun being cooped up in the office when summer arrives. We love getting outside and covering events like the Street Fair or Summer Solstice or golf and baseball tournaments. It’s a welcome break from the bleaker aspects of the job, like covering murder trials and drug busts. I’m not asking organizers to stop hosting big events. I’m asking them to spread those events out across the calendar. You’ll get better coverage if you do, and if that doesn’t convince you, please spread them out so we don’t run ourselves into the ground trying to get to them all.

I can already hear the naysayers telling tell us to hire more reporters. If every weekend was as busy as June 1-2, or every weekday as crammed as June 19-20, maybe we would, but it doesn’t make much sense to do so when the rest of the calendar is empty.

I also understand Prince Albert is lake country. Yes, everyone wants to hold their event in June before 9/10ths of the population decamps for their cabin. I understand there are other logistical issues at play. There is still no good reason Prince Albert should host four major events one day, and none the next. Please, I am begging you, coordinate you schedules.

Jason Kerr is the editor of the Prince Albert Daily Herald.

‘It’s always a tough decision’: longtime city councillor Don Cody cites age as reason for not seeking re-election

Jason Kerr
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‘It’s always a tough decision’: longtime city councillor Don Cody cites age as reason for not seeking re-election

More than 50 years after he first entered the politic arena, former Prince Albert mayor and NDP cabinet minister Don Cody is stepping away from public life.

Cody has represented Ward 4 in Prince Albert for the last 12 years, but announced during Monday’s executive committee meeting that he would not seek re-election this fall. Cody said he’s enjoyed serving as a city councillor, but felt at age 88 it was time to step aside.

“The time comes—and age of course is a part of it—where you finally say, ‘look, you’ve got to do other things such as maybe go for a golf game when you can, instead of having to go for a meeting,’” Cody said during a phone interview on Wednesday. “That’s kind of why I decided that this was it. Let’s face it, you can’t run forever, and I’m getting up there in age…. There does come a time when you say you’ve had enough of public life.”

Cody made the announcement during the Mayor and Councillors Forum section of Monday’s city council meeting. Cody told council he wanted to give his potential replacements more time to think about putting their name forward.

He’s confident the race to replace him in Ward 4 will be a close one.

“It’s a very good area, so be prepared to have a very good and serious contest,” he said during the meeting.

Although Cody won’t run in the fall, he’s still confident Prince Albert is headed in the right direction under Mayor Greg Dionne. Cody has been a strong proponent of the decision to build a new indoor recreation centre in the southeast end of the City. He made the motion to borrow $18 million for the project in February, calling the decision “just good business.” He also vocally rejected any suggestion the project should be put on hold.

On Wednesday, Cody said the City is “on the right track” under Dionne.

“I think we’ve got a good mayor,” Cody said. “Mayor Dionne has done a good job. He’s very much in tune with what I think the people want. We’ve got some very good councillors. They’re all great…. We’ve done a lot of things and there’s more to come. I’d love to be a part of it, but the time does come.”

Cody entered politics in 1971 when he was elected MLA at age 34. He served in several portfolios as a cabinet minister under NDP Premier Allan Blakeney, and later entered municipal politics, serving as Prince Albert’s mayor from 1994-2003.

Cody said the job of a councillor is not always rewarding, but there were plenty of positives, the biggest being the people. That’s what made it difficult to step away.

“It’s always a tough decision,” Cody said on Wednesday. “You miss your colleagues—I miss my colleagues already—and I miss the administration. We’ve got a great administrative crew, we’ve got great colleagues, and the public in general are fantastic.

“I represented great Ward 4 here now for the last 12 years, and they’ve been just gracious to me. They’ve been fantastic people. You couldn’t beat it … so I have no regrets on any of the things. It’s just that one day a guy has to say, ‘well, I guess it’s done.’”

Cody is the only current councillor to announce he will not seek re-election in the fall. Tony Head in Ward 3, Blake Edwards in Ward 6, and Dawn Kilmer in Ward 7 have all confirmed the will run again.

Prince Albert’s next municipal election is scheduled for Nov. 13, 2024. Cody will remain in office until the last pre-election council meeting on Oct. 7.

Duck launch brings children and friendly fowl to Memorial Gardens

Jason Kerr
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Duck launch brings children and friendly fowl to Memorial Gardens

Children from daycares across Prince Albert were busy raising young ducklings into adulthood this spring, and on Thursday, June 20, they had a chance to see the fruits of their efforts.

Children from the 10 participating daycares released their ducks into the pond at Prince Albert Memorial Gardens Thursday afternoon. Memorial Gardens representative Don Cody said it’s always exciting to see local youngsters and their ducks at the pond.

“It’s just fantastic,” Cody said. “The day is so beautiful, and that makes it all the better. These children are just having the time of their life, and that’s exactly what we want to see.”

The partnership between Memorial Gardens and the various daycares helps teach children about raising animals, but Cody said that’s not the only benefit. Children of all ages will visit Memorial Gardens when a grandparent or other family member dies, and Cody wants them to associate the place with a peaceful atmosphere.

This is the 24th year Prince Albert youngsters have raised ducks for the pond, and Cody said it’s always great to have them participate.

“Those ducks don’t even want to leave them when they put them into the pond, so you can tell what care they’ve given them,” he said. “I think the success is certainly the atmosphere that we have at this cemetery. It’s a great atmosphere to have. We’re on our 24th year so it tells you that there must be some success.”

While the partnership has been successful, it hasn’t been without its challenges. This year, Memorial Gardens did not partner with Prince Albert elementary schools, something they normally do.

Cody said they hope to get those schools involved again next year.

“We’ll certainly be back in the schools if we can,” he said. “It’s always nice to have them. I know the teachers, they love doing that kind of work for the children, and we hope they’re back.”

Thursday’s event also included hot dogs, cake, a petting zoo, and live music.

@kerr_jas • jason.kerr@paherald.sk.ca

Malcolm Jenkins announces matching ticket campaign to support new Ronald McDonald House in Prince Albert

Jason Kerr
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Malcolm Jenkins announces matching ticket campaign to support new Ronald McDonald House in Prince Albert

Art aficionados who purchase tickets to an E.A. Rawlinson Show next season will get more than just entertainment—they’ll also get a chance to support the new Ronald McDonald Children’s House in Prince Albert.

Prince Albert philanthropist Malcolm Jenkins announced on Wednesday that the Malcolm Jenkins Foundation would donate $20 to the Ronald McDonald House for every ticket sold by June 29 for a 2024-25 show at the Rawlinson.

“I thought of it this afternoon at 4 p.m. when I woke up from my nap,” Jenkins said with a laugh. “I did. That’s seriously when it came. We have done it before with things like the hospice and with one or two other things…. It works. If you challenge people and say, ‘if you do this, I’ll match this,’ it’s astonishing how many people get interested all of a sudden.”

Jenkins said the foundation did matching donations to support other projects like the Rose Garden Hospice, and the public always responded well. That’s convinced him the tactic could work again with the Ronald McDonald House.

The matching ticket donation is the first of many fundraising campaigns planned for the house. Jenkins said they would launch an official campaign on June 27.

“Everyone is generous in this town, so they join in and that’s how we get there,” Jenkins said. “We’ve got to raise $8 million and we’ve got to raise it in probably two or three months. We’ll announce it next week, so this is just a way of getting the word out to get it on people’s radar, because it’s a great thing.”

Prince Albert currently hosts a Ronald McDonald Family Room in Victoria Hospital, but not a full house like in Saskatoon. Jenkins said he’s always been impressed with the Saskatoon facility, and is glad to see one finally planned for Prince Albert.

He’s also happy for the families who will no longer rack up bills when their children get sick.

E.A. Rawlinson Centre GM Roxanne Dicke said Jenkins has always been a strong supporter of the arts, so it’s no surprise to see him tie a Rawlinson ticket campaign to the house’s construction.

She’s also glad he stepped forward and proposed the idea.

“He always comes up with these out-of-the-box ideas,” she said. “It’s a win-win for everybody.”

Ronald McDonald House Charities began plan to build houses in Regina and Prince Albert in 2018. At the time, organizers said the Saskatoon house was meeting only about 20 per cent of the province’s need.

The Prince Albert house will have 12 rooms, plus shuttle services to local healthcare facilities, plus a meal program. The foundation expected the cost to be around $8 million when they announced the plans in 2023.

Jenkins’ announcement was part of the E.A. Rawlinson Centre 2024-25 season unveiling. For more on what the next season of shows will look like, please see Tuesday’s Prince Albert Daily Herald.

Montreal-based developer purchases Cornerstone Shopping Centre property for $94 million

Jason Kerr
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Montreal-based developer purchases Cornerstone Shopping Centre property for $94 million

Montreal-based real estate development firm Leyad has purchased the Cornerstone Shopping Centre property in Prince Albert for $94 million.

Leyad announced the purchase on Thursday. The property was previously owned by Choice Properties REIT.

“Obviously, there’s a lot of growth that’s going to be happening over the next few years,” Leyad CEO Henry Zavriyev said when asked what made them want to invest in Prince Albert. “There’s a lot of immigration. There’s investment in the hospital. We love that it has a diversified economy and is very representative of what a true Canadian city is (with) a very diverse population.

“We’re making other investments in Western Canada, and Prince Albert just really fit the criteria with what we were looking for,” he added. “Obviously, this shopping centre is the premier retail centre in Prince Albert.”

Zavriyev said the property came to their attention after they purchased a different Choice REIT property in New Brunswick. Leyad executives had never visited Prince Albert, but after spending a day in the city and researching the area, Zavriyev said they became convinced it was a good business opportunity.

“We love the properties there,” he said. “We love the tenants there. We like the aspect that it presents for future development. There’s still land that is part of the site where we could build property for incoming tenants. Everything about it is exactly the kind of property our firm looks for, and just Prince Albert in general has great prospects over the next five to 10 years.”

Cornerstone comprises 550,000 sq. ft. of buildings on 80 acres of land. Anchor tenants include Rona, Michaels, and Shoppers Drug Mart.

Zavriyev said they are making plans to find tenants for the district’s empty slots, but the discussions are still in the early stages. Any announcements won’t be made until 2025 at the earliest.

Statistics Canada reported that online shopping sales spiked in 2021 during the second COVID-19 wave. In February 2023, they released a report showing online retail sales were in decline, but still well above pre-COVID levels.

Despite the increase in online shopping due to COVID, Zavriyev is confident brick-and-mortar retail stores remain a solid investment.

“I’m definitely confident that people are going back to stores,” he said. “The data shows it. We’ve seen a return of foot traffic…. Obviously, e-commerce has an effect, but it’s not as black and white as to say that suddenly everyone is just only going to be shopping online.”

Zavriyev said necessity-based businesses like grocery stories or pharmacies aren’t going anywhere, and the rising number of immigrants arriving in Canada means there will continue to be a demand for in-person shopping.

“There’s a counter-balance to it in that there is immigration, and no one is building any retail (space) today across the country. If no one is developing any retail, even if the foot traffic were to go down (among) the city population, with population growth it counterbalances that.

“I definitely don’t think it (physical retail) is dead. I think it’s very much been resilient over the last seven to eight years. Every time doomsayers have been saying retail is going to die, it doesn’t. E-commerce has been around for a while. I think that everyone at this point is aware that you can order things on Amazon, and everyone is aware that you can go and order your mattress online and return it if you don’t like it, but they’re still going into stores.

“Our tenants are renewing across the country. They’re opining new locations, so we definitely feel it’s here to stay.”

Leyad touted the $94 million purchase as Saskatchewan’s largest real estate transaction in the past five years.

The Cornerstone purchase was one of two Leyad announced on Thursday. They also purchased Garden City Square in Winnipeg for roughly $32 million.

Former RCMP officer Bernie Herman sentenced to 11 years for manslaughter

Jason Kerr
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Former RCMP officer Bernie Herman sentenced to 11 years for manslaughter

Former Prince Albert RCMP officer Bernie Herman was sentenced to 11 years in prison on Tuesday for killing Braden Herman, no relation, in May 2021.

Herman stood quietly in court while Judge Gary Meschishnick pronounced the sentence Tuesday afternoon. He will receive credit for time served prior to the sentencing.

Braden’s brother, Brett, was one of several family members of friends in court on Tuesday. Brett said the family wanted to a life sentence for Bernie, but were not surprised it wasn’t handed down.

“It’s as fair as it’s going to be for this country, just the way our system’s setup,” Brett said. “It’s not setup too great, so that’s probably the best we’re going to get. Nothing will ever bring my brother back, and no sentence will be right.”

Brett described Braden as a good-hearted person, who was different in real life from how he was portrayed in court. During the sentencing, Meschishnick said Bernie was “abused and blackmailed by the victim”, a charge Brett disputes.

Brett said the trial was difficult for the family.

“It’s been tough for everybody,” he said. “We have an elderly woman who raised my brother, and she’s got to sit through all that and try to keep it together and it’s not easy for her. It’s not easy for any of us.”

Defence lawyer Darren Kraushaar sought a sentence of between four and six years for Bernie, while the Crown wanted a life sentence.

The Crown has already decided to appeal the verdict of manslaughter. Kraushaar said the defence will consider its options going forward.

“It (the sentence) is obviously higher that what we were hoping for and what we expected,” he said during an interview outside court house.

Crown Prosecutor Jennifer Schmidt said there was a lot of publicity surrounding the case because Bernie was a former RCMP officer who used an RCMP-issued gun to kill Braden. However, she said they argued it as an intimate partner violence case in court.

“The decision today is a significant sentence in a case that recognized there was an element of intimate partner violence that drove this behavior,” Schmidt said afterwards.

Meschishnick wrote in his judgement that Bernie “left his moral compass in his pocket” by “staying in an abusive relationship” because Bernie was worried about his own reputation.

Meschishnick wrote that Bernie’s self-interest “contributed to and underly this crime,” and that the decision led to further violence. Meschishnick wrote that Bernie’s decision to stay in the relationship rather than “choosing a moral path that led out of the conflict” was an aggravating factor.

However, Meschishnick also wrote that there was no evidence Bernie abused Braden. Instead, Meschishnick wrote, it was Braden who had a history of mentally and physically abusing Bernie.

In court, Meschishnick described the case as close to self-defence as you can get, without it being self-defence. However, he also said it was as close to murder as you can get without it being murder.

Manslaughter typically carries a sentence of between 4-12 years in Saskatchewan, although judges can hand down sentences outside of that window in extraordinary circumstances. Meschishnick rejected the Crown’s call for a life sentence is this case because Bernie did not have a prior criminal record, and was not in the process of committing another crime.

The Crown submitted three previous cases where offenders had received more than 12 years for manslaughter. However, Meschishnick said those cases involve offenders with numerous criminal convictions, with one offender alone having 39 convictions before receiving 18 years for manslaughter. Meschishnick also said those offenders committed manslaughter while engaged in other illegal activity, something that wasn’t true of Bernie Herman.

Bernie is 55-years-old and served more than 30 years as an RCMP officer before he was arrested. Corrections Canada will conduct its own risk assessment of Bernie before defending which institution to place him in.

Prince Albert police make 1 arrest following Saturday altercation

Jason Kerr
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Prince Albert police make 1 arrest following Saturday altercation

One man is under arrest after an altercation at Carlton Park Apartments on Saturday night.

According to the Prince Albert Police Service on June 15 at 7:15 p.m., the Prince Albert Police Service received reports of an injured person in the area of 28th Street East and Sherman Drive.

Patrol members attended and located an injured 28-year-old male outside.

 He was transported to the Victoria Hospital for treatment of non-life threatening injuries by Parkland Ambulance. Additional calls were received that reported additional injured people inside a nearby apartment building. Police entered and located an injured 44-year-old male who was also transported to hospital for treatment of non-life-threatening injuries.

The investigation revealed an altercation began in an apartment and led into the hallways where the parties separated.

The 28-year-old male was arrested and held in custody after his release from hospital. He appeared in Prince Albert Provincial Court on Monday, June 17 for charges of Aggravated Assault and Assault with a Weapon.

Sum Theatre set for Prince Albert return with Theatre in the Park

Jason Kerr
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Sum Theatre set for Prince Albert return with Theatre in the Park

Katie Moore isn’t much of a social media kingpin, but for two days in Prince Albert she will be.

Moore plays world-famous pop star and social media influencer Gigi 5G in ‘The Reel Whirled’, Sum Theatre’s newest Theatre in the Park production. The Saskatoon-based troupe will perform the play on Wednesday and Thursday in Prince Albert as part of a tour through rural and northern Saskatchewan.

Moore said she’s “the complete opposite” of Gigi 5G, but that’s part of the joy of acting.

“She is this viral mega-superstar, she’s this online influencer, has millions of followers, (and) I am so far away,” Moore said with a laugh.

“I don’t like posting stuff on social media. That is so not me, so it’s really fun to put on this persona of this influencer, this mega-pop star, and just be this big personality on stage. That’s really fun for me.”

‘The Reel Whirled’ focuses on three youths named Gladly, MeowMwoe, and BIM, who set out on a quest to win Gigi 5G’s attention. The performance features a ’90s-themed soundtrack composed by Saskatchewan artist Oli Guselle, and takes a long look at the role the internet plays in a young person’s life.

This is the first time Moore will be playing a character in a Sum Theatre production. She said it’s a pleasure to be a part of the troupe.

“When you do these tours, there’s always so much buzz and excitement from the community,” she said. “I feel like a lot of times, tours, they just hit the main cities and they forget about these rural places, and they deserve art. They deserve different experiences as well.”

‘The Reel Whirled’ focuses on both the positives and negatives of internet culture. John Reaney, who plays the role of BIM as well as a few other smaller parts, said the online world has become a “universal constant” in everyone’s life. While many people have strong opinions about how much time on the internet is too much time, Reaney said the play isn’t preaching one side over the other.

“I find that one of the really nice things about the show is that it really does find the nuance in it in that it really does find the nuance in it,” he said. “It can be really valuable to have time online and find friends online, but it’s still nice to experience those offline relationships as well.”

Like Moore, Reaney is acting is his first Sum Theatre performance, although he has helped the company by providing audio description for attendees who were fully or partially blind. He originally wanted to perform in the 2023 show, but couldn’t because of other commitments.

When artistic director Mackenzie Dawson asked him to join this year’s show, Reaney didn’t hesitate to say yes.

“I absolutely jumped on it,” he said.

“I feel like theatre in general is kind of gate kept behind really expensive ticket prices, or potentially prohibitive venues and stuff like that, which makes it kind of hard for most people to get out and see theatre.

“I think one of the really nice things about going out to really small communities that are outside of Saskatoon is that it brings the theatre to people who might not be able to see it otherwise, especially for the kids who may not have a genuine theatre experience before they’re 18 or go to university or whatever. This is like a really formative experience that they’ll be able to get that they might not be able to get otherwise.”

Sum Theatre will perform one show outside Westview Public School on Wednesday at 7 p.m., and outside King George Public School on Thursday at 1:30 p.m. and again at 7 p.m. The event is free.

The troupe performed outside Keethanow School in Stanley Mission on Monday, with a performance scheduled for 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. at Pre-Cam Community School in La Ronge.

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