Editor Brian Lawrence compiled this brief look back at some of the goings on in the Creston Valley over the last 12 months, gleaned from the pages of the Advance.
4 — It might have been a Canadian first when new councils of the Lower Kootenay Band and Town of Creston took their oaths of office in a joint ceremony on Dec. 1, a symbol of their commitment to work together. After opening prayers by Pastor Harry Haberstock and retiring LKB councillor Anne Jimmie, the new Creston council was sworn in by Haberstock and town manager Lou Varela. RCMP Const. Eldene Stanley and elections officer Heather Suttie conducted the oaths for Louie and new Couns. Sandra Luke and Destyni Basil.
11 — Winston Blackmore and James Oler will appear in Creston Law Courts on Jan. 29 to choose whether they want their polygamy charges to be tried by a judge or jury. Blackmore appeared in court Dec. 4, telling Judge Grant Sheard that he had retained legal council, and Oler forwarded a similar message through Crown counsel. Emily Blackmore also appeared; she and her husband, Brandon, will return Jan. 29 to choose their form of trial.
•Hope for a multipurpose arts and culture centre took a step back when volunteer directors announced Dec. 4 they were returning Community Works grants of $70,000 and folding the Friends of the Ingham Centre for Arts and Culture Society. The society had an agreement with the owners of property at 1507 Canyon St. to purchase the former auto centre for arts and cultural purposes.
18 — A Creston Valley Teachers’ Association program has been recognized by the Columbia Basin Alliance for Literacy, with the association recently receiving the Community Literacy Award. The fifth annual award went to the CVTA’s Books for Toddlers program, which got its start in the 1980s as Books for Babies, funded by teachers’ member fees. When a grant began covering the newborns’ books, the focus shifted to 18-month-old children.
25 — The Creston Room at the Creston and District Community Complex was a flurry of well organized activity on Dec. 15 as over 130 volunteers spent most of the day sorting food and donations, and then packing 400 Christmas hampers for the Creston Ministerial Association’s annual project, now running for well over 40 years. Three hundred sixty-nine hampers were requested prior to Dec. 15, and the extra 30 didn’t go to waste, with over 20 being requested on Dec. 16 — pickup day — and a few trickling in later.
•The 2015 TAPS Calendar, with its small format and black and white photos, features seniors and Therapeutic Activation Program for Seniors staff dressed in vintage costumes and posed in a variety of scenes. Operated by Valley Community Services, TAPS serves about 60 clients who range in age from their sixties to nineties. Social activities around the community keep clients active and in touch.
•Atom minor hockey players Jake Adams, Dexden Schiffke and Riley Kepke will be going on the trip of a lifetime in the summer after being selected to an elite hockey program that operates out of Calgary. They impressed scouts from Top Guns Hockey Development Inc. sufficiently to be included in the Team Canada Cowboys Euro Hockey program.