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From the Centre: Five Creston community complex staff now certified lifesaving instructors

This allows Sheldon, Austin, Sara, Zayne and Maddie to teach Lifesaving Society courses such as Canadian Swim Patrol...
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Neil Ostafichuk is the recreation supervisor at the Creston and District Community Complex.

First off, we want to congratulate five of our staff for successfully passing the lifesaving instructor course we held a couple weekends ago. This is a pretty intense course held Friday, Saturday and Sunday, which consisted of a mix of classroom and in-pool training.

Now, with their new certification, this allows Sheldon, Austin, Sara, Zayne and Maddie to teach Lifesaving Society courses such as Canadian Swim Patrol, as well as that always popular Bronze Star, Bronze Medallion and Bronze Cross trio. The last two are key in a progression towards becoming a lifeguard, finalized by taking the national lifeguard certification. Actually I take that back — I remember in a galaxy far, far away, I was told many moons ago: “Here is your certification, now the real learning begins.” It was and still is good advice, and I believe our lifeguards here have come to understand that in short order. But I digress; hats off to our newest LSIs!

Thank you for your appreciative comments about having a couple televisions in the lobbies tuned specifically to the Sochi Olympics these past couple weeks. They definitely were well watched at times (usually when our fellow countrymen and women were involved) and it felt good to have kind of a national pride sort of energy happening around the building along with the local pride we see so often.

We are also freshening up our website — and by freshening, I mean new. Just online last week, www.rdck.ca has a new modern look and feel as well as being friendlier to maneuver around within. I had a quick blast through the website as it just came online as I was writing this, and I thought it looked pretty good with all the information about Regional District of Central Kootenay services and governance within easy access. Remember, it is brand spanking new so we would like to hear from you if you have a comment or concern — there is a feedback form in the upper right hand corner under “connect”. As we get used to it, the different departments will be making ongoing tweaks and additions to bring more useful information to you.

Speaking of poking around on the Internet, when you get tired of watching the best of the Super Bowl commercials, check out something more educational as our spring leisure guide goes on the website after Feb. 26. Following that, expect your copy in the mail (unless of course you have “no flyers”), the week of March 3. We have an assortment of great programs, training opportunities, special events and spring break activities.

Want to see some great curling? At the end of February, the Butterfly Bonspiel hits the circles, followed by the BC Masters championships the next weekend. The Masters is a five-day round robin event at the Creston Curling Centre, in which teams compete for the BC Masters title and the opportunity to represent B.C. at the Canadian Masters championship in April. Visit the Creston Curling Club website, www.crestoncurling.com, for the full schedule of events.

Take a break from the Masters tourney and catch the Creston Valley Figure Skating Carnival on March 8. Of course, the final word goes to the Creston Valley Thunder Cats and the fantastic job they’ve been doing this year as we head into playoffs shortly as leaders in the Eddie Mountain Division. Go, Cats!

Neil Ostafichuk is the recreation supervisor at the Creston and District Community Complex.