It’s getting down to the nitty-gritty for Miss Rodeo Okotoks 2010 contestants.
A new Miss Rodeo Okotoks will be crowned on Sunday and the three contestants, Kelsey Reinboldt-Lynch, Kenna Lockwood and Alexandra Berlie, have gone through the rigors of exams, fashions shows and public speaking engagements all to be crowned Miss Rodeo Okotoks 2010 at the Okotoks Recreation Centre on Sunday.
“I think the hardest part for me was the public speaking for sure,” said Lockwood.
She said it is a lot of work preparing a speech and standing on stage before a …

With the bagpipes, kilts and cabers all put away, the organizers of the inaugural Foothills Highland Games can’t wait for next year.
Games committee chairman John Barlow said the response to the event on Saturday was so overwhelmingly positive, he can’t imagine being anywhere else.
“All day people were coming up to me telling me how wonderful the facility was, how wonderful the atmosphere was, how much fun they were having,” he said.
While it’s the event’s first year in Okotoks, it had been running for 10 years in High River.
He estimated more …

When the executive director of the Leighton Art Centre retires at the end of the month there will be some pretty big shoes to fill.
Former Art Gallery of Alberta executive director Tony Luppino will take over the leadership at the Leighton Art Cente on Sept. 1.
“I have been intrigued for years by this art centre in the Foothills that nurtures practicing artists and inspires art and nature appreciators,” he said. “The centre has ambitious plans to build on its unique Alberta heritage inspired by an artist who was way ahead …

It’s not just burly men with broad shoulders who get to show their stuff at a Highland Games.
The powerful individuals who engage in the traditional Scottish athletic pursuits, labeled the heavy events, are something to watch. When one witnesses one of these competitors balance a long tapered pole, known as the caber, against his body, run forward and heave it across the field they are most certainly impressed. What some don’t know is the caber toss, stone put, Scottish hammer throw and the other heavy events are just one segment …

For W.C. Fields, a case of scotch is the best thing for a case of the nerves and Humphrey Bogart lamented switching from drinking scotch to martinis. For Robert Burns, it was his muse – the “guid, auld scotch drink!”
This weekend’s Foothills Highland Games will give people a chance to see why the Scots proclaim a wee tipple of scotch is one of the finest drinks known to man.
A scotch tasting event will be held in conjunction with the ceilidh following the day’s events on Saturday at Foothills Composite High …

Campfires are the perfect setting to tell stories, whether it be chilling ghost stories or tales of historic legends.
On Aug. 29 true tales of Aboriginal ancestors and their contributions to Alberta’s ranching history will be told ‘round the ole, smoky fire pit at the Bar U Ranch south of Longview.
Since the word ranching often conjures up commercial images of cowboys, horses and cattle rustling, the true nature of what life was actually like during the late 20th and early 21st centuries can be forgotten. In order to ensure the history …

Celtic music will be ringing loud and clear throughout the streets of Okotoks during a celebration of Scottish culture next week.
The Foothills Highland Games, formerly known as the High River Highland Games, brings traditional games, music, dances and other entertainment to the community including Calgary’s very own Burns Club Singers, Celtic-rock band Fraid Knot and fiddlers group Lark Hill.
One of the original members of the Calgary Burns Club Singers, Tom Miller, said the group is looking forward to making its first appearance at the Foothills Highland Games and are still …

More than a century of family history is chronicled within the pages of a new book about life in the pioneer days of Alberta’s foothills.
Elaine Taylor Thomas self-published the book “Promises to Keep: Cecilia Taylor’s Story” is the story of her grandparents leaving England behind and beginning a new life in the rugged rangeland of Southern Alberta. The family settled in the Okotoks area and raised their family, a family which included the author’s mother, Cecilia Taylor.
The family’s history is told through family stories, treasured photos and postcards, posters and …

To urban ears, admiring sheaves of hay may sound like the kind of thing that just appeals to old-timers, but the Priddis-Millarville Fair is proof activities with roots in Alberta’s frontier days are still popular today with people of all ages.
This Saturday at the Priddis-Millarville Fair three children are teaming up to compete against their mother and their grandfather in competitions for the best sheaves of wheat, barley, alfalfa and several other types of grains and grasses.
It’ll be steep competition, Jim McKevitt said, because last year his grandchildren, ages eight, …

Summer brings the freedom to relax, spend time outdoors and unwind from the stresses of everyday life. The favourite season also presents the chance to experience the local talent, like the new artists who will be participating for the first time in the annual Longview Music and Arts Festival next weekend.
Co-organizer of the festival and local musician Eva Levesque said this year’s event will be featuring a couple of new artists who will be showing their work for the first time.
“This year we are having about two or three young …