Vocational Day at Lethbridge

Hello,

Today was our first full day in Lethbride. I was up at 5.45am for a Rotary Meeting at 7am in town. We had breakfast and the Rotary Club did their business, we presented a shortened version of our presentation.

My first stop of was at the homeless shelter where Deanna and Pete showed me around. The service had a wet room where drunks could sober up this meant the police did not have to divert their resources. The sleeping quarters were like a gym hall with a plastic mattress and a sheet. There was an art room where the clients could undertake all sorts of art, wood carvings as well as painting. We also visited the soup kitchen which relied mainly on donations. This facility had been in place since 2002, who knows what they did before that?

My driver Ian than took me on a tour round the park at fort Whoop Up this is where the whisky traders introduce the Natives to their moon shine until the Mounty's saw them out of town.

Ian then took me to the youth shelter this was a facility for homeless children under the age of 18.

We then stopped of at the Town hall to meet the mayor Bob Tarleck, he was pretty down to earth and had a clear vision for the city to build better communities through better working together.

The local paper the Lethbridge Herald then interviewed us and took a range of photos. I think we are almost famous!!!!

We took a walk down town to Gault park sponsored by the Rotary. Ian then took us to lunch at the country club where I gave into the Burger and Fries. It was their first day open for the new season so the new seasons menu was not available yet.

After lunch I went to the hospital and met a few of the managers at the local health, Teri Myhre (Director of Worforce Planning), Marty Sholtz (Executive Director Labour Relations), and Dean Oikawa (Director Human Resources). We swapped ideas on the workplace and had a general discussion for around 2 hours. Ian met up with me and I headed back to City Hall and met up with Diane Randell who was the Manager for Community and Social Development, we had a chat about each others jobs and about how service are structured in Lethbridge. Diane then introduced me to Dawn Vickers who was the Family and Community Services Coordinator.

It was 4pm by now and it seemed like a long day. Ian my driver took me to the Allied Arts Council of Lethbridge where I purchased some art for my house. Ian showed me his studio where he paints, his pictures were really cool a bit big to transport home.

I headed back to my hosts about 5.30pm and we had a nice steak dinner and a relaxing evening.

Wallace.