International students from the Drumheller Valley Secondary School (DVSS) have been volunteering their time every Sunday and Wednesday to entertain some of the senior citizens in our community.
    The program, which started up on March 1, appears to be off to a good start as it offers a mutual cultural learning experience for both students and seniors.
    “They need the hours and require the credits for grade 12, so we looked around to see what they could do and I immediately thought of the seniors,” said dormitory supervisor at DVSS, Margaret Jopp.
    All grade 12 students at DVSS require 30 hours of volunteer work in order to graduate.
    Jopp said the program counts towards their volunteer hours and also rewards the students with a few extra credits.
    The students volunteer their time at Sunshine Lodge every Sunday afternoon, and from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. on Wednesdays by entertaining the seniors in various ways such as, playing live music, participating in card games, and going for walks.

International students from Drumheller Valley Secondary School have been volunteering their time every Sunday and Wednesday to help offer company and entertainment to some of the seniors at the Sunshine Lodge retirement home. (l-r) Emmanuella Akobundu, Whitney Fondja, Ella Hein, Arlene Hunter and Kathleen Lowen sit down together to play a nice game of Bingo on a quiet Wednesday evening.

    “The seniors also teach them a lot as well. The girls, and even some of the guys are learning to knit,” said Jopp.
    In addition to the Sunshine Lodge, the exchange students also volunteer at other various locations in the community such as the Grace Lutheran Church and the Nazarene Church.
    “It’s great for our kids to get out,” Jopp said. “It’s a great cultural experience as well as a learning experience for them.”
    Although the program is entirely optional, eight of DVSS’s 43 current international students have willingly invested their time to volunteer in the community.
    “We hope to make this an ongoing thing,” said Jopp.
    Despite over coming some difficulties with language barriers, the program sees students from Indonesia, Nigeria and Vietnam spending time with seniors.
    “Some of the students are having a tough time with the language barrier but they’re catching on pretty quick,” said Marcel Augey, recreation coordinator at the Sunshine Lodge.
    “At first they were extremely nervous and now they’re just really confident and excited about it.”
    For current international student, Emmanuella Akobundu, the program has been a constant learning experience.
    “At first, I wasn’t sure what to expect,” she said. “I’ve learned to knit, play bingo, and play card games.”
“It’s been very nice.”

    They’ve been rocking for a long time, but now, one of Drumheller’s hardest working bands has made the jump to being professional artists.
    The Fire Coulee Bandits, a mainstay at events throughout the Valley, such as Canada Day, DinoFest, and SpringFest, have just released their first studio album, Riding on Through.
    “It’s kind of surreal. It’s been a long time coming and a lot of work for all four of us in the band,” said Mike Dooley, who plays acoustic guitar and does vocals. “It feels great to have it finished to our friends, family, and fans.”
    The band, which had been together for roughly four years, began recording their original material at one of Canada’s premier professional studios, The Beach Advanced Audio Production in Calgary, last fall. The cost was high, but worth it.
    “It feels pretty awesome. It’s been a long road. Getting it done professionally like this was worth shelling out the money and was a crazy learning experience. They have a long list of professional musicians who have recorded there, so it’s quite the honour to have recorded there,” said Layne Syvertsen, who is lead guitar and vocals for the band.

The Fire Coulee Bandits, Cam White (left), Layne Syvertsen, Mike Dooley, and Landon Bosch, have released their debut album Riding on Through, featuring all original material. The album is the culmination of months of work at The Beach Advanced Audio Production in Calgary.

    The Fire Coulee Bandits came together four years ago after the dissolution of the Plaid Stallions. Initially the band leaned heavily to Celtic and east coast folk tunes.
    “We’ve definitely come full circle. We started out with the Celtic and east coast covers, being basically the St. Patrick’s Day bar band, to bringing in more blues rock elements. Then, we started to find our own sound and switched over to an electric band,” said Syvertsen.
    The band gradually introduced its own material into their cover-heavy sets and received encouragement from their fans to do more to the point where cover songs now play a backseat to their original material.
    The band was also a finalist in the 2012 Calgary Folk Fest song writing contest last year for their original composition Old Willie. Earlier this year, they opened for the folk band Tequila Mockingbird Orchestra at the Kaleidoscope Theatre.
    Although a second album isn’t planned right away, the band has quite a bit of material that didn’t make it on to their debut album.
    “There are definitely other songs we didn’t put on the album. We went with the ten we felt were the same sound. If we keep going, I feel like we can do a lot more. This is just a start for us. We have so much more we can build on,” said Landon Bosch, who keeps the beat on drums.
    For now, the band hopes to promote their album and open for other acts.
    “Ideally, we’d like to start opening for bigger bands and playing our original stuff, and we still love playing to the bar crowds,” said Cam white, who plays bass guitar and vocals. “The whole album, our blood, sweat, and tears have gone into it. We took the time and gave the effort to make something we are truly proud of and will be for years. At this point, we’re just going to have some fun with this.”