The Camrose Adult Learning Centre (CALC) recently wrapped up their international cooking series. This landmark initiative harmonized different cultural backgrounds giving participants an opportunity to share their traditions.

Linda Olson is the English as a second language coordinator for CALC and the driving force behind this project that helped participants improve their English as the students engaged in cross-cultural understanding. Throughout these classes, friendships were created with mutual respect and openness.

Over the series, the class shared cuisines from Japan, India, Mexico, and Morocco among others. Many of the students are newcomers to Camrose and had a chance to share a piece of their culture, talk about their traditions and prepare national dishes with the group.

Sharing food and stories, the group nourished each other’s souls in such a way that they were able to weave a stronger social awareness built on respect. They were able to build a bridge to celebrate the unique flavours of shared humanity.

These sessions were incredibly impactful that will leave a positive impression on each of the attendees. The group expressed their gratitude to have been a part of this class and are eager to support similar initiatives.

The students of these international cooking classes were grateful to the CALC team for the support and assistance in these classes. They also acknowledge St. Francis Xavier Catholic Church for providing a space that was warm and welcoming, allowing them to collaborate together.

The fourth annual Rose City Fibre Fest returns to the Camrose Regional Exhibition (CRE) on May 2 between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m.

They are happy to announce they will be featuring 44 vendors at this year’s event. Boothholders will be bringing their yarns, fleeces, tools, buttons and much more with many returning merchants to this event as well as a variety of new faces.

One of the new vendors is from Vancouver who will be bringing hand-woven sisal grass bags. These bags are a sought-after item at high-profile events around North America.

This year the festival will be in the main arena of the CRE allowing for more room for both vendors and guests to wander around and enjoy each booth.

Event organizers have also booked a mobile blade sharpening company for the show allowing visitors to bring scissors or gardening and other tools in need of sharpening. This service will be available between 9 a.m. and 3 p.m.

Volunteers from the Camrose Days for Girls will be on hand collecting donations at the yarn winding station. All donations will go directly toward Days for Girls to assist with their efforts. This is also an opportunity to learn about their valuable work while getting your skeins wound ready to cast on.
This year, attendees are encouraged to participate in a fashion show featuring handmade items. Festival organizers are always pleased to see all the wonderful creations they see visitors wearing, and want to showcase them on a small catwalk event in the afternoon.

To share creations there will be cards at the entrance to fill out with Lisa from Smiling Sheep Fine Yarns emceeing the fashion show.

They encourage everyone to not be shy. Bring along crafting friends to join you in this fun feature of the festival. This is an opportunity to inspire others and be inspired yourself. One of the best things about the fibre arts is that the community encourages each other while deriving inspiration from one another.

Always popular, local food trucks will be on hand to provide food and refreshments throughout the day.
Admission to the Rose City Fibre Fest will be two dollars or a non-parishable food item which will be donated to Neighbor Aid.Over the last three years, over $4,000 and over 30 boxes of food has been donated to this worthy charity.

For more information about the Rose City Fibre Fest, reach out to them via email at rosecityfibrefest@gmail.com

Camrose Sings will wrap up the season with two concerts in the coming weeks, featuring both Camrose and Area Children’s Choir and the adult chamber ensemble Camrose Camerata.

The Camrose and Area Children’s Choir will present their year-end concert, Sing in Spring, on April 24 at 6 p.m. in the Camrose United Church’s hall. This year’s program is built around the theme “Celebrate This World” with music that reflects nature, wildlife, and a range of cultures and languages.

Singers from Grades 1 through 9 will take part in the performance, with performances from both the Junior and Senior choirs.

“From folk songs to contemporary Canadian works, from gentle lullabies to rousing pieces about rushing rivers, our singers get to show off their beautiful voices while having fun! The choirs will be fresh off their year-end mini-tour of local elementary schools on April 24, and will be ready to share their polished performance with friends, family, and community members,” said Joy-Anne Murphy, director of Camrose Sings.

Admission is by donation, with proceeds supporting the choir program.

The Camrose Camerata Adult Chamber Choir will host their Spring Coffee-house, Concert and Silent Auction on May 3 at 3 p.m. at Camrose United Church Hall. The afternoon will include performances by the full choir, along with smaller group and solo pieces.

“Our Coffee-house will centre on music from the whole choir, as well as featured solos and small ensembles. The choir has been working on comic songs – songs that invoke humour, light, and inspiration, songs that speak of light and hope, and songs that shed new light on big questions,” said Joy-Anne.

A silent auction will also run alongside the event and the doors will open at 2:15 p.m. to give guests a chance to socialize.

“We are thrilled to be sharing this repertoire with our Camrose audience as we experience spring,” she added.

Both concerts are open to the public and will mark the close of the season for Camrose Sings.

The Government of Alberta’s proposed Bill 28 is raising concerns among libraries across the province, with the Camrose Public Library warning it could strain resources, reduce services and erode user privacy.

Camrose Public Library director Alyssa Martin said the legislation would introduce new administrative burdens without additional funding, forcing smaller libraries like Camrose to make difficult trade-offs.

“Implementing Bill 28 makes our work practices inefficient. It will create paperwork, time-intensive procedures, and require more checkouts at the desk. This will pull my team away from helping people,” stated Alyssa.

Bill 28 would require libraries to assess and manage access to certain materials, a process Alyssa said has not been in demand locally. Over the past five years, she noted, no formal requests for reconsideration of library materials have been filed in Camrose.

Reflecting back at the issue that arose last year in the community regarding a sex education book that was found in the children’s section, Alyssa shared that even then no requests for reconsiderations were made and the library takes these requests seriously.

With the new changes, the Government of Alberta aims to ensure age-appropriate access to library materials around the province. For libraries this means reevaluating all the books currently on the shelves. How the new changes will be implemented has not yet been shared with the libraries.

“CPL would need to spend an estimated five to 10 per cent of our budget if my team are the ones doing the work to assess our collection. The details about how items would be categorized have not been released by the province yet. That said, regardless of whether or not we are the ones who assess the collection, just the act of reorganizing everything and building processes and implementing the new systems will be a huge, ongoing strain,” shared Alyssa.

“Our building does not have room behind our desk to store restricted materials,” she said. “This means we will need to either purchase expensive locking shelving, or undergo construction to convert public space to a holding room.”

Another challenge that the community would face, is how the legislation could affect community privacy, particularly in a place as close-knit as Camrose.

“In 2022, CPL installed our first self-checkout. It was purchased with funds from community organizations, and one of the reasons we installed it was to increase privacy in a small town. This way you can check out a book about marital help, or advice about trying to conceive, without having to ask your next door neighbour, who happens to work at the library to check it out for you. Adults will no longer have the choice to use a self-checkout for restricted books,” explained Alyssa.

Libraries in smaller centres already operate with limited resources and are tailored to meet local needs, from book delivery to assisted living facilities to one-on-one technology support, there are many services and programs CPL currently provides, many of which could potentially be shut down to make up for costs of implementing a new system to meet the provincial criteria.

“We want to spend our budget helping the community, not on paperwork,” she shared. “The provincial government has indicated no additional funds will be allocated, and this will require a drastic shift in how we use staff time.”

Alyssa argued that the scope of the legislation does not reflect the realities faced by smaller communities.

In 2024, the Camrose Public Library underwent an organizational review after reaching what Alyssa described as a breaking point with operating costs outpacing budget growth. The library has since worked to streamline services and improve efficiency, changes she said could be undone by the new requirements, because the library would need to allocate finances from its annual budget for assessment of the current collection.

“CPL’s budget does not have any fat to trim,” she explained. As the bill moves forward, quickly, library teams across Alberta are watching closely.

For more information on Bill 28 visit: www.alberta.ca. For more information on what the Coalition of Alberta Public Libraries (CAP) are doing to deal with the is policies visit: www.caplibraries.ca/stand-up-for-albertas-public-libraries

At the March 23 Committee of the Whole Council meeting, organizers of the Poverty Simulation held in February, Kendra Hansen, community and school health promotion facilitator for Primary Care Alberta, and Leslie Lindballe, housing and community supports navigator for the Housing and Homelessness Task Force, presented next steps and citizen feedback to the council.

They shared how one of the main concerns raised after the event was how difficult it can be to navigate available services, even though Camrose has a wide range of supports in place. One next step is looking at ways to make access easier, including the possibility of offering more services in one location through a pop-up navigation event, similar to the annual Community Registration Night, but for support services.

“Pop-up navigation allows for individuals to access the services actually at the event. So they need ID or they need someone to advocate for income supports or they need to connect with someone about intake for domestic violence services or STI screening, all of that happens in one place. This idea was already gathering interest before the Poverty Simulation event took place so that is something we are looking forward to putting together in the future,” shared Lindballe.

Another focus will be hearing directly from people with lived experience and reviewing responses collected through the Housing Needs Survey to better understand where the work needs to be done. Organizers also want to improve public awareness of supports already available in the community. Planned resources include simple information sheets on food supports, rental options and utilities.

“Lastly, that the City may consider with the rest of us to set targets and goals around eliminating poverty in our community,” stated Lindballe. The group is also now looking at how the simulation can lead to more community involvement through volunteerism, more educational events, donations and raising conversations about poverty in Camrose.

On April 20, Premier Danielle Smith made the announcement that Alberta will follow permanent Daylight Savings time. This means residents will no longer need to adjust their clocks twice a year. Alberta will stay on the current time from now on.
This also means that people in the province can expect darker mornings during the winter, but also experience more light during winter evenings. This comes as happy news to most, as changing all the clocks, adjusting to a new routine can be quite burdensome.

The Government has made its decision and it will soon go to Alberta Legislature to be officially passed.