Airdrie's top community stories of 2020

COVID-19 Community Response

As the community grappled with the COVID-19 pandemic, many residents took it upon themselves to support frontline workers.

In an outpouring of community support, residents like 84-year-old John Paddon sewed non-medical masks to donate to the family of staff at Calgary hospitals. Rayvin Maddock partnered with the Airdrie Public Library to use the library’s 3D printers to make personal protective equipment for health-care workers. Volunteers sewed bags for nurses to transport their scrubs home to be washed after shifts.

Local politicians attempted to lift the community’s spirits. Coun. Tina Petrow dressed up in a pink unicorn costume in March, while Mayor Peter Brown encouraged residents who were late taking down their Christmas lights to plug them back in and brighten the community.

Residents also did their best to spread cheer during the challenging times. To observe holidays like St. Patrick’s Day, Easter and Remembrance Day, families placed shamrocks, Easter eggs and poppies in their windows. Impromptu parades were organized to thank local health-care workers, connect with students and celebrate birthdays and other milestones.

Performing Arts

The pandemic resulted in major impacts to a plethora of industries and sectors, and performing arts was not spared.

In Airdrie, theatre productions were cancelled, venues shut down and troupes forced to close permanently.

Torchlight Theatre was among the casualties. In July, the theatre company – which was formed in 2015­ ­– announced it would be shuttering due to lost income as a result of the pandemic. This included the SPARK Youth Program, which was designed for 11- to 17-year-olds interested in acting. Torchlight Theatre had just resumed operations after a year-long hiatus.

Nose Creek Players, meanwhile, was forced to suspend its annual production. The company originally meant to mount Alice in Wonderland in May, but rescheduled the play to November before postponing it indefinitely. The group also missed out on its first time hosting this year’s Foothills Regional One Act Play Festival scheduled for April.

Despite the disruptions, Nose Creek Players still managed to perform, posting “reader’s theatre” videos to social media and offering virtual summer camps.

Meanwhile, Bert Church LIVE Theatre was forced to cancel its slate of shows.

Other performing arts groups faced additional challenges this fall when COVID-19 restrictions announced Nov. 12 forced groups like Ambition Performing Arts and Star Bound Dance Company to once again close their studios.

Bridge Restoration

The City of Airdrie completed the restoration of its first historical municipal resource in 2020.

The 1928 Nose Creek Bridge to the Elevators was designated as a historical municipal resource in July 2019 and a project to restore the bridge was planned shortly after. However, the project was delayed and “didn’t really get off the ground until this year,” said Michael Dougherty, team lead for Community Development.

The restoration was undertaken in the spring and summer as wooden elements of the 80-foot bridge were replaced, restoring it to its former glory. The bridge was also connected to the Great Canadian Trail, a cross-country series of pathways. Interpretive signage outlining the bridge’s history was also installed.

According to Dougherty, the bridge is historically significant because of its connection to Airdrie’s agrarian and railway past.

“Other than the rail line itself, it’s the last linkage to our railway and agricultural history,” he said. “The bridge was built in 1928, almost 100 years ago, to make access to the grain elevators easier for our farmers and the market. It was built to access grain elevators that sat in the area and also built to be sure to have a good flow between elevators that sat to the north in Fletcher Park."

The City of Airdrie celebrated the completion of the restoration project with a ribbon-cutting ceremony Oct. 29.

Penny Portrait

In September, a local artist drew widespread attention for his portrait of late Tragically Hip singer Gord Downie, which he made completely from pennies.

Luke Carruthers’ portrait of the Canadian music icon is approximately eight feet tall and five feet wide. Carruthers used nearly 11,400 pennies glued to a sheet of plywood and barn boards.

While Carruthers picked away at the project for several years, the COVID-19 pandemic lent him an abundance of time to work on the portrait in earnest.

To achieve different shades in the portrait, Carruthers soaked the pennies in liver of sulphur, a chemical used by jewellers. Starting at the top of the portrait, Carruthers went line by line, gluing pennies in place. He estimated the project took 300 hours to complete.

Carruthers, an avid Tragically Hip fan, said he was inspired to pay tribute to Downie after the singer was diagnosed with brain cancer in 2016. Downie passed away in 2017.

Carruthers said the Tragically Hip unites music fans across the country due to the band's specifically Canadian lyrics.

“You heard Downie singing about these things we could all relate to – a ‘late-breaking story on the CBC,’ we could all relate to that,” he said.

“It sort of felt like he was telling some of our stories and reminding us there’s these little towns and these little places out there where other Canadians live.”

Donair Fundraiser

After an explosion devastated Beirut, Lebanon in early August, a local restaurant with ties to the country donated a full day’s worth of revenue to assist the Lebanese Red Cross.

Xtreme Donair owners Fatima Sleiman and her husband Marwan donated 100 per cent of the restaurant’s proceeds from Aug. 15 to the relief organization.

“Both our families are from Lebanon and we also have family back home there,” Sleiman said. “We can’t go over there right now and help out, so this is the only way we can [help] at this moment in time.”

“I lived there for seven years,” Marwan said. “Even though I was born in Calgary, I do have roots back there – my grandfather, aunts and uncles, cousins. Everybody’s been affected by what’s happened.”

The fundraiser was widely embraced by the community, with Sleiman indicating people from Calgary, Lethbridge and Red Deer planned to drive to Airdrie to support the restaurant’s fundraising effort.

Nearly $8,900 was donated to the Lebanese Red Cross thanks to the initiative.

Canada Day

Airdrie’s usual Canada Day festivities were among the long slate of annual community events that were cancelled because of the COVID-19 pandemic. However, that didn’t stop the community from celebrating in a modified fashion.

In April, the Airdrie Parade Committee announced the 2020 Canada Day Parade would be called off while the City of Airdrie suspended its normal Canada Day fireworks display at Ed Eggerer Athletic Park.

In the ensuing month, the parade committee devised an alternative event to celebrate the nation’s birthday. In June, the committee unveiled the Airdrie Canada Day Home Decorating Contest and invited residents to decorate their houses with flags, maple leaves and other red and white ornaments.

“The idea is to kind of do a reverse parade – instead of having folks gather in one place to watch floats go by, they go on their own to check out the ‘floats’ or display homes,” said Sam Morros, social media director for the committee.

Morros said the committee considered the contest a success, with more than 100 households taking part, and might consider turning it into an annual event.

ARTember

While most community events were cancelled in 2020, ARTember returned to the city in September after a one-year hiatus.

The 20-day festival celebrated art and culture in Airdrie and provided artists a platform to showcase their talents.

From Sept. 11 to 30, a variety of virtual and in-person events shone a light on the local art scene. A gallery of paintings from 30 local artists was featured at The Store Upstairs. Each weekend during ARTember, local musicians performed at Nose Creek Regional Park as part of the Curbside Concert Series. On three successive weekends, the Airdrie Film Society hosted the Airdrie Film Festival with online screenings. Art workshops were also held.

ARTember Chair Alisa MacKinnon said the COVID-19 pandemic and its accompanying closures and confinements demonstrated the importance of arts and culture to communities, making ARTember a valued event in Airdrie.

“Personally, I really believe art does a lot of good for communities, both in what it brings to the community as well as what it can spark in a community,” MacKinnon said. “Maybe more so this year than ever, [we’ve seen] how important the arts have been to people’s lives, while we’ve been going through this global pandemic.”

Kailey Beckie

An Airdrie student was one of 100 graduating Canadians to receive the prestigious Schulich Leader Scholarship in May.

Kailey Beckie, an alumna of St. Martin de Porres High School, was among the 100 students selected from more than 1,400 nominees to receive the $100,000 scholarship. The honour is awarded to entrepreneurial-minded students who are enrolling in science, technology, engineering or math programs at Canadian universities.

“I was extremely humbled and grateful,” Beckie said in May. “There are so many amazing students at St. Martin, so it was an honour.

“It truly takes an army. It was my friends, family, mentors, community members, teachers and my principal [who helped me]. I just felt extremely grateful.”

Beckie is currently attending the University of British Columbia’s Okanagan campus, pursuing a degree in engineering. In May, she said she intended to specialize in mechanical engineering, a field she became interested in after taking part in the Calgary Catholic School District’s Career Discovery Program when she was in Grade 10.

Each high school in Canada is allowed to nominate one student for the scholarship.

Brandon Lorenzo

A local country singer’s hard work paid off Sept. 20 when his songwriting was recognized at the YYC Music Awards.

Brandon Lorenzo received the People’s Choice Award for his song Spread Some Good Time Around.

“That was a big one for me, mainly because a lot of the other awards were based off a panel of judges,” he said. “This one was strictly voted by the fans.”

Lorenzo’s song was also nominated for Country Recording of the Year.

This year marked the fifth annual YYC Music Awards, which recognize Calgary-area musicians in every genre. This year, the awards were presented virtually.

Although COVID-19 forced many musical performances to be cancelled in 2020, Lorenzo found a way to keep performing by live-streaming concerts and performing on the streets of Airdrie. This led to other opportunities for the Airdronian, including a show in Saskatchewan in June and a slot as an opening act for a Shania Twain and Keith Urban tribute show in Calgary Oct. 17, where he was presented with his YYC Music Award statue by surprise.

Wolfdog Book

A 14-year-old student at Windsong Heights School enlisted the help of his peers in October to write a book benefitting the Yamnuska Wolfdog Sanctuary.

Evan Pierson was inspired to support the Cochrane-area sanctuary after visiting and meeting Horton, a rescued Irish wolfhound under its care.

With the help of his classmates, Pierson wrote Horton Hears Our Howls, which was sold to support the sanctuary.

“I thought the book would make money to help with Horton’s rehabilitation, as well as the sanctuary and the other wolf dogs,” he said.

Classmates contributed illustrations to the book and helped type it up. Pierson said the process of creating the book was no easy feat but knowing it would help the sanctuary motivated him to finish it.

Fifty copies of the book were originally printed and quickly sold out. The books were priced at $10, and, as of Dec. 4, approximately $1,300 was raised for Yamnuska Wolfdog Sanctuary through book sales.