A Look From Within: 2011

Thursday, 15 December 2011

Gala Galore

Santa's Little Helpers

Singing for our supper.

Peter Walsh and his spiffed up suit jacket

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Waiting in line For supper is always fun for every one

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Serving up some salad!

Good gravy, good meat, good god lets eat

If you want to complain about how i pour your wine you can do it yourself ok!!

Retired elves serving some cheese cake

Three pieces of cheese cake... I think so!

Get the wonderful memories of gala frozen in time this season with your photo shoot

Fun times with Friends

Four eyes are better than two, and eight better than four. hey we must look pretty good

I lift things up and put them down

Digestion goes best with good conversation

A little fun with Kelsey

Are those not the cutest things you ever did see... the center pieces

BIG gleefull Gala Smiles

The perfect couple...

Smile!

Dancing the blissfull night away

The night is young and our hair is still beautiful

Scott G. making sure the security is doing their job.

And when the night is through Lenny( Santa) took us home.

Monday, 12 December 2011

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas

Deck the halls with boughs of holly...Alumni Hall that is! The entire Vermilion campus is beginning to look a lot like Christmas. Not only has the college been decorated, but students have decked out their dorms as well!

Classes ceased on Friday December 9th and students are beginning to write finals. But it's not all just studying and spending hours on end in the library, as many fun activities occur in the month of December.

The month kicked off with the Christmas Gala on December 2nd. At Gala, 370 students and their guests enjoyed a wonderful Christmas meal with the teachers acting as servers. Supper was followed by a dance, which had 575 people in attendance. Steve Rose of RoadTrax DJ Service kept the students out on the dance floor all night long; everyone had a blast!

The staff of Lakeland College dressed up to show their
Christmas spirit as they acted as servers at the Christmas Gala.

In the week following Gala, many clubs and programs celebrated their Christmas parties. The Stockmans Club held their Christmas party at Spurs on December 6th. They had a potluck supper and a Chinese gift exchange. All the members came dressed in their ugliest Christmas sweaters.

Members of the Stockmans Club showed off their ugly sweaters
at their Christmas Party on December 6th.

Many other classes and clubs have also had individual Christmas parties to help get everyone in the Christmas spirit; after all, it's going to be here before we know it!

Have a
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year everyone!

Tribute To A Cowboy

All over Western Canada you hear about the great reputation Lakeland College has for their Agriculture Programs and their Rodeo Team. These two qualities are one of the reason we decided to attend Lakeland College. We decided to write this blog about the guy who plays a role in making the college’s reputation as good as it is. Lee Macmillan is the Lakeland College rodeo coach and equine manager, and from ourselves and the rest of the members of the rodeo club we would like to thank Lee for all that he has done to make our college experience outstanding.

Lakeland College's Rodeo Coach and Equine Manager

Everyone knows that owning horses has risks. There is chance of injury, illness, and even death. Even though we all know these risks, when a “catastrophe” occurs people still get shook up. Did any of us think that Lakeland College would have a positive coggins test result? No, we sure didn’t. Unfortunately, we did have a positive case. People worried about their own horses coming back positive and they worried about the fact that all college rodeos for the fall were cancelled. The federal veterinarians were involved and all horses were tested, and if you have not heard, all horses came back negative for the first test. We have one more test coming up on November 24^th, and if all is negative we are in the clear. How often does something like this occur? Rarely, would be our answer. Lakeland College was thrown in to a very “sticky” situation and thanks to the members of the rodeo club and the Lakeland College Staff it was handled both professionally and responsibly. Since Lee Macmillan is the Lakeland College Rodeo coach and equine manager quite a bit of the stress fell on to his shoulders. He could have done the bare necessities but he didn’t. He stepped up, made sure all of us were as comfortable with the situation that we possibly could be, and made this fifty days of quarantine a blast.

For the Lakeland College Team, we had three CIRA rodeos cancelled. The three weekends that were cancelled counts as half our rodeo season. We all could have been sitting here at this college attending practice and nothing else. Was it expected of Lee to coordinate events so that we could get the competitive experience we thrive for? No it wasn’t, but he did it anyway. On Halloween we had a barrel and pole jackpot which combined your runs and paid out to four places. It cost us a measly $40 to enter and all entries and money made on the beer gardens went into payouts. To make the event even more entertaining, they had blankets up for “best dressed” costumes.

Winner of the "Best Dressed" Award.

Coming up, we have a team roping switch ender where team ropers make two runs heading and two runs healing. It costs $40 to enter and all entries and money made on beer gardens goes into payouts. Lastly, on Saturday, November 15, 2011 we have a “Draft” Rodeo. The Lakeland College team was divided into 6 teams and leaders selected members they wanted on their team. There will be six competitors in tie down, breakaway, goat tying, and team roping. There will also be twelve competitors in barrels and poles. Each team’s runs will be put together and payout goes to the first and second team. Following the rodeo, there will be a dance in the arena. The event starts at 7:30 pm.

Club Members Team Roping

Now that I just listed the three big events that Lee coordinated, you can easily see how he went above and beyond what was expected of him. Our group, and the rodeo club really appreciate the amount of time he puts in to our events and practices. He makes it possible for everyone here with a horse to be part of something. There is always practice or some kind of competition that everyone can be involved in. I do not know very many other places that make it possible for everyone to be involved. Most people work an eight to five job, and then head home to their families and their own personal life. Lee comes to work early in the morning and half the time doesn’t leave until ten at night because of the college practices. How many people do you know that put in that many hours at their job? Unfortunately, the rodeo club takes for granted the hours Lee and other staff members put in, but we do notice, and we do appreciate it.

We strongly believe that one of the reasons why Lakeland college’s rodeo team is so highly recognized in Canada is because of the coach we have. He steps up to the plate and goes above and beyond what we all expected. We have had some of the best years of our life at Lakeland College and we know we’ll walk away from this place with some amazing memories. Having our horses here and being able to rodeo is the highlight of our college career. Therefore, in closing, hats off to Lakeland College and especially Lee Macmillan for offering the best college rodeo experience.

Lee Macmillan

If you want to stay connected with the Lakeland College Rodeo Club click here or if your interested in bringing a horse to Lakeland College in the future click here.

Wednesday, 30 November 2011

Venimus, Vidimus, Nos Victi. We Came, We Saw, We Conquered.

Judging Team

Lakeland judges judging Westie's

On October 13, the Lakeland judging team left for Saskatoon to compete in the U of S Judging Competition. Kate Dinwoodie, Christina Hager, Shelby Crick, Luke Wrubleski, and Megan Kemp, Seamus Good, Katie Williams, JoriekeVennik, Jillian Overby, Gail Verlysen, Raelene Mollenback and coach Lorraine Serhienko all participated in the event. The team stayed at the Super 8 in Saskatoon on Thursday evening in preparation for the judging competition on Friday.

At the competition the team judged Westie dogs, beef bulls, beef heifers, horses, pumpkins, rations, and identified plants from western Canada. Megan Kemp took first overall individual judge, with Reylene Mollenback taking second and Christina Hager taking third. Lakeland also took first and second in the team competition, as well as winning a number of the class competitions.

Megan Kemp, Raylene Mollenback and Christina Hager showing off their hardware

The Lakeland Judging Team

Friday evening they went to a local pasta restaurant with amazing pasta, before heading out the biggest university party in Saskatchewan, Ag Bag Drag! The next morning the judging team headed back west for Vermilion, some in better shape than others, and all happy to have done great at the competition.

Rowing Team

The Lakeland Rustler's Rowing Team in Burnaby

The Lakeland College Rustlers rowing team sent a ladies 8+ team and a mens 4+ team to Burnaby, BC, for their final competition of the season; the Western Canadian University Rowing Championships on October 23rd.

The ladies 8+ rowing team comprised of Amy Smith, Michelle Blanchette, Nicole Mark, Danielle Walker, Lindsay Stanko, Kat Wiggans, Calla Martin, Laura Schmale and Dawn Rosset placed 2nd in their 1000m race. The men’s 4+ team comprised of Richard Ellens, Brian Huisman, Ryan Lutz and Curtis Ross placed 4th in their 2000m race.

The Mens 4+ team

The Rustler's impressed the other team’s coaches as the Lakeland students have only been rowing since the beginning of September and were competing against students from universities who have been rowing for up to six years. Rowing Coach Peter Walsh is very proud of his team and says that they did a great job representing Lakeland College and putting our school on the map.