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Taylor Bartko Johnson, 6, has her hearing checked during the Kindergarten health day circuit on Thursday.
Event focuses on healthy kids
Samantha WRIGHT ALLEN Citizen staff sallen@pgcitizen.ca
As soon as Taylor Bartko Johnson walked through the Health Unit’s doors, she was plunked down into one of the brightly coloured chairs, handed a toy fishing rod and marked with a badge, that was soon to be populated by colourful stickers.
The six-year-old is just one of more than 1,000 children in the district who come for an annual screening by Northern Health during its Kindergarten health circuit.
“It’s very kid friendly,” said Shelley Kilburn, a public health nurse.
Many of the kids wouldn’t have been to child health clinics since they were 18 months old, she said, and early intervention to address health issues is often important.
“It’s a good opportunity to catch a lot of
people at once,” she said.
Each school is given similar time slots to minimize classroom disruptions and make it more of a social experience.
The idea is to teach kids and their parents about health and also screen for any early warning signs. It’s one-stop shop for hearing, vision and dental checkups, as well as immunizations.
“The kids are really frightened,” said Kilburn, which is one of the reasons why it’s the last step in a process that makes the student the star and gets them to have fun with their health.
That really helped, said mother Treena Bartko, noting her daughter was nervous about the shots.
“It’s the convenience of having it in one spot,” she added.
Bartko also learned that many optometrists offer free eye check-ups for youth until they turn 18, while her daughter picked out shapes
on a page while wearing bright blue “magic glasses,” as the volunteers called them.
“And you thought this wasn’t going to be fun,” said Bartko to her daughter, laughing.
At the teeth station, a wide-eyed Taylor examined plastic gums while the dental assistant showed it’s better to brush in circles and not to forget the tongue.
Children should have help brushing their teeth until they’re eight years old, given the complex wrist motions.
She passed the hearing test too, and was awarded a sticker of Snoopy lifting a weight high above his head. At the end of the circuit, Taylor, like the rest of the kids, got a medal for her efforts.
All the little prizes try to reinforce active, healthy living, said Kilburn.
“We try to make it a really pleasant experience,” she said.
Concert to benefit cancer-stricken firefighter
Samantha WRIGHT ALLEN
Citizen staff
Friends of a local firefighter facing his fourth brain tumour are asking the community to come to a benefit concert in his honour at Vanier Hall.
The fundraiser will be only two days after Rob Wiebe’s surgery in Vancouver in what has been a long and emotional road toward recovery.
“He is awake and communicating,” said his wife Barb on Thursday, while Rob was still in the neuroscience critical care unit.
She said he’s still feeling fuzzy, which is not uncommon, but it’s too early to say when he’ll be back in Prince George.
“It’s still one step at a time with him.”
In the past 15 years, Wiebe has rebounded from three brain tumours: first in 1999, then in 2005 and again in 2009.
In 2012, he was diagnosed with
WIEBE
esophageal cancer. And in late 2014, he learned the brain tumour was back.
The support from from friends and family has made a huge difference through the “scary times,” Barb said.
She was overwhelmed with gratitude when she first heard of the benefit for her husband.
“It made me cry,” said Wiebe, tearing up again.
The benefit will feature 30 student singers, dancers and performers from Prince George secondary school, where her son graduated and her daughter still goes to school.
On top of the emotional toll, the financial stress is an added burden.
They must go through a Work-Safe BC claim and while she said it should be covered, it still isn’t automatic.
“Financially you don’t know where you’re at,” Barb said.
That’s why Friday’s benefit is so helpful, she said, knowing something will help bridge that gap.
Barb was especially grateful to Jodie Baker, a teacher who’s been planning the show for a little more than a month and is a family friend.
Baker has known the family for 20 years, calling them “very brave.”
“I think it would be great for
[Rob’s] story of perseverance to be shared.”
People at PGSS really wanted to do something for the family, Baker said.
“I feel fortunate to work at a school with kids that are willing to donate their Friday evening and their time and talent to a good cause,” she said.
“The kids have put a lot of work into their performances, it’ll be really high quality and not long.”
She said she expects an audience of more than 100, but the hall holds 800, so she’s hoping for more. “The more the merrier,” said Baker, adding the community has rallied in response to the event. It’s just spread like crazy. I’ve been flooded with emails and phone calls of how people can help, [there’s] just respect for the family and desire to do something. “This community’s so generous.” The concert runs from 7 p.m. to 8 p.m. on Friday at Vanier Hall.
Admission is by donation and all proceeds go to the Wiebe family.
A former executive director of the Kwadacha Nation Indian band was sentenced Thursday to a conditional sentence of two years less a day and three years probation for stealing nearly $725,000 to pay off a growing gambling debt.
From January 2009 to May 2010, Theresa Margaret McCook, 51, diverted to herself federal government money meant for a variety of services and programs that were never offered.
An eight-year employee of the band, she started as the housing director and was then promoted to executive director where she was responsible for the management of band money and receipt of federal government funding.
The band’s main reserve is located 570 km northeast of Prince George and 80 km north of the northern end of Williston Lake but McCook spent the majority of her time at the band’s Prince George office.
To carry out the thefts, McCook submitted invoices to the federal government but arranged to have the cheque from Ottawa made out to a service provider, in actual fact one of seven friends or relatives, to avoid suspicion. The seven did not know their names were being used for the scheme, Prince George provincial court judge Michael Brecknell said in reading out a decision.
“She told them she had the money in a trust account. The money was her own personal money and had nothing to do with the finances of the Kwada-cha Nation,” Brecknell said.
“She said this trust money came from government compensation relating to the Willis-ton dam project. The compensation was put into trust and she needed a second person in order to access the money.”
“The acquaintance or relative would cash the cheque which was made out to them and cash their own personal cheque to Ms. McCook. Those seven individuals were led to believe they were helping out Ms. McCook with her own personal finances.”
Brecknell said the friends and relatives were normally given a portion of the money for doing the favour. A Prince George band office employee who processed the cheques McCook authorized became suspicious of some of the cheques because of the amounts and how often they appeared but she was uncomfortable in challenging McCook directly because of her subordinate position.
— see GAMBLING, page 3
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