February news and announcements…

Laimīgu Jauno Gadu    •   Happy New Year!!

This first newsletter of the year is to announce our Annual General Meeting, which will be held on Sunday, February 28th at 1:00 pm at the Laurier Heights Community Hall at  14405—85  Avenue (on 144th Street, access north from 80th Avenue). Refreshments will be served.

Please remember that seniors can phone any of the following for transportation to the meeting or any other event:
Yellow Cab   780-462-3456
Barrel Taxi   780-489-7777
Checker Cabs  780-484-8888
Vouchers will be available when you arrive and will also be provided for return travel. Seniors who make regular use of our taxi vouchers are asked to phone Inta at 780-963-3593 or Ena at 780-468-2728 if you need more vouchers sent to you.

Together with the Latvian congregation in Edmonton, IMANTA hosted a Christmas celebration (eglītes vakars) in December. Those who attended enjoyed piparkūkas and other treats, as well as a visit by a jolly ziemassvētku vecītis who brought gifts for the children. Ten children attended with their parents. It was a new experience for many of them and we hope to make this an annual event.

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Latvian mezzo-soprano Elīna Garanča is performing Carmen at the Metropolitan Opera in New York this season. A January performance was recorded live and shown in Cineplex theatres across the country. It will be re-run on Saturday, March 13, at 1:00pm at the South Edmonton Common Cineplex and possibly other theatres (check the
listings). This is a spectacular performance! The very talented Garanča is rapidly becoming an audience favorite world-wide. It’s also not every day you can hear Latvian spoken on such a famous stage.

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IMANTA supported the St. Albert Prowlers Novice hockey team last year. This team will be playing an exhibition game against the Jasper Bears at the WEM Ice Palace on Saturday, February 27, at 11:30 am. If you’re able to watch them play, you’ll see an enthusiastic group of players that was very appreciative of our support.

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Our Latvian community has lost three members with the passing of Ilga Green, Erik Kalnins and Marge Gully. We offer our condolences to their family and friends.

Athabasca University is working on a project titled “Connecting Canadians: Canada’s Multicultural Newspaper” and is looking for up to 20 members to assist with content evaluation. This would involve spending approximately 2 hours with their staff, reading some Latvian newspapers from 1945-49 and providing feedback. They will help
anyone who is not comfortable using a computer.
This project is funded by the federal government. It is part of a larger archival record and they want to be sure their efforts will be useful in the future.  We hope many of you will respond for this survey.
If you are interested in participating, please email rudovics@telus.net or phone 780-468-2728 in the next few weeks. We are planning to meet with Athabasca University on the first weekend in March, to accommodate those who work during the week. The time and location will be confirmed shortly.

The University’s contact person was impressed that IMANTA has a blog, through which she was able to contact us. If you have not seen it yet, the link to the blog is  https://imantaedmonton.wordpress.com/ and we’re also on Facebook.