IMANTA will hold a Līgo celebration on from 2 – 11pm on Saturday, June 24th, at Devon Lions’ Campground at 1140 Saskatchewan Ave. East in Devon, west of Edmonton (www.devonlionscampground.activenuketoo.com). The OTS location we enjoyed last year was not available to us this year. We have reserved The Shelter, a facility which has a large covered area, cooking facilities, washrooms, playground, fire-pit and greenspace.  Please see our previous posting for more information.

At the first International Choral Festival in early June, Pro Coro Canada performed the world premiere of Uģis Prauliņš The Way Children Sleep, a song set to the words of Latvian poet Māris Čaklais and translated by Ruth Speirs. This piece was commissioned by Pro Coro, supported by IMANTA, and was very well received by a musically savvy audience. It was exciting to witness the result of IMANTA’s collaboration with Pro Coro and to help publicize the name and work of another Latvian composer.

The Latvian Ambassador to Canada, Kārlis Eihenbaums, and the Latvian Military Attaché to Canada, LtCol Agris Ozoliņš, were in Edmonton June 9th to meet with members of the military before their deployment to Latvia as part of NATO’s Operation Reassurance. They also met with family members of the military to thank them. Media provided good coverage of this event. Canada’s participation in this operation is an important show of solidarity to the rest of the world, for which Latvia is very grateful.

The Edmonton Symphony Orchestra will present free concerts on Sunday,June 25th, at 2pm and 7pm on the grounds outside the Alberta Legislature Building as part of Canada’s 150th celebration. The National Youth Orchestra of Canada will be in Edmonton’s Winspear Centre on Tuesday, August 8th, for another free concert at 7:30 pm.

IMANTA is pleased to again be able to offer our self-administered scholarships to post-secondary students.  Look for information and application forms on our website www.imanta.ca  sometime in July.  IMANTA is also continuing to support a scholarship at NAIT. Information is available at www.nait.ca and the next application deadline is August 2017.

The children’s play group is taking a break for the summer and will resume activity in the fall. Future play group dates for the 2017 – 2018 season will be posted on our website calendar.

We were saddened to hear of the passing of our most elderly community member, Velta Bredenfelds, in early April at the age of 102. She was always a very active and positive supporter of all IMANTA events, even attending an Ice on Whyte exhibit on a freezing winter’s day at the age of 99. Our sincere condolences to her family and friends.