(Ben Tompkins/northeastnow Staff)

By Ben Tompkins

2021 Appreciation Night

Tisdale and District Strings, Riverdogs highlight 40th annual town awards night

Nov 19, 2021 | 6:06 PM

Two groups stole the show on Nov. 18 in Tisdale at the town’s 40th Annual Awards and Appreciation night.

This event was a little different than normal, as the Town of Tisdale celebrated two years, both 2020 and 2021 as last year’s event had to be cancelled due to the pandemic.

The Tisdale and District Strings had nine students who received either provincial or national medals, these past two years, for their excellence in music.

The list of winners goes as such:

– Rhesa Petersen, 2020 and 2021 Conservatory Canada Medal for Excellence, Grade 4 and 5 Classical Voice.

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– Abigail Summach, 2020 Conservatory Canada Medal for Excellence, Grade 2 Classical Violin.

– Jennifer Summach, 2020 Conservatory Canada Medal for Excellence, Grade 2 Classical Voice and 2021 Province of Saskatchewan 12 and Under Excellence Class for Strings.

– Sefryn Larsen, 2020 Conservatory Canada Medal for Excellence, Grade 1 Classical Violin, 2021 Conservatory Canada Medal for Excellence, Grade 2 Classical Violin and 2020 Nell King Award for Strings, Highest Mark in Canada.

– Tori Baerg, 2020 Conservatory Canada Medal for Excellence, Grade 5 Piano.

– Samuel Petersen, 2020 Conservatory Canada Medal for Excellence, Grade 5 Classical Violin.

– William Heavin, 2019 Conservatory Canada Medal for Excellence, Grade 4 Cello.

– Mackenzie Thesen, 2021 Conservatory Canada Medal for Excellence, Grade 1 Classical Violin and 2021 Nell King Award for String, Highest Mark in Canada.

– Keely Hadwen, 2021 Harry and Sylvia Novak Memorial Scholarship, Highest Mark in Canada.

Rebecca Hankins-Vopni, instructor for Tisdale and District Strings told northeastnow she’s very proud of her students for their recognition and happy to get to actually have an event this year.

“It was good that they could put it on because they couldn’t last year. Alicia and I have a lot of students, we teach at least five times a week. We try to give these kids these opportunities, so they can do their best and we challenge them. Music brings joy to lots of people.”

“Every community doesn’t necessarily have a music teacher, so a lot of them drive up and we do our best to accommodate with that. This event was very nice because the students who won last year didn’t get any recognition because there was nothing going on. It was both fair and thoughtful that the Town of Tisdale acknowledged both years. I am proud of my students for sure because I know how much work goes into these accomplishments.”

The other group that was acknowledged was the Tisdale Riverdogs. The team was the 2021 Softball Saskatchewan U14 B Provincial Champions.

(Ben Tompkins/northeastnow Staff)

Kali Cortus, team manager, told northeastnow this year was unlike any other, especially with the uncertainty around it and the way it ended so perfectly, both with gold and being recognized a few months later.

“We had won bronze then silver and now gold this year, so that was kind of a lead-up and we felt like it was our turn. That weekend we didn’t really know what to expect, because no one had seen each other play in two years and normally we have like three to four tournaments before, but we had none.”

“We haven’t seen each other since we won provincials, because normally we’d have a windup but because of the late season, all the girls had things going on after. We then found out about this a couple of months ago, so we knew we could make this our thing, which has been great and is just really awesome for our girls.”

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Ben.Tompkins@pattisonmedia.com

On Twitter @BenTompkins_8