“We were thrilled by the unique dishes brought to the table with this event,” said Rebecca Westling, destination marketing and communication consultant. “The dishes were delicious, had variety, and the response from the community was remarkable. “The votes were close and spread evenly throughout all eight participants, but Michael’s Coffee Shop and Bakery Estevan earned the top spot for all three categories.” Categories were presentation and appearance, originality and uniqueness, and overall taste. Two hundred eighty-one votes were received, and the lucky winner of the $500 Shop Estevan gift card, Megan Vanstone of Estevan, was randomly drawn. On hearing the results of the contest, Michael Ellis, owner of Michael’s, said: “This is fantastic news; we had fun creating this new dish and adding it to our menu; the feedback we’ve had from the community is remarkable.”
Eight restaurants took part in the contest, which garnered 467 votes from 391 people. In addition to trophies, each prize came with $200 to be awarded to a charity of the restaurant s choice. Tower Café has chosen United Way Estevan and the Estevan Public Youth Centre, while Fired Up Grill will donating to the Estevan Family Resource Centre. Jeannette Biberdorf from Frobisher, who ate at Humpty s Restaurant, won a $500 gift card from Shop Estevan. The winner of the prize was randomly chosen from the pool of voters. Other competing restaurants were The Black Grasshopper, Domino’s Pizza, Michael’s Coffee Shop and Bakery, Pinocchio Pizza and Red Swan Pizza.
Meetings have been happening for close to two years. They have a board in place with people from several different sectors in the community. Those on the board are parents and grandparents who can talk to young family members, and those kids’ friends, about what they would like to see. And last week Estevan city council committed $20,000 towards the initiative. So far it’s all good news. They’ve also said they want to have programming starting this summer. It might seem like putting the cart before the horse, since they don’t have a facility yet, but they want to have ditial programming.
The board of directors also thanked Jackie Wall, Travis Frank and Dwight (Fitz) Bramble for their assistance as members of the organizing committee. The group will continue to work towards launching a vibrant centre with a diverse range of programs for youths in Estevan. We ve been meeting officially and unofficially since the end of 2019. This is over a year of planning, conversations and discussions, said Fisher. The efforts of the people involved are now coming to fruition. We are definitely at the point where we have a vision for what we want and we know what it looks like, Fisher added.
A non-profit organization has been created to move forward with this plan, creating the Estevan Public Youth Centre Inc. The board of directors are chairperson Cathy Welta, vice-chair Jordan Culham, secretary Patrick Fisher, treasurer Sheila Guenther, and directors Susan Colbow, Shelly Veroba and Brittany Zahn. The Board of Directors would also like to thank Jackie Wall, Travis Frank and Dwight (Fitz) Bramble for their assistance as members of the organizing committee. Plans are underway to have EPYC programming available as early as July. Phase 1 involves hiring a youth program director and using existing facilities on a rotating/as available basis. Phase 2 moves to a temporary facility and additional programs.