World Youth group needs host families

If there's a guest room in your house that hardly ever sees any guests, there's a local member of an international educational group who sure could put your space to great use.

Abiola Sunmonu is the project supervisor for Canada World Youth in St. Albert. She said the city was chosen to host a group of youths all between the ages of 19 and 24 and from all regions of Canada and Nicaragua. The three-month stay starts in September but the accommodations must be set well in advance. Much like the Katimavik program, the youths will volunteer in the community while they learn about our way of life. Chances are good the hosts will learn more about the guests' way of life too.

As an added incentive, she mentioned hosts receive a weekly allowance but time is running out to sign up.

"I would ideally love to hear from interested families by May 28."

To find out more about the organization, please visit www.canadaworldyouth.org or call Sunmonu at 780-263-1272.

Food bank director thankful

There is no end to the amount of times that Suzan Krecsy can thank the people of St. Albert. As the executive director of the St. Albert Food Bank and Community Village, she sees the lows and the highs of the roller coaster, both when people come in needing help to put food on the table for their families and when an unexpected bounty of donations comes in.

She famously says that the people of St. Albert always come through when help is needed and she loves good surprises, like when the Gazette informed her of a recent fundraiser held Thursday at Bellerose Composite High School. Students there held an event called the B-Town Chowdown, similar in nature to Taste of Edmonton.

"That's wonderful!" she exclaimed.

The event had 17 teams offering up various dishes for sale. According to organizer Cole Romaniuk, it generated more than $550.

"We had everything from chili to Kool-Aid to milkshakes to sex-in-a-pan," he listed, adding that the most popular dish was a Pad Thai offering that made more than $100 on its own. When asked if there was a possibility of an inter-school competition with Paul Kane's similar event called the Taste of Kane, he seemed keen. "That would be awesome!"

Deep in the heart of the Perron District, there is another unique food bank fundraiser taking place on the upper level of Profiles Gallery.

Jenny Willson-McGrath, the art rental and sales gallery associate, explained that there is a special art exhibit being run in conjunction with the main show called High Energy XV. Students from all four area high schools contributed the works to both and 32 special landscape pieces are being auctioned off on the second floor. She said it is already a very popular show that has seen a lot of interest from the public.

"It's alarming how good some of the pictures are and how much more their skills are going to develop if this is what they're doing when they're high school students. The work is already high standard."

She said that even staff members have put bids down.