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Engaging Minds Storefront

Engaging Minds Storefront

Engaging Minds for Learning, which is Medicine Hat’s newest and greatest retail supplier of toys, games, puzzles and teaching supplies is having their huge Grand Opening this Thursday, Friday and Saturday (August 20th, 21st and 22nd). Be sure to check it out as they have marked down everything in stock by 20%, and have free giveaways for teachers and kids. If that wasn’t enough, if you make a purchase during the three day sale you are automatically entered into a draw for some fantastic prizes.

Engaging Minds for Learning is Southern Alberta’s premier educational resource store and a welcomed addition to the community. They are located in the Ross Glen Business Park, (near Petland) at #10-3307 Dunmore Road SE. Be sure to visit their website to get all the details about the fantastic Grand Opening.

http://www.thinklaughgrow.com/

Telephone: 403-488-9070


The Vital Signs survey, as presented by the Community Foundation has been officially launched today, and can be taken here. From the survey website:

Medicine Hat’s Vital Signs is a community “check-up” being conducted by the Community Foundation of Medicine Hat & South Eastern Alberta. The process measures and assigns ratings in core areas of community life. These areas are measured through critical indicators and give a quantitative view of the quality of life in our city.

This voluntary survey will provide you with the statistical findings of this research for each of the critical indicators. The purpose of the survey is to collect your feedback on how you feel Medicine Hat is doing in these areas.

The website explains that it will take around 30 minutes to complete, which is pretty accurate, but only because some of the ways they explain the points is strange and confusing. The rating system is really strange too… it was hard to make sense of anything for the first while. For example, the best option/rating that you can give something is entitled “We’re the tops! Awesome!”, like what does that even mean – It doesn’t even apply to most things? I made sure to comment on this at the end.

That aside, I think it’s a great service for locals to voice their opinions through numbers and comments (there is a place to make comments on each page) to help better the city of Medicine Hat.

Medicine Hat Vital Signs 2009 Survey Website


The Helicopter Airlift Operation (HALO), which services more than 50 communities in southeast Alberta in a 40,000 square kilometer range of Medicine Hat, may soon be out of commission.

The operation costs roughly $70,000 a month to operate, and unfortunately the Alberta government does not provide any funding, leaving the helicopter operable solely by the donations of local businesses.

HALO is seeking at least $70,000 per month to stay in operation, otherwise the service may be grounded as early as September, costing lives of patients who would live too far from a hospital to receive care in the event of an emergency.

More information be found on their website at http://medicairsociety.com

Rescue helicopter could be grounded by Tenille Tellman – Medicine Hat News


Jenn Galloway is the mastermind behind A Day In The Life Photography. She has a lengthy background in photography and her photos really speak for themselves. If that were not enough, her website is first in Google when searching for Medicine Hat Photography websites, which speaks volumes.

Taylor and me in Echo Dale. Photo by Jenn Galloway.

Taylor and I had photos taken by Jenn in early August at the Echo Dale Farm. She had initially asked us what we wanted to do, and we replied to let her do her thing. She lead us around the farm, taking photos on the veranda of the house, on a grassy knoll with the wind catching Taylor’s scarf and against the barn. We then went to the nearby beach and pond, taking photos on the sand, on the small bridge and in the wooded area, on a merry-go-round and teeter totter, and on the docks. All in all, Jenn switched out between her 8GB memory cards a few times, and took a crazy amount of photos – probably around 2000 or something.

The way she gets into the moment with taking photos sets her apart from other photographers that I have seen. She talks to the audience and makes them laugh effortlessly (good for people who cannot sincerely fake-smile like me), walks around and acts on a sudden epiphany, and becomes even more enthusiastic, and she interacts with the audience about what they may want.

Taylor and I unfortunately had to reschedule twice due to weather concerns, but it was definitely worth the wait to be outside; however, A Day In The Life Photography also has a studio located in downtown Medicine Hat for a more controlled atmosphere.

Visit Jenn’s website at http://adayinthelifephotography.ca


Buying, or even looking for a house in Medicine Hat used to be a daunting task for me, being a first time soon-to-be house owner and all. The total number of local Realty and Realtor sites mixed with directory listing sites for home buying is a mess! There’s so much visual clutter and not enough straight forward, easy to find listings for all houses in Medicine Hat. Searching through each one of hundreds of local Realtor sites is time consuming and usually not helpful at all. I wanted to find all houses for sale in Medicine Hat, no matter which seller.

That was until I found out and did a little research about MLS, which stands for Multiple Listing Service. It’s a convenient technology that allows Realtor and other listing sites to display all houses, condos, duplexes or whatever in your area with every search option imaginable from all Realty companies! Better yet, I found a website that uses this great technology in the most convenient way which even allows you to specify regions within which ever area you want using a Google-esque mapping function. This site is called REALTOR.ca.

To use REALTOR.ca the most effectively, jump directly to their advanced search page. If you want to use that great mapping functionality I was explaining, go to their find by map section (this link currently points to the middle point of Medicine Hat, you can move around or refine your search). Like I said, there’s tons of search options, some of which are pretty unique like searching for Open Houses, or the 10 different options under “Building Type”. Like I stated before, this includes all local Realty companies such as Club ‘100’ GMAC Real Estate, Royal LePage Community Realty, Maxwell Team Realty, Re/Max Medalta Real Estate, and Century 21 Brec.ca to name the biggest names. THE JUMP – Read the rest of this entry »


The Mad Hatters are a running club that have run all over the prairies and beyond. They are based out of Medicine Hat and the club is run by members, for members. Their mission is simple: To run, to have fun and create networks of friendship.

The club offers group runs for beginners and regulars, training exercises for different terrains, preparation for races, and they host a number of social events.

On the website, you can find information about the club, how to join, a schedule of events, photos from past races, links to their partner sites and past race results.

Running has many great benefits besides cardiovascular fitness, it also increases oxygen utilization, improves blood flow, strengthens the heart, and what is more, it is an all-around sport that has no age limitations.

If you are interested in running, whether casually or for fun, check them out, they are a friendly group of people that will welcome you with open arms.

http://www.madhatters.ca


TriCube Media Logo

Newly designed logo

Although I’m a tad bit late on this, TriCube Media, local web design and development company has released their new website a long with a new logo and branding effort. TriCube Media has also recently celebrated its fifth year running.

For those of you unaware, TriCube Media is The Medicine Hat New’s web department that branched out as its own company years ago and started servicing their own clients as well. TriCube Media also offers web advertising, company branding and other design related production. TriCube Media currently has offices and representatives in Medicine Hat, Lethbridge, Thunder Bay, and Kelowna.

The new website focuses on a clean and simple aesthetic with a bit of “corporate” feel to it (the stark white areas) offset by some colorful and bright backgrounds. The logo follows that same function but mixes “technology-esque” typography with a simple, yet iconic visual logo playing with the idea of illusion for introducing the “three cubes” as showcased in the intro video on the home page.

TriCube Media Homepage

TriCube Media home page

Some of you may know that I currently work for TriCube Media and was largely responsible for the outcome of the design and development on both the website and the new branding.

Sean has said that he wants to do a post or round-up of all the web design companies within the city, so make sure to stay tuned for that if you are interested in this kind of post. We will probably also feature each company separately at some point – kind of like this post, but more focused on the company itself rather than if it launched a new site.

TriCube Media website


Getting your local news and stories is getting easier and easier in Medicine Hat. We are also tooting our own horn by saying we’ve been helping in this very field; however, there is a couple places you may not be aware of, and others which are second nature to most living in the hat.

Medicine Hat News

Medicine Hat News

This can be filled under the “duh” category. The Medicine Hat News website is a great source of free local news. For a bit more, you can subscribe to the digital or physical version of the paper to get more news and events. Typically, less than half of the news gets put online that is in the actual subscription versions which a lot of people surprisingly don’t know. Some places of relevant interest on the site include:

Local News
Top News

102.1 The Lounge CJCY-FM

CJCY-FM News

102.1 The Lounge’s news section on their new website features local news stories as reported by a small team of four including: Joe McFarland, Christy Mitchell, Steve Krysak and Harv Speers. There is quite a few good stories posted every so often and typically 2-3 stories go up every workday. They are usually pretty short, but nice and to the point. As of right now I can’t figure out how to see previous news stories as the news page only shows the 15 last news stories with no option of going further back. Either way, a good free news resource.

CJCY News
THE JUMP – Read the rest of this entry »


Big Bike AuctionThe annual Heart & Stroke Big Bike Auction website is now live and will be until the 31st. Sadly, there doesn’t seem to be that many items this year up for auction. Last year there was around 20 or 30 items, but hopefully some other community business members or individuals will donate some more once they know about it. The online auction system seems to work better than last years with improvements to the look as well.

Some of the items online now include two iPods, gift certificates to various businesses and a signed Medicine Hat Tigers jersey. Get bidding!

http://www.mhbigbikeauction.com/


Just a quick note here: Along with some internal shuffling, we have also decided on a full top nav bar to house all of our internal and external links. Hopefully this solution will remove some of the clutter from our previous system and help to remove some of the user confusion, as everything you need to click on is now at the top instead of scattered on the side.

I might not be completely satisfied with the design of it, so it may change in the future depending on feedback. *Update* As of July 6th, I took the comments and feedback about it and changed it accordingly.

On a side note, this will free up some room for our “Partner” spot which has also recently been added to accomodate all of our partners. If you wish to be a sponsor or partner, please email us with a 90×90 graphic for your site and make sure to add us to your site. You will also now find Medicine Hat Media graphics on the bottom of the right sidebar as well as a press-kit PDF including a vector version of our logo.


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